Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Birth Story
Back on January 31, I was having a bad day. With medium contractions from 4:00 am to 10:00 am, I was seriously grumpy and sleep deprived. Being a Tuesday, my husband had band practice, so was out for the evening. Argh, I was seriously unhappy thinking that I was likely weeks away from giving birth and that those weeks would be spent in serious discomfort with minimal sleep.
I went to bed around 10:00 and read for a while. At 11:18 pm, I had a sharp, strong contraction that actually felt pointy. I had had these pointy feeling contractions with more frequency in the late evening. I swore that the baby was trying to swim her way out and would periodically give me a big poke.
Just a few minutes before midnight I had another strong pointy contraction that was followed by my water breaking. The gush woke me from dozing instantly with an attempt to avoid leaking all over the bed and everything else. Once I got past the ick factor the excitement set in. Hurray - we were going to have a baby! DH was home from practice, but still up. I got cleaned up and went downstairs to tell him and call the doctor. The doctor told me to head into the hospital. At this point, my contractions were not regular and although I'd heard about people staying home through early labor, I jumped at the offer to go in.
Unexpectantly, I kept gushing. Laughing or the baby moving set off a gush. After changing my outfit twice, I gave up and brought a towel to sit on in the car. What an exciting time.
We got to the hospital at about 12:45 am. At the hospital, we checked into triage and they confirmed that what I was leaking was amniotic fluid. After very few minutes, they moved us to a labor and delivery room. By then, my contractions were between 5-10 minutes apart but not that bad. I was 80% effaced, but only a finger tip dilated. They put in a hep-lock, sent us on a walk, then I took a bath. The contractions got worse - to the point that I had expected from serious labor - where I couldn't do anything else when they hit. The hours passed slowly. We didn't sleep. Slowly, the euphoria of the idea of the baby coming soon wore off and the pain started tiring me out. They sent us on another walk. I can't remember if they checked my dilation during the morning, but they must have. I think I was 90% effaced, but no change in dilation.
We tried to have breakfast around 8:00 am - just toast and yoghurt. But the toast made my gums seriously bleed (an annoying habit in late pregnancy along with daily bloody noses), which distracted everyone and caused some questions over my coagulation. (This was checked and was fine.)
Late morning, the nurse and doctor started offering a narcotic to take the edge off the contractions and so I could hopefully get some sleep. At about 11:00 am, I took them up on it. It lasted about 15 minutes. No sleep, but the limited pain relief was wonderful. That's when I decided to go for the epideral which came at about 11:30 am. I always knew I wasn't stretchy, but the doctor had some serious problems inserting the catheter for the epideral. Apparently, there just wasn't room between my bones and ligaments. Each new attempt to get it in was further down my back. After the 3rd or 4th shot, he got it in; they taped me up; and I started feeling heat and then pins and needles. Some time mid day, they started me on IV antibiotics.
After the epideral, they started pitocin. At about 1:00 pm, my cervix finally measured 1 cm dilated. (Not much, but at least something.) The epideral affected my right side more than my left. They kept me shifting sides every so often to keep the epideral working on both sides. Of course I could no longer get up out of bed and they wouldn't let me drink or eat anything other than ice chips.
They also inserted a catheter - something I'd totally forgotten would happen and had been dreading. It wasn't the least bit bad as I couldn't feel a thing. (At this point, I had no modesty. Everyone in the room had seen it all by then.)
Time past slowly. I remember that at 5:00 pm I was 5 cm dilated and at 7:00 pm I was 7 cm dilated. They kept upping the pitocin to increase my contractions. We watched TV. I remember being thirsty and wanting all of the drinks that the people on TV had. Yum - soda. Oh - juice. The ice chips were better than nothing, but not much. They had me on some hydrating drip the whole time, so I couldn't have been dehydrated.
At some point, I started feeling serious pain north of my belly button on the left side. While I had a button to increase the epideral medication, it didn't help the pain, and simply made my right leg feel more dead. I did get an "add" to my medication during some point in the afternoon/evening which actually helped for a while. I did doze.
The pain was building again in the late evening of 2/1/06. It was continuous in my back and wrapped around to the front. At this point, I couldn't feel either leg, but agreed to another "add" because I just couldn't deal with the pain. Finally at 11:00 pm, I was 10 cm dilated and it was time to push. They added stirrups to the table on which they rested my legs between contractions. Watching the monitor, the nurse held one leg and my husband the other when it was time to push. I grabbed both legs and pushed to the nurse's direction - three pushes for every contraction.
The back pain was almost non-existent once the pushing started. While I still had pain in the upper left front, it was reasonable and helped me sense when the contractions were coming on (everything south of my belly button was dead to the world by then.)
The pushing was a big relief. At first, I felt energized and excited by the idea of being so close to having the baby. But, after an hour, I started seriously losing steam. The day and the pain had caught up with me. I certainly didn't want to stop, but wasn't sure how much longer I could go on.
