Shepherd's Birth Story

It's been forever since I've visited this blog...almost a month, and now I'm finally one human baby lighter! I wanted to blog his birth story before I forget all the details....

This entire 4th pregnancy I'd prayed I would go into labor on my own. After three inductions I really wanted to do labor the "real" way (not drug free...silly, just go into labor on my own). So around 37-38 wks I took EPO, started drinking raspberry leaf tea, walking a lot (started walking earlier but really pumped it up in those last weeks). I'd had A LOT of contractions around 36 weeks and was already dilated to two cm at my 35 wk check up and my dr was convinced I'd go early and on my own....so I got my hopes up (big mistake).

Each weekly ob check revealed that I was at 3 cm, but baby's head wasn't engaged yet, and with each passing week of no progress I started getting really sad and frustrated. I was doing everything right! at 39 1/2 wks I went for a hike. At 40 wks I took castor oil (yes, I was desperate). I'd already missed out on having a Christmas baby and I was sure I needed to have this baby before January 1. My due date (Dec 29) came and went. Finally at my January 2 appt my dr gave me the green light to have an induction. I was desperate to not be pregnant anymore, so I gave up my hopes of going into labor naturally. I'd gone over 4 weeks with no change to my cervix, things just didn't look favorable for me.

We went to hospital around 4 pm, got checked in, finally got hooked up to monitors and to my surprise I was contracting on my own! They started me on a very small dose of pitocin (3ml/hr) and my hopes soared that maybe that would be all I needed to get things going. After a few hours, I just wasn't progressing very quickly. My contractions slowed drastically, so the nurses upped the pitocin. I wanted to hold out as long as possible for my epidural so I wouldn't slow my progress. I think by 8pm I was only at 4cm. This was not how it was supposed to go!! This was my 4th baby, I thought things would go faster. Another few hours and I was at 5cm and in a lot of pain. I finally got my epidural and felt great for about an hour....

Around 12:30-1:00am my blood pressure started acting funny. It was dropping super low (I think the lowest was 84/40) and after about an hour of this the nurse gave me epinephrine to which baby boy's heart rate soared. He did not like that at all. The sweet nurse had me changing positions every 30 min or so, trying to find a position more favorable to baby, who was still not engaged. I think I was only at 6cm at this point. For the next few hours the blood pressure alarm sounded almost every 15 minutes, it was impossible to rest. I was dizzy, nauseous and terrified.  I remember holding the oxygen mask up over my nose and mouth, tears running down my face and just praying that this labor would progress and end quickly. The pitocin dosage was very high, but every time baby's heart rate increased the nurses would turn down the pit and my contractions would slow dramatically. We just couldn't find a good balance.

Finally around 7 am I was at 7cm and my dr came and broke my water. Within the hour I progressed to a 10 and the nurses called my dr back to the hospital. I kept telling my sweet nurse I needed to push this baby out! I could feel the tightening and pressure with every contraction. My dr arrived back at the hospital, and by 8:15 I was pushing. Baby boy was born at 8:29am after 4 pushes. He never fully engaged before I started pushing, so once I pushed he came down very quickly, causing dark purple bruising on his right cheek and left wrist and area of his chest. I tore a bit but the pain was almost non-existant as I held my sweet second son.

I remember the nurse placing him on my chest, covered in blood and goo and his hands flailing wildly. I choked on sobs and joy and disbelief that this sweet perfect creature was ours. I was so  incredibly overwhelmed by God's grace in that moment. I had no words, no breath, nothing but grace in those first few minutes. I don't know how long he was on me, perfect and new, but finally they took him to be weighed and measured.

Josiah Shepherd Shaffer, 9lb 8oz, 21 in long born at 8:29 am on January 3, 2013.

So much more to write about...but this will have to do for now, as little man is stirring and hungry.