Marius' Birth Story

Photo credit: Brittney Nelson ~ Janurary 27th, 2014

On an early, early Monday morning Jordan and I left our home around 3:45am to be at the Cape Coral Hospital at 4:00am with a scheduled induction to begin at 5:00am. A couple of weeks before my due date, my OB scheduled an ultrasound that estimated the baby's delivery weight of 9lbs 5oz. With that, and the fact that Lily almost did not come out of me because of a stuck shoulder after 3 hours of pushing, my OB gave me the option to be induced.

I took it.

We drove to the hospital in the dark, anxious and excited about how the day would progress, knowing that sometime soon a new little baby would join our lives forever. Teresa stayed home with Lily and Robert, as they lay asleep in their beds. The nurse set me up, began the pitocin and off to sleep I went. Well, sort of until the contractions got uncomfortable. Around 10:00am I asked for an epidural. It took about an hour to get the anesthesiologist up to the room and get enough fluid in me. By the time the epidural was to be put in place, I was in some decent amount of pain. And, as usual, I have a contraction right as the needle is about to be put into my spinal cord. Phew!!

Epidural went in, kicked in and was bliss. I would sleep on and off throughout the day. Not being able to eat, since I had an epidural in. Jordan would keep asking, when is the baby coming. I think he thought that it would take maybe 4-5 hours total - a baby by lunch time. Not quite. I knew that I had to progress at a normal speed or there was a high likelihood that my OB would want to c-section me. A potentially big baby + long labor + past delivery history = c-section. Which I did not want at all. I would ask the nurse, how far dilated am I? I do not want a section!! She was wonderful and said she would be my advocate, no matter happened. I continued to progress, albeit on the slow side.

Around 2:00pm I began to worry about a few things. I had been in 'labor' for 9 hours (and they were going to give me 12 total!) and the contractions were starting to get worse. Like super worse. And this was on an epidural! I clicked my nurses' button and she called the anesthesiologist to my room. He dosed me again, checked to make sure everything was okay and said 'There is nothing I can do to get this pain to go away. Most likely, the baby is going through the birth canal right now."

Wowza. 

The contractions were very intense and coming so frequently. Around 2:45pm, I had my nurse check me because this pain was unreal. I was completely dilated and it was almost time to push and boy did I already know that! She paged Dr. Sarah Krauss (my wonderful OBGYN) and prepped the room. I knew that if I couldn't get the baby out, relatively easily, that a c-section was in my immediate future. With Jordan by my side, a couple of L&D nurses and Dr. Krauss (Oh, and my friend Brittney taking pictures!) - I began to push. Hard. Like get this baby out of me so I don't have to have my abdomen cut open, hard. One push down, followed by another. And Dr. Krauss seemed confident he would come out. A few more very intense pushes and out came baby Marius!! Healthy and large.

9lbs 2 oz large and 21 inches in length at 3:09pm on January 27th, 2014 in Cape Coral, Florida

I, of course, tore again. Womp.. womp woooomp. But whatever. I had my baby in my arms and the epidural still going so I couldn't feel any pain with the stitches going in.

He was perfect. A miracle. And had chubby fat rolls :) He began nursing like he had been waiting to eat forever. It was bliss.