More details? You want more details? I'll give you more details...
Michael and I went to bed around 9:30 and at 10:00 I woke up with labor pain. I proceeded to spend the next 2.5 hours trying to convince myself that I was imagining it and that it was just stomach cramps I was feeling.
Finally at 12:30 I woke Michael up and told him that I thought we had started the whole process. We then spent the next couple hours trying to convince ourselves that we were imagining it.
Hmmm... that makes it sound like we didn't know that we were in labor... let me just say that we were trying to make sure it was the real thing and not just something we freak out about like we had heard so many first time mothers do.
We spent the next couple of hours trying to relax through my increasingly intense contractions. I took a hot bath and made Niffer soup which helped the pain termendously. I wish I could have stayed in that bath for the whole process. I think it would have gone so much smoother.
We also watched a movie, took a walk, took a shower, tried to sleep... random stuff.
Finally at 4:30 am I decided that the pain was strong enough to warrant waking up our doula. Up until then I was feeling guilty at the thought of calling her in the middle of the night... but I forgot to realize that's just part of her business. She came over within 15 minutes.
Then my contractions stopped. They had been every 2-3 minutes. Speaking of which, "they" say that you should go to the hospital once the contractions get to be 5 minutes apart... but they started at 2-3 minutes for me, which no one told me was an option. But anyway, as soon as Nancy showed up, the contractions stopped.
Talk about frustrating. And annoying.
She stayed for about an hour and offered to stay longer while we try to sleep again. I felt bad for making her come over, so we sent her home. And as fate would have it, the contractions started again as soon as she left.
We had our doctor's appointment scheduled for that day and so we decided to try to get it pushed up to see them sooner. At 1:30 pm, we were told that I was 5 cm dialated and 80% efaced! Holy cow! I had prepared myself to hear that after all that pain, I was still only at 1 or 2 cm (and for those who don't know, 10 cm is fully dialated).
5 cm! Go Niffer! That's quite a ways to labor at home!
At this point we had two options... return to home for more laboring at home or check into the hospital. I was totally up for going home again, but then we were told that the hospital was insanely busy and that they might not have a room available for me if I waited to check in. Well that settled that question.
We called Nancy again and she said she'd come straight over to the hospital. Meanwhile, we walked from the midwive's office to the hospital (which took people by surprise when I said I wanted to walk). Nancy showed up right after we were checked in.
I spent the next 7 hours in a hell of a lot of pain. It turns out that the baby was posterior and thus was applying a lot of pressure to my lower back. Let me tell you, it was not fun. However, I felt like it was totally do-able.
That was until they checked me again and told me that I was only at 6 cm and 90% efaced. The average labor progresses at 1 cm every hour. Though it was progress, I had only progressed 1 cm in 7 hours. I had thought that the pain was doable, assuming I was making more progress than that. Though at this point in time, I was handling my contractions relatively well, I decided that though I felt like I could continue, I just didn't think I could continue at that rate.
In comes the epidural. It took effect quickly and 5 minutes later I was at 7 cm dialated and 100% efaced. Apparently my body just needed to relax more.
I was able to rest for the next couple of hours, which the midwife said would be good because I needed to be ready for pushing for 1-3 hours when the time came.
Sometime during that timeframe, they broke my water to try to incourage progress. And finally, they decided that I needed pitocin.
And bam! Instantly the baby's heart rate went down, which was a sign that I was 100% dialated. It was just coincidence that it happened just as they gave me the pitocin.
Unfortunately, as time went on, I started to feel my contrations again on one side of me. The epidural is gravity driven and because the baby was laying on it's cord or something, I was unable to do anything other than lay on my one side, which meant all the epidural medication went to that side, and not the other. So, once again, I had the horrible contractions, only this time it was on half my body.
So now I'm ready to push. The midwife tells me that I can start pushing. I push, and apparently you could see the baby's head in my first push. Damn! I'm good!
15 minutes into pushing, I was told to stop. Apparently the lady next door was delivering her 4th child and has a history of quick labors and so if the midwife didn't go over there, the baby would have no one to catch her.
But, uh... Hello? Who wants to stop pushing after starting????
30 minutes later, we were told that we could start pushing agin. A couple minutes later, the midwife came in (she gave us permission to push when she was still in the other room). When the midwife finally did make it back to my room, she looked at me and said "WHOA!" Apparently she was surprised at how far the baby had progressed.
As she's putting on her gloves, she told me to give her a practice push... and as I did, she said "Oh god, ok... stop! stop!" I guess she didn't realize that Niffers are great pushers.
A couple pushes later we had a beautiful baby at 1:30 am on Tuesday. She came out sideways. Michael was the one who told me that we had a little girl and I spent the first few minutes of her life holding her close to me and crying. She was so beautiful. And so alert.
So that's my story... 27 hours of labor.
My thoughts on the whole thing? Looking back, here are a few of them:
1. I feel confident that I could have done a natural, unmedicated birth if it weren't for the fact that the baby was posterior. Nancy told me that the level of pain I was feeling at 6 cm would be what I'd have to deal with for the remainder of the labor, and I would have totally been ok with that if I had a shorter labor... you know, one that progressed.
2. I think it was a good thing that I labored for as long as I did without an epidural. So many people have commented on how easy it is for a posterior labor to end up in a C-section because people get the epidurals too early.
3. It was a blessing in disguise that I was told to stop pushing. The extra time just sitting there probably allowed me to stretch more because I ended up having no tearing.
4. I don't know what I would have done without Nancy. Seriously, she was amazing and worth her weight in gold. During the entire time laboring at the hospital (checked in around 2:30pm and delivered at 1:30am) I think we saw our midwife maybe a total of 30-45 minutes. It was so nice to have Nancy there, who was a registered nurse, even though she was there as my doula. It was nice to have someone with me all the time, encouraging me, suggesting new positions and new relaxing techniques, and just reassuring me that what I was experiencing is normal. If you ever have a baby... GET A DOULA!!!
5. My husband kicks ass. It was amazing how easy it was for him to calm me down during the contractions. I love him very much. Words can not explain the connection I felt between us during the process, so I won't even try.
So that's the story. You wanted details, you got details. All I can say right now is that I have a beautiful daughter, but I am slightly bummed that I never got my popped belly button.
No comments:
Post a Comment