The midwife started me on cytotec, to help ripen my cervix. I wasn't having any consistent contractions, so I was fairly comfortable. Tim arrived around 3pm, and my parents arrived later around 10pm. Since I wasn't progressing super quickly that evening, the midwife decided to let me rest overnight, and then to increase me to pitocin the next day to get my contractions going. Tim spent the night in a rolling chair and I attempted to stay comfortable.
On Wednesday morning, they started me on pitocin and my contractions slowly started. By midday they decided to break the little bag of water that was cushioning Preston's head, and checked me. I was about 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. The next few hours they kept my pitocin consistent, and I got an epidural placed. I was quite nervous about that, so I had Tim give me a blessing and my Dad prayed over me. The epidural went better than I had anticipated it would, and my Mom comforted me during the placement. Soon, I was feeling a lot of discomfort, that I can best describe as needing to have a bowel movement, but not being able to. I had the midwife check me, and I was 10cm dilated, 100% effaced, but Preston was only at 0 station. (That meant that he was still in my pelvic rim). They wanted his head farther down before I started pushing. They then gave me the goal to hold off pushing for an hour to see if he could descend farther. I made it 45 minutes before I was too uncomfortable. That was 5:45pm. I then paged the midwife, and the team came in to help me push. I pushed in the normal position, on my left side, on my right side, and in the fetal position. He was still at 0 station and not making any progress. While I was in the fetal position, I was so uncomfortable that I was almost crying.
Then, Rachel, the midwife, got the idea to try a "tug-of-war" position. At that point I had been pushing over 2 hours and were worried that I would tire out before getting him out. To put me in the "tug-of-war" position, I got in the normal position, put my legs on two people, the midwife got in front of me with a sheet, and I grabbed the midsection of it on the count of three and pulled against her, pushed with my legs, and pushed with my lower region. It got me so entertained and laughing, especially since I was proving to be stronger than the midwife and the ER resident. It was so much fun. Then, the on call OBGYN, Dr. Alam, was around and they had her check me. Happily, Preston had descended a bit. They returned me to the normal position and did very targeted pushing for another 20 or so minutes. Finally, Preston was born at 8:45pm.
After he was born, they started to sew me back together. I had a third degree vaginal tear and a second degree periurethral tear that took over an hour to fix. I kept on watching Preston, who I couldn't really hold during that time, since they were fixing me up. Preston was 8lbs 5.3 ounces, 20.25". He had dark blue/gray eyes and blonde hair. Tim did a great job comforting the big guy. I was so glad that he was born 3 weeks early, otherwise, I probably would have had to deliver him via a c-section.
I was so glad that my parents were with me, to help support and comfort me. The entire medical and nursing team were excellent with their care, and Tim was my guardian angel. I could not have done it without him.
I love my little guy, and I know that God was guiding me and him the entire time.
I love my Preston Reed Harbison.
I'm so glad to be your mom.
