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Birth Stories -
Hospital Birth Stories
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Wednesday, 04 February 2009 11:49 |
I will tell my story about all three of my births of "My Three Sons".
Son #1 Joshua, born 3-28-94
My husband and I had been married for a little over a year and I was pretty upset that I had not become pregnant yet. Many of my friends were expecting and I was just waiting on the Lord's timing for us.
When I had missed my irregular period for over a month. I took a couple of home pregnancy tests which all came out negative. After over a month of not knowing I went to my doctor for a blood test. To our delight it came out positive. We were expecting our first child April 7th.
My pregnancy was pretty routine and normal. On Sunday, March 27th I was preparing myself for bed and took a shower. I lost my mucus plug during that shower. I began to get nervous and after saying a little prayer I proceeded to get out all my books to find out what to expect next. I was feeling some menstral type cramps, but could not find that description for labor in my books. I decided to wait it out a little before calling my husband home from work. I starting preparing my bags for the hospital when my water broke and I was continuously leaking from that time on. I then paged my husband and told him what was going on and asked him to head home. I also called my parents who lived eight hours away and told them, so they could come on over for the birth of their first grandchild.
My husband came home and we headed to the hospital at about 1am on Monday, March 28th. I don't remember too many of the details after this point. My labor was not too difficult. I do remember having to wait for the anesthesiologist. He was in a C-section delivery and could not come when my pain told me I needed him for the epidural. The nurses ended up giving me some IV pain medication while I waited for the doctor and the epidural. It did feel so much better after the proceedure. I was now able to get some sleep before it was time to push.
My son (we did not know the sex of our first child) was born after an episiotomy and about 13 hours of labor at 12:35pm. I will always remember the time because I was an avid "Days of Our Lives" fan and he was born right in the middle of the show. I was trying to watch the soap opera while giving birth. My husband was a terrific support and I didn't know how much until I was able to view the video he took.
Joshua weighed 7lbs. 5 oz. He took to breast feeding fairly well and I will never regret that bonding time with him.
I did contract some sort of infection when Joshua was only 10 days old. I had a high fever when I went to take him for his two week doctor's appointment(his doctor was going out of town so we had to take him at 10 days old). I had asked the pediatrician what medicines I could take for the flew that would not harm my son whom I was nursing. She suggested that I call my OB/GYN to ask their opinion. I thought it would just take it's course and later that day my husband found me in bed and called the doctor. Of course it was a Friday-late afternoon, but my doctor was at the hospital and the nurse told me to go to the emergency room to see him.
I arrived and they took my temperature and it was 104. I waited there for a while and was having trouble with my breasts leaking since my husband and son where in the waiting room and I had not nursed him in a while. My doctor came and examined me, but did not have any diagnosis as of yet. I ended up being admitted and my husband had to take Joshua home and begin bottle feeding him. I called my close friend and asked her to come help him, since he had no idea how to prepare bottles or feed the baby. I was left crying in the emergency room, leaking, without my new born baby.
My ordeal lasted five days. That was the longest I had ever spent in the hospital. I didn't even stay that long when I had jaw surgery six years earlier. It was a really hard time. I prayed a lot and cried a lot. I was even quarantined, since they had no idea what my fever resulted from. I could not see my baby and had to pump my breasts the whole time and dump the milk down the sink.
My husband, son and I all survived that situation and praise the Lord that Joshua was still interested in nursing after I returned home from the hospital. They never did discover what caused my fever, but let me go
home after it stayed down for 24 hours. Son #2 Matthew, born May 28, 1996
I was still nursing Joshua when I became pregnant with our second child. Joshua was 18 months old at the time and my husband was a little surprised.
This second pregnancy was pretty routine too. The only difference was that we now lived in a remote area and the doctor's office and hospital were over 75 miles away. The monthly drive to appointments got a little tiring. We did have an ultrasound and found out that we were expecting our second son due June 10th. Actually, June 9th, but that is my birthday so I was telling everyone the 10th so he would have his own birthday.
On Monday, May 27th (My dad's birthday) also Memorial Day, I was home and again getting ready for bed. My husband, a highway patrolman, was working the busy weekend. My bag of waters began trickling out and when Terry, my husband, came home for his dinner break I told him that we could possibly be going to the hospital that night. He said there was no way, he was too busy and the only one on duty. I did call him back home later after feeling the same crampy contractions and having the water continuously leaking. I got upset because all of the plans I had made for someone to care for Joshua did not come through. Everyone was working or not at home. We finally found someone to watch him for the night and my mom was going to come and get him in the morning. We dropped Joshua off at a friends house and I cried knowing I was leaving him with someone he didn't know very well.
