Titus Aaron Becker - The Birth Story

Announcing Titus Aaron Becker January 5th 2011 3:53 p.m. 8 lbs. 8oz.

I totally intended to update to blog earlier, but well things have been crazier than we expected. Today I will share our birth story and then my next post will be on the crazy week that followed.
So Tuesday January 4th Keith and I went out to dinner at Kerbey Lane for our last date. Then we headed to the hospital to start the induction process. At 8 the nurse hooked me up to the monitor to see the babies heart beat and contractions. And surprise to us I was already having contractions 3 minutes apart. The doctor came and would not give me the medicine to start softening my cervix because I was already showing signs of labor. Keith and I tried to explain that my body had been contracting like this for weeks, causing me to get no sleep, and that I still had no progress. But the doctor was not convinced so she said if I had still been contracting at midnight and had no progress they would start the Cervadil. Around midnight I was still only one centimeter and at 80 percent effacement. Then they gave me the cervidil which is supposed to make your cervix softer and increase contractions. At 5 am they checked me again and even with the Cervadil there was no progress.
At 7 am they started the big bad potocin. At this point after being anxious all night and not sleeping I was ready to get things started. At 7:30 my doctor came and checked me and I was still at 1cm. She said she would like to break my bag of waters to get things going. I asked her to wait, and she said she would come back in an hour. At 8 am I had to go to the bathroom and Keith was helping me get out of bed and my water broke on it's own, at first I didn't know my water had broken, I thought I peed on my self and started crying. But then Keith helped me realize that I hadn't peed on my self that my water had broken. I stopped crying and was excited.
After my water broke I started to have real labor contractions that hurt. This is when Keith was such a help to me. We walked the halls, rocked in a rocking chair, and changed positions often. At 9 am they checked and I was at 2 cm, finally a little progress!
Sometime after that the baby turned and I went into back labor. Labor went from bad to unbearable. Breathing through contractions became much more difficult and concentrating became even more difficult. During all of this I remember is praying "Lord please help me not to faint." I was telling Keith to count, and whenever I heard 6 I knew the contraction was on it's way down hill. Back labor felt like someone had a hammer and was beating my lower back, no exaggeration. I actually bit Keith at one point, I know, awful. At 11:30 I asked the nurse to check me at I was only at 4 cm. She said that was good progress, but that was not good enough progress for this momma, then I started balling and asked for an epidural. The nurse said she thought I could finish naturally but totally supported my request. So with the blessing of Keith the anesthesiologist came and I got an epidural. After the epidural I could still feel when I was contracting, but no longer thought I was dying. Then for the first time I relaxed. They turned me on my side every hour to help the baby turn.
At 3pm I was feeling some pressure and asked the nurse to check me. And to our surprise she says "You are 10 cm and ready to push." That shocked us .... for the first time labor went faster than expected. Then nurse went to get the doctor and Keith went tell all the family. My mom and dad and Keith's mom and sister Shannon where all in the waiting area. They though Keith was kidding when he said I was ready to push. But it was no joke.
The doctor came around 3:15 and I gave one good push and she said it looks like we will have a baby in 15 minutes. I was like what?? I thought you had to push for hours... but no... this baby was ready to come out. So then we waited for all the staff needed to get there and a little after 3:30 we started pushing for real. I don't feel like I pushed very long at all. I remember the doctor saying three more pushes then one push later out came our baby boy. I was shocked! I expected a huge baby with black hair, and got a large but not huge baby, with blonde hair. Keith was in shock, and I mean shock, that God had given him a son. The first thing I said is "My baby is cute! Is my baby really cute or is just because I am his mom?"

So here are some pictures. Enjoy!

These are the proud grandparents aka Grammie and Paw Paw!

Titus, his MiMi and Keith.

Titus and his aunt Shannon.

Look at that long body.

This is my favorite!
Titus had a beautiful scream!
My next post will detail the very long and stressful week that followed. Thankfully God protected Titus and our family, and he is now doing well, but only after many prayers and doctors visits. Oh yes and my mom was here to help.... wow what a blessing!