Brigham's Birth Story

Brigham Taylor Law, born June 12th, 2011 at 12:52 am. He weighed 7 pounds 11 oz and was 21 inches long!

I went in for an induction at 1 pm and waited because things got crazy in l&d (emergency c section for a 25 week old!!) so finally they started the pitocin at 5 pm, and they checked me after a few hours and I was still at 3 cm 50% effaced (which I'd been for over 2 weeks) but I started having some really painful back labor and and decided to get the epidural around 8:30 pml!! Soon after that they broke my water and right away I was 4 cm and 80% effaced! They were suspecting that he was face up but couldn't tell for sure. They also started to get worried because every time I had a contraction the baby's heart rate would dip, they checked me around 10:45 pm and I was at 7 cm and they decided to watch for 15 minutes to see if his heartrate kept dipping. After 20 minutes I started feeling a lot of pressure with each contraction and they checked me again and I was at 9 cm!! He was definitely face up and they talked about using the vacuum to get him out. I tried pushing a few times and the baby was dropping really low but his heart rate was still dipping so they decided to put water back in to try to relieve the pressure of wherever the cord was caught and they also stopped the pitocin, yhis was all at midnight, so he was going to born on the 12^th! They decided to wait for about 20 minutes to see what would happen. My contractions got a lot weaker, but the baby's heartrate stopped dipping with each one! So 20 minutes later they checked and he was very low so they hooked the pitocin back up and the contractions got really painful with a lot of pressure and I had to push so at 12:30 am they let me start pushing and they were thinking that if I could get him low enough then they could get him out with the vacuum but I pushed a few times. I definitely got him low enough and they decided to let me push to see if I could get him out without help. I started feeling like I had to just constantly push not just with the contractions because of how much pain and pressure there was from his head being down so far. So I pushed a few more times and I finally got him out at 12:52 am and I was SO relieved to finally have my sweet baby boy out!! My long and difficult pregnancy was over and it was so worth it! They cleaned him up which felt like it took forever because I didn't get to hold him yet! The placenta finally came out and they showed me the place where the twin that I'd lost at 11 weeks was reabsorbed, they sent it off to pathology to see if they could get enough from it to test if it really was triploidy and partial molar, and I am hoping also to find out it's gender but I don't think that they will have enough to do the testing because it was so long ago that I lost it. Finally they had cleaned my baby up and weighed/measured him, they put him in my arms and he was SO tiny and so perfect! His head was in the 15th percentile and I am SO very grateful because I don't think I could've gotten him out by myself if it was any bigger. I felt way more this time around even though I got an epidural both times, I assume it is because he was face up so there was a lot more pressure! I am so glad that pregnancy is over and I am so grateful to have my little Brigham!!