Here’s a summary of my labor and delivery. Contains graphic detail, skip if not into that kind of thing!
Tuesday night, April 8th, I started having irregular contractions (one week before my due date). I decided they were probably contractions because they had an actual stop and start, unlike all the cramping and weird sensations I’d had in the last few months. Everyone says Braxton-Hicks contractions start and stop, but that never happened with me.
I started timing them and they were between 5 and 15 minutes apart. We went to bed and around 3 AM they suddenly switched into very painful contractions every 3 minutes apart for over an hour. My doctor had said to call when they were five minutes apart, so we did, and she advised us to go into the hospital. I would have liked to wait longer, but I tested positive for group B strep, which meant they had to get at least 2 doses of penicillin in me before the birth.
We had an easy trip to the hospital at 5 AM (15 minute drive) and walked up to Labor & Delivery. They checked us in to a room immediately and asked me some questions to fill out paperwork (the nurse kindly paused every time I started another contraction) and someone examined me to find I was only 1 cm dilated (out of 10). Also, the baby had not yet “dropped,” which would become very important later.
Though I was not very far along, the doctor decided to have me stay so I could get the penicillin. They hooked me up to the IV (had to bring the anesthesiologist in because the nurse couldn’t poke my vein) and though I had written in my birthplan I wanted to be mobile, he did not give me a HEPLOCK (I hadn’t though I had to ask for one specifically). Later, at my request, a nurse swapped it out and put in the HEPLOCK, but I had to stay totally still through my contractions and it wasn’t fun. A HEPLOCK lets you disconnect from the IV pole when they’re not giving you anything.
We called our doula, Rosanna, about 7 AM and she came in. In the meantime I was hooked up to the contraction monitor and the baby’s heart rate monitor. They were wireless and waterproof, so they did not restrict my movement. Interestingly the monitor showing the contractions showed the ones of all the women also in labor in the ward, so Chris would watch that and compare how other women’s contractions looked. He could also see when my contractions were starting and ending.
The next 16 hours are a bit of a blur, but I continued to get my doses of penicillin every 4 hours, and the baby still did not drop. I gradually became more dilated, and almost fully effaced. The contractions were mostly manageable–extremely painful, but Chris and Rosanna helped me through each one. Mostly I hung on to one or the other of them and said “owwwww” a lot. For some reason I really focused on their mouths during the contraction. I stood and swayed most of the time; I found the contractions easier to manage that way.
At one point I had a contraction that seemed to go on and on and on and I started saying “nooooo” instead, but Chris got me to hang in there.
After a while my back started killing me and I began to wonder if I could keep it up. One of the nurses massaged my feet for a while and spoke soothingly to me, which got me over the worst of it. Rosanna suggested the shower and ran the hot water over my back which made a huge difference. I also had heating pads applied to my back.
I got through the worst part (in the early evening) but by 11:00 PM the baby had still not dropped, and the doctor was started to raise the specter of a C-section, which I really didn’t want. I finally decided to get an epidural and Pitocin, to see if the stronger contractions would move him down.
The epidural took away the pain but it sucked otherwise. It sucked suddenly being immobile. Plus, no one told me it would wear off every couple of hours! I was begging the anesthesiologist to come back in and give me MORE DRUGS. It’s funny, I went through about 20 hours of painful contractions with no pain meds, but once I had made the decision to have the epidural, that was it–I didn’t want any more pain, dammit!
They turned out the lights and told me to sleep, which was a laugh. The blood pressure cuff would automatically squeeze my arm every 15 minutes and then an alarm would go off because my blood pressure was always low (as it always is). Chris somehow managed to sleep on the window seat and didn’t notice when all the lights would come on and the nurses would come in to roll me over.
Somehow morning came, and the baby had just started to drop. It was still not a sure thing–there was only so much time before they were going to do a C-section. Then suddenly, everything started to happen. They said the doctor would be there in 30 minutes and it would be time to push. They got my legs up onto the supports and into the proper position for pushing, and about 20 people came into the room. No joke. There was a student nurse, various nurses, my doula, the doctor, NICU people (there was meconium in the amniotic fluid), the pediatric nurse, and I don’t even know who else. I turned to Chris and said “Who ARE all these people?”
Then it was time to PUSH PUSH PUSH. They told me to push like I was having a bowel movement, and they’d count to ten as I pushed with all my might. The doctor started saying “He’s coming! He’s blond!” and Chris could even see the head come out (and back in again) from his vantage point by my head. I didn’t push very long, maybe 20 minutes, and out he came, squalling into the world. Chris cut the cord.
They put him on my chest and I started sobbing hysterically. I finally, finally, after three years, believed it was true. Even when I was pregnant I somehow wondered if it was all a big lie, that there was no baby at the end. But here he was.
They dried him off and did a couple of minor things in the room, then put him back on my chest. He was pretty calm and quiet and awake and we just sat together for a while, until they took him away again for things like his Vitamin K shot.
When i decided to get the epidural I was upset and disappointed, but after it’s all said and done.. who cares. I got a healthy baby in the end and that’s all that matters.
And that’s the story.
Thanks to my great doula–could never have labored that long without pain meds without her. Thanks to my wonderful doctor who let me keep laboring as long as possible. (And who helped get me pregnant in the first place!) Thanks to the fabulous nurses at Sequoia Hospital. And most of all, thanks to Chris, who was an absolutely fantastic labor coach. He supported me through my contractions, didn’t say anything annoying, coaxed me through the worst of them, and became a hands-on dad the second Jack was born. I could not ask for a better husband, or father to Jack.
