Buxton Patrick Smith 2.25.09

Here is Buxton's birth story. It is graphic so consider this your warning.

At 4:30 pm on 2.24.09 we checked into the hospital. About 9pm the Dr. inserted a wafer in me to "ripen" my cervix for the induction. By 3am I was having pretty good contractions on my own, but they weren't horrible, yet. About 5am I took a bath in the whirlpool tub in my room (just one of the many pleasures of The BirthPlace at Gaston Memorial). After the bath my "bloody show" came and it was some show. There was so much blood that I was really worried about the baby and had thoughts that this was very bad. The nurse assured us that it was fine and the baby was fine. I continued to bleed a lot and the contractions really started coming within the next few hours. I was given the Pitocin to help get me dilated past the 2cm I still was, and this caused the contractions to be right on top of each other and very painful. I had to get some medicine for the pain but it only lasted 45 minutes. This was the best 45 min. of the next 48 hours though. What that med. wore off I had to get the epidural...I could not take the pain any longer. Not sure what my dilation was at this point but it was early to be getting the epidural. For about 4hours I felt good. Ben and my Mom were with me the whole time and were so amazing. My epi started to run out but we didn't realize this until the contractions were really bad again and 30 sec. apart. I had to deal with this pain for about an hour before I could get another bolus epidural medicine again. At this point the mid-wife come in to check me...I was 8cm but this is when she dropped the c-section bomb. I had to wait for my Dr. to get to the hospital for him to make the decision. I was a wreck, in horrible pain, and crying uncontrollably at this time. Ben and Mom saved me and got me to pull myself together. When Dr. Wilcox showed up I was still at 8cm and he informed me that Buxton's head was swelling as well as my cervix. It was time for a c-section, right then. The next 30 min. were very scary and I was literally strapped (arms and all) to a table in a surgery room with at least 10 people participating in the surgery. Ben stood at my head and watched every part. I was awake but had been given another bolus (#3) and epidural med. I felt way more than I wanted, including the head and shoulders coming out. I heard him scream when they pulled him out then Ben headed over to cut the cord and hold him. Also at this time the entire staff in the surgery room started making bets on his weight when they saw him and all their jaws dropped at seeing such a big baby being removed from such a small person. I got stitched up while I slept about 45 min. and woke up shaking uncontrollable and freezing cold. They got me comfortable then took me to another room where I got to meet Buxton for the first time. I also nursed him right away and this went well considering all the drugs we both had in our system. I was wheeled back to our room where all our family had been waiting. Buxton met most of his grandparents then they headed home. I stayed awake all night, thanks to the adrenaline from the day and the fact that I was falling in love with my most beautiful son. All 9 lbs 9oz, and 22 inches of him! So far he has been amazing...only crying when needing to be changed and needing to eat. He has already found his hands and loves putting them in his mouth. He also can hold his head up very well on his own...yes he is not even 2 days old! Ben and I are loving every minute of the cuddling, swaddling, changing diapers, nursing, etc. We feel so incredibly blessed and even with this horrible labor experience and all the pain I have now I have to say every bit was worth it. I mean look at this beautiful child: