My Birth Story

I am so excited to share the story of the birth of my son Mason Grant Wozniak. I love telling the story so much and in great detail that I figured I should write it all down so I won't forget it (as if that would be possible).

On March 12 at about 8AM Zack was leaving to go to an all day shoot in Long Island. This was the first shoot he had to go to with this particular show he was working on. We said our good byes and not 5 minutes after he left did I go to the bathroom and low and behold I think I just passed my mucous plug AHH. I called Zack right away and told him - but the doctor said that passing the plug doesn't necessarily mean labor is imminent it could be 2 weeks before baby! So I told him not to worry and that I would take it easy that day. Funny part of this is that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this whole scenario until Zack reminded me a couple weeks ago. This had happened so early in a day that was FILLED with excitement that I literally forgot.

I called my mom around 11:00 and said that I would join her for lunch. We went to lunch and I was SOOO tired that we left early. When my mom was driving me home she offered to take me to get a pedicure and I said no! That has to be a sign of something happening because I never turn down getting my nails done.

My mom dropped me off at home and I was SOOO tired but I had been obsessing about seeing Alice in Wonderland 3D. I knew if I didn't see it now then i would never see it because of the baby. I called my sister and she agreed to go with me - we went to the showing at 1:45. I was so exhausted I literally fell asleep TWICE during the movie. I am so stubborn I HAD to see it. haha. After the movie my sister and I went and ate at FATBURGER. Fatburger is a total greaseball burger place which I figured was good for me since the previous 2 weeks  I had been trying to eat spicy and random things to get me into labor.

My sister dropped me off at home around 5:00. AHH my house to myself I was so excited! Luckily for me it was a Friday night and there was soo many good movies on TV. I lit a candle and was enjoying myself until about 8PM contractions started!!! I knew it was time. I texted Zack who would be on set until about 2AM that the labor had started but I knew that it would be some time still. I basically just relaxed and enjoyed myself until the contactions got to be about 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. I called my mom and sister and told them to come over and keep me company before we went to the hospital. This was about 10:00. We all hung out while I continued to labor ! I took a shower and packed my bags  and we headed to the hospital!! I was soo excited :) we got to the hospital around 12:00 and the nurses checked me and I was 2CM dilated. They told me to hang out some more and they would check me in about 2 hours. Somewhere during this time Zack had made it to the hospital. Poor guy he was SOO tired from a super long day at work but excited at the thought of our baby coming! Well at about 4AM the nurse said labor wasn't progressing and they said we could stay there or go home, I opted to go home I knew labor would go faster and I would sleep better at home. SO we got everything together and went back home. I certainly was disappointed but I knew deep down that this was not false labor.

Zack and I went to bed and woke up around 10AM. I had been having contractions while I was sleeping contiously but they were not too bad. When we woke up I was in FULL BLOWN LABOR. Wow I could certainly tell the difference between last nights contractions and the ones I was having now. They were soo painful I could not even move or talk during them. They were coming so fast and hard  I hardly made it through my shower, but stubborn old me HAD to shower. Zack and I packed our bags again and headed back to the hospital I was all set up their at 12:30!

My mom and Zack were allowed to stay with me in the labor room. Zack and I had worked with a Doula, she taught us all of these great techniques to use during labor. Well, none of it mattered because by this point I was in so much pain that I couldn't even stand when Zack or my mom LOOKED at me. I had to literally focus on one point and breathe. I had decided to get an epidural so when that finally arrived it was about 4:00 and I was only 3-4 CM dilated.  The epidural was FANTASTIC ! I loved it. I am so grateful though that I had gotten to labor for as long as I did because it was an AMAZING experience and I truly enjoyed every moment of it. Once I had the epidural I was hanging out reading magazines and talking! Such a difference. The doctor came in at 6PM and checked me and I was ready to start pushing! The epidural had helped me relax so the labor was able to progress much faster.

We started pushing around 6:00. My contractions had slowed down a bit so they gave me pitocin so they would come faster which would give me more opportunities to push. We pushed and pushed for 2 hours and the baby's head was stuck. I was feeling great and so excited for my baby to come but the doctor said that he wanted to do a C section because I had already pushed for 2 hours and it's not best for baby to continue pushing especially because he believed the baby was stuck. Zack said that he could see the babies head and his dark hair but he just couldn't get past that point. I agreed to do the C-section because I was worried about my baby potentially losing oxygen. One good thing is that the baby had NO signs of any distress at all! Thank God right!

One bad thing is that when you start pushing they stop your epidural so that you can push harder. So by this time it is 8:30ish and I am starting to get really uncomfortable. Ughh. Also this happens to be the terrential rain storm so it takes the doctor extra long to get to the hospital because roads are literally CLOSED! Finally they take me into the OR and set me up to get the C-section. By this time I am exhausted and feeling pretty sick from all the medications. Zack is their next to me and it only takes 8 minutes to get the baby out. I heard his little cry and I knew that was really good. Zack gets to go see the baby and he wraps him up and shows me is face but I could hardly even open my eyes. They take the baby to get all checked out and I have to go sit in a recovery room for an hour. I was shaking like crazy from the drugs and the surgery, no fun. I was counting down the minutes on the clock until I got to see the baby. Zack came back in to check on me and tell me all was good with the little guy. 5lbs 15oz and 17 inches long! He showed me the card with his footprints on it and his one foot only had 4 toe prints and   Zack said that he only has four toes on his one foot. I was like Ok - but luckilly he was only kidding around the toe just didn't get ink on it or something. I told Zack that he HAD to tell my mom to move my car, because I knew that were it was parked gets flooded out bad. I was obsessing about my car because I wanted to just enjoy the hospital time with my baby and not have to worry about a flooded out car.

Finally I was brought back up to the room where Zack met me and the baby was shortly behind him. It is kind of hard to express meeting my son for the first time but it was wonderful. Definitely not the way I pictured it but great none-the-less. We spent some time alone with the baby and then we allowed our parents to come in and meet the baby for a little bit. I was really tired and most concerned about breastfeeding so I didn't want them to stay to long. Poor baby was so hungry! He kept opening his mouth to nurse and I just wanted to feed him so bad!

I will end the labor story here! The whole experience was absolutely amazing! I loved every second of it. The recovery is a different story altogether.