CincyBabies

We had a great labor and delivery and had a beautiful healthy baby girl on 2/24/2010 at 4:25 a.m. She was born on her due date, if you can believe that!

The Wednesday (2/16/2010) before our daughter was born, I had some intense surges starting around 8:00 p.m. They moved from 20 minutes apart to five minutes apart, and then they slowed during the night and ended Thursday morning when the sun came up. I stayed home from work thinking “today might be the day” and because I was tired from not sleeping well due to the surges. I went to the Spring Grove La Leche League meeting that morning, thinking it was a safe place to have labor start in earnest, should that be what happened. Instead, things stopped completely. I went into work Thursday afternoon to finish some things up, thinking I might not be back for several weeks.

When the sun went down Thursday night (2/17/2010, around 7:30 p.m.), surges started in earnest. At around 8:30, we called our doula, E. She stopped by around 10 p.m. Because my surges had progressed from 5 minutes apart to about 3 minutes apart, and because I was throwing up constantly, we called Dr. B and he asked us to head to Bethesda North. We all thought I was in transition. I was amazed at how fast things seemed to be progressing. In triage, the nurse said I was at 6 cm and fully effaced. Well-pleased at the fast work I thought was happening, we went to a room, and I happily labored on. Surges continued, I continued to throw up. E and my husband M, were great. We “moo”ed a lot through the surges and told jokes, I took a jacket off and on about 1,000 times. They used counterpressure. We got into the shower. Later, the nurse checked me again, and somehow I was at 1cm but fully effaced. The nurses also said the baby was “very low”. Because of the discrepancy, two additional nurses checked me and then the nurses insisted on an ultrasound thinking the baby was breach (even though I had felt her head in my pelvis for weeks and weeks beforehand – babies don’t hiccup in their butt or feet!). The ultrasound doctor confirmed the baby was not breach. Being “checked” by the nurses was more painful than anything my body had been or was doing. And it was quite upsetting to find that it seemed I was going backwards despite several more hours of work. Throughout the night, surges continued. I got more and more fatigued. It was especially tough because by around 4:30 a.m., I was quite hungry and dehydrated and still was dry heaving. As the sun came up, surges slowed and I fell asleep. Dr. B stopped by around 10 a.m. Friday (2/18) and asked if I wanted augmentation or to go home and rest. I opted to go home and rest. He also offered to check me. Because the nurses’ checks were worse than labor, I declined Dr. B’s offer to check me. The nurses, my mother-in-law (who had six kids), co-workers, etc. told me I had been in “false labor” and that those darn “Braxton-Hicks” contractions could last for weeks and weeks.

M and I stopped and got breakfast on the way home and then attempted to sleep. My surges continued throughout the day Friday. In the evening, when the sun went down, they picked up again but never got closer than 5 minutes apart and I didn’t vomit. Some of the surges were very, very excruciating. Also, I could only pee while standing up with my head at a 90 degree angle to my pelvis — because the baby’s head was so very low and putting so much pressure on my urethra. The baby was very low — I could feel her head if I inserted my fingertip into my vagina – my cervix was paper-thin and her head was only about 1/2 inch from the outside. Saturday morning, as the sun rose, the surges stopped. Saturday night was a repeat of Friday night — surges started at sundown, never got closer than 5 minutes apart and ceased/slowed Sunday morning at dawn.I still had to pee and poop standing, with my head at a 90 degree angle from my pelvis. Sunday and Monday were the same as Friday and Saturday but less intense. I still couldn’t pee or poop properly and could hardly walk because of the pressure of the baby’s head so I stayed home from work Monday and rested. M and I watched probably ten movies from Friday night to Tuesday night.

There is a point to this description of pain – you said in class pain is a sign of something wrong and I’m getting to what that was if you haven’t guessed already. From Friday until Tuesday, I kept thinking to myself “this isn’t right – there is no way it can be normal to be unable to pee and poop or walk for days on end – if I were in the wild, I would get eaten!”. But because I felt foolish for going to the hospital when I was in “false” labor, I was determined to ride things out until “real” labor began.

I went to Dr. B on Tuesday 2/23, 11 a.m. M drove me as I was unable to drive. I described what I had been experiencing to Dr. B. He offered to check me and I accepted. In sharp contrast to the nurses’ checks, his check was painless. He discovered I had a lot of scar tissue on my cervix and offered to break it up. I enthusiastically accepted his offer. He broke up the scar tissue with his finger. This was NOT painful in the least bit and I felt a lot of the terrible pressure and tightness immediately relieved. He said I instantly went from 2 cm to 4 cm. Honestly, after Dr. B broke up the scar tissue, the labor and delivery were a lot easier than the days preceding. On the drive home, I had surges about 5 minutes apart. The surges slowed after an hour or so. I rested and ate dinner. M and I watched a funny movie. At 8 p.m., surges returned. They were 4 minutes apart, then 3 minutes apart and I started to vomit again, and then dry heave. We called E and Dr. B. Dr. B asked us to go to Bethesda North. My water broke on the car drive to the hospital. E met us at Bethesda North at 9:30 p.m. At the hospital, the nurse monitored the baby with an external monitor. The read was not good and the baby’s heartrate dropped in a way that worried the nurse everytime I had a surge, so after some time without a good read, the nurse suggested a fetal scalp monitor. E said without a clean read, the doctor might suggest a C-section. The nurse assured me the scalp monitor wouldn’t hurt the baby, so I said “okay.” The monitor was annoying but the nurse was able to get the read she wanted. I also was hooked up to an IV because I kept vomiting and dry-heaving. The IV was annoying, but I did feel better being hydrated than I had the week before without anything. Surges continued. They were tough but at no time did I want medical pain relief. After some time, I was checked and was told I was “almost complete”. Dr. B checked me some time later and said there was still a lip of scar-tissued cervix. He offered to break it up, I accepted, and my cervix was complete. After some time, the nurse told me I should start pushing. M and E helped me stay very comfortable in-between pushes – and I practically fell asleep in-between each one. M later told me I looked like I was on some serious drugs. Pushing was great, once I figured out how to do it. It was funny, the only position that felt good to me was on my back, which I remember as being not typically very effective for most women. Perhaps without the IV and monitor, other positions would have been more comfortable, but the attachments felt cumbersome in any position other than on my back. I pushed with the surges and after some time, the nurse called Dr. B. After two more pushes, her head and one shoulder were out of me, and M got to take her out the rest of the way. M announced we had a baby girl, and he cut the cord. They put her on my chest for just a moment, but then whisked her to the warming tray for suctioning. Because her breathing was really fast, she was taken to the Special Care Nursery for monitoring. I was happy but bummed we didn’t get the immediate bonding time. M went with her to the Special Care Nursery. E stayed with me. After I was allowed to get up and after I showered, I was allowed to go to see her (this was 45 minutes after the birth). I wasn’t allowed to hold her or nurse her because of the monitoring they were doing.

Four and a half hours after she was born, we got the “all clear”. She latched on right away. One of the leaders from the Spring Grove LLL (I who met the week prior) was working that morning at Bethesda North (she’s a lactation consultant there). She made sure the latch was good and that all was well with nursing. Despite the delayed start, we have had no problems at all with nursing. She went from six pounds at birth to just under ten pounds at six weeks!