Ian's Birth Story

On Tuesday August 5th I went in for an ultrasound to measure the baby and get an idea of his size. Since I had gestational diabetes the doctor wanted to keep an eye on the baby to make sure he wasn't getting too big. Well he wasn't too big but one of his kidneys are larger than the other and the amniotic fluid was low. They didn't tell us this during the ultrasound but the doctor on call called us that evening around 8pm and asked us to come into the hospital that night to have labor induced. He felt that it would be best to get the baby out rather than risk the chance that the low amniotic fluid was related to the baby's kidneys which would have been a problem.
So we packed up up really fast and went to the hospital. They gave me a medicine to ripen my cervix and in the morning started the medicine that induces labor. My back ached and I could feel my stomach tightening up but other than that my contractions were not bad to this point. Around 3pm on the 6th the doctor broke my water and nearly instantly the contractions were really strong and painful in my back. They were also coming around 2 minutes apart giving me little rest in between the pain. After about an hour of that I decided to forgo my plan for a pain medicine free labor and asked for the epidural, even though the thought of it scared me a lot. The pain relief was amazing and I was able to get some sleep before I started pushing.
When the labor nurse told me that I was ready to start pushing they backed off the epidural, and we began what turned out to be an hour and 45 minutes of pushing. As the pain medicine wore off the back pain returned with a vengeance. It was due to Ian being in a slightly turned to the side position. The back pain in between pushes was far worse than the pain of pushing him out. The moment I saw that tiny baby being put on my chest there was no pain the world that would have made me care. He was so perfect and I couldn't believe that he had actually been inside my belly this whole time.
On his second day they performed an ultrasound on his kidneys and we were told that they look good. I am so thankful, and I am glad that they decided to bring Ian into the world early. Now that he is here I can't imagine my life without him.