The Birth Story

So this will be a long post and interesting for some and not very interesting for others but I want to get it down as it is still somewhat fresh in my mind:
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
5:00 am - Wake up with a terrible back pain that I have never had in my pregnancy before and just felt like it was something different. Took a shower and ate a small breakfast. Noticed the back pain was getting worse and started timing how often it came around. After 1 hour it was pretty consistent so I called my Dr.'s office around 8:00am. I left a message for Dr. Warner's medical assistant and after a while she never called me back so I called the main number (which you are supposed to do in the first place) and they asked me how many contractions I had in one hour - I told them 10. They said I should go to the hospital to get checked out. During this entire time Erin and I were texting back and forth and he headed home from work.

11:30 am - Arrive at NW Hospital Women's Center and get checked into Triage. They put the monitors on me and checked that I was 4 cm dilated so they said they would see how things looked after 30 minutes. I was definitely having contractions and they were fairly painful at this point. Once they could see I was in labor they called Dr. Warner (who happened to be on call that day) and she said to monitor me for another hour. After that hour they checked me again and I had dilated a bit more and the contractions were much stronger and closer together so after talking to my doctor it was time to admit me

2:30 pm - Got settled into our birthing room and met our nurse. I had already been given an IV so they told me to ask for the epidural whenever I was ready for it. I could still handle the pain but it was definitely getting stronger.

3:00 pm - Was give some pitocin to help me dilate a bit more and that really kicked those contractions into full swing -they are EVIL! No one ever told me about back labor and it is AWFUL.

4:10 pm - Called nurses desk to ask for epidural

4:30 pm - My nurse comes into room and I mention epidural and she says the people at the desk never told her I requested it! Contractions are super bad now. She rushes off to get the anesthesiologist.

5:00 pm - Anesthesiologist arrives to do epidural. I have to sit on the edge of the bed bent forward VERY STILL while he inserts it. Of course I am having major contractions so thankfully Erin is strong and basically held me down while I not only had a giant needle stuck in my back, that does not feel great, but kept getting contractions. I don't know how hard I squeezed his hands but he had a good hold on me to prevent me from moving.

Here is where some of my timing gets lost:
Approx. 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm - After my epidural was in they have you lie flat on your back to get it to flow through your legs correctly. The anesthesiologist is doing his checks and my nurse asks me to roll to my left side, then she asks me to roll to my right side and then she keeps trying to move me. Suddenly she pushes the call button and asks for help. She has to repeat the call again but I notice some concern in her voice. She then asks the anesthesiologist to push some medication. He asks me if I am nauseous or feel light headed which I do not. Suddenly 4 nurses rush into the room. One is squeezing my IV back to pump fluid into me. They keep asking me how I am feeling and giving me more medication. I feel fine during all this. They have also given me oxygen to breathe. They finally say that they have to have me turn over onto my hands and knees - mind you my legs are like noodles at this point! They basically flip me over and here I am on my hands and knees on the hospital bed! Erin is watching all this and is asking what is going on so the anesthesiologist is filling him in which I cannot fully hear. Suddenly I feel like I am leaking and sure enough my water has broken! So picture a very pregnant woman on her hands and knees in a hospital bed and her water starts to break - very entertaining. I start laughing at this point because the whole thing is funny to me partially because I have NO idea yet what is going on! The nurses were super nice and after some period of time they help me flip back over onto my back/side.

Basically when I got the epidural it relaxed my uterus and when I was flat on my back it pressed on an artery and caused my blood pressure to drop really really low (like 70 over 50 or something ridiculous) and it also caused Tanner's heartbeat to drop super low too. Most people will feel sick or throw up or something when this happens but I felt absolutely fine when everyone else was panicked!. Then when they flipped me over they could not find Tanner's heartbeat for a while but it was because me moving caused him to move and they just needed to reposition the monitor. It was all very exciting and stressful for everyone except for me who was completely clueless why there was such drama.

7:30 pm - After everything settled down again my doctor came by and finished breaking my water for me and I had dilated to around 7 or 8 cm. They gave me a bit more pitocin. The epidural had fully kicked in at this point so I felt great! We had a few visitors come by and I was happy as could be.

8:00 pm - Doctor checks one more time and says I should be ready to start pushing in 30 minutes or so.

8:20 pm - Nurse checks and I am fully dilated! Time to start pushing! She gives me my instructions and gets Erin in position to help hold my left leg and she tells him what to do.

8:30 pm - Start pushing through the contractions. At first I cannot feel much so the nurse is telling me when to push and frankly I find it sorta boring :) Well that ends soon enough when the pain starts and it becomes a whole different situation as the baby moves down the birth canal and the epidural starst to wear off. I was fortunate that Tanner had already moved down quite a bit with all the contractions.
Soon enough my nurse (who was awesome by the way) was calling for Dr. Warner for delivery! It was strange and fast and very tiring and even with drugs it still HURTS! Dr. Warner showed up just as he was crowning and after some more pushes at 9:36 pm Tanner was born! I was lucky to only have to really push for one hour when they told me to expect to push for 2-3 hours! I did not need an episiotomy or have any major tearing either. For being "labor" it was not as bad as I know many have had. Erin was great helping me through it. At the end the nurses and doctor said, "Open your eyes and look at your baby," just as he was being pulled out - what a strange yet awesome sight. Erin said I had the funniest expression on my face and I think part of it was from seeing all that dark hair!

So there it is - Tanner's birth story. All the nurses at the hospital were fantastic as was Dr. Warner, and we feel really lucky to have had such a peaceful and relatively easy experience - with a little drama thrown in just to have a good story! We got to come home late Thursday evening and are enjoying getting used to this new little member of our family.