My Birth Story
Went into my doctor appointment at 10am on Wednesday, June 20, at exactly 40 weeks. They took my blood pressure (BP) and it was higher than it had been for the past few weeks which it had only been getting higher and higher. The doctor wanted me to go to triage for pre eclampsia (pre-e) monitoring but said I could go home first and wait for D to get home. I got home at about 12, my mom came and got the dog at about 1, D got home at 2 and we got to the hospital at 3. They hooked me up to monitors and took my BP every 15 minutes, this lasted all the way until I started pushing, my arm was bruised for a week. It was still high but getting lower with each reading. The midwife (joint practice between DR’s and midwives) came in and told D and I that we could go home and my unstable BP could turn into pre-e or we could go ahead and induce that night since I was contracting every 5 minutes. We talked about it and chose to induce.
We where officially checked in at 5pm. They gave me 2 bags of fluids and where talking about cytotec (a pill they insert into your vagina in order to “ripen” or soften the cervix to make it dilate) and then Patrick, our mid husband as D kept calling him, came in and said no to cytotec because I was contracting too much and said we’d do a foley-bulb instead. A foley-bulb/catheter is a small rubber tube with a balloon on the end that they insert into your vagina and through your cervix, inflate the balloon and than tape the catheter (rubber tube) to your leg in order to make your cervix dilate (cervix should dilate or “open” to 10 centimeters in order for a baby to be delivered vaginally). Every 20-30 minutes they come in and pull the catheter and re-tape it. This is to cause the balloon to put pressure on your cervix causing it to dilate to a 5 or 6. The Dr came in at 8 to place foley and she had the SHORTEST fingers ever, to the point she had to call in another DR with longer fingers to place it. The placing of it was painful but the actual foley wasn’t which is uncommon for most women, a lot of women choose to get an epidural before the foley is placed. It did, however, make my contractions stronger so they gave me some REEEEAAAAALLLLY good stuff in my IV and I was able to sleep, at about 10 she came in and gave me a booster of the IV pain meds (things get a little fuzzy here, I was feeling goooooood). Foley was taken out at 11 and I had gone from a 1 to a 5. Contractions kept getting stronger but I could not get past a 6.
At 3am I got my epi and that was a BITCH. When you get an epi you have to hug a pillow and lean as far over the side of the bed as you can. For a 9 month pregnant woman this is not easy because its like having to bend around a basketball. On top of this I have my nurse on my right side with her arm under my belly trying to hold the fetal heart monitor on and D on my left keeping me from falling off the bed. I have the anesthesiologist behind me trying to place the epi who keeps telling me to lean forward, the nurse under me telling me to lean back so she can get the heart beat back on the monitor, me getting tangled in my gown, and all of a sudden I just yelled for everyone to quit touching me and to back off. I was over whelmed! So many people where around me, telling me total opposite things to do and I was still having contractions that hurt like hell. I start hysterically ripping my gown off at this point because it was one of the only things I could control. D and my nurse get me calmed down enough so that they could take if off of me with out me tearing my IV out. My nurse gets settled again, D pretty much bear hugs me, and after the 5th time, yup, took them 5 times to place the epi, they get it in to their satisfaction (<key words). They anesthesiologist hands me the little button to push to send the meds pumping and tells me that I can push it 80 times but it will only give me medicine every 10 minutes. Well this went in one ear and out the other because I was pushing that button like my life depended on it.
The first time we each held him.
After about an hour of pushing the pretty-button-that-makes-things-all-better I realize to my udder disappointment that it only makes things half better. The epi only took on my right side (remember when I said “their satisfaction” where keywords?). My right side from half my belly down was as dead as a doornail. I couldnt feel a thing or move anything. My left? I could have done a jig down the street and back again. I tell them, they tell me to give it time and to just push the button. So I keep pushing the damned button and my whole right side from belly down becomes paralyzed and I’m still moaning through my contractions. They come back and tell me to lay on my left side “so gravity can help”. It helped and my left side went numb, not dead like my right, I could still move my toes. But laying on my left caused the baby’s heart rate to drop so the nurse would come in and make me roll to my right and then we’d call because the epi would fail on my left again and the anesthesiologist would come in and tell me to roll to my left, back and forth like this for about 3 hours. I finally roll to my left side and the nurse comes in to tell me to roll back to my right. Before she opened her mouth I held up my hand and told her to keep her eyeballs on the monitor and if his BP didnt stabilize in 10 minutes I would roll back over. After 10 minutes it did stabilize and I got some ever needed sleep.
Day after.
Then around 8am I go to push the Epi button and an alarm starts to go off on the pump. Call the anesthesia lady back in and she “fixes” it (this is the one that placed the epi and has been in and out of my room trying to fix it all night). About an hour later, same thing. This happens 4 times and she apparently got fed up with me and sent the head anesthesia person in and he looked at the pump and realized it was broken (thanks for making me suffer bitch lady anesthesia person). Guy gets me a new pump and apologizes profusely for it and came in a few hours later to check on me. At 1pm the nurse checks me and tells me I’m a 9 with a lip, meaning my cervix was still kinda there. She calls in another Dr who says I’m a 9, who than calls in another Dr who says I’m a 10, who calls in another who says I’m 9 with a lip. At this point I’m thinking they should just call in the janitor and cafeteria lady too while their at it. Finally they call in Patrick and he tells them that I was a full 9 and told the nurse to chill out in my room with us and call him when I felt ready to push.
At 2pm I tell the nurse there’s TONS pressure and I was trying NOT to push and she calls in Patrick and he was the most awesome thing ever! He sat in my room with us the whole time it took for me to push B out. For the first hour or so he kept his fingers on my vag/perineum area to help me push so I knew what muscles to use and he was so encouraging. At about the 1.5 hour mark my Epi started failing and by 2 hours it was completely gone on my left and then about hour 3 it was ALL gone. I had a complete melt down, boo hoo crying because it hurt so bad, D even started tearing up because he felt bad for me and just wanted it to be over for me. The anesthesia guy comes in and says he can inject the medicine directly into my back. I told him no, that it was too frustrating in the beginning and that I would just figure out how to deal with it. I dont know if it was because I was so tired or just ready to meet my son but I dont remember much after that moment. D said it was like I blacked out between each set of pushes and would wake up and say “ready” or “ok” and they’d grab my legs and Id push 4 times, and then collapse.
The next thing I know I hear “His head is out, one more big push!” Lord let me tell you I pushed that baby out as hard as I could and the next thing I know there was a screaming, slimy, warm thing on my belly and D was kissing me and tearing up and I’m just laying there staring at my son saying “Hi baby!” over and over again. B was born at 5:48pm, 7lb 10oz, 19.75 inches long. After a 24 hour induction and 4 hours of pushing I only had a 1st degree tear (which Patrick didnt even want to call it that but did anyway) on the inside and he put like 2 stitches in it. D was a champ and watched everything. He said he was amazed at what my body could do and 100% proud for how I handled everything. In hindsight I probably wouldnt have gotten the epi and instead had them keep giving me the happy juice in my IV. As crappy as my epi experience was, my birthing experience was AMAZING and I loved everything about it.
Our sweet boy.
