Labor and Delivery

February 11, 2006 - It really IS worth it!

Hello again everyone! Here's my labor and delivery story:

I checked into the hospital at 3:30pm on Tuesday, January 24th. It took a couple of hours for them to get us into our room and for me to get into my hospital gown and hooked up to various monitors and an IV. I was hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor and tocotonometer (both around my belly, the tocotonometer monitors my contractions). I also had a blood pressure cuff around my arm, and a pulse/ox monitor clipped onto my finger. They put an IV into my right arm to administer fluids (and to administer medication later). At around 5 or 5:30 pm, a doctor came in (not my regular doctor, but another OB/GYN) to insert the cervidil by my cervix (to soften my cervix). After that, Mike and I just hung out in the hospital room, since the cervidil had to be in for 12 hours. We watched TV and took naps on and off, with nurses coming in every so often to check my blood pressure and fetal movements, and to help me go to the bathroom!

The next morning, at around 6 am, a nurse came in to remove the cervidil and shortly afterwards, my doctor came in to check my cervix. She said it had softened significantly, but I was barely 2 cm dialated. She gave the go-ahead for them to start me on pitocin. I think that was around 8 am. By 11 am, I felt my water break, and my contractions were getting stronger. I asked for an epidural around noon, and was finally administered one by 1 pm. I had to have extra fluids pumped into my body via the IV prior to receiving the epidural, so that made my hands, legs and feet swell up again. Pitocin makes for stronger and more frequent contractions, so things were pretty rough for the hour before I received the epidural. I was a little apprehensive about the actual epidural procedure, but it went well and relieved all of the contraction pain. I also had to have a catheter inserted, since I couldn't get up to go to the bathroom anymore. So, that was two more things I was attached to!

Sometimes the epidural would sort of wear off (I had a constant low dose drip, which kept me comfortable for the most part, but sometimes the contractions were so intense that the epidural drip didn't do much to relieve any pain) and I would ask for another "hit" of the epidural medication. Often, it would take the anesthesiologist around an hour to get to me, so Mike would end up sitting with me and holding my hand as I breathed through contaction after contraction. Once I did get the new "hit" I felt fine again!

Having all those wires and tubes attached to me also made it difficult to move or adjust my position. The nurses would come in every so often and check my cervix for dilation, and everything was going pretty smoothly (I was dilating about 1 cm or so every couple of hours) until around 10 pm on Wednesday. Then, I just stopped dilating...I was 8 or 9 cm dilated, and it didn't change for hours. The nurses suggested that I lay on one side for a while, then switch and lay on another side to help the baby come down and help with my dilation. Well, every time they switched me over to my right side, I started feeling sick. Then, I threw up! EVERY TIME! Poor Mike had to rush and get me a bowl to vomit in at least 3 times during the night...except I had only had ice chips and orange popsicles all day, so the first time I threw up it was orange flavored, and the other times was just bile :(

The L&D nurses kept checking my cervix throughout the night, but I still hadn't dilated any more than 9 cm. They decided to switch from the toco to an internal contraction monitor, which would give a more accurate representation of the contractions. My doctor had another delivery in the morning and a cesarean to perform, so once she was done with those, she was planning to check on me and decide whether or not to give me a c-section. LUCKILY, she had those two deliveries in the morning, because (after upping the dosage of my pitocin) I was finally fully dilated by 5:30 am on Thursday. My new nurse (who began her shift at 7 am) came in and helped me start pushing with each contraction. For about an hour and a half, it was just her, Mike and I in the room...Mike was counting through my contractions and the nurse was encouraging me to push.

I have to say, at first, I had NO CLUE what to do. The nurse told me to push like I was having a bowel movement. WHAT?? I did NOT want to do THAT in front of her OR Mike! After about 45 minutes or so of pushing, Mike noticed that sometimes I would push from my upper abdomen, and other times I pushed from my lower abs. The times I pushed with my lower abs were the pushes that helped the baby move down the birth canal the best. A couple of times, the nurse had to leave and page the doctor or something, and she told us to keep pushing with each contraction. Finally, I started feeling pressure building up and I felt like I could concentrate my pushing on an actual part of my body. Then the pressure began to feel more intense, like nothing I've ever felt before. The nurse went to get the doctor and told us NOT to push at all! That's all I wanted to do! Holy crap, unbelieveable pressure!!!

All of a sudden, there were about 5 more people in our room, rolling in trays of tools and blankets, a bassinet, and lots of other stuff. Two nurses were getting all the stuff ready for the baby, two other nurses were re-adjusting my bed (they took off the lower part that my feet had been resting on and raised the bed to about waist height), while I could see my doctor putting on a gown, an apron, and a face mask. All I could think of was,"Why isn't she putting that stuff on faster??! What else does she have to put on?!?" Because by then, I just wanted to push that baby out of me!

So, that's what I said to my doctor..."I NEED to PUSH!" She said,"Go ahead!" Each time I pushed, it felt better, but I also felt like I was screaming my head off! (Later, Mike asked me to try to scream and push really hard at the same time...all that comes out is a grunt!) I didn't have a clue as to what else was going on around me...I knew Mike was still next to me, holding my foot and counting. Then, my doctor asked me if it was okay to give me an episiotomy (she actually said,"I'm going to have to snip you a little, if that's okay.") As much as I didn't want one, at that point I really didn't care and anything to get the baby out was fine! So I said okay, and as soon as she "snipped" me, I was able to push a couple more times and she pulled out our baby and placed him on my chest. She said,"Open your eyes!" so I could look at our sweet little baby. The nurses had already put little blankets on me to clean him off once he was born (I had no clue they had done that). I was holding our new son and laughing and saying,"Oh my god!" and Mike kissed me...it was an unforgettable feeling! I couldn't believe he was outside of me and I was finally holding him. He had tons of hair, and a crazy conehead :) but he looked amazing!