My Birth Story – Very Large Baby Successfully Delivered

Let me just start by saying yes I birthed a 11lb 4oz baby, no I did not have gestational diabetes, and yes I delivered him vaginally.  Now that that is out of the way let’s go back a little bit. When I was 19 years old I had my daughter. She was born at 41 weeks, at 8lbs 12oz.  I delivered her naturally. Was in labor for roughly 7 hours, pushed three times and she was out. I had a second degree tear from an episiotomy, but besides that it was a very easy labor.  

Ten years later, at 29 I was now pregnant again. This time with a little boy.  I went to an OBGYN practice that had a lot of different doctors within the practice.  As a result of this they wanted you to try and see all the doctors within the practice so you would know whomever was going to be on call if you went into spontaneous labor.  This was new to me, the doctor that delivered my daughter was his own practice, he was in an office by himself, it was him at every appointment and him at the delivery even at midnight.  Since this was my second pregnancy though I figured I knew kind of what to expect so I didn’t mind seeing different doctors. Now though after this experience I would stick with going and seeing my one and only doctor if I could have. 

Each visit I went to I was seeing a different doctor.  First trimester I didn’t have very many symptoms, a tad nauseous and tired but no crazy morning sickness or anything.  I was measuring a little big and every time I would see a doctor they would ask me how big my first child was, when I would say 8lbs 12oz, they would say oh yep tracking to have a big baby again.  Once into my second trimester my energy came back enough for me to even take a vacation to Disney World. During my second trimester was the last appointment I had with my regular OB doctor. After this I saw a different doctor every week. 

When I went in for my first gestational diabetes test I failed by 3 points.  How infuriating. When I went back for the three hour test where you get blood drawn every hour three times after you drink the glucose drink I passed with no problem.  At this point I did start watching my carbohydrate intake. Mainly though while I was pregnant all I wanted was fruit. I was at the grocery store almost every other day picking up more strawberries, bananas, and kiwis. I was still ok with not gaining too much weight, and my stomach was measuring good.  

 At the end of my second trimester and into my third I started having extreme pelvic pressure.  Sometimes when I would stand up it felt like the baby was going to fall out. I was in horrible pain that sometimes by the end of the day I would just want to weep.  It was horrible uncomfortableness in my hips. I expected some discomfort, but this was way more than what I experienced in my first pregnancy. When I would go in for my appointments the doctors would ask me how I was feeling.  I would be sure to tell them, I am so uncomfortable, my hips hurt, the pelvis pressure does not feel right. They would nod and I would get oh yeah second pregnancies are a kick in the butt. This made me so mad. Being pregnant though with all those rushing hormones a lot made me mad.  But I was so angry coming away from those appointments when I knew something just wasn’t right. I felt like they were just discarding my discomfort just because it was the second pregnancy. As time went on I kept having more and more pelvic pressure. Around the thirty week mark they checked the baby’s position and he was head down.  Hallelujah, I thought the end was near. I wanted him to be full term and make it to at least the 37-38 week mark but just knowing that he was already head down I was so pleased. They then told me some of the pressure I was feeling was probably due to him already being head down.  

We get to 36 weeks and they say at your next appointment we want to do an ultrasound.  They wanted to get an estimate at how big they thought he was going to be, and make sure that he was truly positioned head down.  At this point my stomach was huge. I was almost certain he had turned because I was getting punched or kicked on either side of my ribs at the same time I was getting punched or kicked in the bladder and then there would be a giant bulge up in the middle of my upper stomach.  It did not feel like a head down baby. When we went in for the ultrasound, first thing the tech checked was yes baby was head down. Good! Next thing she did was try to measure him to see how big he was. At 36 weeks they estimated him to be 8lbs 5oz. His belly alone was measuring at 40 weeks, in the 99th percentile.  He was going to be a giant baby.  

After this ultrasound the doctor did tell me it can be off a little either way, so he may come out smaller than that or he may come out bigger.  This ultrasound happened at 37 weeks, so they told me next time I came in they would check me to see if I had started dilating. Now I was having braxton hicks contractions almost daily for about a month before this, and they were getting more intense.  I kept trying to get them to check me if I was dilated or not but they wouldn’t. My pelvic pressure was still super intense, and I could barely walk at all without just being in excruciating pain. At this ultrasound appointment they said we have three options.  The earliest they will let me deliver was at 39 weeks. My due date was February 16th, so that put us at February 10th. So option number one was to schedule a C-section for the 10th, option number two was to be induced on the 10th, and option number three was to wait to see if I went to labor on my own.  Well option number three was not a choice, I was either going with one or two. The doctor I was meeting with said she would suggest option number one or two just to help control weight gain of the baby so that he didn’t get too big. I have nothing against a C-section, but I knew what to expect from a vaginal delivery so we scheduled me to be induced on the 10th.  

At my next appointment they checked to see if I had started dilating.  I was three centimeters dilated. She said she could feel my baby’s head.  I was encouraged. I knew I was about to be induced Monday, but this made me know my body was going to be ready to be induced.  The doctor said with how I was going I could deliver any time between now and Monday. I went home and immediately started walking.  Not fast mind you because my hips and pelvis all hurt too much, but I started to walk as much as I could. After being checked that Wednesday I had contractions for a while that evening.  As soon as I laid down to sleep though they stopped.   

