Our Birth Story

Just a warning that this is VERY long and probably has a lot of information in it that you might find to be TMI. However, I don't want to forget anything and this is the best way for me to document it. Please note that if you haven't had a baby before that not everybody's experience is as hard as mine was so don't let it scare you!


It started at 4:30am on Thursday the 29th. I was 4 days overdue at this point and extremely anxious for any sign Mason might be coming. During the night I had some light cramping but nothing different than what had been happening the past couple weeks. I had woken up to use the bathroom for the umpteenth time that night and as I started to climb back into bed I felt something leaking and stood straight up as I felt a gush of fluid start flowing. Carter asked his standard “Are you okay” when I get back in bed and this time I said “I think my water just broke”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get out of bed that fast = ). We spent the next half hour getting our stuff together and since contractions hadn’t started yet I only had to deal with the leaking fluid issue as I got myself sorda put together because I didn’t want to look like I just woke up since I already knew I’d look awful by the time things were done.


We checked into the hospital around 5:15ish and they got me hooked up with and IV site in my hand because I had to have a bag of penicillin ever 4 hours. Now this sounds easy enough but I highly dislike needles and was not excited to have one stuck in my arm and it didn’t help that I have TERRIBLE veins so it took them almost 30 minutes to get it set up and they tried a couple times to get it. At this point we were just waiting for contractions to start as it was our plan to have Mason naturally and I didn’t want pitocin because I knew it triggered horrible contractions. I did okay with the contractions breathing through them and utilizing the tub and shower while having Carter’s support even though they weren’t fun until around noonish when the midwife (not mine because she was on vacation) told me that I wasn’t dilating any more and that my contractions didn’t appear strong enough on their own. At this point we decided to go with the pitocin because they wanted to get the baby out sooner instead of later since my water had broken and apparently there is a time limit on these things for health reasons. The pitocin was NO fun for my contractions. The pitocin caused contractions that I could barely get through and the worst part was that they were back to back so I felt like I couldn’t have even a breather in between them. If they were farther apart I might have done better but at this point I was trying to be strong but when they told me that I had barely dilated further and they were going to need to up the pitocin once more I knew the time was ending for me to keep things natural. At this point they had realized that my iv site was blocked and they needed to redo it but they couldn’t find a good vein. They also noticed some minor distress in the baby so they had me temporarily breathing with an oxygen mask. It was at this point when I had both my arms out so they could find a good vein because they had already blown one, and carter was holding my oxygen mask in place while I was crying and moaning (I did a lot of moaning) through a contraction that I turned to Carter and said “I can’t do this anymore, I want the epidural.” The only thing was that they had to finish finding a vein and get me to clear a bag of fluids before they could call the anesthesiologist. However, the nurses were wonderful and realized the pain I was in so they called him in before I was ready and he being the great guy he was had me sign papers and explained the process until I was ready. Now I want to note that I hadn’t prepared myself for the possibility of an epidural because it wasn’t part of my birth plan, so therefore Carter wasn’t prepared. I knew the needle would be big but I honestly didn’t care because anything was better than the contractions I was going through. Carter however, looked and flinched while holding my hand (not the best thing to do) but it is a funny story to tell now though. Let me tell you what, the epidural was AMAZING although the dead leg feeling was really odd.!!


