Inspiration

Birth Stories

Thomas Preston

Leslie & Mary Jo,

Just wanted to let you know that I have not been skipping class, but actually gave birth to a wonderful baby boy on April 19th. Thomas Preston C II, "Preston" decided to make his entry into this world three weeks and a day early. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 20 inches long. Both he and I are doing great, but are still living with my parents since our addition is still not complete. Here is my birth story:

I awoke on the morning of Saturday April 19th with some painful contractions at 3:30 in the morning. I went to the bathroom and just kind of hung out for an hour seeing if they would go away on their own or not. After hanging out in the bathroom for an hour by myself, I decided to wake up my husband. I woke him up and told him I though I might be in labor, but didn't know. We attempted to time the contractions, but gave up when I wouldn't really tell him when they were starting or ending. He was getting frustrated with me and I told to just to forget about I was going back to bed. After all I would wake up if I were really having the baby. Well I couldn't get back to bed b/c of the pain and he ended up calling the on call doctor. By this time we were estimating that the contractions were 4-7 minutes apart. She told us to come on in. We were glad that we called when we did b/c we found out that we got the last room at St. Mary’s and that both St. Mary’s and Henrico Doctors were then on diversion.

We arrived at the hospital around 6 and answered a few questions and then nurse checked my cervix. I was only 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced. Because I was so early in my pregnancy (36 weeks & 6 days) they thought it was probably false labor, but told me to wait until the doctor came and checked me. Fortunately we were friends with one of the nurses working that night. She told us to put off having the doctor check me as much as I could and to walk. She said she didn't want the doctor to check me too soon and if no changed occurred they would send me home. So we walked around for a while and then the shift change occurred around eight. The nurse that came on shift was nice, but wanted me on the monitors more and didn't let me walk. So I was confined to the bed with painful contractions and thinking that this was false labor and all this pain was for nothing. We waited and waited and waited.

Finally at 12:30 Dr. Hirata the on call doctor for my group came and saw us. By this time I was convinced that we were going home. But I was wrong. I was five cm and I was having the baby that day. At this time I was exhausted and still in a lot of pain and requested an epidural. I got my epidural which the nurse and doctor actually wanted me to get to slow the labor down. I was Group B Strep positive and needed to have two rounds of antibiotics before the delivery. They were worried that we might not get all of the rounds in before the delivery based on the quickness of my first labor. By 4:30 I had both rounds and they decided to break my water at five. I was still only 6 1/2 cm dilated at this time. Well by 5:30 I thought the epidural had worn off b/c I was feeling so pain and pressure again, and the nurse checked me and I was 10 cm and ready to push. She called the doctor and three rounds of pushing later Preston was born at 6:05pm.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Sarah C.

read more birth stories >>