Hello!!!
So our little princess is finally HERE! She is absolutely precious. It's already been a very interesting journey!!
So I'd like to share my birth story, not only for documentation purposes to remember it but also to help anyone else heading into a same situation! LONG POST, sorry!
So we found out on Tuesday AM that our induction was scheduled for the following day at 7 am. Apparently there was a lapse in communication and we weren't notified sooner, so we had about 24 hours to prepare. This was fine anyway, as 24 hours notice was better than labor starting and rushing to the hospital anyway! We spent our last hours doing last minute housework, running errands, went out to dinner and dessert, etc. Unfortunately my anxiety about the impending day was getting the best of me and was manifesting itself as severe nausea and a bad headache so we didn't get to do much. I tried relaxing as much as possible and was almost successful til the hospital called around 9 pm and asked where we were! Apparently there was another lapse in communication between the office and the hospital in scheduling. So that ramped up my anxiety again. Luckily we were able to still wait until the next morning to go in, but I was a nervous wreck still. I think we both got maybe 4 hours of sleep, if that. We ate in the morning and off we went to the hospital to have a baby!!
So we check in to the hospital at 7 am. Our first 2-3 hours was spent doing paperwork, answering admission questions, being hooked up to monitors, etc. I think that maybe our princess waited so long to come because she wanted mommy to try out some new technology at the hospital! We were about 1 of 7 moms that got to help the hospital trial new fetal monitoring technology, called Novii. It is a bluetooth enabled wireless fetal monitoring system. There were little patches that stayed on me and a little battery pack ( so my stomach kept lighting up hehe), and I was allowed to freely go to the bathroom, walk around our room, go in hallway (up to 100 feet) and all still be monitored on the system. It was surreal being able to see my contractions happening in real time in the hallway as we watched on the hallway monitors! My doctor was excited about it as she was able to monitor me from the physician office as I labored and never had to be unhooked! The freedom during labor was definitely excellent and I am glad I got to trial it!
In the AM I was still 3 cm, what I had been for over a week at that point. I was having lots of contractions on the monitors but I wasn't feeling them. I joked (shouldn't have) that if contractions were this easy, we could have 10 kids. That was not a good idea to test the labor waters lol!
At 0945 we got started on what is called Pitocin, the synthetic version of the bodies natural hormone called Oxytocin which helps the uterus contract. I was nervous about starting the Pitocin as I had heard that it makes contractions so much worse. But, that's kind of the whole point of an induction so I had to do it! Well, come around 11 am or so the pitocin had been increased a few times already. I was having more and more contractions on the monitor but still wasn't feeling them. Again I thought, hah this is great. Maybe I have a rare condition where I don't feel labor contractions, lol. Hah. Hah.
Around 1 pm, they came in to check my cervix and I was still at 3cm. So it was time to artificially break my water. I was like okay cool, lets get this show on the road. Breaking the water didn't hurt at all, was just slightly uncomfortable in a weird way. But let me tell you, approximately not even 2 minutes after I was finished with that, first "real" contraction came. BOOM.
I was like, ooh okay that hurt, quite a bit, but I can do this. Lets get that deep breathing started and all that jazz. Second, third, fourth one came, all pretty close together. It was getting pretty apparent that I didn't have that rare condition where I didn't feel contractions!! They were now super painful. The nurse suggested I walk around, so we got up and walked around room. I was soon doubled over either looking out our window on the window sill, or doubled over a chair, or we also tried the "slow dance" move (not as effective). I know they have all these other tools like the birthing ball, jacuzzi, etc, but at the moment all I could even think about was surviving and staying close to that chair! They were coming so fast and so close together that I had about 60-90 seconds in between each one. So not much rest time to recoup from the last contraction before the next one started. My husband asked what it felt like and the best thing I can come up with is a Tasmanian devil being in my abdomen doing cartwheels, with knives. And squeezing everything I have in me, with those knives.
Let me just say my husband also tried to make me laugh, and he almost got punched lol. Maybe I would have if I could gather the strength in between contractions!!
The lamaze breathing we learned was maybe 30% helpful. It honestly hurt so much, most of my breathing was half tear crying coming out instead. But it did help to try. I think the best coping mechanism was scratching the chair I was white knuckled holding on to...poor chair. But it survived. For some reason causing the chair pain during my pain helped transfer some of that pain....maybe?
Anyway, around 2 pm or so I decided I can't do this, NOPE. Not cut out for this whole natural birth thing. No can do. Nope. So I requested the epidural. Unfortunately, like I knew was a risk, the anesthesiologist was tied up at the moment but would get there as soon as possible. Waiting that time period was likely the worst of it all, as my body had already given in knowing in relief was coming but it wasn't here yet.
He got in the room about 2:45 and I had to sit still on the side of the bed which may have been the hardest part of it all. I was practically hugging the nurse sitting in front of me as I had to lean forward to get the epidural. From what I had heard mixed opinions of epidurals, I was only expecting a pinch when the numbing needle went in. Nope. Not true for me! At one point he warned me that I would feel a "twinge" in my leg and not to worry. He should have warned me it may instead feel like my leg was being electrocuted, that was more accurate. I yelped in reaction and he had to pause for me to stay still, and that was super hard.
