In honor of Simon's 2 month birthday and the relaunch of this blog, here's our birth story:
Having been diagnosed with pregnancy-induced hypertension and on bed rest since week 37, my doctor thought it was best to deliver me by induction soon after I passed my due date. The induction was set for 8/25 and I headed in at 6PM to get started. I took a pill to help with dilation and mild contractions started pretty quickly. After 4 hours I had progressed to about 2 cm from 1 and up to about 80-90% effaced, which was just good enough not to do a second round of that medication. So I got about 2 hours of sleep and was woken up at 5:30AM on the 26th to get started on the pitocin. I had had mild but noticeable contractions throughout the night, so there were high hopes for just needing the pitocin to keep things moving along.
They started me very low and turned it up regularly, and some serious contractions started fairly fast. They were having a ton of trouble keeping the baby's heart rate on the monitor, so at about 10AM my dr broke my water and inserted a scalp lead. Over the next few hours the contractions were coming closer together and were more intense, so I got 2 consecutive doses of Fentanyl, which helped take the edge off a bit. A couple of hours later I was ready for an epidural with the pitocin having been turned up twice again. I was told to try to wait a bit longer and after several pretty painful exams and increasingly intense labor, I got my epidural when I was about 4-5 cm dilated.
Unfortunately, when my doctor checked me at about 4:30PM, she found out that I was still at 4-5 and the baby was still high. She said we would take 2 hours, get me up to a really high dose of pitocin and if those contractions didn’t get things moving she would recommend a c-section. So that's what we did--they cranked up the pitocin and we waited for a couple of hours. At 7PM, when I hadn’t made any more progress even with very strong, regular contractions, the decision was made to do the c-section. My doctor said that Simon was just too big for me, which is why he hadn’t even made it to -2 station. After that it was all a blur. We were the first in line for the OR and headed in around 8. Matt was there in his jumpsuit, I was completely numb from the neck down and it was just like in the movies--bright, cold, loud and fast. They had the little guy out at 8:13 PM and I was all sewn up by 8:30. While the c-section was scary, the team was great and the process from deciding to have the c-section to having the baby in my arms was incredibly fast!
After that it was all about Simon—8 lbs 2 oz, 20 ½ inches, apgars were 8 and 9. He was healthy, we were all happy, and he was the cutest sweetest thing I have ever seen. He was lucky enough to have his Grandma Choo-Choo, Papa and Aunt Karyn there to greet him, with many more well wishers on the phone from NJ and GA. We left the hospital 48 hours later and began our lives as a new family! Overall, the c-section threw us for a curve, it was an incredibly intense, scary and stressful experience, but considering that the reward was little Simon, it really all worked out for the best.
Welcome to the world beautiful Simon Russell Winstanley! We love you!
