Connor's Birth Story

Connor James Chagnon’s Birth Story

My last day of work was my due date Friday September 11^th 2009. At my last two appointments the doctors said I was 2-3 cm dilated. I was still convinced that I was going to be at least a week late and would be sitting around playing the waiting game and would have one less week at home with the baby. To my surprise Saturday afternoon (September 12^th) I went to lie down just before 3 pm and to try to take a nap. After a few minutes I felt a trickle, then another, at which point I quickly got off the bed since I was pretty sure my water broke. I called Greg who was upstairs on his computer, and went to the bathroom. We called the weekend answering service, and the midwife on call returned my call, she told us to head right over to labor and delivery. The hospital is only 5 minutes from our house, so we finished packing up our bags, and called my parents to tell them we would not be coming over for dinner that night after all. I was slightly shocked, as I never expected my water to break and could not believe that in less than 24 hours we would have a baby.

I was not leaking a lot while we were getting ready to leave, but when I went to get in the car I felt another gush, I told Greg to go back inside and get a towel, I went back inside and changed the pad I put on. We made it to the hospital before once again another huge gush, by the time we got to L&D my pants were soaked to the knees. At this point I still have not felt any contractions yet. I was put on the monitors, and then the OB on call came in and checked me, he said I was ~ 4 cm dilated. After the exam the contractions started. I was taken off the monitors and the nurse suggested that we order food if we wanted dinner that night. We then went to for a walk to help get things started, by the time we got back and the food arrived my contractions were coming regularly and food was the last thing I wanted. I asked the nurse to put the IV line in so I could get an epidural as soon as I wanted it. The nurse called IV therapy to put the line in since I had such bad carpel tunnel in my hands towards the end of my pregnancy. The nurse hooked me up to the IV fluids and told me the anesthesiologist was currently in an emergency c-section. I was uncomfortable, but not totally miserable, so the short wait did not bother me. At 7:30 pm I had the epidural and Greg and I were able to chill out and watch the Red Sox game that has been delayed due to the rain that day. I could still feel the pressure of the contractions, but no pain. The next 4.5 hours we just hung out watching TV while I would change positions every hour or so to keep things progressing. I first felt the urge to push around midnight, so afterwards I stared pushing. I am not sure after how long I had been pushing, the nurse suggested we add the squatting bar to the bed, but I was up for trying anything new since my pushing did not seam to be working well yet. I tired squatting and pushing a few times, but was frustrated that no one could tell me if I was making any progress. Next the nurse tied a sheet to the bar, so I could grab on to the sheet and pull myself up when I was pushing, this seamed to work best for me. I was still pushing after 2 plus hours later when my contractions stated to get irregular, I would have 2 or 3 at regular intervals then there would be a 4 or 5 minute break, and even in my exhausted state I knew this was not a good thing and was getting a little concerned. The decision was made to give me some pitocin to get thing moving again. I am not sure how much pitocin I got before all of a sudden his head was almost out, and it hurt so much I found the energy to push like 8 times in a row to get his head out. Finally at 2:46 am on Sunday September 13^th Connor James was born! The midwife put him on my chest, and I was so in love! He was wide awake and looking all around. I called my parents and they came right over to the hospital to meet him. I got to hold him for almost two hours before they took him to clean him up and run all the tests on him. He passed all his test with filing colors, the nurse asked if I wanted to send him up to the nursery to get cleaned up since he had pooped while I was holding him and he had poop all over his bottom and legs. Finally Greg got to hold him for the first time around 4:30 am before he went up to the nursery.