Birth Story

This is going to be long, since I want to record everything so I don't' forget a thing about this delivery. Well it all started on Thursday morning. We arrived at the hospital at 8:30am. When I walked in to the unit I told them I was there for an induction, of course the staff weren't aware I was coming. But the nurse said oh well you're here now come on in and we'll put you on the monitor. So I was hooked up and was there for about a half hour on that. She put a call in to my OB and he was to be in the OR all day so he was going to come by in between cases. The nurse actually thought I was supposed to be induced LAST WEEK. I was like omg, if I was supposed to be here last week and suffered longer than I had to I won't be too impressed, but his chart said induction for sometime next week. So I didn't misunderstand, it was Thursday I was to go in. So he finally came in and told me what he was going to do. He checked my cervix said it was high up, very thick and closed pretty tight! I was pretty doubtful that this was going to work. So he said he was going to use 2mg prostin gel at 10am and then he'd repeat it again at 3pm if things haven't really started. The resident that was with him inserted the gel. Then I had to stay laying flat for an hour and stay on the monitor. At 11am, I was sent on my mission to walk. LOL. I was also admitted at this time so there was no going home without a baby. That was a relief. Off my hubby and I walked. In about 10 minutes I started having pains. They were about 7min apart and were getting worse but bearable. So she said to go for an hour and to return after that and she'd check to see if things were moving along. When I went back to my room the resident was there again and he wanted to check to see if anything was happening with my pains. Of course, NOTHING changed. That was fine. I stayed on the monitor for 20 min, while we woke the baby up and then off on my journey we went again. This time the pains were really bad, they started up at 1pm and I had to walk until 2pm. This time was worse, I had to sit for a majority of them, I didn't leave the unit this time, just hung out around L&D. After that my nurse checked me and said, maybe 1cm, and thinning a bit. What a laugh, all that pain and for NOTHING! The contractions were 2-3min apart and doing absolutely nothing. So I was put back on the monitor again. Stayed there for about 20 min. The pains were actually not going away at this point, they'd start up and kind of decrease and then get worse and they'd do that about 4 times in a row then they'd stop for about 2min then they'd do that again. I have worked in L&D before so I knew that that wasn't good seeing that coupling pattern because they are pretty much ineffective contractions, which we were realizing when I wasn't dilating. Anyway, she called my OB and asked if I could have something for pain, and he told her to give me Fentenyl and to repeat in 20 min. That would take the edge off them for about 15 min but wore off quickly. He came in to see me at about 2:30pm and checked me and said, I was definitely thinning and close to 2cm. So he was not going to redo the gel at 3pm and that he was going to break the water after his next case at 4pm. Also said that her head was coming down and at -1 station. So away he went. Hubby and I were just there as I breathed through the contractions. About 3:30pm they were still every 2 min and getting stronger and lasting longer so the resident checked me to see what I was doing and said, no change at all. And told me to walk. That's about the point that I started to cry and said to my hubby they are retarded if they think I can walk let alone tolerate this much longer. The resident was going to use the gel again but my nurse told him, NO way my OB doesn't want it repeated, that it's causing too much pain leave it for now. Around 4:20pm my nurse checked me again and said, I was actually making some progress that I was getting thinner, a good 2cm almost 3cm and the head was really low. At exactly 4:35pm my water broke. lol. I was like, i have to pee but I either just peed the bed or the water broke. And the gush would come every time i laughed so we verified i was not incontinent and that indeed the water was gone. hehe. The contractions actually turned into hell at this point and I was begging for my epidural since I knew that there were changes happening so my OB said, it's time, you'll get it, of course the anesthetist was in the OR just starting a c-section! AHHHHH, i had to wait until he was out. So I was actually staring at the clock with my every 2-3min contractions waiting for the anesthetist to come save me. At this point I was chewing on a face cloth to keep myself from swearing at people around me. It worked good. lol. Also I would squeeze the crap out of hubby's hand to try and distract me, that helped a bit. So at 7pm my nurse checked to see what was going on and I was at 4cm. That was a relief to know at least I was making some progress. The anesthetist came in to give me my epidural. I sat on the