We were off on our 1 1/2 hour trip to the hospital. My mom arrived there too after her long day of driving and being up for about 24 hours. Due to the holiday, my doctor (who thought none of his patients would go into labor during the long weekend) was not on call so I had a different one. I got my welcomed epidural and had an episiotomy. Matthew was born at 10:45 on Tuesday morning, May 28th after about 12 hours of labor. Pretty much a pattern by now. He weighed 7lbs. 7oz.
My doctor was a little concerned about the post partum complications with my first child, but none of that came to pass with Matthew. He and I took to nursing like I had never stopped. Probably because I had only weened Joshua 5 months earlier.
Son #3 Caleb, born May 5, 1998
I was still nursing when I got pregnant with our third child. I did not know I was pregnant. I was real sick and did not know why. I thought I had some sort of bug. I was tired and could not even get out of bed to clean the house or anything. I had no idea that I could be pregnant. I never had any of these symptoms with my first two children. I finally realized that pregnancy was a possiblity and took a home test which was positive. We had a 3 1/2 year old and a 16 month old.
This pregnancy was pretty normal too. I just was experiencing a lot more morning sickness. Maybe I was having a girl? All of my friends said that was possible. My due date was set for Cinco De Mayo, May 5th. We were making our monthly trecks up to the doctor's office, again over 75 miles away. We had a couple of ultrasounds but the doctor could never make out the sex of our baby. Again, the possibility of a girl!
On Monday, May 4th, we spent the day at the river for a party with my husband's work. When we arrived home late that night we were all exhausted and my legs were really sunburned. I laid down with my boys to get them to sleep. While laying there I began feeling some contractions. I started timing them and they were about 8-10 minutes apart. I came to tell my husband who was attempting to get some sleep before working an extra shift real early in the morning. He was not too excited about the possibility of driving back up past where we had just come from to go to the hospital. We called our neighbors to come and stay with the boys until my mom arrived in the morning and we headed up to the hospital.
Of course my contractions slowed down during the drive. My husband kept telling me that we had better not have to turn around and come back home. When we arrived at the hospital, my contractions were 5-6 minutes apart and they were going to admit me. The nurses were concerned about my sunburned legs and were afraid to perform the proceedures because they thought they might hurt me. I kept asking for my epidural, but that 4-6 centimeter window was not open at the time so they did give me some sort of IV pain medication that made me feel real spacey. I was shakey, could not see well and was kind-of out of it. My doctor came in and said that only 10% of women actually deliver on their due date, and I was going to be one of them. He also informed me that I could do it without an epidural. I was not really willing to attempt that, but of course when I asked again I was too far along and had to do without, just like the doctor ordered.
My post delivery instructions may have sounded a little strange, but the doctor was to perform a tubal ligation if the baby was a girl. If the baby was a boy he was to leave me just as God created me, still fertile.
I didn't have to push for very long at all. Good thing since without the epidural, the pain was pretty intense. I did have another episiotomy and my baby boy, Caleb, was born at 9:15am on May 5th (Cinco De Mayo). Since we were kind-of expecting a girl, when the doctor announced that we now had three boys, we had to ask if he was kidding or not. The trend is now a three time pattern with a 12 hour labor.
Caleb's birth was the most painful (because of no epidural), but just afterwards I told my husband that we still had to try for our girl. The doctor did double check that I was not wanting my tubes tied after the delivery.
I have now had three pregnancies, three hospital births with epidurals, IV pain medication, some pitocin and three episiotomies. I know I can do it without the epidurals, since I did it with son #3 and I definately want to do it without an episiotomy.
I am praying for the Lord's direction in the possible conception of a fourth child. My husband is still not completely convinced that we need to go that far. I am still praying for my little girl! This is the first time in over 5 years that I am not pregnant or nursing. We do know that God has his plans and knows what our lives hold. If that day does come I am wanting to attempt a home birth this time and have my three sons present for the birth. I know it will be an excellent learning experience for all of them. For now I spend my time caring and loving my sons and would welcome another child, boy or girl, into our family in the Lord's own timing.
I pray that all of the expectant moms reading this story are blessed by the Lord's care and have safe and healthy pregnancies and births. I hope you enjoyed my story and I will be sure to share the birth of my fourth child if and when the time comes. God Bless!
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Hospital Births 
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