Monday, November 13, 2006

Adam's Birth Story - Part 1

I've recently finished (finally!) writing my son's birth story. I am posting it here for anyone who cares to read all about it. It turned into a rather lengthy story because I don't know how to be brief. J I found that I couldn't tell the birth story without including some (lots of) backstory as well. Because of that the story will be posted in three parts.
Some may find that there is too much information here. For you I'll summarize the story:
1. I couldn't get pregnant 2. I got pregnant 3. I had a healthy baby
The End
For the rest of you, here is the first installment:

Birth Story Of Adam Tod xxxxxxx
Born Wednesday, December 17, 2003 3:34 a.m.

My entire pregnancy was different than the last two had been, beginning with the difficulty I had in getting pregnant in the first place. June 2000 we began trying to get pregnant again with no success. After taking a few rounds of Clomid (bad idea) and then switching doctors, I wound up December 10, 2002 having surgery. I had stage 4 (severe) endometriosis and a 8 cm cyst on each ovary. My (new) doctor said that a procedure done during the surgery and the clearing up of the endometriosis itself would make it very likely I could get pregnant in the next 2-4 months. I had been taking natural progesterone cream to balance out my hormones and needed to know each month if I was pregnant before I stopped taking the cream. I had to use the cream for 3 weeks and then take a week off. If I was pregnant I was NOT to stop using the cream. Thus the constant checking to see if I was pregnant. April 1, 2003 I took a pregnancy test that yielded a very faint pink line after about 15 minutes or so. The instructions said not to trust the results after 10 minutes! So what was I to do? Take 5 more tests, that’s what! I kept thinking, God, I know this is April Fool’s Day, but you wouldn’t mess around with me like this, would You?!? Over the next few days I did end up taking those five additional pregnancy tests. The results were some very faint positives that I was hesitant to trust. Finally, though, I made an appointment with my doctor and had them do a pregnancy test. Jim didn’t know that I was having a pg test done. He just thought I was going in for yet another appointment regarding all of my cycle problems. The doctor’s office called me with the results. It was positive! I sat down on the garage steps and cried. The nurse asked if I was o.k.. I managed to tell her that I was fine, it was just that I had waited so long for this. I pulled myself together and left for Boise to enact a plan I’d had for many months (years). When I got home, I gave Jim the package I had purchased and asked him what he thought of my idea of a Christmas present for Micah. He pulled from the sack a small t-shirt that said “I’m the Big Brother”. Jim looked at me and hesitantly said, “But he’s not...unless...you’re not, are you?” I smiled and nodded my head. Then we handed the shirt to Rebecca (6 y.o.) and asked her what she thought of this shirt for Micah. She read it and said that he wasn’t a big brother. I asked if she was very sure about that. She looked at me and then figured it out. I then told her and Micah that I was pregnant and that we were going to have a new baby in a few months. Micah (almost 5 years) started running around with Rebecca who was saying, “How did this happen? We’re having a baby!!” Then she went running down the street to her friend’s house screaming, “My mom is pregnant!” Fast-forward through months of nausea, weariness, tachycardia, vertigo, sleeplessness, Braxton-Hicks, two family weddings in two weeks, severe belly button pain, camping (once! never again while pregnant!), and homeschooling a first-grader. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I was due December 13th. I delivered my first two babies one day before their due dates but I had allowed the doctors to break my water once they were reasonably sure I was ready. This time, however I wasn’t planning to let any doctors tell me when the baby “should” be born. I wanted to see what would happen, how labor would go if we didn’t do an AROM (artificial rupture of membranes). My doctor, though, was getting antsy and kept asking me how much longer I wanted to go. My due date came and went. More pressure from the doc. Eventually, on Tuesday, December 16th ( a whole three days "late"), my doctor wanted to check and see if I had dilated beyond the 1 cm. that I had been. In doing the “checking” he took a swipe and stripped my membranes. I didn’t know he was going to do that. It hurt. It hurt like crazy! I nearly went through the wall behind me. Yikes!! Funny, though, it didn’t irritate me (that he did that without asking) until later. Anyway, exam over, I went home.

(to be continued)

Click here for Part 2

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of all the deep comments I could say, all I can say right now is I can't believe your son was 9 lb 9 oz. I say this because mine was 9 lb 14 oz! :) I loved having a big baby!

By the way, I've got a suprise! (on my blog)

Laura said...

Yay! I love birth stories. I'm looking forward to your next post!