(Another) Birth Story
The title says it all so if you don't want to know ... don't read.
On September 4th I had my regular weekly exam with my OB. We did the usual drill. She checked me. She found me to be a 4 and 90% effaced. As soon as she was done checking me I had a contraction. The contractions continued until I got to our friends house to pick up G. They continued at our house while I made G lunch. They were three minutes apart. They were 50 seconds long. They hurt, and I had this intense pressure.
After an hour I called the doctor back, told them what was happening. The nurse told me to monitor and to call back at 10 till noon. So I did. I walked around. I did laundry. I tried to remember anything in the baby bag that I may have forgotten. They still hurt. A lot. More than BH. Had to be something. Right? I mean they were 3 minutes apart and hurt and were a minute long. They had blown right through 5-1-1.
So I call the nurse back (mind you I've already made up my mind I'm going to L&D, to be safe - and I've already told my husband to come home, and notified my mother, and asked our friend to watch G). She tells me to go in. That was at 10 till noon.
We get checked in about 12:30. Go through the usual speel. Nurse's name is Linda. I want her to check me right away.
First thing she says is disappointing. She called you a 4? I'd give you a 3? I mean she was perfectly nice about it, but it was disappointing. What were all these contractions? And they were still happening. So they put the monitor on my middle to watch the baby and the monitor to watch contractions. They are still 50 seconds long, two minutes apart. And while they hurt, they are not technically strong enough.
So we watch for two hours, to see what's what. If I don't progress, doc says send me home.
Two hours later she checks me. No change. Baby may have even moved higher. I'm embarrassed and confused and still contracting and still in pain. How in the world is nothing happening? The contractions are right on top of each other and getting longer. I ask the nurse ... how will I know to come back? I mean they are already 3-1-1? And the rule is 5-1-1?
She leaves the room to go call the doc. They discuss. She comes back. They are keeping me. They think I'm in early stages active labor (I mean hello, cervix is ready to go it's just not ... going?) and due to my GBS status (I'll let you look that up) they want to keep me so they can ensure I get 8 hours worth of antibiotics in me.
I go over this news in my mind about a half dozen different ways. Is the doctor humoring me? Does she think I want him out this badly so she's letting me win? This makes me shake my head. My doctor truly does not care what I want, not really, she cares about the health of the baby. She wouldn't make a decision that was bad for the baby.
I repeat this to myself over and over again. It is now about 3:00PM. So we get started getting me all hooked up. I need IV fluids and the antibiotics right away. The contractions are still there, still hurt, still creating intense pressure.
I get all of that set up. A few minutes later I think they agree to start pitocin to see if they can get the contractions to get a bit more intense. The concern though is that the pitocin may just speed them up to where they are even closer together, and that could cause the baby stress. And therefore would be bad.
About 3:30 I agree to the epidural. I go back and forth on this decision too. But I did it. Both legs go numb this time. I get intensely tired. So tired I'm wondering how I'm going to be able to push. I try to sleep.
I can't remember exactly what happened next. Between the hours of 3:30 and 9:00 I'm in labor. I get a new nurse, Cindy, at 7. Cindy checks me maybe around 8? She's even more disappointing ... where my last nurse saw a 5 when she left me (somewhere between 3:30 and 7) Cindy only sees a 3. I'm disappointed, tired, feeling some pain, and confused by what all these contractions mean.
Somewhere after this news that I'm not progressing (regressing, actually, by these crazy subjective nurses standards) she had upped the pitocin again. The baby didn't like it. The contractions were making him tired and his heart rate would drop after they were over. So she turned the pitocin off and put me on oxygen and repositioned me so the baby was happier. He was. Almost immediately.
Odd thing though ... the contractions, with pitocin off, got more intense. The doctor is due any minute to come in and break my water. It seems odd that she'd break my water but second round of antibiotics are in and I'm fully effaced so hey, what do I know. She's the doc.
Doctor shows up just after 9. She gets set to break my water. So she's checking me. I'm an 8-9. And she's like ... I'm not feeling any membrane ... did her water break? And I did that all by myself (on an epi mind, which I hear is harder). Went from a 3-4 (supposedly) to an 8 in less than hour. Or else the person checking me didn't measure right. But I don't want to put that on Cindy. (Even though I totally think that's what happened).
This is all with pitocin off.
So we go through the next hour, waiting to check me again. I'm fully dilated, but something I don't understand is still there, want to make sure it's all gone before we start pushing. Labor another 30 minutes. I start to feel like pushing. Which I feel is a huge feat since I've got the epi and can barely move my legs.
