Liam's Birth Story

Now that Liam is 3 weeks old today (hard to believe) I feel its time to finally write his birth story!

On Monday, January 17, we got a call in the morning that they had room at the hospital to start inducing me. We arrived at 8 am and they monitored me for a bit. At 11:15am they started the pitocin. For those of you that haven't had it before, you can go up to 30 milliunits. They increased mine by 1 every hour.

The day was long but my husband and I stayed busy walking the halls. The contractions were getting more intense. At around 3 pm my doctor on duty checked me to find I was only 3 cm dilated and his head still hadn't dropped. It was a bit frustrating but I continued to plug along.

By 9 pm I was already up to 20 milliunits and excited that we were hopefully making some progress. The contractions were starting to get more and more uncomfortable. At 10:15pm that all came to a screeching halt. Our nurse on duty came in to say they had to shut my pitocin off. There were some emergencies on the floor and due to a short staff, no one could monitor me. I would have to start from square one once everything had calmed down. I was so frustrated and exhausted at that point. Lets just say some tears were shed. To have come so far and have to have a set back was difficult.

My husband and I took the time to get some sleep. I couldn't sleep much even though my contractions had subsided. Liam felt it was appropriate to kick and move instead! I had not eaten much all day so at midnight we went down to get some food.

At 4 am on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 they woke us to say they could start the pitocin again. This time they went up 2 milliunits every half hour to get things moving along a little faster this time. The doctor on duty checked me around 9 am to find I was still only 3cm dilated and Liam still hadn't dropped at all. At that point we briefly discussed a c-section as there was no progress and he wasn't cooperating. I felt I had not tried enough and wanted to keep going through the day to see if I could make any more progress. We decided to have my doctor come back in the afternoon to check me again.



My hubby and I walked the halls a lot. I couldn't focus on reading or anything. Throughout the day the contractions were getting more intense and more crampy like. I only hoped this was a good sign. I really wanted to delivery this baby naturally.

At 4:30pm my doctor checked me again to discover there was still no progress. I was still 3cm dilated and Liam's head was even higher up than it was before. After almost 2 days of being on pitocin nothing was happening. Also at this point I was already up to 28 milliunits and the max is 30. I was exhausted at this point and really was just ready to see my little miracle. My doctor said there was probably a 5% chance based on everything that I would deliver vaginally.

They gave my husband and I time to talk about what to do next. After weighing all the options, we decided I should have a c-section. I knew he was a big baby and potentially I would need one. A blessing in all of this is that if I were to have a c-section, there was a particular doctor that I wanted to have who has been at this for 25+ years. He happened to be on duty that day. It brought me some comfort. And I had really wanted to try to make progress and I gave it almost 2 days. I wanted to know I had at least tried and I did.

Once they took me off the pitocin, my contractions subsided. It was another indicator that my body just wasn't going to do it on its own.

After we decided to have a c-section, everything moved fast. Within 20 minutes, my hubby was in scrubs and they were letting me walk to the operating room which was directly across from my room. I remember having so many emotions walking there. I was so excited to finally be able to see my rainbow baby's face. At the same time I was so scared of major surgery as we had made the decision so quickly.

Thankfully there was a familiar face talking me through the spinal. The nurse we had on Sunday night for the gel was working again. It really made me feel at ease having here there. Things in the operating room went really quickly. I was so thankful when they finally let my husband in. Within 10 minutes I heard the most amazing sound, the first cry of my little miracle. What a beautiful sound that was. My husband was able to go see him and bring him over to me after he was all cleaned up. There were tears in my eyes seeing him for the first time. At 9 pounds 3 ounces and 23 inches long, he was a healthy little boy.

We spent 4 nights in the hospital after. Luckily I had a private room so my husband was able to stay with me all 4 nights. I couldn't have been more thankful to have him there with me.

On Saturday, January 22, 2011 we brought Liam, our rainbow baby, home from the hospital. I finally had the family I've always wanted. I have been blessed.