It all began on Sunday morning around 3:00AM. I had several contractions and was fairly certain that labor was starting. I called my mom to give her a heads up just in case we needed to head to the hospital later that morning but I was finally able to fall asleep and the contractions subsided.
We went to church that morning and while I was having several contractions throughout the day I believed that they were Braxton Hix contractions since they were pretty sporadic and didn't seem to be getting stronger.
On Sunday evening I started having contractions again. I called the doctor on-call and mentioned that I was having contractions but they didn't seem very consistent. I was worried because we were expecting a major snow storm and I didn't want to have too much difficulty getting to the hospital. She advised me to head to the hospital when the contractions were 10 minutes apart for an hour. As soon as I got off the phone with her the contractions seemed to start and were LESS than 5 minutes apart. My mom, dad, and Becca came over so that my mom could come with us to the hospital and my dad and Becca could stay with Amelia. The snow was INTENSE. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the hospital, although it's usually a 30 - 40 minute drive.
I was still not convinced that I was in labor and worried that they would send us home. When I arrived at triage, they found that I was 5 cm dilated and was in active labor. They admitted me to the hospital and broke my water right away - around 11:00 PM.
I labored for SEVERAL hours. I asked for an epidural at 3:00AM but was still only 5 cm dilated. I remained 5-6 cm dilated throughout the following day. They gave me some small doses of pitocin to help me to dilate some more. By the afternoon I was receiving the maximum dosage, with no significant effect. The took me completely off for an hour, and at 4:30pm started the pitocin back up. At 6:00pm on Monday the doctor advised me that the pitocin still did not seem to be working, and I remained at 5-6 cm dilated. The doctor advised me that they felt a c-section was going to be the best option. I asked for one more hour on the pitocin to see if I could make any more progress. They agreed and then no less than five minutes later came rushing into the room because the baby's heart rate had rapidly decelerated - Although it had been consistently around 130, it had momentarily dropped to below 50. It quickly bounced back, but the doctor stated that the baby made the decision for me and we were whisked off to the O.R.
The c-section went very smoothly. The doctor commented that it was the best repeat c-section he'd ever done and the procedure was done in about 16 minutes.
We were all very surprised when they told us that the little boy weighed a whopping 9 pounds 7 ounces! The doctor said the baby was very likely too large to fit and that could have been why labor wasn't working.
Here are the stats for Andrew James Donahue:
Birthdate: February 23, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Birth Weight: 9 Pounds, 7 Ounces
Length: 21 1/2 Inches Long
Andy has lots and lots of dark hair and beautiful skin!
Andy had low blood sugar when he was born (likely due to his size, we were told) so he has had to have several blood sugar checks and has had some supplemental formula during his breastfeeding sessions.
I am exhausted but Andrew has been doing such a GREAT job breastfeeding and sleeping. He's just completely perfect and I'm totally in love.
I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get the birth I was hoping for, especially after attempting labor for 30+ hours, but the end result is what matters and I'm so happy to know that I tried my very best and I finally have my beautiful baby boy!!!
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