It was around 4:30pm by the time the epidural started so I had gone 12 hours naturally and I am proud of myself for that. The epidural though allowed me to feel human again and I even had our parents come in to chat and posted on face book. It was also nice because I got to “eat” a few more cups of broth and rest a little bit. Somewhere between 3-4am I kind lose track of time from here on I began to feel “holes” in my epidural where I could feel the pain in my lower left abdomen and back and the pain kept getting sronger and stronger and my blissful moments of no pain started sliding away. Even upping the epidural as far as they could for how far along I was wasn’t helping. Also sometime during this period they realized that since I was still barely progressing that maybe their monitors weren’t accurately depicting how strong the contractions were so they put an internal monitor onto his head. Around 5:30- 6:00am the on-call midwife checked me and had me push a few times and said that I was at a 9 1/2and had been for a while and she was worried that I might not hit a 10 soon so she briefly mentioned c-section. I had a breakdown at this point as I asked the nurse to explain to me what that would look like. Then my actual stand-in midwife came in and said that she thought I was at a 10 and she would give me a little longer and then would come in to start pushing. We felt hope at this point and excitement despite my pain because through the process they kept saying “you’ll have a baby by midnight, oh by 3am for sure, oh by 6am” but now the time to push was upon us. Sometime around 6:30am we started pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing. They had me moving around like a rotisserie chicken which is rather hard to do when you still can’t feel your legs (although I could feel plenty of my contractions again). The midwife told me that ideally they only want a person pushing for 2 hours and somewhere around the 2 ½ mark she said that they could see his head but that he couldn’t clear my cervix because his head was so big so she was going to call the OBGYN on call in and that I would have to push hard to prove to him that I could do it on my own.
 The OBGYN came in and tried the vacuum and told us that this could very well work but that if it popped off twice than he was done trying that. It was so sad when I heard it pop of twice because Carter and I both knew that it really was our last chance at delivering vaginally. The OBGYN recommended a c-section at this point in time as we were about 29 hours in and it didn’t look like Mason was going to come on his own since I’d been pushing for around 3 hours by now. My midwife had me push a few more times which I was more than happy to do because believe it or not it was easier to push through the contractions (which I could feel since my epidural had pretty much worn off by now) than to sit and feel the contractions. At this point she asked us to decide what we wanted to do. Carter and I briefly discussed it and decided that although it was not part of our plan a c-section would probably be best. I was just too tired and had no energy left to keep up with the pushing that may or may not have produced a baby and the pain of the contractions was just too much and they couldn’t redo my epidural if I was going to continue pushing. The midwife was great though because she told me that she would get on the gurney and we could push all the way to the operating room which I turned down because I had already given in to the c-section and was EXHAUSTED! Carter was handed the cool scrubs to change into and they rolled me into the operating room.

As they set me up for the operation Carter wasn’t allowed to be in there but let me tell you when the redid my epidural for the surgery it was wonderful to feel that pain disappear. As they were poking my stomach to see if I could feel anything I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be numbed enough and I would feel them cutting me…however, it was the weirdest thing ever being able to feel the pressure of all they were doing without the pain, kinda creepy honestly. The “worst” part was that they had to back him out of the birth canal which was the most pressure I felt but when I heard his cry which was very loud and healthy sounding I was elated. They showed him to me over the separator but I couldn’t see him and Carter made sure they showed me again. Then Carter went with them to watch him be cleaned up and it was so cute because I could hear him talking to me saying “he has my eyes, but it looks like he has your ears” and commenting on other parts of his body. Then they brought him over to me and Carter held him on my chest for around 10 minutes as I stared at him and what I remember the most was his cute little mouth moving open and shut. He did great during that time and seemed perfectly content in his bright new world. Then it was time for Carter to go with the nurses to the nursery with Mason while I got stitched up and sent to recovery. Carter told me that it was great because they let his parents and my mom into the nursery too because there were no other babies in there while he was being weighed and measured. The worst part of the c-section process for me was being isolated in recovery for an hour while all I wanted to do was hold my baby and be with him and Carter. During recovery I got the shakes really bad and my legs started cramping but the recovery nurse was wonderful and as soon as I could feel my legs and the compressors on them she said it was “my ticket outta there” to go back to the room. Once I got back to the room I still wasn’t able to hold Mason for around another hour but it was enough just being in the room with him and Carter and our family. I was told that Mason was born at 10:05am and weight 8lbs 10oz and was 21 ½ inches long. His head circumference was 15 inches which was why he wouldn’t “fit” for vaginal delivery. It was such a joy watching Carter with Mason and when I finally got to hold him I couldn’t believe that we finally had this miracle in our arms to love forever and it made all the pain and everything else worth it because although my birth experience was traumatic for us, I would take those 30 hours of pain for a lifetime of happiness with our Mason Darrell Davis.