Liam's Birth Story

Before Liam was born, we had two false alarms.  The first was February 19th, when we were visiting my family in Columbus, OH for my sister’s birthday.  I was in the bathroom, when I had a gush of bleeding and freaked out.  We went to the hospital, and they determined that I wasn’t in labor, but couldn’t quite figure out why that had happened either.  The same exact thing happened again March 2nd while I was at work.  Korey came and got me and took me to the hospital.  This time I was also having contractions and when they checked me, I was 4 cm dilated, so we were admitted and we thought it was go time.  But overnight, my contractions slowed down and eventually stopped all together, and I wasn’t progressing anymore, so in the morning they sent us home.

I was antsy as heck by this time for this baby to get here, especially since I was on partial bed-rest for high blood pressure (the only thing I was allowed to do was go to work, and then the day before Liam was born I wasn’t even allowed to do that and had to spend all my time laying down with my feet up).  I was retaining water like CRAZY and was so uncomfortable.

Finally, at 5:30am on March 8th, I woke up to go to the bathroom and my water broke.  Korey was working an overnight shift at the time, so thank goodness my sister Emily was staying with us.  I was shaking uncontrollably, which was kind of weird and scary, but Emily managed to get everything around and we got in the car to go to the hospital.  In the car, I called the doctor and called Korey.  When we got there, I stood up to get out of the car, my water must have finished breaking or something because my pants were SOAKED.  Then the contractions started coming.

Korey got there while we were still in triage, thank goodness.  It was obvious that my water had broken, and when they checked me I was about 5cm dilated.  We were admitted and moved to a labor and delivery room.  The contractions were pretty strong and close together at that point - not fun.  So I decided to get an epidural.  That wasn’t too bad - it really only hurts/burns for a minute when they first start, and then it felt like an elephant was sitting on my hips, but then you just can’t feel anything anymore, and it’s great.

Both Korey and I were able to get a little sleep after that.  Korey hadn’t slept since the morning before so he was pretty tired and took a nap.  I was in and out of sleep - the nurse kept having to come in and check on me because Liam’s heart rate was all over the place and kept dropping down pretty low.  They had to put the oxygen mask on me and it was pretty uncomfortable to sleep with that on.

After a little while (maybe around 11am?) the doctor came to check on me again, and I was fully dilated!  I was shocked!  They said it was time to start pushing, and I remember thinking “Oh my gosh, this is it, I am going to push this baby out.”  So I started pushing.  At first we were making really good progress and Liam was getting closer and closer, but then he kind of stopped moving down.  Every time I would push, he would move down, but then move right back up when I stopped.  His heart rate kept dropping and then coming back up.

I pushed for almost 2 hours, when the doctor said that Liam had had a his first poo in the womb and now there was meconium in the amniotic fluid and there was a risk that Liam could inhale it.  He said that I could keep pushing if I wanted to and see what happened, but that he didn’t think that Liam was going to be able to fit through the birth canal even with the use of forceps or a vacuum extractor.  And with Liam’s heart rate going up and down so much, he suggested a C section.  I was less than thrilled with the idea, but we decided to go ahead with it.  I knew it was the best option and I just wanted Liam out and healthy.

So they prepped me up, got me more epidural drugs that made me completely numb from the chest down, and away we went to the operating room.  After they got everything ready, Korey was allowed to come in a sit by my head.  He talked to me the whole time, and the doctors told me what they were doing as they did it.  I felt a lot of pressure when they pulled Liam out, and was vaguely aware of them whisking him over to the other side of the room.  I was pretty out of it.

Liam wasn’t crying/breathing at first - I later found out that his first apgar score was a 1 (scary!) - but after just a few seconds they got him breathing and crying.  Korey went over to where they were working on Liam to take pictures while they got me closed back up.

I was so out of it at this point, and the anesthesia cocktail I was on started to make me really sick.  They wrapped Liam up like a little burrito and Korey brought him over to me.  He was sleeping and he was so beautiful!  All I remember is wanting to look at him and hold him so much, but I could barely keep my eyes open because the anesthesia was making me so tired.  I kept dozing on and off.  Then I got really sick and was puking green stuff (Korey calls it green alien goo).  After that it’s kind of a blur until we were ready to go back to the labor and delivery room.  They laid Liam next to me on the bed and wheeled us back down the hall.  I finally got to hold him and hug him and love him.

My mom and sister were able to come meet Liam shortly after, and my sister starting snapping pictures right away.  The pictures she has from that quiet family time that we had are so beautiful!  During this time Liam nursed for the first time, and Korey also got to give him his first bath.

After a couple hours, we were moved to our regular room where we would spend the next three nights, and where Korey promptly fell asleep (poor guy had been awake for like 30 hours).