If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram (links no longer available), you might have seen that we had our third baby, a sweet little boy, nearly a month ago. I still cannot believe that we had a boy! I just figured we’d keep having girls. Ha!
I waited way too long to write down the birth stories of my first two children, so I figured now would be a great time to write our son’s. You can read Sofia’s birth story right here and Bella’s birth story here.
Here’s some fair warning, this is a super long post. Like, more than 1,800 words long. His birth story is nothing exciting and it’s more of a way for me to remember all the details. But, if you love reading about how other mamas have given birth, read on!
What an Exhausting Pregnancy!
Back in June and July, about 6-8 weeks before baby boy was due, I was constantly exhausted and in a lot of pain. My feet were terribly swollen, just like they had been with my oldest daughter (who was also born in the summer), and I just kept thinking, “How does any woman have more than 3 pregnancies?!” I still cannot fathom going through all this pregnancy stuff a 4th time.
Well, strangely, by the time I was 38 weeks, I felt great most of the time. I kept wondering why I didn’t feel exhausted anymore. Yes, I still had trouble getting comfortable in bed and had to sleep on the couch most nights, but I had a lot more energy. Even my swollen feet were no longer too much of a bother.
Waiting for Labor to Start
At each weekly prenatal appointment, my doctor kept reminding me that he would have to schedule an induction during the 41st week if the baby didn’t want to come on his own. When I reached the 39th week, I tried some natural things to get labor started. Nothing too spicy (libido was pretty low and the large belly getting in the way turned me off from that method 😉 ), just lots of walking, pineapple eating, and acupressure. Oh, and I did try nipple stimulation, but that just wasn’t for me. Kind of uncomfortable. And strange.
I think these things were helping a teensy bit, but not enough to get labor going. When I went to my 40 week appointment, my doctor checked my cervix and I was dilated to 4 centimeters. The week before it was 3 cm, so I was progressing, but ever so slowly.
When my doctor brought up the induction at this appointment, I was more open to getting labor started earlier rather than later. I guess it was all the pressure from my husband. He kept saying that he wanted to hold his baby boy and yada yada yada. Besides that, my brother-in-law’s birthday was the next day, and I figured he would love to have his nephew born on his birthday.
An Elective Induction
So I did what I swore I wouldn’t do, and I scheduled an induction for the next day, even though I had had an induction with my second and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Fortunately, this time around things would be different.
Since the induction was before the 41st week and I didn’t have a medical need to go into labor, I had to be on a waiting list. Basically, if there was room for me, they’d take me. If all the rooms were full, I’d have to wait.
I called in the next morning to find out if and when I should come to the hospital. They said to call back a few hours later since there were no rooms available at the moment.
When I called back, they said to go ahead and eat lunch and that they would call me later in the day.
They still hadn’t called back in the early afternoon, so I asked my husband if we could just go to the mall and walk around for a while. While we were at the mall, I received the call from the hospital to come in at 5 pm.
I was actually starting to feel strange, and I had some bloody show as well as a bit of mucous in my underwear, so things were going to get started one way or the other very soon!
My mom had picked up my daughters the day before, so we went over to the hospital right then. Once we got there, we got some pictures taken and then checked in.
They set me up in the hospital bed and started the oxytocin in my arm (which, if you ask me, this is the most painful part of all!).
When the nurse checked my dilation, I was now at 5 cm. Up until this point, my contractions had been very irregular and hard. I’m not sure whether they were true or false contractions, but they were obviously helping me progress in labor! I had the same experience with my second child.
When I finally got to 6 cm, about 2 hours later, I was starting to feel pretty crampy. I asked for an epidural, knowing that things could move very quickly at this point. Getting the epidural was a very uncomfortable experience. With my daughters, the anesthesiologists had me lay on my side, but this anesthesiologist wanted me to sit on the bed with my legs butterflied and my head and back bent forward, toward my feet. I am not flexible at all, so it was pretty painful, and I was experiencing contractions while I had to be completely still.
For this third labor I was planning to go natural, but I just didn’t prepare well enough. I knew that I really had nothing to prove and my first two labors went well with the epidural so I just went with it again. How I wish I could have had just one baby naturally!
