It all started with prodromal labor and trying to decide if I should go to work or stay home and rest. I took one day off from work since I was up all night and just couldn’t imagine going in that tired. That day I took off I had contractions every 7 mins or so a few hours out of the day, but no real pattern. I thought to myself, well that was a waste I should have gone to work. That night I started having the contractions every 5 mins again, and a little more uncomfortable. I scrubbed part of the grout in the kitchen (can anyone say nesting?) and thought about the contractions. I ended up calling Dave home from work, again. This time we went in to L&D to get checked and see what was going on with me. This was almost my biggest mistake.
We got there at about 10:15 pm on April 28th and I was put on the monitor which showed I was contracting regularly, but not as close together anymore. They checked me and I was about 2cm, which was improvement from my appointment the week before since I was 1 cm. I had to wait awhile since the resident was doing a c-section, so the nurse told me to walk the halls for a while. We waited FOREVER; finally a different resident came back and checked me again. I made it to 3.5-4 cm, so they called my doc and decided to admit me, by now it was like 2 am. The resident told me I would be able to go to the room, move around and sleep as I wanted to without the monitor. I guess the nurse didn’t get that message because she kept coming in every five minutes to get the baby on the monitor. I was NOT able to sleep at all. I think if I had been able to really rest my labor would have progressed much better, but I was afraid to move and get comfy because every time I did the baby would move and we would lose her heartbeat. This went on like this forever. I finally got to see one of my own doctors the next day around 9 am or so. He was not happy with the fact that I was progressing so slowly, I really wasn’t either and I wanted to go home. He convinced me to stay and had to go to another hospital to check on another laboring woman. He came back around 11am and decided to rupture my membranes. I was against the idea, but thought my husband wanted it, of course I thought wrong but didn’t know that until later. We had a little miscommunication, Dave wanted me to stay at the hospital, but didn’t want the interventions. Even though I felt that rupturing my membranes would be bad since I thought the bulging sac was dilating my cervix and not the baby, I agreed. Big mistake. My contractions practically stopped! I had a mini breakdown and cried, Dave and I prayed together which helped me get my head out of my butt and improve my attitude. I started thinking about asking for a breast pump and a few minutes later the nurse came in and suggested I try nipple stimulation. About 20 minutes after that she came back and asked me if I wanted a pump, one of her co-workers daughters had a home birth the week before and used it to get things going. My nurse had asked some of the more experienced nurses for suggestions, and they came through. I started to use the pump around 3pm. My contractions did start to pick up and I felt like this might actually be the real deal. My mom arrived around 4pm, right around when the contractions started to get more intense and pick up a better pattern. Then a resident came in, one with really small painful hands. I was about 5 cm. They put in the internal pressure monitor to get a good time on my contractions. After about 30 minutes it was decided I wasn’t doing enough. Dr. Chainsaw (risk of uterine rupture guy that wanted me to schedule a c-section at 39 weeks) came back and thought a little bit of pitocin would be good. I didn’t like the idea since I knew real labor was imminent, but I also knew he would start pushing a c-section again. He tried to get me to agree then, but it didn’t work. He also kept pushing an epidural on me every time I spoke with him that day, and I refused. I did for a brief moment think about getting one when I agreed to the pitocin because I was afraid of how strong the contractions would get. But, I didn’t agree, my husband reminded me that I was able to do it once before and I was strong and could do it again. The doc gave me a line about getting it before I was past the point of no return to which I replied “Once you get past that point you only have about 30 minutes left anyway so getting it then is worthless.” Against what I wanted I did agree to the pitocin and they started the drip at the lowest dose, with instructions to increase it 2 (whatever units they use) every hour. Can you tell they did not understand me? They didn’t believe I was already in true labor and thought it would be hours. Well, the docs didn’t but my wonderful nurse did. The pit was hung at 5:45 pm. I was given instructions by the nurse to call them as soon as I felt pressure in my bottom since I had gone quickly in the past. So I did, at about 6pm or so. Dr. Chainsaw came and checked me and told me I was 6 cm (finally progress) and the baby was occiput posterior. Up until this point I was sitting on the birthing ball trying to get the baby’s head to come down (another suggestion of Jennifer my awesome nurse). When I heard she was posterior I gave into my urge to be on my hands and knees. I labored like that for about 15-20 minutes. Then I thought I wanted to be on my left side, ouch, it was pretty intense like that and I couldn’t really move from that position. Then it happened. I had to poop, and my body was pushing! Dave hit the button for the nurse just as Chainsaw walked in the room. He was coming in to tell us he would be back later after he checked on the other hospital. And practically yelled at Dave asking if he had called for the nurse. HA! He had to make a pit-stop and catch my baby before he could run off. I pushed to my own drum, they were telling me when to push and I was sort of listening, but mostly just going with letting my body do the work. I helped a little twice, and then he told me not to push so her head could rotate and then she was out in one more push. I think not listening to them tell me when to push is why I didn’t tear at all, not even a skid mark. She came out with both of her hands by her face too. The baby was born just 50 minutes after the one drop of pitocin went in, I am sure the pit helped speed things up but I also know it would have been maybe only an hour more if I didn’t get it. They were not even able to break down the bed at all she came so fast. They asked me her name as they were cleaning her off and I said “Sile Grace”. Then I held her and had some second thoughts. I told only Dave then that I wasn’t sure it was her name. We ended up changing it to Evangeline Cecilia. She just looked more like an Evangeline, and Cecilia is after my grandmother. That caused a little ruckus with the family, but I think everyone is okay with the change now. I think I really intimidated my doctor. I know I impressed the nurses. The postpartum nurse came by to help me out of bed and asked f they had removed the needle from my back. I had to tell her of course I didn’t have one, and her response was “wow, you’re my hero”. I know they say you don’t get a medal for going all natural, but comments like that are worth more. It was so worth it. No, everything didn’t go exactly how I had planned, but it was great nonetheless. I think the only thing I would change is going into L&D too early. Everything else worked out just fine in the end. |
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