side of the bed all hunched over, he froze my back and warned me about what he was doing at all times, so I'd be prepared for any pinch and different feelings. He was at the last point where he was threading in the epidural catheter and told me what to expect and of course I flinched when he inserted it. I knew then it wasn't going to be good. I asked when to expect some relief and he said by the time he left the room. Of course my left thigh was numb and that was it. He told me he'd be back if i needed anymore medication and that he would increase it if i wanted to. So i let him go and figured I would wait at least 20 min to see if it would work, i didn't want to yell him right back in. Also it was just change of shift so I wanted to leave the nurses do what they had to do to give report instead of begging for my epi to be increased. I got my catheter at that point too. That was relief, I had to pee so bad but didn't want to move since the pains were crazy bad. So about 8pm rolls around. The anesthetist was in a case and would be in shortly to try and fix my epi, since it was unilateral blockage. Of course the side it does work on is where i never really had pains that bad anyway, it was all right sided and down my right side of my back. My nurse checked to see what was going on with me and I was about 8cm dilated. The nurses were asking about my previous delivery's focusing especially on my last, saying how long was the actual delivery. I was like maybe 9min from when the nurse saw her crowning. So they figured it was time to get the warmer on and start setting up. My OB was gone home for supper and was going to come back ASAP but his resident was there. My contractions were about 1-2min apart, unbelievably painful, nothing that I have ever felt (or remember feeling in the past)lol. So they were just waiting at this point. The anesthetist came in around 8:25pm to try and fix my epidural. So he recommended he take it out a half cm and see if it would straighten out and then that might give me some relief, along with a bolus of meds. So the resident wanted to do a "quick" check at this point. He said call my OB that I almost fully dilated only an anterior lip there. He just had enough time to take his glove off when I said, ummmm no the baby is right there! It is coming. Of course he didn't actually believe me he just had his hand up there. The nurses yelled at him and said, GET READY that baby is coming NOW! So they were trying to get my legs in the stirrups since I was on my side and the poor anesthetist just said, ummm ok finish what you's are doing, and taped my back up. It was pointless at this time. This was about 8:30pm now. The baby's head came out on her own, while they were putting my legs in the stirrups. My hubby was right there he saw everything! The resident and nurses told me DON"T PUSH! i was like I'm not at all. One nurse told me how to breath so I wasn't putting any pressure down there. The cord was looped around her neck tightly and they had to cut it right away to get her out. So once he finished cutting the cord they said push, I may have pushed for 2 seconds and out she popped at 8:36pm. Her face was totally blue. It was pretty nasty looking. She was pretty limp laying there too. The nurses had to resucitate her for about 5 seconds but at that point felt like an eternity. It wasn't long but you can imagine what it felt like. They told me her face was bruised since she came down the birth canal unbelievably fast! The poor resident was quite shocked at all this too. lol. My OB finally showed up about 5min too late. He checked her over and said, she's fine and that the bruising would go in about 2-3 days. It's been 3 days since I had her and it's completely gone. Anyway, there I was laying there waiting for the placenta to come out and away that went. After feeling every last bit of her coming out that burning pain, i had to ask, how many stitches am I going to need. And he said, I'm not putting any stitches anywhere in you, there's not a tear or anything. I was VERY surprised. My OB checked me all out too and confirmed no stitches needed at all. YAYYYY~! the highlight of my delivery. I did have a little bit of blood pooling so they had to increase the pitocin to make the uterus contract faster back to normal. They cleaned my baby up and handed her to me, of course her face was still bluish and I kept saying is she fine?? They said, yes her body is all pink she's ok. So they asked if i wanted to try and nurse her and I did in the delivery room. She was so alert she took right to it. I was quite surprised that she did, from her rough little start. But she's been doing great. I got back to my room at about 11pm after the bleeding let up and we finally got settled in for our first real feeding. Again she did great. They only kept me for 2 days since I had no stitches, no problems there and baby was nursing fine. She's now 3 days old and my milk has come in with a vengance, lol. I'll post more later about how her siblings reacted to her and how my first few days have been going.