Cindy comes in. Fully dilated. Lets see you push. So I push three times. Not always well. The third time I got it. They call the doc. I still want to push. I push and he's down and now we have to wait for the doc. Folks come in the room. Less than last time. Way less. Just the charge nurse, the nursery nurse, etc. No one crazy like last time. The wierdest experience was having him right there and wanting to push but not pushing through that last contraction. So wierd. Literally, he was right there.
I push twice and his head comes out and they tell me to stop. I feel his head slide out. I feel the shoulder move out. The rest of him slides out and again, craziest sense of relief of pressure I've ever felt in my life. He's out making crazy sounds. Purple, covered in goop. Lewis cuts the cord. They hand him to me. He's pretty amazing.
David James was born at 11:43PM on September 4th. He weighed 8lbs and 1ounce and was 20inches long. He has sandy blond hair (?!?) and his eyes are a dark color which I assume will translate to brown. As more details return to me ... I will update. It was a fairly straight forward delivery, except for how it started.
**notes on a second baby... So this time around D (as he will be called here), having only been on this earth for a bit over 14 hours, is not quite as alert as his brother was (in my memory). He also swallowed a large part of amniotic fluid right before he came out (we're guessing) because he's been gargling and spitting that up all day. Poor dear. But this time around, nothing about him shocks me. Using the suction thingie, no problem. Changing vomit covered clothes? No problem. Having gotten no sleep at all the night before? No problem. (I say that with a knowing eye roll going oh yeah, I can miss one night, it's the 500 nights after it that freak me out).
Much more relaxed with new baby - who smells very nice, by the way, if even a bit amnio-y - then I was with G.
Speaking of G. They did meet today, albeit it briefly. G, being of the older brother, and 2 year old variety, was much more interested in the awesome brand new train set that his younger brother got him. He did offer "baby brother"one of his trains. But he didn't really want to be too close to him. I'm not pushing it (have you tried pushing anything with a 2yo? It's rarely successful). G melted down yesterday when we had to drop him off (which that may be it's own separate post) and then melted down for his uncle who watched him after naptime. But today ... he comes up to the hospital, hasn't seen mama in 24 hours, tells me about his trains, looks briefly at baby brother, then says "go home play with trains?" Mama can't go home. Remember I stay here with baby brother for two days. You can go play with trains with Gramma though. "Okay mama." Goes to gramma and pretty much says lets go. Kids.
On September 4th I had my regular weekly exam with my OB. We did the usual drill. She checked me. She found me to be a 4 and 90% effaced. As soon as she was done checking me I had a contraction. The contractions continued until I got to our friends house to pick up G. They continued at our house while I made G lunch. They were three minutes apart. They were 50 seconds long. They hurt, and I had this intense pressure.
After an hour I called the doctor back, told them what was happening. The nurse told me to monitor and to call back at 10 till noon. So I did. I walked around. I did laundry. I tried to remember anything in the baby bag that I may have forgotten. They still hurt. A lot. More than BH. Had to be something. Right? I mean they were 3 minutes apart and hurt and were a minute long. They had blown right through 5-1-1.
So I call the nurse back (mind you I've already made up my mind I'm going to L&D, to be safe - and I've already told my husband to come home, and notified my mother, and asked our friend to watch G). She tells me to go in. That was at 10 till noon.
We get checked in about 12:30. Go through the usual speel. Nurse's name is Linda. I want her to check me right away.
First thing she says is disappointing. She called you a 4? I'd give you a 3? I mean she was perfectly nice about it, but it was disappointing. What were all these contractions? And they were still happening. So they put the monitor on my middle to watch the baby and the monitor to watch contractions. They are still 50 seconds long, two minutes apart. And while they hurt, they are not technically strong enough.
So we watch for two hours, to see what's what. If I don't progress, doc says send me home.
Two hours later she checks me. No change. Baby may have even moved higher. I'm embarrassed and confused and still contracting and still in pain. How in the world is nothing happening? The contractions are right on top of each other and getting longer. I ask the nurse ... how will I know to come back? I mean they are already 3-1-1? And the rule is 5-1-1?
She leaves the room to go call the doc. They discuss. She comes back. They are keeping me. They think I'm in early stages active labor (I mean hello, cervix is ready to go it's just not ... going?) and due to my GBS status (I'll let you look that up) they want to keep me so they can ensure I get 8 hours worth of antibiotics in me.
I go over this news in my mind about a half dozen different ways. Is the doctor humoring me? Does she think I want him out this badly so she's letting me win? This makes me shake my head. My doctor truly does not care what I want, not really, she cares about the health of the baby. She wouldn't make a decision that was bad for the baby.
