Weston's Birthday

Weston Henry Kidd was born on Saturday, March 26, 2011 and I couldn't be happier that he is healthy and here. I want to try and remember all of the details from the day, and although it's been over two weeks now, here is what I remember. :)

I've used a midwife group throughout this pregnancy, one that delivers in a hospital and works with MDs, but tries not to medically intervene in the pregnancy unless absolutely necessary. My pregnancy was perfect- I had no health issues, nothing strange happened, and I was convinced I'd go in to labor naturally and make decisions from there about pain management. I had never gone through labor before and wanted to see how my body handled it and what other measures I could take before I signed up for pain relief. On Thursday, March 24th I had my 39 week appointment and I was 1-2 cm dilated and about 90 % effaced, so I had high hopes that he'd be arriving soon!

The following day on Friday, March 25th I suspected that my water was breaking, and after talking to Katie I called the midwives to ask what I should do. I told her that I had felt small gushes over the past hour, but no huge gush... more of a trickle really. I had not had any contractions other than a few light ones that were very irregular. Dawn was the midwife on call that night and she told me that I had two options- I could come in right then and see if it really was my water breaking or not and then be admitted if it was, or I could wait til the next morning around 6 am to come in and get checked. I opted to stay home, praying that my labor would start and that I'd be able to get a few hours sleep.

At 5 am my alarm went off- I had gotten maybe 3 hours of sleep and had felt no contractions. So we finished packing our hospital bags just in case it was the real deal and headed to the hospital. When we got to L&D they admitted me and we waited for Dawn who was in a delivery. Around 7 am she came in and confirmed it was my water breaking. She left us to wait for Titi, the next midwife who was coming in at 8 am and who would talk to us about a plan for the day.

After talking to Titi we made the decision to go ahead and start pitocin. I was given the option to just wait and see if the contractions picked up, but that could have ended in Weston becoming distressed and an emergency c-section, so we decided to get things moving with the meds. When we started pitcoin I think I was around 3 cm dilated and still 90% effaced or so. We let our families know that we would be having a baby today, and Chris' parents headed in from Austin and my mom and sisters headed to the hospital. Pitocin was started around 10-11 am and at first it wasn't too bad. I was having contractions. but nothing too terrible. Around 1 or 2 Titi came in to check me because my contractions had picked up. When she checked me it hurt so bad... so bad that I cried. I was around 4-5 cm at that point and the contractions were getting worse as well. As she as checking me Titi realized my water had not broken all the way, so she fnished breaking my bag of water as well. More pain! At this point Chris asked about the epidural, SUCH a great husband! I don't know why I didn't do it myself, but I am SO glad he spoke up for me. They went ahead and ordered the epidural, but as we waited for that Titi had me stand up and change positions to help make sure Weston kept progressing and dropping lower. This was the most painful hour and a half to two hours ever. The anesthesiologist finally came in around 4 pm and I got my epidural. I felt immediate relief and the next 2 and a half hours were much better.

The time from my epidural to finally pushing is kind of a blur. I know that Chris' parents, and my dad and step mom arrived sometime, and I also know that I started to feel a lot pressure. I let me nurse know around 6;30pm that I was feeling so much pressure, but it wasn't constant... it came and went with my contractions. She let me know Titi would be back to check me at 7:30.

At 7:30pm Titi came in and checked me, and I was ready to push! We were all relieved that things had progressed so quickly and that Weston was ready to arrive! After about 16 minutes of pushing (it wasn't even constant pushing, we just had to wait til we knew I was having a contraction so that I could push) Weston Henry Kidd was born! He arrived at 7:46 pm and it was the best moment of my life! I can't even describe what it felt like when that little guy was placed on my chest.

After getting cleaned up and taken care of our families were allowed back in. I was so incredibly thirsty at this point, so I sat up and had some juice. A few moments later I asked my mom to grab me a can or something because I felt like I was going to throw up. Well, I didn't throw up, but I did pass out. Our families were rushed out and doctors and nurses rushed in. My blood pressure just dropped too quickly so I was given some meds to help it come back up. Apparently it was a scary moment.. I was just happy I hadn't puked :)

It was an eventful day, but things really went relatively smoothly. I had no idea beforehand what kind of pain to expect, and now that I do know I also know that I'll be getting an epidural with my next birth too :) On Sunday we had quite a few visitors come by- many of Weston's aunts and uncles, all of his grandparents, even some of his great grandparents came by to meet him. Many of our friends came by as well. We loved showing him off and letting everyone meet him. On Monday afternoon we were released and got to come home.
Being a mom is the greatest thing I've ever experienced. I love this little man more than I can say, and all the pain was completely and totally worth it. I'm going to try to keep up the blog now that he's here as well. I have a lot of pictures to share from our first two weeks at home as a family of three :)

Birth Stats:

Weight 8 pounds 6 ounces

Length 20 inches

Getting dressed to go home: