Birth Story

Tuesday morning I drove to town for my NST and BPP. Just like I'd been doing for 3 weeks. On the way a friend called and we had a nice chat. I walked in to the triage thinking I'd be leaving around 11:30 and would have no trouble getting Rhayn to her summer camp at 12:30.

But life had other plans.

Immediately upon hook-up to the monitors something was off. Baby's heart was racing. It stayed around 220 for 20 minutes before finally settling down to her normal (135ish when resting with some 180s accelerations.) I was already worried at that point but thought it was just the small cup of coffee I'd had that morning that was making her really excited (the nurse's words). I was given a bag of fluids via IV during the 45 minutes I was hooked up. When it was time for the ultrasound part of the testing the nurse took the IV line out of my hand (she was told to put in a hep-loc just in case).

Veronica, the ultrasound tech (or whatever her title is) came and got me and we joked all the way back to the sonography room. My hand was bleeding pretty heavily when we got to the room so she called the nurse to come change my gauze. Then she gelled up my belly and immediately said "This isn't good there is almost no fluid. Baby has a full bladder but even with that, she doesn't have enough fluid in there. They'll probably admit you and load you up with fluids" then she continued the bio-physical profile, checking all of the other things that Baby Girl usually passed with flying colors and within moments. Baby didn't move. She moved her foot only but that wasn't the type of movement Veronica needed. "Baby's got 30 minutes on the clock, if she doesn't move she will fail this test and most likely you'll be having a baby today." After 15 minutes I was allowed to go pee (in hopes that my bladder being empty would make Baby move.) After that were 15 of the longest minutes. But she didn't move and thus failed the BPP.

I headed back to the triage room, and was hooked back up to the monitors. The nurses came in and talked to me about what was likely to happen but that they would be talking to Misty (the midwife) and Dr. K and they would decide that to do.

I texted Rhayn, my mom and Will. Told them all what was up and waited. At around 1pm I was admitted. I was taken back to a room and told to put on a gown. But they still hadn't told me what the plan was. At that point they were talking about just loading me up with IV fluids and keeping me overnight. Or induction. I wasn't there very long before Misty came in and said that they wanted to induce me because having almost no fluid was a very bad thing. She checked me, I was 1 cm dilated and had a very long thin cervix, not very favorable for labor or induction. At this point Will was already on his way home from Phoenix, and I had my parents on their way as well. I called Will to let him know that they would be for sure inducing me.

They decided to put cervadil in and it would be taken out around 4am with pitocin started at 5am. My mom and dad arrived at 4. They had already been out to the house to check on the girls and drop off their dog at our house. Will arrived around 5 and he came home to change and eat dinner. I was given a meal at the hospital because once contractions started (or after the pitocin) I wouldn't be able to eat anything but jello, broth and juice.

My parents took the girls out for dinner then brought them in to see me. And after they left Will and I settled in for the evening watching Food Network's show "Chopped". Sometime in the night I started having regular contractions, as long as I stayed  off my side. They hurt a little, like period cramps. But I was scared of what the morning would bring. Because of the contractions I was given penicillin, because I had tested positive for Group B Strep.

I slept little. The nurse kept coming  in and checking on me, she kept having to move the monitor that was on Baby. Eventually morning came. And the night nurse came in one last time to take out the cervadil because they would start pitocin soon. (It was 5am at this point.)

Becky, the day nurse came in, she hooked up the pitocin and got it started. Almost immediately the slightly painful contractions  became hard to breath through. She had checked me before and I was still 1 cm and hardly effaced at all. She asked me what I wanted to do about pain management. I admitted that I would really like an epidural. The thought of induction scared me, and being at the hospital made me feel anxious. I didn't think there was anyway I would be able to relax enough to labor effectively.

About 10 minutes later, she came back in to check on me and between contractions I asked if I had to wait until 3 cm to get an epidural. "No, when we induce with pitocin you can get an epidural right away." I asked when I could get one, and she said she would go put in that order. Dr. K called at that time and said that he wanted to break my water before the epidural, and would be in at 7:30, it was 6am at that point.

I almost started crying. I asked her to ask him if we could do it the other way around. The contractions hurt and because Baby had failed the test the day before, I had to be hooked up to the monitors constantly. Becky consented as did  Dr. K. Within 30 minutes I had the epidural in and was feeling better. Except that the epidural took more on my left side, making me unable to move my left leg at all. I could move my right foot through it all. Oh and the catheter was sucky as well.

Dr. K came in and broke my water around 7:30, just like he said he would. There was barely any in there, though later I felt a little more gush out. I was 1.5 cm at that point and Dr. K said I was probably in for a very long day. Dr. C (the anesthesiologist) had accidently "wet tapped" me, meaning he had pushed the epidural in a little too far, because "You have a very skinny back". Because of that, he would come back much later at give me a blood block, to avoid a headache.

They slowly upped the pitocin in the drip since I could handle the contractions with the epidural. Before that they kept it at a 1 (?). 

At some point between 8am and 12 Becky checked me and I was 5/6 cm dilated.  She had been moving me, to the left side, to the right side, this weird position with me sitting up my legs sort of squatted below me. (This felt weird especially since I couldn't move my left leg and it felt like a giant dead sausage attached to me. Plus I kept bumping it with my right foot which I could feel.)

I labored comfortably until nearly lunch time. I started feeling really hot, and the shivering I had been experiencing all day was uncontrollable. And I could feel the contractions, but only in the lower right side. (The nurse called it a hot spot.)Will ate lunch and I tried not to throw up. I ate a little bit of jell-o and drank ginger ale. Becky came in. I told her how I felt and she helped me onto my right side and gave me the button to press for a little bit more of the epidural medicine. She told me that it should help but if it didn't she'd call Dr. C back in to adjust the epidural. She also gave me cold, wet clothes for my neck and head. I was dripping sweat at that point, and feeling very miserable. I was hardly holding myself together.

Becky came back in, and started preparing the room for birth. She had figured out that I was in transition and going fast. I thought it felt familiar (I wanted to give up, I was ready for my c-section). Baby's heart rate had a few decelerations during contractions, too.

I told her that I was really hurting. I could feel the baby moving down with each contraction at that point. She checked me and her eyes got wide, "That explains it, baby is right there! I can feel a little head with no hair." She started rushing a little more and telling me to let her know if I felt like I needed to poop or if I had any pressure down there. Soon there was 3 other nurses, one standing on my right side with sterile gloves on (just in case the doctor didn't make it).

Dr. K came in, and checked me, felt the baby's head and suited up. They didn't break down the bed just pulled my legs up and told me to push when I felt the next contraction. I was 1/2 way through one at that moment and pushed sort of 2 times. There was a pause while we waited for the next one and in 2 pushes her head was out. I leaned forward to see, then pushed just a little and she was out.

13:03. They cut her cord, and placed a tiny little vernix covered baby on my check. In a few minutes they took her to the warmer to check her vitals. She was 19.5 inches long and 5 pounds 15.6 ounces (they called her an even 6 pounds). Dr. K helped me deliver my placenta which was perfect. And informed me that I had no tears or anything (YAY!)

They gave her back to me, I pulled down my gown and put her on my chest. She didn't nurse right away, but eventually did latch on with her very tiny mouth.

This next while is a total blur. My lower half still felt weird. I had given myself a huge extra dose of the epidural medicine just before she was born (at 12:50) because I didn't know she was about to come out. I wasn't able to walk until 8pm.

My mom was there for the birth. She has come into town to drop Rhayn off at summer camp and was walking down the hallway when Will texted her to let her know that the baby was coming soon. She left  to get my dad, Gwen and Natalie to meet their new sister. Rhayn didn't get to meet her until after her class. Becky left for the day. I missed her, she was a really great nurse and gave me really great service.

They all left around 5 to get dinner and so my dad could drive home (my mom stayed to help out) because he had to work in the morning. Will and I settled in and had dinner. I couldn't eat much. And I really wanted to get up and go pee. He helped me (which I didn't realize was a no-no that the nurses wanted to help me out when I got up the first time, unfortunately I could not pee, so I just rinsed off, cleaned up and put on a new gown.

Around 9pm Dr. C came in to do the blood block, and after thoroughly explaining it to us a few times, he took blood from my hand and put it into the epidural space. To keep the spinal fluid from leaking out and causing the worst sort of headache, and to avoid me having to come back to the hospital later.

Then we all settled in for the night. The nurse came in and gave me ibuprofen at 10pm. Took my vitals,  took baby's vitals and we went to sleep. At 2am they took her to the nursery for a quick check and after that we didn't see a nurse until 6am.