My Long Awaited Birth Story :) (Page 1)

hi guys.

man. this has been a long time coming, huh?

sorry it took me so long. i've been really busy all day.
& i have been trying to rest. i'm completely worn out.
we've had tons of people & in & out visiting.

i don't even know where to start.

this is probably going to be long, so bare with me.


so, as you guys know, i started having contractions around 2am .saturday morning. we left for the hospital & got there a little before 8am .saturday. i was immediately admitted & hooked up to my .i.v's & everything. i was having regular contractions all day & they started getting really really really bad & finally at like 5pm i asked for my epidural. & .hoolllly moses i was loving that !**@!. lmao. my contractions were off the chart for a few hours.. thank god i couldn't feel them. but then things started to slow down & pretty much just stopped progressing.

they put me on pitocin & had to keep upping it. they upped it about 4 or 5 times. & .they turned down my epi & i started feeling them contractions reallllllly bad. i have no idea what time this was. it was late. i started crying & begged them to turn it back up, so my nurse did. but it didn't even help. i was feeling everything. it was awful. they turned down my pitocin for a while & i tried to relax for a little bit.

after they had turned down my epi for a while & whatnot, & my contractions started to get really regular & close together again.. i went from being dilated at 3cm, to all of a sudden being dilated at 7cm outta nowhere! they upped my pitocin again, because they really wanted to get things moving faster.

by this point, i was in absolute agony. i was having the worst, most intense back labor. it was late, by now. probably close to midnight. & i started getting pretty vocal... lol, i was starting to yell & grunt pretty loud. & .it ony got worse. my contractions were about 2 minutes apart & coming really hard.

about 1am, i started feeling the urge to push, so my doctor came in to check me & i was 8cm. so she told me, of course, i couldn't push yet. it sucked so bad. by now, i was yelling so bad. i was like, literally yelling louder than i ever had in my etire life. it was so loud. my nurse actually came in & told me that some of the other first time mom's in the surrounding rooms!!! lmao! i just kept yelling & grunting so bad. they came in checked me a few more times & i was 8 for a while, & then i got to 9, & stayed at 9 for quite a while, & i was having such the urge to push that she had me do a couple of trial pushes & stuff. & .it turned out that even before i was fully dilated that his head had already traveled past my cervix. so she said we could start pushing. that was at about 2:30,i believe.

it. was. so. ridiculously. hard.

i was so tired.. i hadn't really slept since .thursday night & i had already been in labor for 24 hours!

so at about 4am, i think, they turned off my epidural because i was so tired & just wasn't pushing effectively.

dear lord almighty in hell.

it turns out.. he was .o.p... aka posterior or whatever.. meaning he was face down instead of face up. no wonder i was having such bad back labor! so it was party because of this lovely factor that made my labor/pushing such a nightmare.

i was really struggling. i was so tired that i couldn't push hard enough. i was begging her to do something to help me. so she used forceps to help. which they did, thank god. i was pushing as hard as i possibly could & i was trying as hard as i could, but i just really couldn't do it. i mean, obviously i did. but you know what i mean. he was crowning for a long time, & i just couldn't push him out. i think it took me about 12 pushes to get him out *while* he was literally crowning. what. lol. i didn't tear- & i wasn't going to tear, but it was just too difficult to push him out with having extra room, so she gave me an episiotomy. she cut me 3 times- just small snips. its a 2nd degree & i forgot how many stitches she told me it was because i was so out of it, lol.

but yeah. so finally. after 27 hours of labor, & 3 hours of excruciating pushing, he was here!

gabriel .michael .robinson..
march 18th, 2007.
5:20am.
8lbs 1oz, 20 1/2 inches long.

he is absolutely perfectly beautiful.

chris was so great during labor & pushing. he was holding my hand & kissing me & petting my head & playing with my hair, rubbing my back. while i was pushing, he held my hand & kept telling me i could do it & stuff like that. it was really encouraging. he cried when .gabe finally came out. it was so cute.

gabe is doing alright. he was a little discolored when he came out. his hands & feet were blue & his head was pretty beat up from me pushing so long & from being the wrong way.. he was also laying a little crooked in there. his breathing was pretty labored, so they had to whisk him away to be put on oxygen. but they let me hold him for a few minutes, first. so they took him away & i got my stitches & blah blah blah & then just tried to relax for a while. chris got me breakfast & then we had to switch rooms to my recovery room. on our way, though, we stopped by the nursery & got to see how .gabe was doing. i got to hold him again. chris hasn't even got to hold him, yet! i feel so bad. i've only got to hold him twice.

he was just shell-shocked from labor being so long & pushing being so incredibly stressful.

but they did some bloodwork & the results came back abnormal, so there's a chance he may have a blood infection. they are, of course, treating it like he does have one just in case. so they have him on an .i.v. for antibiodics. he had to have a spinal tap to test more extensively about the blood infection. we should probably tomorrow, .i'm guessing. they're also wanting to keep an eye on the bruises on his head, because the doctor was concerned that it may be slight head trauma (like, blood between the skull & his skin or something), so they're going to monitor that. none of this is life-threatening or serious at all. he does have to stay in the hospital for at least 3 days just to monitor him. & .if everything is looking clear & good on .wednesday, he can come home. but if not, he'll have to stay for 7-10 days. but no more than that. he's fine. he's just stressed.

i'm doing alright. i'm just really sore & achey & tired. i've been pumping on & off all day, trying to get colostrom for them to feed .gabe through a feeding tube or whatever, since he obviously can't be fed at my boob yet, since he's all hooked up. it's a little frustrating. i know it's normal the first day to get nothing, but when i do it, i get like 2 little drops of colostrom. i'm sure it'll get better. i hope so!

i'm going to stop talking & post some pictures, now.




.right after he came out!


& .again.


.getting cleaned up.






.i love .chris's face in this one.






.in his little nursery bed under the oxygen.

.i'll have so many more pictures within the next few days, hopefully.

he is so beautiful & so perfect. i'm so happy he's finally here. i can't believe he's actually here. i can't believe he was in my belly for so long & now he's out & he's my son.. it's just so surreal. i can't wait to bring him home & start being a mommy.

i'm so happy.