It’s Labor Day today, and I keep thinking about my last “labor day” – the day you were born. I’m sure you will never want to know the details of your birth, but it’s important to me to remember all of the details of that special day.
It all started two weeks earlier when we went to Maternal Fetal Specialists for your last measurement ultrasound. Everything checked out great except for your belly measurement. Your head size and femur length were fine, but your abdomen was measuring in the fifth percentile. So the doctor told us that we would need to induce by 39 weeks. It didn’t even hit me at first what that meant, and it wasn’t until we got home that all of a sudden 100 questions popped into my head and I started getting worried. I went to the OBGYN for the non-stress test the next Tuesday and asked the doctor all of my questions, and he confirmed that induction was the way to go.
I was really worried about being induced because I knew that there was a greater risk of having a c-section, longer labor, and more painful labor. But ultimately I knew that getting you here safe and sound was the most important thing, and it didn’t matter how or when you got here.
Skip forward two weeks to Thursday, July 29. We got the call from the hospital that evening telling us to be there around 7 p.m. So we got all our stuff together and checked into the hospital a little before 7. We got taken back to our room (room C6) and met our first of many nurses. She got us settled in, and shortly thereafter tried to place my IV line. Apparently I do not have a future in intravenous drug use, because my veins are not easy to find. Our nurse, LaShonda, tried and failed to find a vein, so she sent in another nurse…who also failed to find a vein. So they had to actually send in an IV nurse to place the line. So about 3 hours after arriving at the hospital, they finally placed my line and were able to give me the cervidil. They gave me an Ambien to try to get some rest, and I finally got to sleep around midnight.
We got up the morning of your birthday around 4:45 so that your Dad could go get me breakfast, since I couldn’t eat past 5:30 that morning. We ate breakfast and then tried to rest a little bit more before the nurse came in to start administering the pitocin. They hooked me up to the monitors and started the pitocin at 7:30 a.m., and I really didn’t feel much of anything for the next hour.
At 8:30 a.m., my midwife Christine checked me and I was 3-4 cm dilated, 60% effaced. She suggested breaking my water to progress my labor. I was reluctant at first because I knew it would start the clock ticking for you to have to come out, but she emphasized that it could help get my labor going, so I decided to do it. And wouldn’t you know, as soon as she broke my water I started having contractions. The contractions really weren’t bad for the first two hours. They were a few minutes apart, and I was able to breathe through them when they hit. Then around 10:30 they started getting MUCH stronger, and were basically on top of each other.
I was doing my best to try to breathe through them, but they were so incredibly painful I couldn’t bear it. I tried changing positions in the bed, but nothing really helped. My goal of having natural labor was so that I could experience labor and your birth – I just didn’t want to be numb to the whole process. At that point, the pain was so bad that I felt like I had experienced what I wanted to experience, and I was ready for an epidural. And looking back on it, I think I had the perfect labor and delivery experience, and feel like I got the epidural at exactly the right time.
So at 11:30, I requested the epidural and was basically begging for it at that point. It took about an hour from when I initially requested before I finally got it. My contractions were so close together by the time the anesthesiologist came in that they had me lie down to administer it (normally they would administer it with me sitting up). All I remember was that the anesthesiologist kept saying that I had to be at least 8-9 centimeters…I guess I wasn’t doing a very good job handling the contractions! As soon as the drugs entered my body, I felt really faint and nearly passed out…so I’m glad I was lying down. My entire body was shaking from the epidural, but I felt relief almost immediately!
I was really happy with the epidural because I wasn’t completely numb, so I could still tell when I was having contractions. I could still feel my legs (somewhat) and was able to move them, so I could flip over in the bed as needed to get more comfortable. Around 1:30 p.m., my blood pressure dropped a bit and your heart rate slowed down a little, so they gave my oxygen and administered an amnio infusion to keep your heart rate up. It worked, and both of us were doing fine after that. Around 2 p.m. I started feeling a lot of pressure and felt like you had to be making a lot of progress.
Christine came in at 3 p.m. to check on me, and apparently I was right…you were about an inch away from making your appearance into the world! Everyone in the room started making general preparations, and a few minutes later Christine asked me to do one practice push just to see whether you were going to come out easily. Apparently you were, because after the first practice push, Christine yelled out to everyone in the room to get their gowns on, because you were coming out…soon! I started getting really overwhelmed with emotionas and got teary eyed with excitement that you were going to be born within minutes. Your Dad and I held hands and Christine told me that I was going to push three times with my next contraction. My next contraction started at 3:20 p.m., and I pushed three times…and out you came at 3:22 p.m. Your Dad and I both got teary eyed as they placed you on my chest. You were warm and slimy, and I couldn’t have been happier to have you in my arms. You were wide awake and looking straight up at me…what an amazing feeling!
After your Dad cut the umbilical cord, they took you over to the baby station to clean you and weigh you. Your Dad went over to the baby station and took a bunch of pictures of you and report back to me about how you were doing. Once you were all taken care of, the nurse brought you over to me so you could nurse. It was so amazing knowing that I could feed you and start taking care of you outside of my belly! A little while later, they took your blood sugar and it was a little low, so they had to take you to the baby nursery – I was so sad to see you go. But two hours later, you were back with us in the post partum room, and we were finally together as a family. And we’ve never been happier!
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