Mark's Birth Story

Our induction date was set for Sunday, May 17th. We were told to report to the hospital at 6:00. That Sunday we went to church and then came home and spent some time with Kennedy before she took her nap. After I laid her down for her nap, I burst into tears. I was so emotional about leaving her! I went over to my friend Laurie Ann's house so she could French braid my hair. My hair was in my face a lot when I had Kennedy so I wanted it out of the way. Having some girl talk on her deck with her and my friend Jessica calmed me down a little bit. Came home around 3 and shortly after Nick and I said goodbye to my parents who were staying with Kennedy and headed to Cracker Barrel for an early dinner. Kennedy was still asleep which was a good thing because I don't think I could have handled that goodbye very well. After we ate dinner, we went to Coldstone for some ice cream. We arrived at the hospital early, about 5:30. When I went to be induced with Kennedy, there were a TON of people at the hospital and a bunch of other women in the waiting room waiting to be induced so we wanted to be there a little early. This time was completely different! The waiting room was practically deserted, only a family waiting on a baby to be born. I was the only one there to be induced! We got in a room within twenty minutes! With Kennedy we didn't get into a room until 10:30 and spent over 4 hours in the waiting room.


When we got to the room, we started all the questions, paperwork and the IV. My nurse was named Denise and was super sweet. She checked me and I was 1 cm dilated, woohoo! We started the Cervadil around 8:00 pm. Nick and I watched some tv and talked about what an easy start we were having. Around midnight, my nurse came to check on me and I was still awake, I just couldn't sleep! She gave me something to help and I woke up around 5:00 am having contractions. She checked me again. I was still at 1 cm, boo. I went back to sleep and woke up about an hour and a half later when my new nurse came in. Her name was Denise too. :) Around 9 am, Dr. Burns came in to see me and check me. At this time my contractions were getting stronger but not unbearable. I was STILL at 1 cm. Dr. Burns told me that even though I was still at 1 cm, I could go ahead and get the epidural if I wanted to. I felt silly getting an epidural getting an epidural when I was only 1 cm but I was worried that if I waited too long, the pain would get too bad. Yes, I am a wimp. So, I called for the epidural.


My anesthesiologist came in and ya'll, it was crazy, he looked JUST like McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy! I was like "whoa....!" LOL. When I had Kennedy the doctor had a really hard time placing the epidural and I got very wheezy and shaky. This time he placed the epidural in very easily and it really wasn't bad at all...so we thought. About 1:00, I started noticing that I really didn't feel very numb. I alerted my nurse that I thought my epidural was somehow wearing off. I then started feeling every single contraction, which at that time were about 2-3 minutes apart. My hats off to all you ladies that do natural childbirth. OMG....I was in so much pain. I was crying and squeezing Nick's hand and trying to breath. McDreamy aka the anesthesiologist, came back in and said he was going to try putting a different kind of medicine in my epidural. As soon as he did it, I started to feel very light headed and dizzy. I called out that I felt dizzy and my heart started racing very fast. I felt like I couldn't catch my breath. The last thing I remember was saying "I think I am going to pass out." I blacked out completely. When I came to, there were a bunch of people in the room and I had an oxygen mask on my face. Nick said he was terrified because my heart rate had dropped and so had Mark's and he could see it all on the monitors. McDreamy took out my epidural and while he was doing that, he discovered what the problem was. Apparently the epidural had somehow moved and gotten trapped in a blood vessel! McDreamy said he had read about this happening when he was in med school but he had never actually seen or heard of it happening to anyone. My nurse has been a L and D nurse for 18 years and had never seen it happen either. Of course it would happen to me! He replaced my epidural and thankfully, everything was okay and it worked well that time. I was so worried about Mark but Dr. Burns came in to check on me and said not to worry that he was okay.


The craziest thing is that while all this was happening, my mom, who was at home with Kennedy,  said she got a really bad feeling that something was going wrong. She went outside in the backyard to pray and my stepdad thought she was just being dramatic. Come to find out, it was exactly around the time I blacked out. Mother's intuition is for real folks!


About 3:00, Dr. Burns checked me again and finally I had progressed to 3 cm. He said although he was glad I had progressed past 1 cm, he was still nervous about the fact that I was progressing very slow. He said he would be back to check on me at 6:00 and we would go from there. I was a little anxious because I thought "oh man I am going to end up having a C-section!" But then I remembered that we originally thought that with Kennedy because I was progressing very slowly and then everything happened so fast near the end. Well, that's exactly what happened this time. Shortly before he came back to check on me, I started feeling a TON of pressure, like I needed to push. My nurse checked me and I was between 8 and 9 cm! She called Dr. Burns and he said "okay, looks like we will be having a baby within the hour!" Right at 7:00, I was at 10 cm and ready to push! This time was so much easier than Kennedy. I only pushed through a few contractions and at 7:22 pm, Mark was here! He weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 inches long!

Unfortunately, he did swallow some meconium and he had to be checked out right away by the baby nurses. I got to hold him very briefly and then he was whisked away to the nursery. They came back and told me that his blood sugar was low and he had to be given formula, which really upset me because I had wanted to nurse right away. Fortunately when they stabilized his blood sugar, they brought him to me to nurse and he had no problems latching on. He has nursed like a champ ever since! They also were able to suction all the meconium out of his lungs. His pediatrician says his lungs are all clear!



I did not have to have an episiotomy this time, praise the lord! I did tear some and had to be stitched up but it was nowhere near as bad as Kennedy. I think it was because Mark had a much smaller head than Kennedy, hehe. Recovery has been sooo much easier this time.

We are so thankful that Mark is here and healthy. Despite the crazy situation with the epidural, I think everything went great. We are loving being a family of four!