Henry's Birth Story

Me the day before Henry was born- 9 months pregnant.

So it finally happened...I'm a mom! Henry Xavier was born on June 21, 2013- on the Summer Solstice. He was a little over a week early, and luckily I had taken the day off of work that day because I had a doctor's appointment. As I was getting ready after my shower, my water broke. It wasn't a big gush, like you see in the movies, but just a little bit. So I told my husband to pack his bag, just in case, and we left for my appointment. When my doctor confirmed that my water had indeed broken, we checked into the hospital, which was in the same building.
My doc told me that if I didn't start labor by the next morning, they would induce me. I had planned on a totally natural birth, so this scared the crap out of me! I wanted nothing to do with Pitocin, and every book I read said that it makes contractions unbearable. But she scared me when she said that if he didn't come out in 24 hours there was a risk of infection and she said that since I was already 2cm dilated, I would only need a "whiff" of Pitocin. Yeah, right.

So at 7am the next day, they started the Pitocin drip. I ate a little toast and then those evil contractions started in. I was so anti-epidural for many reasons, but since that "whiff" of Pitocin wasn't working and they kept cranking it up, the pain became unbearable. So I got the epidural and some relief, at least for a little while.

When I was dilated to about a 9, the epi wasn't doing anything anymore and I was in absolute hell. I ended up pushing for 3 hours, and I'll spare you the details, but Henry's shoulder was stuck, so it was a bit traumatic. As in, I had nightmares for a few weeks and pretty much decided that childbirth is not for me! :)

It just goes to show you that the best laid plans don't always work out. I read every natural childbirth book out there, did the entire Hypnobabies course, and was firmly against any interventions. But when the time comes, so many emotions come into play, and you get scared and everything goes out the window. You just want your baby to be ok.
So it could have been a lot worse. We were lucky that he didn't break a shoulder, due to the way he was positioned. But he does have torticollis, which is a stiff neck muscle that causes him to look only to the right when lying down. He's going to physical therapy to relax it, because we don't want him to get a flat head on one side.
He was born 8lb, 5oz, and 20 inches long. At his 2 month checkup, he was over 16lbs. and 24 inches long! Did I mention he loves to eat? LOL
Life with a newborn was quite an adjustment, but Eric and I are getting the hang of things!

Here are a few pictures of the little guy:

Coming home from the Hospital: