As You Can See...

I never made it to my 36 week appointment. Gavin Spencer was born January 28 at 5:50am. He weighed in at 7lbs, 12 oz and was 20 inches long. He was my biggest baby even though he was 3 1/2 weeks early. Labor started at 2:45am on January 27th. It slowly progressed and occasionally fizzled all through out that day. Around 5pm, we decided to head to the hospital just to be sure. We got there and I was dialated to 3 1/2cm but since I hadn't been checked yet at my 36 week appointment, we had nothing to go on as far as progress goes. Since I was still considered pre-term, I had to sit and wait in triage for an hour to see if the contractions that I was having were making any progress. The contractions remained constant from 2-5 minutes but the intensity was varied. After an hour I was checked and was now at a 4 1/2. I was then admitted and spent a while on the birth ball and walking the halls. I continued to have contractions but sometimes they spaced out farther than 7 minutes but then they would pick up again and get stronger. This lasted several hours. I continued to get checked every 2-3 hours and I was not making any progress beyond 5cm. After about 4 hours, they started me on pitocen to see if they could get the contractions more regular. The doctor would not break my water until I had made some more progress since I was still technically early. The contractions did get stronger but I still was not making any progress. After another 2 hours, I asked for an epidural since the contractions were a lot stronger than I was used to having never had pitocen before. I was hoping to go without but because of the pitocen and the long labor I gave in. After 6 hours of no progress, I was told that I needed to make some progress in the next 2 hours or I would possibly be sent home. I was not about to have that happen. I totally had a break down at this point and was getting super frustrated that this labor was never going to end. Once I calmed down, I decided to rest and try to relax. After the 2 hours were up, I knew something was different because the pressure was getting very intense. I was checked and was a 6. The doctor then broke my water and the pressure continued to get worse and worse. Within a few minutes I had the urge to push. I was checked again and I was at a 10! Finally it was time to start pushing. The nurse had me do a couple of pushes to move him down. Then she had me stop while we waited for the doctor. I pushed again while the doctor came in the room. I was told to stop pushing because he was right there so I did but Gavin had other ideas. He kept right on coming on his own and his head was out before the doctor finished putting on his gloves. In less than 10 minutes from the start of pushing and after 27 hours of labor, Gavin was born. He was by far my longest labor but he came out without a problem and was my first baby to be in the correct position! He was immediately placed on my chest and I was hooked! Unfortunately, my bonding time with him was short lived. He was having trouble breathing and was taken down to the NICU for observation and testing. Here are some pictures of Gavin's first few minutes of life.

This is what 27 hours of labor does to a person: