Finn's Birth Story

Finn Michael Richardson was born on May 16, 2013 at 11:12pm.  He weighed 8 pounds, .4 ounces and was 21.5 inches long.  He was and is perfect!!

My entire pregnancy went pretty smooth.  I had some bad heartburn, and couldn't sleep towards the end, but that's all par for the course.  Because I had a previous c-section and wanted to attempt a VBAC this time, I had an ultrasound at 39 weeks to make sure everything looked OK and it was safe for me to continue the pregnancy.  All was well, and I made it within 48 minutes of my due date.

I had my 40 week appointment with Dr. Carter the morning of the 16th at 11am (a Thursday) and everything looked good.  She predicted I wouldn't make it through the weekend.  She was right!

My mom had come to that appointment with me, and we headed to CMO to pick up the twins and grab some lunch after that.  We ended up going back to her house and hanging there with my dad while Mikey was working...and made plans to cook out that night when Mikey got there.  

We put the twins down for a nap around 2:45.  I laid down with Marlee to try to nap and felt TERRIBLE.  Just really uncomfortable and crampy.  Around 3:30 I had my first full-blown contraction and decided I wasn't going to fall asleep so I went downstairs and sat on the porch with my parents.  We started timing my contractions around 4:00 and they were coming every 5-6 minutes.  Of course I was in denial for a while, but after an hour I called the doc and he said to come in.  I hopped in the shower (after encouraging advice from Kim to do so...I will blog our conversation later) and headed in.

We got to the hospital a little after 6:00pm (Mikey took detailed notes for me as I asked, great hubby!).  I had to stop and put my hands on my knees once as we walked through the parking lot because the contractions were so intense.  

We went upstairs and they put us in a room right away to start filling out paperwork.  I was Strep B positive so they wanted to get 2 doses of antibiotics in me before the baby was born.  However, I checked in and nobody even came into the room for the first 30 minutes...which delayed getting the meds in me!  That was a bit frustrating.  We got there right as the nurses were having their shift change, so it delayed us getting started and ended up making me not have time for the second dose.  Everything was OK and Finn didn't get exposed, but I would've been a bit more upset if something went wrong.  

The nurse tried to get my IV in and blew 2 veins, so then they had someone else come in and try.  The second nurse got it the first time.  (I've never had anyone blow a vein on me...and I always get comments about how great and big my veins are, so I was shocked she blew 2!)

Dr. Cook came in for the first time at 7pm and I was at 5 cm.  He also said "You have a great pelvis" which Mikey thought was HILARIOUS.  I wasn't in a laughing mood at that point.  My contractions were about every 3 minutes, lasting about 30 seconds and very strong.  Not fun!

I got an epidural a little after 8pm (they had to get a bag of fluid and a dose of antibiotics in me before they could start the epidural).  Last painful contraction was at 8:17pm!!! Woo-hoo!  It did make me get a little nauseous and very tired so I rested and Mikey found the NBA playoffs on the TV to watch.  He noted that it was ironic that the first uninterrupted basketball game he has watched in 2 years is on a 17" tube TV.  Poor Mikey...this was really tough on him.  ;)

I got checked at 8:45 and was at 7cm.

Checked again at 9:15 and was at 9cm.

9:45ish I started feeling pressure, was at 10cm and the nurse called for the doc.

Doctor Cook was there within a couple minutes and said it was "Go-Time."  He broke my water and said he would be back shortly to check again.

At 10:30 it was time to start pushing!!  Lots of people came in the room, but it was very calm and actually a nice experience.  It still hurt even with the epidural, but it was manageable and I was able to recover in between contractions.  I pushed for about 45 minutes and Finn made his appearance at 11:12pm.

They put him on my chest right away (so thankful for this...I didn't get to hold Parks and Marlee until they were over a day old).  After I held him for a few minutes, the nurses took him to weight him and do the Apgar stuff.  He got a 10!!  Then they gave him back and I nursed him...he latched right away and did great.

I had a full term baby!  The experience of having Finn was completely, 100% new and different from having the twins.  While I remember overwhelming fear and worry the first time, this was happy and celebratory.  I am glad we got to have the "normal" experience this time.