Jude's Birth Story

We woke up around 4 am on Wednesday morning and left the house a little after 4:30 to get donuts for Brian. It's a good thing I don't like donuts cause I was starving. Plus I was really thirsty. We arrived at the hospital at 5:15 am and got all checked in. They started the IV at 6:15. Thankfully she only needed to poke me twice. The nurses started pitocin started at 7:15 am and Dr. Schmidt came and broke my water at 7:45. Unfortunately, his head wasn’t lined up well. She was feeling his ear instead of his head. We were told that if he didn’t correct his position that I’d need a c-section. While we were waiting, they started getting things ready just in case I needed surgery. Thankfully the next time they checked me, I was 4 cm dilated and they could no longer feel his ear. I dilated at a pretty steady rate of 1 cm ever two hours. I hit 6 cm around 2 pm the afternoon. The contractions were coming stronger and faster so I asked for some IV pain medicine to take the edge off and help me relax a bit. They checked me again around 6 pm and I was 8 cm. I asked for some more pain medication as the contractions were right on top of each other and horribly painful. The rest was kind of a blur but I remember the nurse having me push as she moved the last bit of cervix out of the way. Brian said I only pushed a few times before the chaos began. Loads of people and Dr. Schmidt came into the room to get set for the birth. It wasn’t much longer until he was out. I am so pleased that I was able to have a successful VBAC. Jude ended up being sunny side up but came out with just a few pushes. My body did most of the work for me. James and John didn't come up to meet him until the next day because it was kind of late by the time I got all cleaned up. I didn’t actually hold him that first night because I got the shakes really bad and didn't want to drop him. He spent the night in the nursery getting checked out and all cleaned up. Both my parents came to town to see me early on in labor and to help my sister with the boys. My sister came to visit me at the hospital and was actually present for the birth!! She did a wonderful job helping Brian get me through it all.