Landon’s Birth Story
My pregnancy brain has now turned into mom brain. My good night’s rest having now turned into waking up at least twice a night to feed my sweet baby boy. I wouldn’t trade any of this for the world. Becoming a mom to a sweet little boy has been the best thing to ever happen to me. I also give big props to you bloggers out there that continued to post on social media and write blog post days after having a baby. I have not found the balance yet of taking care of my sweet baby boy and still being able to take pictures, write post, and be active on social media everyday. Since mom brain has truly set in, I wanted to get down Landon’s birth story.
For those of you who don't know, my in-laws do not live in the same state as us, so they flew in the Saturday before my due date. I honestly thought by the time they flew in, I would have already had Landon. This was not the case AT ALL. Once they flew in, I thought surely God will now bring Landon into this world tonight. That did not happen. By Monday, I was starting to getting very worried that I was going to have to be induced or go until 41 weeks. Neither one of these options seemed very pleasant to me. I continued to pray to God and ask him for patience and to send me into labor. Tuesday morning (also my due date) comes and I am a hot mess. I mean crying about every little thing. Not really wanting to do much. I thought it was just because I had reached my due date and was still pregnant that I was so emotional. That was not the case at all. I have read that many women are very emotional the morning before they go into labor, so we are going with that. Since I did not think I was going to go into labor that day, we decided to go golfing and when I say we went golfing, I mean I rode in the golf cart and told my husband to hit every bump in hopes it would send me into labor. The golf cart ride did not good or at least I thought it didn't.
After golfing we came home and just relaxed a little before going to my nephew's baseball game. Again, not thinking I was going to go into labor we started to get ready for his baseball game. As we were heading out the door (around 7:15 p.m.), I started to get some contractions. I didn't think much of it because I had gotten pretty strong contractions the night before and they had stopped, so I thought the same thing would happen. When we got there my two sisters and my sister's friend could tell that I was having contractions so they made me go and do a little jog. While this maybe 1 minute jog made the contractions a little worse, I still thought this isn't the real thing. As the game continued so did the contractions. The moment I realized that I was maybe actually in labor was when I was walking back from the bathroom at the end of the game and I could hardly make it back. We said good-bye to everyone and everyone said they couldn't wait for the phone call tonight. I told them don't get your hopes up. As my husband and I started walking back to the car, I started to cry. These tears were due to me being scared and in pain.
When we got home, the contractions were strong enough that I decided to shower just in case we had to make a trip to the hospital. After my shower I timed my contractions and they were 3 to 5 minutes a part for an hour and so we decided it was time to head to the hospital. I did have a break down right before because I was scared we were going to drive all the way there and they were going to send me home. However, as we were getting all of our bags together, I thought my water might have broken but I wasn't sure. We left our house around 11:05 p.m. and got the hospital around 11:30 p.m. We did get a little lost when we first got to the hospital because we couldn't find the right elevators.
Once I got all checked in and changed they tested to see if my water had broken, sure enough it had. The doctor came in and I was 3 cm and 50%. They told me that I was staying and that no matter what the baby had to be delivered in 24 hours because my water had broken. After I was checked, my contractions stopped. I started to freak out a little. My husband and I decided to walk the floor to try and get them to come back. Fast forward a couple of hours and they had come back a little but not nearly as strong as they were. The doctor checked me again and I had made no progress. She said it was my decision whether I wanted to start pitocin. I decided that it was best to start it. I didn't realize how quickly it would kick in, but wow did the contractions come back even stronger.
I decided around 7 a.m. to get the epidural. Once I had that, I was on cloud 9. I give props to the women who do it completely naturally. Over the next few hours family members came to support me. Around 1 p.m. they checked me again and I was 10 cm and 100%. However, Landon's head was not low enough so they had me sit frog style. This maybe lasted 20 to 30 minutes before I called the nurse in because I was in so much pain. She told me it was due to pressure and to push my pain med button (we later found out that this button was not working). I was still in a lot of pain so another doctor came in and said his head was low enough and if I wanted to start to practice push I could. That is exactly what I did because pushing was a lot less painful than the contractions. Around 2:30 p.m. or 3 p.m. the pain was still bad so they gave me different pain medicine and whatever they gave me took all the pain away. Which is good because it was it was time actually start pushing.
The pushing part was actually a lot easier than I thought. It also helped that the doctor who delivered Landon was very laid back and talked to me about my life and her life. I also two great nurses. One was very encouraging while the other was a great comic relief. I pushed for about 2 hours but it did not seem that long at all. I did end up watching Landon being born. The whole time, the nurses all thought I was going to have a small baby because my belly wasn't that big but I knew as soon as Landon's body came out, he was not a small baby. Sure enough he was 8 pounds 3 ounces. Everyone was so surprised that an 8 pound baby came out me.
I learned that child birth is truly a beautiful thing. It is something that is painful but amazing. In the end it is all worth it. I have a perfect little boy, who I could not love more.
xoxo
Stacey