April 30, 2011, at 2:06am, weighing 5lbs 11oz
My water broke around 8:30pm on the 28th, and the contractions were pretty uncomfortable right from the get-go. I’d been told that they would probably start out fairly mild and get worse as the labor progressed…WRONG.
Anyways, so my water broke. I called the hospital and they said that I should take a shower, get a snack, relax a bit and head in when I was ready – it was my first baby so no big rush. So I get to the hospital, they check me and say I’m only slightly dilated so to go home and get some rest and they’d see me later. So off I go!
Around 5:30am on the 29th, I couldn’t take the pain anymore. The contractions were stealing my breath away. So I went upstairs and woke up my mom, and asked her to get ready so we could go back in. Get there, checked again, this time I’m only a 2. The nurse’s explanation was that I was fighting my body’s natural want to dilate, so they gave me a shot of Morphine and Gravol and sent me home to sleep. (I’ve never had morphine before, and I wasn’t impressed with the loopy feeling BUT I was definitely impressed with the 5 solid hours of sleep I got before it wore off!) So I’m just hanging around the house, timing contractions (they weren’t really regular, but were definitely lasting at least a minute each and were between 4-6 minutes apart). My friend Amanda showed up, (she would be staying with me for the week while my family was on vacation) and we just kept it quiet at home. Eventually I thought I’d been laboring long enough and there HAD to have been some sort of change, so we headed back in. This was around…5ish? Keep in mind, I live about a half hour away from the hospital where I was delivering…so by this point I’m PRAYING for some sort of change, I felt so bad that my mom had to keep driving me back and forth!
‘Lo and behold…..STILL a 2! But they decide to admit me anyways, since we’re going on 10 hours or so since my water had broken. By the time I’d had all my paperwork filled out, I could no longer stand or breathe through a contraction. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t progressing, they decided to start me on a bag of Pitocin. Once I heard that word, I asked for an epidural. I wasn’t looking forward to having a needle inserted into my spine, but I wasn’t going to have the Pitocin kick things up like 10 notches with no pain relief either!
As soon as the epidural started to work, I was a happy camper. Got all hooked up to the monitors and settled down to wait. And wait. And wait. I just wasn’t progressing. The Pitocin kept being increased, I kept not feeling anything – it was all good.
We’re all watching the clock. It’s getting close. The baby had about 4 hours to get here before my mom had to leave for her trip – and I NEEDED her here for this birth! So I get checked again. I’ve made it to a 4! But there was another stall out here too.
Eventually I make it to a 6. But then the baby’s heartbeat starts dropping with every contraction. So the doctor briefly mentions that if it keeps happening – she’d like to do a c-section. I agreed, if that’s what it was going to take to keep the baby safe – then so be it. The preliminary paperwork is drawn up, and signed.
It’s approx 1am. The baby needs to get here SOON, she’s on borrowed time!
I’m still at a 6. Her heartbeat has recovered somewhat, but it’s still lower than what they would like. They give me a little more time.
I labor for the hour. The epidural has worn off and I’m feeling an increase in the need to push so I let the nurse know, who calls the doctor. As the epi finally completely wears off, the baby’s little heart starts dropping again. The doctor isn’t pleased, tells me she definitely wants to do a section to get the baby out. I’m signing papers, screaming through contractions, telling them I NEED to push (and being told not to!), and crying because I can’t breathe and I’m scared for the baby. The anesthesiologist walks in the room as I’m being checked for the last time to talk about what’s going to happen in the section, but I’m deemed 10cm (FINALLY) and told to go ahead and push!
WORST PAIN OF MY LIFE. (When they say it's something you forget, it's true, but it's still not something I'd like to do again any time soon!)Anyways, so my water broke. I called the hospital and they said that I should take a shower, get a snack, relax a bit and head in when I was ready – it was my first baby so no big rush. So I get to the hospital, they check me and say I’m only slightly dilated so to go home and get some rest and they’d see me later. So off I go!
Around 5:30am on the 29th, I couldn’t take the pain anymore. The contractions were stealing my breath away. So I went upstairs and woke up my mom, and asked her to get ready so we could go back in. Get there, checked again, this time I’m only a 2. The nurse’s explanation was that I was fighting my body’s natural want to dilate, so they gave me a shot of Morphine and Gravol and sent me home to sleep. (I’ve never had morphine before, and I wasn’t impressed with the loopy feeling BUT I was definitely impressed with the 5 solid hours of sleep I got before it wore off!) So I’m just hanging around the house, timing contractions (they weren’t really regular, but were definitely lasting at least a minute each and were between 4-6 minutes apart). My friend Amanda showed up, (she would be staying with me for the week while my family was on vacation) and we just kept it quiet at home. Eventually I thought I’d been laboring long enough and there HAD to have been some sort of change, so we headed back in. This was around…5ish? Keep in mind, I live about a half hour away from the hospital where I was delivering…so by this point I’m PRAYING for some sort of change, I felt so bad that my mom had to keep driving me back and forth!
‘Lo and behold…..STILL a 2! But they decide to admit me anyways, since we’re going on 10 hours or so since my water had broken. By the time I’d had all my paperwork filled out, I could no longer stand or breathe through a contraction. Unfortunately, since I wasn’t progressing, they decided to start me on a bag of Pitocin. Once I heard that word, I asked for an epidural. I wasn’t looking forward to having a needle inserted into my spine, but I wasn’t going to have the Pitocin kick things up like 10 notches with no pain relief either!
As soon as the epidural started to work, I was a happy camper. Got all hooked up to the monitors and settled down to wait. And wait. And wait. I just wasn’t progressing. The Pitocin kept being increased, I kept not feeling anything – it was all good.
We’re all watching the clock. It’s getting close. The baby had about 4 hours to get here before my mom had to leave for her trip – and I NEEDED her here for this birth! So I get checked again. I’ve made it to a 4! But there was another stall out here too.
Eventually I make it to a 6. But then the baby’s heartbeat starts dropping with every contraction. So the doctor briefly mentions that if it keeps happening – she’d like to do a c-section. I agreed, if that’s what it was going to take to keep the baby safe – then so be it. The preliminary paperwork is drawn up, and signed.
It’s approx 1am. The baby needs to get here SOON, she’s on borrowed time!
I’m still at a 6. Her heartbeat has recovered somewhat, but it’s still lower than what they would like. They give me a little more time.I labor for the hour. The epidural has worn off and I’m feeling an increase in the need to push so I let the nurse know, who calls the doctor. As the epi finally completely wears off, the baby’s little heart starts dropping again. The doctor isn’t pleased, tells me she definitely wants to do a section to get the baby out. I’m signing papers, screaming through contractions, telling them I NEED to push (and being told not to!), and crying because I can’t breathe and I’m scared for the baby. The anesthesiologist walks in the room as I’m being checked for the last time to talk about what’s going to happen in the section, but I’m deemed 10cm (FINALLY) and told to go ahead and push!
She ended up getting stuck in the birth canal somewhere along the way and the doctor used the vacuum to help get her out, but it only took about 5-10 minutes of pushing for Everleigh to get here, 6 minutes past her curfew! They put her on my chest, cleaned her off and all that jazz. Then my mom took her out into the hall to see my stepdad while they stitched me up and cleaned me up. She made it in time for my mom! She gave nearly everyone a heart attack in doing so, but the main thing is she’s here, she’s healthy and she’s all mine!
This was originally published on another blog of mine that I no longer use. It was written May 4/11 and has not been edited in any way since then. All original wording has been kept, coherent thoughts or not. It's not pretty, but it's truth!