At some point, my husband got to see a bit of the baby's head. We learned that she had dark hair so took after her father. That was a great moment.
At 12:30 am, someone started bargaining with me (either the doctor or the nurse) about how much longer I could go on. My husband suggested a half an hour. I offered 15 minutes. At about the same time, the doctor started asking about my tail bone; whether I had ever broken it. I hadn't that I knew of. She was concerned that something about my tail bone might mean that the baby couldn't fit coming out. She started talking about vacuum or forceps, but stated that if she used them and it didn't work, we'd have to switch to a c-section. At that point, I didn't want any of it. I felt a bit doomed; that things just couldn't work out whatever they did.
After asking questions about the potential side effects of the vacuum and trying to understand the tail bone thing (I never did), we agreed to the vacuum. The idea being to use the vacuum (in addition to my pushing) to get the baby on the way and then switch back to me pushing alone.
The vacuum part seemed to last about 5 pushes and things must have progressed because we went back to me pushing only. Around this time, they offered me a mirror to see the baby being born. I agreed, then spent my pushes trying to tell the second nurse which direction to move the mirror so that I could see. Everyone was so supportive during the pushing. I felt like a champ. (I also felt like I was going to blow a blood vessel in my head or neck from trying to push as hard as I could.)
A few more pushes and the baby's head came out. After seeing just a bit of her head, the whole thing looked huge. The next part passed in an instance. She had the cord wrapped around her
neck, so the doctor cut it. (My husband said that blood went everywhere, but I didn't see it. I think I was too focused on the baby.) Either before or after that, they had me slow down and get her shoulders out. The rest of her just slid out. I felt pressure with her head coming out, but no real pain. They put her on my chest for a moment and then took her away to be suctioned and given oxygen. She didn't seem to be breathing well. Her cries were small and rattled. They said she had a lot of mucus in her lungs that wasn't coming out immediately. The 2 nurses worked over her while the doctor delivered the placenta, I think. Although, maybe the doctor worked on her for a while too. I can't remember.
Although it seemed scary at the time, apparently things were pretty okay; Apgars 7 and 9 and she eventually started a hearty cry. Prior to that I kept asking my husband to take more pictures. I was so convinced that something was going wrong and I wanted as many photos as I could get of her while things were still relatively okay. (He kept looking at me like I was crazy.) Although I still had limited feeling in my legs, I did manage to swing one off of a stirrup so I could watch the nurses work on the baby. The doctor wasn't impressed and it got put back up.
I had no tearing, just a few lacerations up front, so the doctor stitched those up while the nurse measured, weighed and washed the baby.
The baby was born at 12:53 am on 2/2/06 - about 25 hours after the whole thing started. Strangely the longest and shortest 25 hours of my life.
I went to bed around 10:00 and read for a while. At 11:18 pm, I had a sharp, strong contraction that actually felt pointy. I had had these pointy feeling contractions with more frequency in the late evening. I swore that the baby was trying to swim her way out and would periodically give me a big poke.
Just a few minutes before midnight I had another strong pointy contraction that was followed by my water breaking. The gush woke me from dozing instantly with an attempt to avoid leaking all over the bed and everything else. Once I got past the ick factor the excitement set in. Hurray - we were going to have a baby! DH was home from practice, but still up. I got cleaned up and went downstairs to tell him and call the doctor. The doctor told me to head into the hospital. At this point, my contractions were not regular and although I'd heard about people staying home through early labor, I jumped at the offer to go in.
Unexpectantly, I kept gushing. Laughing or the baby moving set off a gush. After changing my outfit twice, I gave up and brought a towel to sit on in the car. What an exciting time.
We got to the hospital at about 12:45 am. At the hospital, we checked into triage and they confirmed that what I was leaking was amniotic fluid. After very few minutes, they moved us to a labor and delivery room. By then, my contractions were between 5-10 minutes apart but not that bad. I was 80% effaced, but only a finger tip dilated. They put in a hep-lock, sent us on a walk, then I took a bath. The contractions got worse - to the point that I had expected from serious labor - where I couldn't do anything else when they hit. The hours passed slowly. We didn't sleep. Slowly, the euphoria of the idea of the baby coming soon wore off and the pain started tiring me out. They sent us on another walk. I can't remember if they checked my dilation during the morning, but they must have. I think I was 90% effaced, but no change in dilation.
We tried to have breakfast around 8:00 am - just toast and yoghurt. But the toast made my gums seriously bleed (an annoying habit in late pregnancy along with daily bloody noses), which distracted everyone and caused some questions over my coagulation. (This was checked and was fine.)
Late morning, the nurse and doctor started offering a narcotic to take the edge off the contractions and so I could hopefully get some sleep. At about 11:00 am, I took them up on it. It lasted about 15 minutes. No sleep, but the limited pain relief was wonderful. That's when I decided to go for the epideral which came at about 11:30 am. I always knew I wasn't stretchy, but the doctor had some serious problems inserting the catheter for the epideral. Apparently, there just wasn't room between my bones and ligaments. Each new attempt to get it in was further down my back. After the 3rd or 4th shot, he got it in; they taped me up; and I started feeling heat and then pins and needles. Some time mid day, they started me on IV antibiotics.
