Monday, April 16, 2007

My Birth Story

I'm going to let my Mommy tell the story.


Mike and I checked into the hospital Thursday night, Feb.22, 2007 after eating our last childless meal at Chilis. We sat in a booth and the hostesss looked at me like she was afraid I wouldn't fit. I did... with plenty of room to spare! When we arrived at the hospital, the nurse told me they would put a pill up inside me to help soften and dialate my cervix. They'd do this twice before the morning and would also give me Ambien to help me sleep.

The morning of Friday, Feb. 23 the doctor came by to check me. I hadn't changed AT ALL! My chances of having to have a c-section went up. Dr. Webster told me it was a 50/50 chance I'd be able to deliver naturally. At this point, they hadn't even started the pitocin because the pharmacist forgot to bring it. (My doctor was furious.)



Finally around 9:00 am they started the pitocin. My dad and Mike decided to go grab a bite to eat. While they were gone I was told I could get an epidural whenever I wanted. Not wanting everyone to call me a baby for getting it as soon as possible- I decided to wait until Mike got back. Well, as it turned out, by the time he returned I was dialated to a 3. Once I had the epidural, though... I was happy and enjoyed entertaining the troops waiting on our baby to arrive. (See self-portriat to the left.) At around 2:00 my wonderful nurse Lou checked my progress. To her surprise, I was dialated to an 8. She looked at me, shocked, and said, "I'm gonna call the doctor. You'll have this baby before 3:00!"


The doctor arrived relatively quickly and checked me again. It wasn't even 2:15 yet and I was fully effaced and dialated. The only problem was that every time I'd have a contraction, Thatcher's heart rate would go down. Lou explained that with each contraction, his head would get squeezed... since the labor progressed so quickly, he really didn't have time to get used to the pressure on his head and it was freaking him out, causing his heart rate to drop. The doctor decided to wait an hour or so to give him a break. They turned down the pitocin and we just waited.


About an hour or so later, Lou had to turn the pitocin back on because I had completely stopped having contractions. I had to contract in order to delivery. Once it was back on, I started having contractions again and we started pushing. Not too much later, the doctor came back in.



At 4:09 pm our beautiful son Thatcher Cade Porter was born. I kept saying, "He's so tiny! He's so tiny!" He was. Thatcher weighed in at just 7 pounds and 0 ounces and was 19 inches long. He had a big bruise on the top of his head from the birth, but other than that... he was in great shape. I always wondered what I would feel seeing my child for the first time. I can't even put into words the instant love that filled my heart. He's my world!

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