Morgan's Birth Story

     Jeffrey Morgan Durfee III was born on April 12, 2013 at 4:32am and was 8lbs 9oz and 21 3/4 inches long. We are so absolutely in love with him and I think our family as a whole (including the puppies!) has adjusted rather well to his arrival. Currently, I am sitting on the chair in the nursery holding a sleeping Morgan with both of the dogs on my lap. This is the life ;-)

     I thought that I had better write down Morgan's birth story before I started to forget all of the details. I cannot believe it has been over a week since this little miracle happened. Time is already going by so quickly! I just want Morgan to stay a sweet little infant forever!

     So here is the story...just as a warning it is long and includes a lot of details about birth. Readers beware :-)

     To start out I need to backtrack a bit. About 3 weeks ago I went to one of my doctors appointments. I was 39 weeks at the time, and my doctor and I discussed the plan for an induction if I were to go past my due date. I think I said this in one of my past posts, but she was going to be out of town for five days starting on my due date. Therefore, she wanted to have a plan in place for if I was still pregnant when she got back into town. We decided to set an induction date for April 11th, which would be when I was 5 days overdue. I remember at the time thinking (or rather really, really hoping) that I would never make it to that date. I thought for sure I would go into labor before then.

     As you also know, earlier in my pregnancy I had been having real issues deciding on which hospital I wanted to deliver at. We had a choice between St. John's Mercy (big hospital with a NICU) and St. Anthony's Medical Center (smaller hospital, very close to our apartment). I had decided that if I made it full term and had no foreseeable complications, I would deliver at St. Anthony's. Well, when my doctor and I were discussing my possible induction, she said she would really prefer me to deliver at Mercy. She said there is nothing wrong with St. Anthony's, it is just easier for her to communicate with the staff at Mercy, so an induction would be easier for her there. Jeff and I talked it over and decided that if I were to make it to my induction date, we would deliver at Mercy. We felt good about our decision.

     Flash forward a week and I am back at the doctors office meeting with one of the other doctors in the practice since, at this point, my doctor was out of town. I was 3 days past my due date and feeling miserable. The doctor checked me and I was still at a 1 (I had been at a 1 for a good 2 weeks). She said that my cervix was really far back (not at all engaged) and the baby was still very high up. She said that we should start mentally preparing ourselves for a possible c-section. She thought that it looked like Morgan was not going to fit out of my birth canal. She said that we should still try the induction, but that it would probably turn into a c-section. We left that appointment feeling very deflated. I was terrified of having to have a c-section and all of the pain associated with that. I was also afraid of laboring for hours on end, and then having to have a c-section in the end. It was not a fun next two days for us.

     Finally the 11th arrived--the day of the induction! The way it works with inductions at Mercy is you are given a slot, and when they are ready for you they call you to come in. I was given the 3rd morning slot, so we assumed we would be called in pretty early in the morning. Well, we waited and waited and waited--no call. It was a torturous wait. Finally, the call came around 12:30pm. My mom's flight got in around the time the hospital called, so we met her at the hospital and all went in together.

     We went to the front desk of the Labor and Delivery ward and were all checked in. Our nurse then came and took us up to our delivery room. Now I have to say, one big perk of delivering at Mercy is the awesome birthing suites they have. They are newly remodeled and just opened in January of this year. They are SO nice! 

My last pregnant picture

     Our nurse got me all situated in bed with my hospital wrist bands, robe, and IV with a fluid drip. She asked me a bunch of questions and started to get everything prepared for the induction to begin. I was SO nervous at this point because of all of the horror stories I have heard about pitocin (the drug they use to induce labor). In my mind, it was going to be like a 0-60 kinda of deal. One minute they would be starting the pitocin and the next minute I would be having killer contractions. My nurse assured me that they start the pitocin drip out very slowly so it will work up to the big contractions. I kept telling her I wanted an epidural ASAP with the hopes that when I asked for it, I wouldn't have to wait long. I think it was all pretty comical for her :-)

     After getting everything prepped, my nurse had to check my cervix to see if it had dilated any more since my doctors appointment two days before. Now I am not sure if it was because the nurse wasn't very gentile while checking me or if my cervix was just really sensitive, but when she checked me it was excruciatingly painful. It was so bad that I was screaming and writhing in pain. It was such a struggle that she couldn't actually check me fully. She decided to just go call my doctor and and get the orders to start the pitocin in hopes of it making my cervix a little easier to reach.

     While we were waiting for the nurse to get the orders from my doctor, we met a few of Mercy's medical residents. They came in and asked me all of the same questions that the nurse had just asked. I'm assuming it was for them to practice. They also each took a turn feeling my belly and guessing Morgan's weight. It was kinda fun and good way to relieve some of my tension and anxiety.

     At 3:30pm the nurse started the pitocin. It was pretty slow going for a while with the contractions coming steadily but remaining pretty small. My mom, Jeff and I spent the time watching TV and talking. It was a good time. After a few hours I started to get really hungry, so we took a trip to the little pantry the hospital has on the L&D floor and I got to have a little "feast" of jello, popsicles, and Sierra Mist. They didn't exactly take away my hunger but more just made me feel like I was full for a little while. Thank goodness for those things or I would have really been miserable! Being hungry is the worst.

     At about 7pm the nurse came in to check me again. This time was worse than the first time and, once again, the nurse struggled to fully check me. She said she thought I was at about a 1 1/2, though, which is only a 1/2 centimeter improvement over what it was at my doctors appointment. Ahh!! I was progressing so slowly.

