Birth Story

For those that want some of the not too gory details. If you don't like details though I don't suggest you read it.

***Megan's Perspective of the Birth***
Everything was going so smoothly and easy with this pregnancy. There was of course some normal pregnancy aches and heartburn, but overall it seemed great. Then a couple weeks ago I started itching, enough that it was keeping me awake most of the night, every night. I tried lotion and petroleum jelly and the nurse recommended gold bonds medicated powder and benadryl so I tried those as well. Nothing worked. I found out about Cholestasis of Pregnancy as I was trying to find some relief and called my doctor to see if that could be what I had since I had some of the other symptoms as well (dark urine, lack of appetite, fatigue...from not sleeping of course). I had some blood work done which came back elevated which means I tested positive for the Cholestasis (also known as ICP). Basically due to an unknown reason with the pregnancy my liver wasn't functioning properly. The side effects are an extreme annoyance for the mother and especially dangerous for the baby. There are only 1 out of 1000 pregnancies diagnosed with ICP, so it is very rare which is why my nurse didn't think of it when I mentioned all my symptoms. She had only seen 2 cases in 10 years of practice.
So, because of a high risk of stillbirth, it was decided it was safest for the baby to come as early as possible. We were scheduled to have an amniocentesis on Sunday morning. This tested the lungs of the baby and showed that he was developed enough to be delivered with no problem. We were then scheduled to be induced Monday Morning (March 9th) and 8am.
I was already dilated 4cm when I was checked in (luckily my body was getting ready on its own). The pitocin was started at a low drip at about 8:50am to start me with regular contractions. James and I were having a great time watching the Baby Shower episode of The Office and talking. By about 10:50 I had dilated to a 6 and the doctor ruptured the water to continue the labor. At this point things went extremely fast. I'm not exactly sure of the timing, because after the water broke all I could do was concentrate on breathing through contractions. I just know that within the hour I told James I needed to push. He called the nurse who quickly got the doctors in the room. They checked and found I was 10 cm and ready to go. So, by 11:55am Baby Boy Finlay arrived safe and healthy into the world. For being 3 weeks early he is an extremely big boy...off the charts big. They checked his glucose to make sure I didn't have an unfound case of gestational diabetes. He checked out normal though, so at 8lbs 6oz and 21 inches long it seems he may take after his Dad's height and build.
He is healthy, I am healthy (the ICP is supposed to go right away after delivery) and we are all very happy. Now, we just need him to tell us what he wants his name to be.