Tucker Mark | Birth Story

December 12, 2015

3:00am

My eyes fly open! Did I just...pee? Or was that my water breaking. I rush to the bathroom and feel another gush. After actually going I stand back up thinking I imagined something. Nope, another gush. I sit down and holler to Tee to wake up, my water just broke! I wasn't having contractions, so I had him call his parents who would watch Bryce and I called my mom to let her know, and the nurse line to see when I should go in. They said come right in. Bryce wakes up at the end of the conversation and I go tell him his brother is coming. At first he was so tired he didn't really react and then he jumped into action and got ready.

4:00am 

We drop Bryce off to have a sleep over with Pom. We head to the hospital which is an hour and a half away. Still no steady contractions, but a few random ones.

5:15am

Dunkin Donuts  run can't have a grouchy husband while I am laboring. I was told not to eat anything:-(

6:00am

We arrive to labor and deliver and get checked in. They have me swab with this little strip of paper saying if my water broke its change color. Well it didn't change color, but I knew. So they did a second test that would take an hour to know the results and checked my cervix which was a 1.5cm. So Tee and I sat there waiting until right around the hour mark I had another huge gush and they tested it with the paper and it turned the color it was suppose to!  They tell us it will be about an hour before our room is ready. But we find out that the same doctor who delivered Bryce would be more than likely be the one to deliver Tucker! He is my favorite:-)

7:30am

Tee and I decide to walk around the 4th floor to try and get contractions starting. We had a good time laughing about pretending to run into a room yelling "code red!" And "clear" pantomiming the shock padels. I still wasn't having any stop me in my tracks contractions.

9:00am

Doctor comes in and tells us that I'll have to put on a low dose of pitocin to get contractions going as I wasn't having anything consistent and with water breaking we were facing a higher risk of csection. He also explained that where I was a vbac with pitocin it was a good idea to go ahead and get an epidural in place once I needed it in case of uterine  rupture. 

Exact Times are no longer remembered from this point on.

I get hooked up to the IV and a very low dose of pitocin and the nurse warns me it takes a while to work. Well, with in half an hour it started working. They got extremely strong and I was pretty miserable and realized my plan for a natural birth wasn't going to happen when they checked and I was only at  "a tight 3cm." I was thinking I can't last another hour much less a long day and night of this. So I asked for an epidural when she explained they were looking for me to be contracting 2 min apart for one minute without being able to talk through them. Mine were 3-4 min and 45secs-A min. Coming up on an hour and a half of them. On my next contraction I asked for the epidural and got up to go to the bathroom. I thought I was going to pass out. I was sweating. I was dizzy. I was HURTING! So the anthesiologist came in, his name was Mark, and he had a whole slew of corny jokes to try and distract me through my  contractions and placing the epidural. I made it through and the epidural took fairly quickly. I was so surprised at how quickly the pain was totally gone. I was expecting to feel something. But was immediately relieved when I realized I wouldn't feel ANYTHING. As hopeful as I had been for a natural birth I hadn't looked into what an epidural really did. I was in heaven. I was even more thrilled when I realized I wouldn't be in pain whatsoever during the whole process. They checked me and I was at 4.5cm. Both mine and Tucker's heart rates dropped a little bit so  the nurse and doctor were watching it until they both leveled out and then inserted an internal contraction monitor so they could keep an eye on uterine rupture/contractions.

So about an hour and a half later I started to feel a change. Just more pressure and Tucker had moved from my right side to my left. So 15 min later I called the nurse and just explained I felt different. They checked me and I was at an 8!! They were like "okay we will let the doctor know!" We called our parents to head down. In my head I was like this baby will be here before they are! (Hospital is an hour and 15 from where we live).

Well, he was delivering another baby. 30 min later I was like, I am feeling quite a bit of pressure and I feel like he may fall out! Giggling with Tee about it, they said no the doctor will be here as soon as he can. They checked me and I was complete. And they started to get everything in place. Everything was so fast and smooth Tee and I were so shocked. 

We did a few "practice pushes" using a mirror and then the dropped off the end of the table and after about 8 rounds of pushing 3xs for 10 seconds each I looked down and there was Tucker's little sweet face! He was immediately placed on my chest and Tee got to cut the cord! He was born at 5:16pm weighing in at 8lbs 6oz and 21.5in long. Family arrived and got to come in about an hour later. Bryce was very nervous and took a while to warm up to coming over to meet Tucker. Once he did come over he very gently touched him and asked other people if they wanted to "pet" him. It was so sweet. Overall, even though it was not what I had "planned" I couldn't have been more pleased with the birth of our sweet baby Tucker Mark!