So, I got checked in and hooked up to the monitors so they could get initial readings on us before I could get unhooked. I was answering questions from my nurse, giving history, etc. when I realized that I wasn’t really having contractions anymore. What!?! I don’t know if it was the calming effect of being at the hospital and knowing the baby was really coming or what, but I had about 30 minutes straight of no contractions after all of that hoop-la! I promised my nurse I hadn’t been making it all up :)!! I was anxious to get checked once I was there to see what the last 30 hours or so of contractions had gotten us. In my head I was secretly hoping to be dilated to 6 ~ that felt reasonable but not too lofty. I was afraid of 4 or less. So I held my breath as she checked me … 4. Two lousy cm for 30 hours of really intense contractions. I wasn’t really THAT surprised, just a little bummed and mostly just exhausted. I pretty much knew at that point that the epidural would probably be happening as I didn’t think I had enough hours left in me to get from 4 to 10, and then push a baby out.
I wanted to go as long as I felt like I could before the
epidural so I was planning to give it at least another good hour of work. I decided to stay in bed for a bit just
to try to rest between contractions because I was so exhausted. In hindsight, I think this was a
mistake … I should have made myself stay up. The contractions started back up quickly and were coming
much closer together. They were
every 2-3 minutes, and lasting about 2 minutes long, so I was barely getting a
break. Then, flashback to
Elliott’s labor, I started having double-contractions (technically its called
coupling, I think) where a contraction peaks and starts to back off, but then
peaks again before it ever stops.
Ugh … the worst. I feel
like these are really emotionally defeating too because just when you think you
are getting a break, they punch you again :). After about an hour, I knew I needed to
change it up but getting out of bed sounded SO hard! I eventually made myself get up to go to the bathroom and
was going to try to walk and/or possibly shower as another stalling technique.
As soon as I stood up, things just started feeling really
out of control. I’m still not sure
what happened, but I got SUPER shakey and was just in a ton of pain and lost
all awareness of my contraction pattern.
I think it was probably just a combination of changing positions, the
rapid pace of the contractions, etc. but it just felt like I had no idea what
was happening in my body anymore.
I was trying to take steps to the bathroom but couldn’t really move
because of how much pain I was in … poor Adam was almost literally holding me
up as I braced completely on his shoulder which may never be the same :). I finally was able to focus and take a few steps toward the
bathroom when I noticed liquid running down my legs … my water had broken! It’s silly but it was at that point
that I finally was totally convinced that I was really in labor and that it was
a really good thing we had come on to the hospital. This was REALLY happening, and my body had done all of this
on its own!
After about 30 minutes of laboring while standing with Adam,
my nurse checked me again and I was dilated to 6 … and I knew I was done. We put in the request for the blessed
epidural that I got around 1:00am.
Getting an epidural is not pleasant … it’s not extremely painful (other
than the contractions while hunched over) but it’s just a weird, uncomfortable
sensation. But the relief is
really unbelievable. It’s such an
odd sensation to go from so much pain and tension to complete relief. So I finally slept for 2 solid hours
after however-many hours of being awake.
It was wonderful.
My nurse checked me again at 3:30am and started looking at
my contraction pattern, and said the dreaded words … “Hmmm … I think your baby
might be sunny-side up.” Ugh …
unbelievable. This makes me 2 for
2 now!! Sunnyside-up labors are
notorious for being longer, more painful, and more difficult in the pushing
phase. Lucky me :). I was only to 7cm, so they decided to
do some pitocin to pick up my progression a bit. It started working immediately, and I was to 8cm by 4:15am
and then to 10cm by 5am.
I don’t know what my deal is, but I was starting to feel
contractions again and getting a little skittish that my epidural was wearing
off. He was still floating a
little high, so we let him sit for a bit to drop down, and thankfully I knew we
were close enough to the end that the waning epidural wasn’t the end of the
world like it was with Elliott.
Pushing with Elliott was hard work but definitely not the most painful
part of labor, so I wasn’t too concerned about it. We did it once before!
Plus I felt way more prepared this time!
I finally started pushing seriously around 6:15am and they
called Dr. F to hurry our way. As
the nurse was watching and coaching me, she said “Oh! I see a white bald head!!” Are you serious? All of that heart-burn for a bald baby!?! :) Well, turns out my water had only been
leaking before and didn’t fully break, so she wasn’t actually seeing the baby
yet. My water broke for real
around 6:30 during a big push, and then wowzers … I REALLY needed that baby out
of me!! His positioning was just
SO incredibly painful … much more than I remember with Elliott during this
phase even though they both were sunny side up. I was watching like a hawk for Dr. F to come and get
this baby out because I was DYING.
I’ve heard stories of girls crying during labor and saying they can’t do
it, which I always thought was kind of silly because they obviously can and
will do it. And that’s exactly
what I did. I just remember crying
and looking at Adam and saying (and genuinely believing) “I can’t do it! I
can’t do it!!”
Dr. F arrived, and I was a mess trying desperately to
push this baby out to make the pain stop.
It was so intense that I wasn’t even aware of when I was contracting, so
I’m sure my panicked pushing wasn’t even working well with my body’s
rhythm. I was hoping to avoid an
episiotomy but after watching for a few minutes, Dr. F felt like I needed
one. I’ve never been so happy to
be cut apart because a couple of pushes later, he was out!! HALLELUJAH!!! He did end up being sunnyside up, and
Dr. F commented that his head was twisted particularly strange, making it even
more difficult than a “normal” sunnyside-up baby. Special!! :)
Our sweet little Winston was born ON his due date March 31 at
6:52am!
Dr. F and our first glipmse:
One of my priorities was getting to keep Winston with me
immediately. With Elliott, they
let me hold him for a couple of minutes but then took him away for cleaning,
weighing, putting him in the warmer, etc.
After more reading and research, I knew I wanted to hold him
skin-to-skin immediately rather than have him put in a warmer for body
temperature stabilization. Luckily
the hospital already had this policy so I didn’t have to fight for it … they
immediately put him on my chest for the first hour, first feeding, etc., then
came back later to weigh him in, etc. I’m a big believer in protecting that first time together!
It also makes delivering the placenta,
getting stitched, etc. much less difficult when you have a sweet baby in your
arms!! He weighed in at 7 lbs 15
oz (just one more ounce than his brother!) and 19.5 inches.
I definitely believe in having a team in place for support
through the labor process, but there was something special about it having been
just Adam and I through the night and the rest of the world waking up the next
morning to the news of our freshly born little man!
I have just a few more hospital pics that I might save for just ONE more post about him being born so check back for entry #3 (!!!) for a few more pics and closing thoughts :)!!
No comments:
Post a Comment