Sarah's Birth Story

We welcomed Sarah Catherine Shaw into the world yesterday morning at 5:20am... but so much happened before that... here's the story.

Around 1:30am on Thursday January 28th (her due date) I woke up wide awake and was starting to have contractions. We noticed they were 10-15 minutes apart and Ted started using his stopwatch on his phone to track them. We tried to sleep but we started getting excited. We called Maria (Ted's mom) at 3:30am because we knew she wanted to know right when I went into labor. Around 4am we got up and I ate 2 oranges and we watched an episode of Lost... then we tried to go back to sleep for a few hours. After we went back to sleep, the contractions really started to slow, sometimes as spaced as 45mintes apart. I'm not sure when exactly my water broke because it was a slow leak at first, but definitely around 6am when we took a shower, I was pretty confident it had broken.

I had actually just joked a few days ago about my birth plan including taking a shower, blow drying my hair, and putting on make-up then going to Panera for breakfast... so we followed the plan and actually went to Panera to have a nice breakfast. We knew we should stay home as long as possible, until the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart ideally, but since my water had broken, we also knew the risk of infection was there if I didn't give birth to the baby sooner rather than later. We called Shannon at 8:40am to let her know we'd be coming into the Labor and Delivery unit later that day (where she's a nurse -and would be working starting at 11am). Shannon suggested we go on a long walk to help bring on labor, so we went on a walk around the neighborhood for about an hour. It did seem to help, but the contractions were still so light and only 10-15 minutes apart.

We called the doctor's office at 11am and they had us come in to the local Catonsville office to check to be sure I was ruptured. The exam confirmed that I was ruptured, 2.5cm dialated and 50% effaced, so Dr. Abello sent us to the hospital. She predicted it would be a long labor, with the baby being born at "about 6am."

Ted while we're being registered.

We were greeted by an excited Shannon at Mercy's Labor and Delivery unit. She had already done the majority of registration. She had chosen the biggest room available to give to us. We were truly treated like royalty. Dr. Hoffman would be our OB (there are 4 doctors from her practice that could have been there). I have met all of them (and like them all!), but actually got to see Dr. Hoffman more throughout the beginning of my pregnancy because she had early appointments available before I went to work. Dr. Hoffman was not only the 'on call' doctor for her practice, but was also the hospital's in house doctor, meaning she would be there until 8am, no matter what. I was encouraged to hear that because I knew she would be with us all night.


Dr. Hoffman chose to start the induction process with Cytotec - a pill that helps soften the cervix. I needed to stay in the bed initially while it dissolved and Sarah and I were initially monitored, but then I was able to move to sit next to the machine on the birthing ball. For 4 hours in the afternoon Ted and I hung out with my parents and Maria. Ted's dad wasn't able to come because he was feeling sick with flu-like symptoms. We gave him a call and shared the name with everyone while he was on the phone. When we announced we would be naming her "Sarah Catherine" I loved Maria's reaction because she would have named Ted "Sara Katherine" if he had been born a girl. She had a great look of shock and excitement. My mom also shared that she had thought Sarah would be a good name because it was her grandmother's name. I'll share in another post more about her name.

Sharing Sarah's name with the family.

During the conversation at one point my dad hailed the necessity and usefulness of the Cesarean section and said it was important a hospital's C-section rate wasn't too high or too low. I told him I didn't think the rates of C-sections got "too low" in the US, since many other countries have similar mortality rates and much lower C-section rates. One of the residents that poked his head in our room happened to be a student at U of Md and had my dad as his Renal professor. I liked it when he pointed out that my dad might need to agree with me since I was the one in labor.

Maria (Ted's Mom) with Ted and I

My parents (Jim and Rachel) with Ted and I

I used the birthing ball and had light contractions. I progressed to 4cm dilated 70% effaced. She also discovered there was still the "fore bag" of amniotic fluid. During the exam, it was punctured and Dr. Hoffman said it should help labor now that this 2nd sack had broken.

Knowing it would be a long night, our parents headed home, we would call them when she was born. I tried to labor for another hour without Pitocin, but at 7pm, Dr. Hoffman and Shannon advised that we should start at least a slow drip because the risk of infection was increasing the longer it took. Although I knew Pitocin would make it harder to have a natural labor, I really trusted that Dr. Hoffman and Shannon knew best and I really didn't want to have an infection because that would lead to a c-section in no time!

I labored with Pitocin, but no epidural till 10:00. This was a nice time because it was just me and Ted together and although the contractions started to get more painful, Shannon taught us that Ted could put counter pressure on my lower back. That pressure really helped and some of those contractions got really hard. I continued to sit on the ball and I really think it helped things progress, being upright with gravity helping me along. Ted was so helpful through it all. Joking at just the right times and giving me lots of hugs and kisses. Shannon "bumped the pit" on the hour (rather than the normal every half hour). She said it was hard for her to increase it, knowing it would cause me pain. I told her to do what she needed to do, but around 9:45pm I realized it was getting much harder to handle and I needed pain medication.

