In the spirit of the birthday "season" a birth story, 4 years later

A's birthday is tomorrow.  His 4th birthday.  Wow.  I know its cliche, but I can't believe that he is four.  It seems so, well, grown up.

My kids love hearing about how they were born, and what E and I did with them the first few days.  I just shared A's with him last night.  He loved it.  Since his special day is tomorrow, I thought I'd share his birth story with you.  Its a copy and paste from a mommy board I originally posted it on.

Austin Davis's Birth Story
7/15/2006






Thursday afternoon (july 13), I went to the dr. and had an ultrasound. I was dialated to 2 cm and the dr. stretched my cervix. The ultrasound measured Austin weighing 7 lbs 12 ounces.






Friday afternoon, I decided to take some castor oil. I didn't really think it would start labor, since it didn't when I was pregnant with Olivia. I didn't take much, and was a little concerned when I didn't start going to the bathroom around the 2 hr mark. But, I did get really sick to my stomach, which I thought was due to the fast food I had just eaten. Around 7 my contractions started, but were very irregular and not very strong. After we put Olivia to bed, I decided to take a bath. After my bath, my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. We decided to call our neighbor over to watch Olivia around 11. We got check into the hospital around 12 am. on saturday morning.






I was hoping to go for a while with out an epideral, but I caved shortly after I arrived. I was dialated to 4 cm when I got there with my contractions ranging from 2-4 minutes apart. They started getting closer together and I couldn't get up and walk around, (hospital policy after an IV is inserted) (a small side note here, inserted after the fact, four years later...  I did my homework after his birth and found out that this was NOT hospital policy, just what the nurse told me.  I got educated and prepared for I's birth with the facts. :) ) They were getting unbareable, so I ordered the epideral. By the time I got the epi, my contractions were making me sick to my stomach and I was close to throwing up. The epi kicked in after 2, and they gave me some medicine for the nausea shortly after. I then slept for about 5 hours. It was great! When I woke up, I was dialated to 7 cm. The dr. came and broke my water and I dialated to an 8 immediately. Within the hour, I was ready to push.






The nurse was going to have me give a few pushes before she called the dr, (since I was a vbac, they thought it would take longer to labor and push). I pushed once, and she called for the dr. Once the dr. arrived, I pushed for about 15 minutes. I guess my husband was trying to "help" me push because he almost passed out and had to go lay down on the couch while I finished pushing. At 12:01, the dr. gave me a small episotomy and at 12:02, Austin Davis Abney was born. He weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces and is 20 inches long.






The minute Austin was born, they put him on my chest and cut the cord. I was able to nurse him immediately, and he latched on great. I was such a different experience from my c/s, in all the best ways! It was a fabulous birth!