Jude's Birth Story - Part 2 - Delivery

Pushing was hard. Extremely hard. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I wouldn't describe it as painful, just extremely tiring. I had to basically do a sit-up and hold up my legs while pushing out something that I couldn't feel. And it felt never-ending. I pushed from 12:15 a.m. - 1:52 a.m. Almost 2 hours. And they upped my pitocin while I was pushing to make my contractions closer together. So, I pushed for 4 sets of 10 seconds, every 1 minute. I didn't scream, or cry, or curse. It took soo much out of me that all I could do was be in that moment. And during my breaks all I could do was breathe. I think I was soo overwhelmed because I figured pushing would be the easy part. Everyone that I talked to said that they pushed 4 or 5 times and the baby shot out. So I was definitely not prepared. I thought they'd tell me that I needed a c-section at any moment. After a long time they ended up having to use the vacuum. I learned later that Jude's cord was wrapped around his neck 2 times, so every time I'd push him out a little, the cord pulled him back in.

But at 1:52 a.m., my beautiful little boy was placed on my chest...



My first thought was that I just gave birth to a 2 foot Jimmy =) He was seriously his "mini-me". It may be unconventional to admit, and I'm sorry to say it, but it wasn't love at first sight. I was so overwhelmed and spent that I couldn't concentrate. I was filled with guilt for Jude being vacuumed out because I'm sure it was very painful for him. All I could say is "I'm so sorry baby" over and over again.

He was taken away to be cleaned up and weighed and measured. The doctor started stitching up my tears and dealing with the afterbirth. I have to say that this was by far the most painful part. She kept pushing on my uterus and I could feel each stitch. It hurt...a lot! This process also took a lot longer than I thought it would. Probably a good hour.

Jimmy brought Jude to me but I was still shaking so much that I asked him to just hold him for me. I didn't want to drop him. I held him for about 30 mins before the nurse came to give him a bath. We made it to our room at about 4:30 a.m. and went straight to sleep! It had been a loonnngg day.