the story of beau

I should probably type the Beau story before I forget, right? :)

It started when I got a curious sort of phone call from my doctor Friday night.  She wanted to discuss a risk in our plan to have our son naturally.  Because of my new diagnosis of gestational diabetes, it put the baby at risk for shoulder dystosia (sp?).  Because of how plump babies can get when the mom has GD, especially throughout the upper body and shoulders, they sometimes get stuck.  Ouch.  So she called to let me know that and basically told me I could have a caesarean section if I wanted.  As in an option.

So fastforward to the hospital, the pitocin dripping, the doctor working that weekend proceeds to tell me about all the most horrible complications that can arise from stuck shoulders.  I bawled. A C-section was still an "option" but was a natural deliver a selfish thing to choose?(keep in mind Bradie's birthweight was 9#14.6 oz so I have proved my pelvic prowess) SO glad this wasn't my first baby.

The doc left the room and my LD nurse and Marcus both just looked at me and said "you can do this!"  I love my husband.  He was such a champ!

I told the doc with a quiver in my lip I would like to proceed...so he broke my water and off we were!  Because of the risk I decided straightaway (we watched Harry Potter during early labor...there's nothing good on Saturday nights!) to get an epidural for sure because of the acrobatics needed to unstick big shoulders as per the doctor.

I gave it my best for quite awhile and then finally had the nurse fetch the anesthesiologist.  After all the oral fine print from him, we started the process....it didn't take!  He didn't go far enough into my spine.  Now the women readers know this but you still keep having those contractions during all this process, but with the mindset the pain will end soon.  FINALLY the second attempt took...sort of.  The nurse checked my progress just then and I was at 8 cm!!!!

So I laid there, glad that that feeling that my body was trying to burn a hole from the inside out through my lower back was gone, but still feeling TONS of pressure.  I couldn't take it after awhile and nurse checked and looked at me very seriously and said "Do not push!"*

So the doc and a bunch of other people came in at this point and it was time to push!  Four or five contractions, maybe 8 pushes and at 4:15 am on March 2nd out came baby Beau (although this was STILL not his name at this point!)  He was kind of a beast but his head's only the 63rd percentile!  Praise the Lord I didn't get that c-section that would have been completely unnecessary.  Hindsight is perfect, I know, but I am glad I trusted my gut.

*I later found out that some hospital honcho wasn't crazy about the idea of me trying to deliver naturally, but my doctor said it would be my decision as I had delivered a big baby previously...that's why my nurse was saying "do not push", she had just found that information out.  For those who don't know, you can usually push a few times with just your nurse.