Wesley's Birth Story

(For the short version, skip down to the picture of Zac and I as we were heading to the hospital.)

At my 38 week appointment I chose to get checked because I had some contractions and hoped that there would be some progress. At this point with Gavin I was 1cm so I figured with all the exercise I had been doing that I would at least be at a 1. No such luck. I was pretty devastated, I know that is silly, but I decided I would try and workout a little harder to hopefully speed things along. Over the next week I continued to have contractions but just occasionally. I really hoped by 39 weeks I would at least be somewhere.

At my 39 week appointment I was 1cm, thank goodness, and my Dr. stripped my membranes. I wouldn't say worst experience of my life, but no where near enjoyable :). So my Dr. had me schedule an appointment for Monday morning with the hopes that we would induce Monday or Tuesday.
That appointment was on Thursday and it did start contractions for me but they weren't close enough together. I was about 10-13 minutes apart. But they were definitely consistent. Over the next few days they stayed about that far apart and were not that intense. I could still do everything that I needed to do and sleep for the most part. Although, every time I woke up in the night I could tell I was having a contraction so I would wake up and wait for the next hoping they would be closer together. Which would make me anxious and unable to fall back asleep for awhile. I didn't really want to go into labor because I wanted to take Gavin to the Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, and Zac's siblings were coming in on Sunday evening and I knew it would be much more convenient if I went into labor after they came and were able to take care of Gavin.

So Saturday came, we went to the Easter Egg Hunt and then to the Ward Party and I  of course was still having contractions 10 minutes apart. By this point it had been going on for 2 days and everyone was telling me I should just go to the hospital and get checked. After the ward party we went to our friends house and I bounced on her exercise ball for awhile. My contractions increased to 5 minutes apart but as soon as I stopped they went to like 13 minutes apart. Everyone expected that I would go into the hospital that night, but no I went home and slept fairly well since I had been exhausted from the last 2 nights of contractions.

Gavin definitely enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt this year.

On Sunday we went to church and I didn't have a single contraction during sacrament meeting, which was really weird. But as soon as I got to nursery I was having contractions 10 minutes apart again. We went home and had dinner and waited for Zac's family. Amanda, Tiffany, Kellan and Nic came around 6pm. And I had Gavin do a little egg hunt around the house. By 8pm my contractions were 6-7 minutes apart consistently while I was at rest. So I called the doctors office and it was decided that I should go in and at least get checked after contracting for so long. Of course this just increased my anxiety not knowing if they were still going to send me home or not.

Headed to the Hospital around 10pm.

We arrived at the hospital around 10:15pm. When they admitted and checked me I was at a 3. So at least all the contracting had done something. They decided to keep me since I would be coming in the next day to get induced anyway. But they weren't going to do anything to help me progress until morning so I just labored through the night. They told me I could have my epidural or anything else for pain whenever I wanted. They would put me on the monitors for about 30 min and take them off for a few hours. I tried to sleep in between because I knew that by morning I wouldn't be getting much sleep. I think I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep and at 7am they started me on pitocin. I normally try to wait as long as I can for an epidural, but by 8am it was too painful and I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist started it around 9am. By this point I was still a 3 almost a 4, but my epidural didn't seem to be working completely. I was still feeling my contractions and although the pain was less, I was still having to breathe through them. So the nurse anesthetist came in and gave me a dose of lidocaine and upped my rate on the epidural and things finally seemed to feel much better and it was 11am. A few minutes later my nurse checked me and I was a 9! She called my Dr. and we started getting ready. My water still hadn't broken yet and by 11:35 I was feeling tons of pressure. My epidural was working great and I could tell when I was having a contraction but I didn't have any pain. At 11:45 my Dr. peeked in to ask if I was feeling pressure and I said YES! She said good answer, and left to change. She was back 5 minutes later and started getting ready and the baby was coming. My sack was bulging out(sorry TMI) and they broke my water. I pushed through about 2 1/2 contractions and that was it! Wesley Russell Barrus was born at 12pm and he is perfect! And because he came so fast, his head was perfectly round.

I couldn't believe what a small baby he was! Only 6lbs 11oz. and 19 1/2 inches. It really was the ideal delivery in my eyes. I have no complaints. I still tore a little bit and have some stitches, but my body is recovering so much faster than last time. All of my nurses read my history and kept saying that they hoped things would turn out much better than the first time, and they were all shocked with how big Gavin had been.

 

I am so grateful to all of the family and friends who have been there to help us with our new addition. It still seems surreal that we are a family of 4 now, but it also feels wonderful. We couldn't be more smitten with Wesley, he is a wonderful, easy baby. Although I think almost any baby would be easy after Gavin. We love our two little boys and we couldn't be happier.