     The nurse came back about a half hour later and said she had just talked to my doctor. She said that my doctor wanted them to break my water, but the nurse told her what excruciating pain I was in when it came to having my cervix checked, let alone my water broken. My doctor then said that they could give me an epidural and then break my water. The nurse asked if I would like to have an epidural and I said "Yes! You don't have to ask me twice!"

     The anesthesiologist came in about 20 minutes later and gave me my epidural. I have to say, epidurals are amazing. They just take all the pain away and make you so comfortable. Shortly after the epidural was in, a resident came and broke my water. Didn't feel a thing! Love it!

     After my water was broken, it became a waiting game. The nurse's shift change came at 11pm, and we got our night shift nurse--Erin. We loved Erin! She was so fun and nice. I instantly felt so relaxed around her.

     Around 12am I started to feel a lot of pain, almost as if my epidural was wearing off. The anesthesiologist came and re-dosed me, and I was SO numb! It felt weird but hey, who can complain when you aren't feeling any pain, right?

     At about 2am, Erin came in and checked me again. I had progressed to a 3. We were excited for the progress, but realized that it had basically taken me 11 hours to progress 2 centimeters. I had also started to have some intense nausea from all of the hormones, so Erin gave me something for that which really helped. We all settled in for a long night, thinking we had many hours of labor ahead. I tried to sleep but was mostly in a weird twilight state. I was too excited and anxious to sleep!

This was during the worst of my nausea. You can see the puke bucket ready on the table :-) 

     About an hour later, I started to feel a lot of pressure. Erin came in and checked on me and I told her about the pressure I was feeling. She said that it was normal, and that she would come back in a half hour to check me again and see what kind of progress I was making. Shortly after she left the room, she came back in and said my doctor had called to check in on me and that she wanted me to be checked right then to see where I was at. Erin checked me and said "where do you think you are at?" I said "umm...a 4?" she said "it's higher than that..." so I said, "a 5?!" and she responded with "you're at an 8" An 8?!!? I couldn't believe it! I had progressed from a 3 to an 8 in an hour. We were all shocked! I started to freak out a little because I didn't feel mentally prepared to have him yet. We had all been thinking it was going to be hours and hours before he would be born, and that it would probably end up having to be a c-section. I was so overwhelmed and nervous that I started to shake really hard. Erin said to try and keep calm and that she would be back in 15 minutes to check me again. Jeff and my mom did a good job in keeping my calm by talking to me and making me laugh. It helped me to stop shaking and relax a bit. The pressure was really intense and I was so worried he was going to just pop out without any supervision! Everyone kept assuring me that that wouldn't happen...and I tried my best to believe them :-)

     15 minutes later Erin came back and checked me and I was at a 10 and fully effaced. It was time to start pushing. They turned me onto my back and got me into position to push. I started feeling really faint and nausous, so Erin suggested I eat a popsicle to help boost my blood sugar. It actually ended up being pretty comical because I was sucking on the popsicle, and when a contraction came I would hand the popsicle to my mom, my mom and Jeff would each hold up one of my legs, and I would push. After the contraction was over my mom would hand me back the popsicle and I would suck on it until the next contraction came. It was funny but the popsicle made me feel a lot better! I was also really excited to push because I knew once he came out I would be able to EAT! And I was so hungry. We were joking that I was doing the chant like John Pinette (I highly recommend watching this whole video because it is hilarious, but to get the joke go to 3:30) "RAVIOLIS AND A NAP, RAVIOLIS AND A NAP!!"

     After pushing for a half hour or so, Morgan's head was crowning and Erin said it was time to call my doctor. She had me turn on my side and then went and called my doctor. After my doctor was called, everything started to really pick up. Erin got the room all prepped, and shortly afterwards my doctor arrived with a medical resident who would be assisting and Morgan's baby nurse. They got my legs up in the stirrups and then the real pushing began. I pushed 4 or 5 times and was feeling a lot of pain. It was amazing though--I felt so supported by everyone there. I had Jeff, my mom, Erin, my doctor, the medical resident, and Morgan's nurse all cheering me on. It made me feel so empowered! Cheesy, I know, but its true :-) Finally, Morgan's head was birthed and he let out a little cry. It was so surreal for me because I couldn't see anything that was going on but I could hear him make his first cry and it was so cool! My mom told me after that his face was so funny when it was birthed--he had on the biggest scowl. We joked that since I was induced, he was mad that he had to come out! One more push and he was fully delivered. He was screaming his head off and there was a flurry of activity as my doctor and the resident got his air passageway all cleared out and Jeff cut the cord. Then the baby nurse cleaned him off and did his APGAR test. It was crazy but I felt so at peace.

     After he was all cleaned off, the nurse brought him to me and I got to hold him skin-to-skin. This was the part that I had been most looking forward to and it was even more amazing than I could have imagined. He was so little and cute and I couldn't believe he was finally here!

     My doctor got me all patched up (I had had some pretty extensive tearing unfortunatly) and then everything started to calm down. Everyone left the room so it was just Jeff, my mom, me, and Morgan. We spent an hour or so holding him and getting to know him. It was incredible!

Our first family photo

     Eventually the anesthesiologist came and took out my epidural and a nurse from the nursery came and checked Morgan over and gave him his first bath. After a while a nurse came up and took us to our postpartum room. We spent the rest of the day getting to know Morgan and spending time with family.

     Our hospital stay was so amazing! Our nurses were great, the food was good, and our room was comfortable. The view out of the window in our room was so fun. It overlooked the main entrance to the hospital so there was a lot of good people watching :-) We could also see the helipad so it was fun to watch the helicopters come and go.

     Our experience at Mercy was truly incredible. I am so glad that we chose to deliver there! It was hard to leave--we felt like we were in a hotel!! I wouldn't change a thing about Morgan's birth. It was amazing and an experience I will never forget.