Sam's Birth Story

Sammy

On Monday, July 21st, my day was soooo hectic. Drew has asthma so the hot weather and ozone warning days were really starting to take a toll on him. We had him in the doctor’s office all weekend with a fever (most likely a virus) but he was wheezing and coughing and his O2 levels would drop from time to time. Needless to say, we spent the day curled up on the couch until he started to sound really bad. I called Dr. Corba and scheduled an apt for the afternoon. They gave him another albuterol/pulmacort cocktail and then sent us to Floyd for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia.

Fast forward to the evening…

My mom and dad came up to see Drew – to be honest, I don’t even remember why! I think just to check on him and make sure that he was okay. At around 6pm, my contractions started. My mom noticed that I was uncomfortable and told me that I needed to time them. I don’t remember how frequent but I was a vbac patient so my doctor (who I am very close to) asked me to call no matter what. I called and my doc happened to be on call – so he said to take a shower and come in. I packed a bag for Drew, wrote instructions for his meds and called his doc to try to get the results of his chest x-ray.
As we were heading to the hospital, my contractions seemed to pitter out but were still there. We checked into l&d and the nurse checked me and I was at 2…. At that point, I had some bloody show and she left to let the monitor do its job. Contractions were coming but they were slightly sporadic but then again regular – she checked me again, I progressed to 3 so she called my doc. He told her to give me a shot of terb. If the contractions stopped, they weren’t real, if they kept coming they were… Well, they kept coming so I was admitted.

Once I got in the room – we slept and I didn’t feel one contraction all night! The nurse came in the next morning and said that I was having contractions but…. They weren’t very strong and that if she had to guess, I might get to go home and wait it out as I was still at 3. I was pretty upset but at least it wasn’t a section! Dr. R came down at 7:55 am and thanked me for letting him get some sleep – and told me that Dr. Koontz was coming on and that “The good thing about Bill is; he has gray hair like me and isn’t scared of a vbac”. They decided to start a VERY SLOW pit drip and I was told that if I fall off and contractions stop – I would have to get a c-section… Although I wasn’t crazy about this intervention, something told me to do it. He was a very Pro-vbac doc and if I go home now, I could end up with someone less experienced later.

The day wore on and my contractions were nothing to write home about! At about 3pm, I still had not progressed so Dr. Koontz broke my water. At that point, all hell broke loose! I made it until around 6pm and had to have an epi…. I was at 5cm and I started to panic because I didn’t want that epi to slow my labor down. Well I had my epi (that only numbed the right side of my body and for some strange reason, I had full feeling in my pelvis) and Dr. Koontz called at 8pm and I was just at 6. He told the nurse to talk to me and ask if I wanted a section at 9pm. She said that in her opinion, we needed to see where I was at 10pm… and then we would reassess! Needless to say, I felt things change and asked her to check me again and I was at 9cm!!!

The pressure that I felt was totally different than the feeling that I had with Drew. By 10:45, my new nurse was coming on and I was in pain… At this point, I lost all track of time. I told her at some point (after 11pm more like 12:00am) that I felt like I was going to have to take the biggest “crap” ever. She checked me, I was complete and at “zero station”. She called Dr. Koontz to tell him that we were pushing. So I pushed and it was amazing! I started to feel the “ring of fire” and I begged for more pain meds so they called and I had my relief within minutes. Dr. Koontz came in and asked the nurse if he had a few minutes to walk upstairs and “do something”. She tried to tell him no but he kept saying, “Really, I’ll be right back” finally, I asked him just to watch me push and then he could make his decision. Once I pushed he realized that he could not go upstairs, I was having this baby! Two more pushes and he was out! Samuel Joseph was born at 12:29am on Wednesday, July 23rd. It was the most exhilarating experience in my life! I didn’t have to wait for the doctor to tell us the sex; I just looked over and screamed “OH MY GOD! ANOTHER BOY”!

I had my heart set on pushing my baby out and I did it! I was so proud that Brandon actually got to cut the cord. Sammy got to eat right there and he latched on immediately!

My recovery has been wonderful and I have truly been soaking in every minute… I love both of my boys so much and Sammy has just been such a wonderful addition to our family! We couldn’t be happier! I hope you all enjoy Sammy’s birth story! Its something that I will never forget!