Once the epidural was administered, my feet started to get tingly and then the rest of my legs became numb and I honestly couldn’t feel a thing. I could feel a lot with my daughters’ deliveries. I’m not sure if the epidural just didn’t work great or what, but this time I was absolutely numb.
Pushing Time!
It only took about 2 hours to go from 6 cm to fully dilated at 10 cm. So by 9:15 or so, I was ready to push. I could feel that there was pressure, but it wasn’t painful. Just a very different experience than I had with both of my daughters! It felt like I had to go #2 really bad with them when I was ready to push. This time it was just like I knew there was pressure.
I really liked the nurses that were there to help for the pushing. They were both really excited to see what our baby looked like (bi-racial babies are the cutest!). One of the nurses even stayed past her shift because she wanted to be there for the birth!
When my doctor came in, one of the nurses mentioned something about his anniversary, and I couldn’t believe I had scheduled the induction for this day! He had to come in to deliver my baby on his anniversary! I guess that’s just how it goes if you’re a doctor.
Baby’s Debut
I pushed through just 3 contractions and baby boy was out! I think it took a mere 10-20 minutes is all. What a difference from my first and second deliveries (2 ½ for the first and about 1 hour for the second)! Baby Sebastian was born at 9:55 PM on August 16.
As soon as he was out, they laid him on my chest. I couldn’t see his face because he was attached to the umbilical cord, but as soon as my husband cut it, they turned him towards me. His face reminded me a lot of both of my girls when they were born.
The nurses could not get over his dark, curly hair! All of my kids were blessed with lots of locks at birth, so this was nothing new to me, but there was still that question in the back of my mind whether he would have hair or not. I mean, it runs in my family to be born bald or severely lacking in the hair department. Babies in my husband’s family, on the other hand, have always had an abundance of hair, even more than any of our kids ever had.
Now, his nose was the one feature that surprised me, just a bit. It almost looks like the tip of his nose is a ball, like mine, and the nostrils are wide like my husband’s. Of course, noses can change a lot over the years, so it might be several years before we can really tell.
Off to a Great Start
Once he had been weighed (8 lbs. 3 oz.) and all that jazz (20.5 inches long), I put him on my chest, skin-to-skin, and tried breastfeeding. To be honest, I was scared that this breastfeeding experience would be drastically different from both of my daughter’s and that we would have to use formula.
My fears were all for naught! It took some time, but after just 15-20 minutes, he was sucking away and I could hear that he was swallowing. His latch, as far as I could tell, was perfect. He was a very strong sucker, but it wasn’t too painful.
Around 11:30, they wheeled me over to the Mom & Baby Unit where we would be for the next two nights. There were two other moms being wheeled over at the same time, so it was a busy night in L&D!
Highs and Lows of Post-Labor
My favorite part after giving birth is the food from the hospital. I might be strange, but sometimes it’s so nice to get a meal that you didn’t have to cook yourself! Plus, giving birth always makes me super hungry. But because I had given birth at night, they didn’t bring me a meal from the cafeteria. Instead, they gave me a meal in a plastic box (a sandwich, drink, oreo, chips), and it just wasn’t the same. It was good because I was famished, but not amazingly good.
My least favorite part after giving birth is probably when the nurses push down on my stomach to check my bleeding. Ouch, does that hurt! Fortunately, they told me my bleeding was really quite light.
The first night with our baby boy was pretty rough. My husband wanted to sleep, which was fine, but Sebastian didn’t sleep much. Instead, he was in my arms most of the night, eating nearly every hour. Another reason I couldn’t sleep is that the nurses kept coming back in to get my vitals and my baby’s. That first night with a newborn is definitely long and tiring!
The next day we got some cute little visitors. Sofia was absolutely in love at first sight. Bella, on the other hand, was a bit distant and didn’t want much to do with Sebastian. She finally warmed up to him, but she just wasn’t herself. It must be hard to have your position as the baby taken over!
All in all, it was a very uneventful labor and delivery, but we got the most beautiful angel out of it!
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I enjoy birth stories, even if they’re not too eventful! Like a good writer, you made it interesting! It’s good to get the birth story down quick before the mommy craziness of life makes you forget. Unfortunately what I wrote down for all my babies is short and less like a story and more like notes.