After the epideral, they started pitocin. At about 1:00 pm, my cervix finally measured 1 cm dilated. (Not much, but at least something.) The epideral affected my right side more than my left. They kept me shifting sides every so often to keep the epideral working on both sides. Of course I could no longer get up out of bed and they wouldn't let me drink or eat anything other than ice chips.
They also inserted a catheter - something I'd totally forgotten would happen and had been dreading. It wasn't the least bit bad as I couldn't feel a thing. (At this point, I had no modesty. Everyone in the room had seen it all by then.)
Time past slowly. I remember that at 5:00 pm I was 5 cm dilated and at 7:00 pm I was 7 cm dilated. They kept upping the pitocin to increase my contractions. We watched TV. I remember being thirsty and wanting all of the drinks that the people on TV had. Yum - soda. Oh - juice. The ice chips were better than nothing, but not much. They had me on some hydrating drip the whole time, so I couldn't have been dehydrated.
At some point, I started feeling serious pain north of my belly button on the left side. While I had a button to increase the epideral medication, it didn't help the pain, and simply made my right leg feel more dead. I did get an "add" to my medication during some point in the afternoon/evening which actually helped for a while. I did doze.
The pain was building again in the late evening of 2/1/06. It was continuous in my back and wrapped around to the front. At this point, I couldn't feel either leg, but agreed to another "add" because I just couldn't deal with the pain. Finally at 11:00 pm, I was 10 cm dilated and it was time to push. They added stirrups to the table on which they rested my legs between contractions. Watching the monitor, the nurse held one leg and my husband the other when it was time to push. I grabbed both legs and pushed to the nurse's direction - three pushes for every contraction.
The back pain was almost non-existent once the pushing started. While I still had pain in the upper left front, it was reasonable and helped me sense when the contractions were coming on (everything south of my belly button was dead to the world by then.)
The pushing was a big relief. At first, I felt energized and excited by the idea of being so close to having the baby. But, after an hour, I started seriously losing steam. The day and the pain had caught up with me. I certainly didn't want to stop, but wasn't sure how much longer I could go on.
At some point, my husband got to see a bit of the baby's head. We learned that she had dark hair so took after her father. That was a great moment.
At 12:30 am, someone started bargaining with me (either the doctor or the nurse) about how much longer I could go on. My husband suggested a half an hour. I offered 15 minutes. At about the same time, the doctor started asking about my tail bone; whether I had ever broken it. I hadn't that I knew of. She was concerned that something about my tail bone might mean that the baby couldn't fit coming out. She started talking about vacuum or forceps, but stated that if she used them and it didn't work, we'd have to switch to a c-section. At that point, I didn't want any of it. I felt a bit doomed; that things just couldn't work out whatever they did.
After asking questions about the potential side effects of the vacuum and trying to understand the tail bone thing (I never did), we agreed to the vacuum. The idea being to use the vacuum (in addition to my pushing) to get the baby on the way and then switch back to me pushing alone.
The vacuum part seemed to last about 5 pushes and things must have progressed because we went back to me pushing only. Around this time, they offered me a mirror to see the baby being born. I agreed, then spent my pushes trying to tell the second nurse which direction to move the mirror so that I could see. Everyone was so supportive during the pushing. I felt like a champ. (I also felt like I was going to blow a blood vessel in my head or neck from trying to push as hard as I could.)
A few more pushes and the baby's head came out. After seeing just a bit of her head, the whole thing looked huge. The next part passed in an instance. She had the cord wrapped around her
neck, so the doctor cut it. (My husband said that blood went everywhere, but I didn't see it. I think I was too focused on the baby.) Either before or after that, they had me slow down and get her shoulders out. The rest of her just slid out. I felt pressure with her head coming out, but no real pain. They put her on my chest for a moment and then took her away to be suctioned and given oxygen. She didn't seem to be breathing well. Her cries were small and rattled. They said she had a lot of mucus in her lungs that wasn't coming out immediately. The 2 nurses worked over her while the doctor delivered the placenta, I think. Although, maybe the doctor worked on her for a while too. I can't remember.
Although it seemed scary at the time, apparently things were pretty okay; Apgars 7 and 9 and she eventually started a hearty cry. Prior to that I kept asking my husband to take more pictures. I was so convinced that something was going wrong and I wanted as many photos as I could get of her while things were still relatively okay. (He kept looking at me like I was crazy.) Although I still had limited feeling in my legs, I did manage to swing one off of a stirrup so I could watch the nurses work on the baby. The doctor wasn't impressed and it got put back up.
I had no tearing, just a few lacerations up front, so the doctor stitched those up while the nurse measured, weighed and washed the baby.
The baby was born at 12:53 am on 2/2/06 - about 25 hours after the whole thing started. Strangely the longest and shortest 25 hours of my life.
