Gunnar's Birth Story

Gunnar is here and we couldn't be happier! We also got to come home today which is great! My doctor said I am doing well, the only problem is that Gunnar's doctor is not going to be back until Monday, German's take their holidays very seriously. But my doctor worked some magic to help make it so we could come home go and then go back on Monday to the hospital for the baby's check-up by the pediatrician!
So here is the low-down on the birth story:
Tuesday, April 28th at 11 pm they started the first dosage to induce me.
Wednesday, April 29th starting at 6 am they started the 2nd through 5th dosages. At 6pm, I was not dilated and told that we would have to wait until 6am to start an IV to get things going. So we were told to go and get our rest. I was exhausted after a day of constant cramps and vomiting from the medication.
At 11pm I felt a pop and went to the restroom where I found blood. The midwife hooked me up checked my cervix and said "no change, it is normal, to go to bed."
By the time I was back in my room my pants were soaked and I was sent back to the delivery room. She said it was fine my water had just broken and to go and get my rest and that Kyle could go home. I was not dilating, so nothing was going to happen. Luckily Kyle had paid to stay the night so he didn't leave, he stayed with me.
At about 1pm I started having pretty bad contractions 4 minutes apart. I actually thought I just had to go to the bathroom and couldn't. I was spending a lot of time on the toilet trying to "go" while Kyle slept and would wake everyonce in a while telling me it would be okay and to breathe.
At about 1:45am, I told him that I thought I might be pushing the baby and that I didn't have to go to the bathroom after all. That got him out of bed quickly.
So the midwife took us back to the delivery room and checked me out. To her astonishment I was dilated to a 7. She hooked me up to monitors made some panicked phone calls and then checked me again to say in her broken English "oh a 10, I see the babies head!" She made Kyle go and check things out and he assured me the babies head was really there! I ask her how much longer until the baby would be here and she said 10 minutes. I kept watching the clock as the contractions and pushing started and saw that 10 minutes had passed. After about 20 minutes I heard her get on the phone to have my doctor paged. She then told me I had to stop pushing and she was stopping contractions. Gunar's little heartbeat was way to low. So she stopped them and waited for the doctor to arrive. Dr. Schwind let me try and push about 3 contractions worth before he told me he was going to help by suction cupping the baby. So he got the suction cup on and helped me do the rest. He had to cut me to get the baby out as quickly as possible. When he laid Gunnar on the table his umbilical cord was around his neck 3 times very tightly and he was every color of blue you can imagine. After what felt like forever they got him breathing, crying, and he was just perfect. Kyle got to cut the cord and then I got to hold him.
You always hear of those crazy stories of ladies having babies in the toliet and not knowing they were in labor...I laughed about them and always thought about how that could never be possible, but I came pretty close to that!
My doctor said we were very lucky. He said usually situations like that end badly and/or with a C-section. He said my body didn't have time to get ready for pushing and that is why pushing was so difficult. Plus the baby was caught up by the umbilical cord, which was holding him in. He also said that is was good I was induced as the placenta was no longer functioning.
So, we are just thankful to have our beautiful and healthy boy home with us! Right now I think a nap is in order, plus I have to make a grocery list for Kyle (who has been so great through all of this). I will post some more pictures of Gunnar later.
So here are the stats:
Gunnar Max Pettit was born 30.04.2009 at 2:36am. He weighed 5 1/2 lbs and is 18 1/2 inches long.