Landon's Birth Story!!!

He is FINALLY here and he is the love of our lives! We are feeling so blessed....tired......blissfully exhausted.....but we can't imagine our lives without him. This will probably be my last post on this blog. I will be moving back to my regular blog with updates from now on. BUT, since I am turning this blog into a book for Landon, I need to make sure I write about the day he was born. I am warning you, its going to be long, maybe a little gory;), but I want to make sure that I get every detail down before I forget.....

It all started on Thursday, October 4th at 2:30 am. I woke up out of a dead sleep with a contraction in my lower back. I got up walked around and didn't have any more, so I laid down and tried to go back to sleep. The same thing happened at 3:30 am and then 4:40 am, so I woke up Travis and we got up and sat in the family room to try to time them and see if they were going to turn into anything. Honestly, within the HOUR they were about 5-6 minutes apart, the parents were called, and we were on our way to St. Joe's. In the car they seemed to come even closer together and were pretty painful, BUT still in my back/bottom. I seriously thought that I might not make it to the hospital.

We arrived at St. Joe's around 6:00 am. My parents met us there and Travis' were on the way. They had me go to Triage to be checked. I was at 6 cm and FULLY effaced!!!! My contractions settled around 5 minutes apart. They started getting a room ready for me in Labor & Delivery and told me that if I wanted an epidural, now was the time to decide. Everyone (including the nurses) thought that I would deliver in a few hours...

Mr. Landon had other plans.

I moved over to a room in Labor & Delivery. We were all so impressed with HOW nice the room was. I was introduced to my nurse Katy who would be with only me until I delivered. She was so nice and young, I liked her instantly. She hooked me up to an IV and called anesthesiology to order my epidural. My doctor was not on call. But, Dr. V (who is in the practice) was for the next 12 hours. I had never met her before, but she was very sweet and young and I liked her right away too. I also had a resident working with her that I LOVED. Again, never met him. His name was Dr. S and AGAIN he was so sweet, not sure if I could of made it through the delivery in the end without him being part of the team.

As I was waiting for my epidural, we kept watching the monitors waiting to see what would happen and if things would start progressing as fast as everyone thought they would. The funny thing was I was having a bunch of really strong contractions that I couldn't even FEEL, and the strong ones that I could were still in my back and bottom. Katy was surprised with how active Landon was and kept mentioning it throughout the morning. They let me eat and drink. I later found out that this was because I came in so far along. I was grateful though and it made me more at ease.

At 9:30 am the anesthesiologist arrived for my epidural. I did totally fine with the injection. But, a few minutes later I started to feel a little lightheaded and they had me lay on my side. I broke into a cold sweat and they ended up having to give me a shot of epinephrine in my leg to get my blood pressure to come back up. It was a little scary for me because I thought I might pass out. They told me that this does happen quite often and it wasn't anything to be alarmed about. The epinephrine made both of our heart rates rise for a short time, but all was well in the end. I was numb, not completely, but it took the edge off for a few hours while I progressed.

I continued to have strong contractions for the next few hours. Some I felt and some I didn't. Again, I NEVER had one SINGLE contraction up front. All of mine were contained in my back and bottom which made it hard to sit. I was worried about having to have a catheter, but they said that I didn't have to have one with the epidural as long as I could urinate on my own. Let's just say I was a peeing champ ALL day. Even my nurse said she had NEVER had a patient who could pee in a bed pan with an epidural!;) Yeah, that's right, I'm proud of pee!;)

Around 2 pm the doc came into check me. I was around 9 cm and fully effaced. She ordered "a whiff of pitocin" to get me to complete so I could start pushing. They only gave me a small dose and after about two hours I was having a LOT of pressure and pain in my bottom and the contractions were strong enough that I felt like I wanted to start pushing.

The doctor came back in and checked me around 4pm. I only had a little lip of cervix left. She told me to hold off on pushing for a little while longer so that I would be 100% ready to go. The next 2 hours were the most painful.   First of all, I found out that I was having full on back labor. Apparently, the epidural doesn't really cover that. So, I was basically numb below and around the area I had all of my contractions...FUN times.

I was in so much pain at one point that I was basically doing gymnastic like moves all over my bed during the contractions. Travis, my mom and nurse Katy were all worried I would fall out of the bed, but it was like I had to be up, on my knees, halfway over the bar, up on top of the bean bag anywhere but laying on my back. The doctors were in and out checking me and finally decided to have a dose of meds put into my epidural port to help with the back pain/pressure. While it took the edge off, it did NOT take away the pain. Travis and my mom were such a big help through all of the pain. It was so rough at times. I was in and out of it, delirious from the pain and I could hear them asking what could be done, how much longer I would have to go through this etc.

The doc came in and checked me around 6 pm and I was FINALLY complete and ready to push. This is when things got difficult and to be honest, a lot of it was a blur. I pushed for the next THREE HOURS!!! They started off having me push every other contraction so I could rest in between, but towards the end I was pushing at every single one that I had the strength for.

The main problem was that even though Landon's head was right there, ready to come out, because of the back labor he was above my pelvic bone. So during a contraction, I would push, things would open enough for everyone to see the top of his head, then when it was over he would go back up. Basically, he was stuck.  I remember being so exhausted, but wanting him here so bad I would do whatever it took to get him out. I remember seeing Travis and my mom's face and them asking the doctor's how much longer I would have to go through this pain. I remember the doctor's telling me that I was doing a good job and that they were shocked by how strong I was to keep going. I remember at the end the doctor told me that I had a half hour left to push or I was getting a c-section. It was then that I took everything I had left and used it to get him down more. There was no way I was getting a c-section after almost 15 hours of labor!!!

After the half hour was up, the doctor said that she wanted to try the vac and see if she could get him out. She was confident with progress that was made in the last half hour she could get him out with the vac.

What I didn't know was at this time the room filled up with about 25 people. A team to do the vac, a team for the baby and a team ready to take me for an emergency c-section. She hooked up the vac and when I had my next contraction she turned it on. All of a sudden I saw his little head, (he was wailing away) then his shoulder, then during the next contraction he was OUT!!!!

I was so out of it, but I do remember thinking he was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen in my Whole. Entire. Life. His eyes were wide open and he looked right at me. He was screaming so loud, but when they laid him on my chest I kissed him and told him how much I loved him and he stopped crying right away. My mom, Travis and I were sobbing and everyone else in the room was definitely relieved.

Our little man was finally here.

I will spare you the gory details of what happened to me. I've decided to block a lot of what happened (pain wise) out of my mind. It's going to be a rough recovery, but he will always be worth it. I would do it a hundred times over to have him here. I am finally a mommy and I have my perfect little angel in my arms.We are beyond blessed!:)

Landon Ramsey Rolfe
Born October 4th, 2012
8lbs 3oz
21.5 inches long

Random labor details I don't want to forget:
-Both doctors staying past their shifts to be there for my entire delivery.
-The look on Travis' face when he saw Landon.
-Seeing my mom's face and hearing her scream out that he was here as he was coming out.
-Dr. S telling Travis during my pushing to "remember the diamonds."
-Dr. S up on his knees in the bed behind me helping me to push so I could get above Landon.
-Having both doctors and our nurse Katy track us down the next day to visit. Even though they didn't have to, they stopped in to say hello, see how I was recovering and to hold Landon.
-Dr. S telling me that he honestly never saw a woman do what I did, that he couldn't believe that I kept going and was able to get him out. He reminded Travis this is why men don't give birth...they could never handle it.
-Landon looking up at me the first time he heard my voice. He knew I was his Mommy.