I repeat this to myself over and over again. It is now about 3:00PM. So we get started getting me all hooked up. I need IV fluids and the antibiotics right away. The contractions are still there, still hurt, still creating intense pressure.
I get all of that set up. A few minutes later I think they agree to start pitocin to see if they can get the contractions to get a bit more intense. The concern though is that the pitocin may just speed them up to where they are even closer together, and that could cause the baby stress. And therefore would be bad.
About 3:30 I agree to the epidural. I go back and forth on this decision too. But I did it. Both legs go numb this time. I get intensely tired. So tired I'm wondering how I'm going to be able to push. I try to sleep.
I can't remember exactly what happened next. Between the hours of 3:30 and 9:00 I'm in labor. I get a new nurse, Cindy, at 7. Cindy checks me maybe around 8? She's even more disappointing ... where my last nurse saw a 5 when she left me (somewhere between 3:30 and 7) Cindy only sees a 3. I'm disappointed, tired, feeling some pain, and confused by what all these contractions mean.
Somewhere after this news that I'm not progressing (regressing, actually, by these crazy subjective nurses standards) she had upped the pitocin again. The baby didn't like it. The contractions were making him tired and his heart rate would drop after they were over. So she turned the pitocin off and put me on oxygen and repositioned me so the baby was happier. He was. Almost immediately.
Odd thing though ... the contractions, with pitocin off, got more intense. The doctor is due any minute to come in and break my water. It seems odd that she'd break my water but second round of antibiotics are in and I'm fully effaced so hey, what do I know. She's the doc.
Doctor shows up just after 9. She gets set to break my water. So she's checking me. I'm an 8-9. And she's like ... I'm not feeling any membrane ... did her water break? And I did that all by myself (on an epi mind, which I hear is harder). Went from a 3-4 (supposedly) to an 8 in less than hour. Or else the person checking me didn't measure right. But I don't want to put that on Cindy. (Even though I totally think that's what happened).
This is all with pitocin off.
So we go through the next hour, waiting to check me again. I'm fully dilated, but something I don't understand is still there, want to make sure it's all gone before we start pushing. Labor another 30 minutes. I start to feel like pushing. Which I feel is a huge feat since I've got the epi and can barely move my legs.
Cindy comes in. Fully dilated. Lets see you push. So I push three times. Not always well. The third time I got it. They call the doc. I still want to push. I push and he's down and now we have to wait for the doc. Folks come in the room. Less than last time. Way less. Just the charge nurse, the nursery nurse, etc. No one crazy like last time. The wierdest experience was having him right there and wanting to push but not pushing through that last contraction. So wierd. Literally, he was right there.
I push twice and his head comes out and they tell me to stop. I feel his head slide out. I feel the shoulder move out. The rest of him slides out and again, craziest sense of relief of pressure I've ever felt in my life. He's out making crazy sounds. Purple, covered in goop. Lewis cuts the cord. They hand him to me. He's pretty amazing.
David James was born at 11:43PM on September 4th. He weighed 8lbs and 1ounce and was 20inches long. He has sandy blond hair (?!?) and his eyes are a dark color which I assume will translate to brown. As more details return to me ... I will update. It was a fairly straight forward delivery, except for how it started.
**notes on a second baby... So this time around D (as he will be called here), having only been on this earth for a bit over 14 hours, is not quite as alert as his brother was (in my memory). He also swallowed a large part of amniotic fluid right before he came out (we're guessing) because he's been gargling and spitting that up all day. Poor dear. But this time around, nothing about him shocks me. Using the suction thingie, no problem. Changing vomit covered clothes? No problem. Having gotten no sleep at all the night before? No problem. (I say that with a knowing eye roll going oh yeah, I can miss one night, it's the 500 nights after it that freak me out).
Much more relaxed with new baby - who smells very nice, by the way, if even a bit amnio-y - then I was with G.
Speaking of G. They did meet today, albeit it briefly. G, being of the older brother, and 2 year old variety, was much more interested in the awesome brand new train set that his younger brother got him. He did offer "baby brother"one of his trains. But he didn't really want to be too close to him. I'm not pushing it (have you tried pushing anything with a 2yo? It's rarely successful). G melted down yesterday when we had to drop him off (which that may be it's own separate post) and then melted down for his uncle who watched him after naptime. But today ... he comes up to the hospital, hasn't seen mama in 24 hours, tells me about his trains, looks briefly at baby brother, then says "go home play with trains?" Mama can't go home. Remember I stay here with baby brother for two days. You can go play with trains with Gramma though. "Okay mama." Goes to gramma and pretty much says lets go. Kids.
Comments