The Pollard Family: February 2014

Logan Jacob Pollard

As it turns out, what they say is true, no two labors are the same. With Hannah I started having contractions in the middle of the night and I labored at home for an hour or so until my water broke and I went to the hospital. With Liam I felt him drop before I went to bed and I woke up to strong contractions in the middle of the night, but the doctor had to rupture my membranes before he was born. Now for Logan's birth story.

Three day's before he was born I started having nausea before bed every night. It was annoying and making it hard to sleep. Little did I know that digestive issues like nausea and diarrhea are signs that labor is just around the corner. On Monday night I had irregular contractions that were starting to feel a bit more crampy, but didn't think much of it since my due date was about 2 weeks away. I went to bed and woke up about 3:15am to use the restroom and when I stood up my water broke. I'm not talking about a trickle of water, it was like you see in the movies, a big rush of water as I yelled at Jake to get me a towel so I could waddle to the bathroom without making a bigger mess. My doctor told me to head to the hospital if my water broke, so we called friends and family trying to find someone to come be with the kids while we went to the hospital. Jake's mom headed to our house, but they live 15 minutes away and I was too anxious to wait so I actually drove myself to the hospital :) I picked my mom up at her hotel on the way and checked in.

At the hospital my contractions started getting stronger, but after a while they became irregular and mild. When they checked me I was 2.5cm and 80% effaced. I decided to walk the hall's to see if I could move labor along, it seemed to work because contractions got stronger, but little progress was being made. I used a birthing ball for a while too but contractions were still irregular. At 9:30am they decided I needed some pitocin to help jump start my body into true labor. I was nervous about being administered pitocin because it was something I never needed before, but they started it very low at 1ml/hour and gradually increased it by 1 ml every 20 mins. They only needed to go to 4ml/hour before they took me off because my contractions became very strong and regular as my body kicked into gear. At about 12:30pm my OB came to check me and I was a 4 and 90% effaced. He decided to go back to his office to see patients because it looked like I had a few hours to go.

The contractions got very intense and were 2-3 mins apart, but I was able to stay calm and put my energy into trying to break the bar on the side of the bed in half. At this point I wanted to move around and find positions that were more comfortable, but no position is comfortable when you are in active labor. I decided it was time for an epidural. I got one at about 1:15pm and didn't feel a thing as they placed it. By 1:45pm the contractions were less intense but I could still feel them on the left side. The nurse checked me right after they gave me an epidural and I was at a 9 and 100% effaced. They called the doctor and he had to turn around and come right back to the hospital. He checked me at 2pm and said I was complete and it was time to push. The good thing about still feeling part of my contractions was that I knew when to push. On the next contraction I pushed and everyone got excited because they could see his little head :) The nurse leaned in and told me that she had never seen the babies head on the first push. I pushed through 2 more contractions and little Logan was born at 2:03pm on Tues February 4th. They placed him on my chest and I instantly fell in love. It is such an amazing feeling to look into your babies eyes for the first time. As soon as he came into our world we couldn't imagine it without him in it.