I had Dr. Hoffman check me and I was now 6cm dilated 70% effaced. She also commented that Sarah's head was pretty big. I glared at Ted. Shannon was so happy that I had progressed so far, I was actually disappointed it wasn't more, but she assured me I was doing really well. Shannon and Dr. Hoffman were really excited when I decided to get the epidural because they said it really helps to relax you and you often progress very quickly afterwards. They thought I might even be able to deliver just after midnight. Shannon planned to stay past 11pm (her initial end of shift). We called Meaghan to let her know to come so she could take pictures of just before and the "sweet moments" immediately following the birth. (I haven't seen the pictures yet, but I'm sure they'll need a fair amount of censoring!)

They got the epidural in me and I started to feel MUCH better. I had no idea it would be that much pain relief. Everyone would say, "it just takes the edge off" but I felt practically no pain, just some pressure when there was a contraction. It was amazing. I had been against epidurals because I heard they can slow your labor, then you'd need more Pitocin, then you can stress the baby and often that can lead to an emergency c-section. Shannon and Dr. Hoffman assured me that since I was in active labor, the epidural would not slow my labor.

About and hour and fifteen minutes after the epidural (maybe 11:15) things started to get fuzzy because my blood pressure dropped pretty low (Shannon said 80s over 40s). I guess I passed out and they gave me oxygen because my oxygen level was in the 80s/100. They bolused the fluids in my IV to bring me back. The extra fluids actually did slow my labor down a lot, but I think it was probably better to be conscious. :-)

Once I was feeling better, but my labor had slowed a lot, we realized it might be a bit before Sarah entered the world, so Shannon headed out to get a few hours of rest (this was her 3rd 12 hour shift in 3 days!). Ted, Meaghan and I tried to sleep for a little bit. I was definitely able to rest a little, but for each contraction I would wake up and I remember breathing through them, but it wasn't so bad. I remember focusing on Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I am God" -- knowing that he had everything under control.

I had another exam around 2am and I was 8 cm. dilated. Meaghan texted Shannon to let her know but she didn't get the message immediately. When she did get it, she started to worry she would miss the call for when she should really come. She came back around 2:45 saying she just couldn't stop thinking about how we were the friends that took her in when her husband left her. I told her she didn't owe us anything but we're so glad to have her there.

Not long after she got back the contractions started to really hurt again. They determined I needed a "top off" in my epidural, but when they paged the anesthesiologist, he was in an emergency hysterectomy and could not come up right away. I was so glad for Shannon being there now, because she could stay with us the whole time now that she was off the clock. She had me turn on my side and she and Ted would put lots of pressure and warm pads on my back during the really hard contractions. Ted kept worrying I would fall off the bed or that I wasn't comfortable. I hardly remember it, but the only thing I was unhappy about was the excessive pain and the anesthesiologist being MIA. I'm not sure if my thoughts were totally verbalized about how annoyed I was that he was the only one in the whole hospital that could help. It felt very strongly like I needed to push through the contraction, but since I wasn't fully dilated, they said I shouldn't and that it would actually cause swelling and she'd have a harder time coming out. I was kind of bad at listening to this advice, but luckily there wasn't too much swelling.

Once I got that boost in the epidural (~4am), things started to go pretty fast. I was fully dilated around 4:45 and they told me I could push whenever I wanted to... it was great! I really pushed through about 6 contractions with Dr. Hoffman and Shannon helping me count and getting in 3 breaths of 10 seconds each. Ted and Shannon held my legs and Meaghan took pictures from behind the bed. When she came out, they initially placed her on my belly but needed to pull her away for the majority of the initial stuff because she had some extra fluid in her lungs and I had some extra bleeding for Dr. Hoffman to attend to. She actually reached in and pulled out the placenta because it was broken up. She had the nurse pushing on my stomach on the outside and she reached in to pull it out. It was pretty crazy but I didn't feel a thing!

Sarah in her "crib" after birth.

Dr. Hoffman poses for a cameo.

The left portion of this image is cropped. Trust me, you would appreciate the edit.


Maybe 45 minutes after the birth, I was able to nurse her for 20 minutes on each side. She did so well!


Two different reactions to the same face...

We called our parents and set up times for them to come meet Sarah that day. Everyone notices her hair... it is pretty long. I had no idea she would have that much hair! :)

Although I initially went into labor with the "plan" to avoid intervention with the natural birthing process, I am confident I was given the appropriate amounts of medical intervention at the right times. Despite my fears that Pitocin and the Epidural could eventually lead to a C-section, I believe they aided in not having a C-section (since I was able to get her out faster than without an induction, there was no infection.)

We're so pleased that we had such a good birth experience with Sarah and so happy that she is so healthy. We look forward to the years ahead..

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." - John 16:21

It's already becoming a blur... so I knew I needed to write it down now!