Logan's Birthday

The story I have told most often in the last week is the story of Logan's birth. I've told it so many times I could recite it in my sleep, however for posterity I've decided to post it here.

I was not expecting to have my baby so soon. I guess no preemie mom ever does. I was 1 day shy of 33 gestation last Wed, June 29th. That morning I went into work, and there was no indication that anything was amiss. About 9am I starting feeling achy and crampy. The best way to describe it is bad menstrual cramps. I hesitated on calling the doctor because I really didn't want to leave work, and I was afraid of looking silly for overreacting. Finally I was convinced by my husband, Bryan, to call them. They asked me to come in and get checked out. Once I got there, they put me on a monitor which told them I wasn't having contractions, and told me I wasn't dilated at all. The doctor did a "prelabor" test which takes 24 to 48 hours, and told me to go home on bed rest until the test results came back.

The next day, following doctor's orders I stayed home from work and parked my butt on the couch. By the mid-afternoon I was feeling restless. I called the doctor's office to see if the test results had come back (I wanted to go to work on Friday). They told me they hadn't, and when I mentioned I was still slightly crampy they told me their office was closing but wanted me to go into the hospital to get checked out. I waited 15 min for Bryan to get home and we headed to the hospital. The entire time I was indignant about it. I thought it was a waste of time for them to tell me it's nothing. Once I got there things changed.

The doctor checked me, told me I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated. She seemed VERY concerned. I sent Bryan home to look after the dogs, and when he got back the doctor stopped him in the hallway and told him "Don't leave again, this baby is coming tonight" They gave me pills to stop my contractions and the first round of steroids and antibiotics to help protect the baby and speed lung development. That was the worst night. I was not allowed to eat anything, or get out of the bed for any reason - even if nature called, which it did ALOT because of all the IV fluids pumping through me.

By Friday morning my contractions had stopped. I was told they were going to monitor me for a while and if possible discharge me to strict home bed rest. I was allowed to get up for the bathroom and eat again. Friday and Saturday I had no contractions, and by early Saturday evening they were talking about a Sunday morning discharge. I was SO ready to get out of there.

Saturday night around 11pm the contractions started up again. I felt a bit more tightening in my abdomen but they still weren't painful - just crampy. Ironically enough, Saturday night was the best night sleep I had in the hospital, even with the contractions. Sunday morning the doc came and checked me. I had progressed to 6 cm. She told me at that point that I wasn't going home until I had the baby, and that would most likely be that day.

Nothing changed for the next couple hours, they asked me if I wanted an epidural. I told them I wasn't feeling any real pain, but if that changed I would want the drugs. They offered pain medicine through the IV - but I know that can impact the baby's wake fullness and I figured at 33 weeks he has enough to worry about. Bryan hadn't eaten all day, so around quarter after 1 I sent him to the cafeteria to grab something. I said "better get the food now, while there is nothing going on, so you aren't starving when things start happening" Little did I know, 5 minutes after he leaves the doctor comes in and breaks my water. Immediately there was an intensity change in the contractions. I felt like my insides were being wrung out like a wet rag. It took only one of THOSE contractions for me to ask for the epidural. I called Bryan, yelled "GET HERE NOW" into the phone and lost all sense of time and place, delirious from the pain. It was at this point that I felt the need to push. They told me there was no time for the epidural, but I already had figured that out on my own. Bryan showed up just in time. 8 contractions after having my water broken and I was ready to push. 2 contractions, and 5 pushes later Logan Joseph DeWitt entered the world at 1:49pm, screaming his head off.

The hardest part of all of it for me was the repair. The "little" guy ripped me a new one with 3 2nd degree lacerations. THAT I took the drugs for, but it was still so painful. They brought Logan over to me an laid him on my chest, but I was in so much pain with the repair going on at that very moment that I was afraid I would inadvertently hurt him. They took him to the nursery. I recovered for about an hour, enough time to get the drugs out of my system.

That's MY birth story. That is the point where my story ends and his begins. I am leaving for the hospital now, but in the next updates I will tell Logan's story, his milestones, his setbacks, and where we go from here.