Gradon Cochran's Birth Story

Wednesday night, July 28th we went into the hospital for cervidil. I was admitted  to the hospital, feeling very uncertain about this choice. I was feeling very anxious and nervous about perhaps 'pushing' the date and being too impatient waiting for Gradon to arrive. I was only 2 days over due, but I had been feeling very uncomfortable and huge for a long time. Chris assured me that we were making a good choice, getting the ball rolling with the baby's delivery.

By 830pm the cervidil was inserted and doing it's work. I began to have contractions, and we were hoping this trend would continue. The nurse gave me some Ambien to help me sleep. At about 1030 things began to get difficult. The baby was not reacting well to the cervidil, having extreme drops in heart rate. The doc pulled the cervidil out and I continued to have contractions. When the doc checked my cervix at 10pm, after taking out the cervidil, I was only dilated to a 2 which was disheartening, but we were hopeful over the next few hours things would progress. At 315 am, my water broke. By 6am, my contractions were really intense, and I was ready for my epidural. It took well, and luckily only took one 'stick' to get it in correctly. (With Sophia it had taken 3 tries). I was able to relax and doze a bit.

By 10am I was ready for the doc to check me again and see about how things were going. I had been hoping she would be by around 8am, but things had been busy on the OB wing that day. When she finally checked me, there was no change! I was still at  2cm after 12 hours! Once I had gotten my epidural, my contractions had slowed way down, and unfortunately my cervix wasn't dilating. The doc recommended we start pitocin, and I agreed. From 10-1pm I was getting increased increments of pictocin every 15 minutes. The doctor predicted we would have a baby between 4-6pm.

At this point, my contractions were building, and I hoped things were finally progressing. I was feeling pretty discouraged at this point. With Ellie, from start to finish (water breaking to delivery) my labor had been just under 12 hours. With Sophia's induction, I labored for about four hours once my water had been broken and the pitocin had been started. At 10am Thursday morning I had already been at the hospital for 14 hours, and I was worried that my body was not going to dilate and I was going to have to have a c section.

Chris tried to reassure me, and I began to say little prayers inside my head that things would improve and we would have our baby safely without complications. Around 1pm I began to feel a lot of pressure, and told Chris I thought I needed to be checked. He found a nurse, and the nurse was skeptical I was fully dilated, but she agreed to check me. Sure enough, I was ready to go, fully dilated. The doc was still busy, delivering a c section baby and another vaginal birth right ahead of me. She came in at 130pm, and both the nurse and doc commented that the baby was still really high and it might take some work to get him down into the birth canal.

The doc wanted me to try pushing, so I pushed once, and the one push got him down where we needed him.  Second series of contractions came along, and we were working on getting him out. Third series of contractions came, and I could feel him wiggling around inside me, trying to get out. Sure enough, he popped his head out of me, and the doc had to tell me to wait to push again. By 146pm he was out! Both the nurse and doc were impressed at how quickly the delivery went, they both felt it would take much longer to push him out.

He was a big baby, 8 pounds, 5 ounces. Healthy cry, Daddy got to cut the chord, which was a first for him. =) I was thrilled to have my little boy safe in my arms. He was so cute and chubby when they placed him on me, I noticed how beautiful his face was, sweet full mouth, cute nose. I felt at peace and full of joy.