Finn Christian: A Birth Story

I was scheduled for a repeat c-section for August 8th. I had to have a c-section with Fox, because he was too big to fit through my pelvis and after I had been in labor with him for 24 hours, it was decided that I needed a c-section. My doctor had told me during this pregnancy that there was no chance this baby would come vaginally, unless he was born many weeks early. Based on my awful birth experience with Fox, I had no doubt in my mind that I wanted the c-section, in fact, I was looking forward into going into the hospital after a good night's sleep and knowing when it will all happen.

Little did I know that Finn had other plans.

The weekend before he was born was very stressful for me emotionally. Without going into the details, it was one of the hardest times in my life and after I didn't feel him move as much and losing six pounds in just a few days, I went to my doctor on Monday morning, July 30th, to ask for a non stress test to make sure he was okay.

The test looked great and my doctor also checked me for dilation and commented that "nothing was happening". I had also lost my mucus plug that morning (I never lost it with Fox), but the doctor told me that had no indication of when the baby was going to come. 

It was my first day of maternity leave and I went to visit a friend after the appointment and then picked up Fox from school and took him to a playdate at an indoor playground.

I went to bed around 10pm, just to wake up two hours later because I had to pee. I noticed that my underwear was wet and that I had also lost more of my plug, but I didn't think much of it and went back to bed. 

Contractions started almost immediately, although I didn't know at that point that I was having contractions. It just felt like bad period cramps to me and while I thought that this was odd, I figured I would just go back to sleep and they would go away. Obviously there was no more sleep to be had because the contractions came and went in regular intervals. Katie wanted to call her Stepmom to come watch Fox, so we could go to the hospital, but I told her no, because I didn't want to inconvenience anyone in the middle of the night and was convinced that it would be a wasted trip to the hospital. I told her the cramps would go away and to just go back to sleep. 

Since I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep with the pain, I went out into the living room so Katie could get some more sleep without hearing me moan in pain and started cleaning up the kitchen, fulfilling Etsy orders and watching TV. I called my mom who told me to go to the hospital, but of course I was too stubborn to listen, because after all, this baby wasn't supposed to be born until August 8th. 

After I timed my contractions for a couple of hours (they were about 8 minutes apart at that point), I decided to call the hospital and see what they recommend. The nurse said it was possible that the contractions would go away and to drink lots of water, but when I told her that I had leaked some fluid she said I needed to come in because it sounded like my water had broken. 

I told her that my water had not broken, because with Fox it was a huge gush of fluid that wouldn't stop and this leakage wasn't even enough to fill a pad. She assured me that it's still possible that my water had broken, so after a few more really painful contractions I texted my mother in law to call when she got the message and woke up Katie around 3:30am.

Katie called her sister who lives really close to us and luckily she had her phone on and came over within ten minutes. 

I was still in major denial at this point and thought they would send me home at the hospital, so I told Katie to stay with Fox and asked Ashlie to drive me to the hospital instead. I jumped in the shower and got dressed when the contractions really started to pick up. They progressively got worse in the car and were about five minutes apart and it was the worst pain of my life. With Fox, I never experienced real contractions because they induced me and gave me an epidural pretty early on, so this was a much different experience for me.

While I had only planned to have Ashlie drop me off at the hospital, it was very clear by the time we got there that she was stuck with me. We got into a triage room right away where the nurse did a swap on me to check if my water had broken and checked me for dilation. At that point I was already 4cm dilated which was a shock to me and unfortunately the swap confirmed that my water had indeed broken and there was no turning back. Contractions were coming fast and furious at this point and I was yelling and cursing through every one of them. They started an IV and admitted me, but because I was going to have a c-section they couldn't give me an epidural, so I was pretty much stuck going through each and every contraction until they got me scheduled for the procedure, which was going to be at 7:30am. 

By the time Katie finally got to the hospital (she had finally reached my inlaws and they were with Fox), I was throwing up and in really bad shape. I cried that I couldn't do this and this wasn't supposed to be happening. The nurse called my doctor and got approval to give me a shot that would stop the contractions for a little while, so I got about 30 minutes of sleep before the anesthesiologist came to talk to me to prepare us for the c-section.

When I finally walked into the operating room, I had a moment of sheer panic. I was so scared of getting the spinal, I was so scared of being cut open and potentially feeling it (that happened to my friend) and I just wasn't ready. Luckily we had a great team of doctors and nurses that helped me every step of the way. Katie was equally nervous and on the verge of passing out.

I felt kind of out of it, which might have been the nerves, the meds or the sheer exhaustion, but I didn't feel like I was physically or mentally all there. 

And at exactly 8:00am, we heard the most beautiful cry. The doctor commented that he had a great set of lungs and Katie started crying too.

They whisked him away and Katie followed, but I couldn't hear anything they were talking about. Eventually someone told me that he was 6lbs. 14oz. and I couldn't believe how tiny he was compared to Fox.

It seemed to take forever for them to bring him over to me. My first initial thought was that he looked just like Fox when he was born.

I wasn't able to hold him or anything, but they put him up to my face until it was time to move to the recovery room.

We stayed in the recovery room for about 1.5 hours while they monitored me and Finn and we got to do some skin to skin and try breastfeeding for the first time. I had such issues with Fox breastfeeding in the beginning and was shocked when Finn latched immediately.

While I was extremely exhausted and a little bit out of it, this c-section felt so much easier to me than the first one...although I wished I didn't have to be in labor for eight hours beforehand. I didn't get a spinal headache this time, I didn't shake uncontrollably and was able to enjoy the first few hours with my son. He was just perfect!