Nothing happened or progressed until Saturday night.  We had gotten home late and I just didn’t feel right. I was uncomfortable and I was having terrible period pain is what it felt like.  With my daughter my labor was all in my back. I had back pain to the point where I couldn’t sit still. Now with this second baby I was having period cramps that felt horrible.  They would sometimes take my breath away. Well then I started noticing how they came and went away almost in rhythm. People always say you will know when you are in labor, I know with my daughter I did not know, this time around though I was more intuned with my body to kind of know what to look for.  So I casually got a piece of paper and started timing my contractions, because at this point I was pretty sure they were contractions. I had tried to get up and move to see if they went away and they didn’t. At 10pm Saturday February 8th I started timing my contractions. By 12am Sunday February 9th we were on the way to the hospital.  I had had contractions that were 3 minutes apart lasting about 30-40 seconds each for 2 hours. The on-call nurse told me to come on in because with second babies they can come fast and labor can progress quickly.  

We made our way to the hospital, got checked in and taken up to a triage room.  There they checked me and I was 5.5cm dilated. Progress had been made so they admitted me.  At this point it’s around 3am Sunday morning. They asked me if I was wanting an epidural. I said yes please.  So they gave me a bag of fluid first, this is to help your body react better to the epidural. I got my bag of fluid and then the anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural.  Within about ten minutes of me having my epidural placed I started to feel awful. The room was spinning, I knew I was going to pass out. The nurse came in and told me my blood pressure had dropped to 80/50.  They started pushing medicine to get my blood pressure to come up and were monitoring the baby to make sure he wasn’t in distress. Finally my blood pressure started to come back up. Through this whole time of them trying to get my blood pressure up the baby was fine, showed no signs of distress.  I was back to feeling better, but they were having to take my blood pressure every five minutes so I was getting no rest at all. The epidural was on a pump so if I felt like I needed more medicine I just pushed a button and more medicine would be given otherwise it was just a normal amount. 

A few hours went by, I was still contracting but I wasn’t making any progress.  They decided to get me pitocin to try and speed my body up into labor. My body went from 7cm dilated to 10 in about 45 minutes after they bumped my pitocin up after hours of nothing happening.  At this point it’s about 2:30pm Sunday February 9th. I call in the nurse and state that I am having major pressure. So she says ok we will do some practice pushes. The baby was still really far up, so though my body was ready to push he hadn’t dropped down all the way.  They asked if I could wait a little bit to start pushing. I said I will try. I called them back in at 2:50pm saying I couldn’t wait any longer. At this point I started to feel a lot more. I could tell when my contractions were coming and I could feel the extreme pressure.  When the doctor came in and started manipulating my cervix so the baby’s head could come out I wanted to leap off the table from the pain. I knew I could have hit the button for more epidural medicine, but was too scared to in case my blood pressure dropped again. They said it was go time and told me to start pushing for real.   

This is when it started to get crazy.  I kept pushing and pushing and all I kept hearing was them saying just one more push and his head will be out.  Well one more push turned into seven more pushes and he still wasn’t coming out. Finally the doctor said just one more try and if he doesn’t make it out I will make a little cut (episiotomy.)  Well that one more try turned into three more tries. I was exhausted having been up for roughly 30 hours straight at this point. I looked at my husband and all I could say to him was I can’t do it, I just can’t do it.  Finally the doctor gave me an episiotomy, and the next push his head came out. Finally! But he was stuck. They kept telling me to push, push. I was trying, along with screaming,get him out get him out. When I opened my eyes there was a nurse jumping and pushing her whole body down onto my stomach to try and help push the baby out, he was not coming.  There was no medicine left over in the epidural at all, the doctor yelled at the nurse to push my button and I could hear her say there is no medicine left. So a nurse was jumping on me. The doctor was trying to wedge the baby out and all I could do was scream and hope I was trying to push him out. Finally they got him out.

The pediatrician took him and made sure he was ok.  The whole front middle of his face was bruised, and he had two blood vessels popped, one in each eye from all the pressure of being in the birth canal for so long.  Besides that he was fine. They went to weigh him and their faces were shocked. The pediatrician hollered out 11lbs 4oz. I looked at the doctor and her face dropped.  The practice has if the baby is going to be 10lbs or over, it’s an absolute C-section. Born at 3:37pm February 9th. I was in labor for 17 hours. I had a grade 3 or 4 episiotomy tear.  So once the anesthesiologist came back in and gave me a little boost of numbing medicine the doctor could stitch me up. My body was so overloaded in pain that I couldn’t hold my son for a little bit because all my body could try and do was get rid of the pain.  He is the chubbiest, most perfect baby, and after such a hard delivery he had nothing wrong with him. 

I wanted to look at that doctor and tell her maybe that whole practice should have taken my discomfort a little more seriously.  Maybe they should have done an ultrasound on me when I came in knowing that he was estimated to be big, and then neither him or me would have gone through that trauma.  I hold the record at the hospital I delivered at for having the biggest baby delivered by vaginal delivery. 

Would I do it again like that if I could?  No, things I would change, would be to stick to one doctor throughout the entire pregnancy.  That way they could have known my discomfort from week to week and maybe caught something sooner.  I also would have made them check my epidural before I started pushing to make sure I wasn’t going to run out of medicine in the process of pushing.  Had I known my little boy was going to be 11 lbs I would have gone ahead and scheduled a C-section. With that said though he came out healthy and I have made a full recovery.  Not many people can say they have birthed an 11 lb baby.