Eventually the epidural was done. I of course have never had one so I am testing all the waters, I am moving my toes and I'm like MY TOES, I STILL FEEL THOSE TOES IS IT WORKING?!
It was. Apparently my other inaccurate vision of epidurals was that it was like a lightswitch and the contractions just "turned off". Not true. I had about 5-6 more very painful contractions after the epidural and I then thought, maybe I have a rare condition where epidurals don't work for me. MY TOES AFTER ALL ARE STILL MOVING. But alas, each contraction started getting more manageable. My toes never lost feeling, but slowly I found I couldn't move my legs anymore.
After all that pain from the previous 2 hours, all I could literally do at that point was stare at the ceiling, not moving a single muscle as I was so thankful for the pain to be gone and I didn't want to move anything that could make it come back. I fell into a little bit of sleep for about 45 minutes. I woke up and it felt like I woke up in a whole new world. My husband was in the bathroom at the time so I was alone and it felt like Rick waking up in The Walking Dead from his coma. It was surreal. All I could do was look around the room, since my legs wouldn't enable me to even reposition or do anything else.
Around 4:00 pm or so the resident and nurse came in to see how far my cervix had progressed. I was expecting to be around 5-6 cm. I still anticipated having a baby overnight or the following morning after all. Well, she's all up in me and she's like, "So, we are at 9 cm. We're gonna have a baby soon!" and although I couldn't move my legs, at that point I felt like I couldn't move my voice box either. I was like NINE?!! NINE!?! NO WONDER I felt like I was about to keel over on the floor. I went 6 cm in 3 hours!!!
So we texted my mom who got there pretty soon after and also texted my husbands parents that baby could be here soon.
My husband, mom and I chilled in the room together as we observed the nurse calmly but also in a rush get together the delivery cart. All I could think was, supposedly I'm NINE cm and could have a baby very very soon, and it just felt surreal. Despite the 2 hours of severe pain, it all felt too easy and quick!
About 5:30 or so, my doctor arrived and checked my cervix. I was 9.5cm. She nonchalantly, which was weird, was like, "so do you want to try some pushing?" and I am like, uh, yes? I don't know? You tell me! But apparently it was my choice so I was like, okay let's do it.
I did a "practice push", but apparently I'm a very effective pusher because all the sudden everyone in the room was like baby is crowning!!! I'm like, what! I guess they weren't expecting that because all the sudden like 8 more people are in the room and my nurse is calling NICU that we are about to deliver. It was unreal.
I did two more pushing sessions and the babies head kept moving down. Then the room stress started changing as the doctors were watching the monitors and I wasn't allowed to push. They had me wear oxygen and I had to take deep breaths, but weren't telling me what was going on. The doctor said they are going to have to use the vacuum to get her out, and I'm like seriously? We've pushed like 3 times! She went over the risks of using a vacuum but I'm like, what choice do I have, just do it! (In retrospect, the doctor explained that the baby had a very short umbilical cord and when she started descending she was pulling on her cord and her heart rate was dropping, so she had to be rushed out). Scary!
So we were allowed to push then and I had a whole team cheerleading me on which was very helpful, as with the epidural it was really hard to tell if I was doing anything. All I could do which felt helpful was I tried to visualize the baby moving outward as I pushed.
And then, all of the sudden it felt like a slippery fish had left my body and I heard crying! They put her right on me and I was crying to! Thank the gods she was completely healthy right off the bat and we immediately started skin to skin, after my husband got to cut the cord. It was truly surreal seeing her for the first time, as my husband and mom and I are all crying and here I was, staring at the baby that was just inside of me!!
So that my friends was my labor! She passed all of her immediate tests with flying colors! We did skin to skin for 2 hours and let me just say, I LOVE doing skin to skin with her. She weighs 7 lbs 15oz and is 19 inches. The doctors worked on my "downstairs", delivering the placenta and repairing my tear.
Knowing my story, and how my body was going to react and how it would all go down, the only thing I would have changed was request the epidural right before they broke water or shortly after. Going from 3-9 cm in 3 hours was an impossible task for anyone and I was not expecting that. I think maybe, MAYBE, MAYBE, I could have attempted a natural birth if I had broken water naturally and slowly progressed into labor, but I can't say that for sure. This was just 0 to 100 in 2 seconds and I couldn't deal. But there is no shame in getting the epidural! Only side effect I had from it was as it wore off closer to 8-9pm, it felt like ants were crawling all over my back and abdomen and I was uncontrollably itchy. And also very nauseous. They had to move me to my recovery room but decided to wait as my blood pressure dropped a little, I lost all my color and had the extreme nausea. So I got extra fluids and rest and was able to move around 11.
So far baby, husband and I are doing well and we are home. Soon I will next write about how our first couple of days have been together, there have been LOTS of lessons already learned that I can't wait to share.
Life is such a blessing and it is surreal having one in my arms. She is already our entire world and she is worth every pain, every headache, every cramp, every day of waiting.
With Love,
The New Motherboard.
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