This is my second attempt at
writing this. Greg took the older kids to the rodeo last weekend and I spent a
solid two hours working on this same post and had it close to ready when I
accidentally hit some button and erased everything. I tried everything I could
think of and could not get it back, so I just licked my wounds and went to bed.
Another week has passed and I’m ready to try again. Here goes:
I wrote in an earlier post about
having some pre-term labor and being on light bed rest, so we were definitely
prepared for the possibility of the baby coming early. My labor with Abby was
very fast—it was only 3 hours from my first real contraction until she was
delivered, so I was also nervous about her coming quickly. With this in mind, my
doctor had instructed me to come to the hospital as soon as I started having intense,
consistent contractions. I had been having contractions off and on for a few weeks,
but they started getting painful and were coming about every five minutes
around 1:00 AM on Wednesday, July 31. I was due August 15, so this was a little
over 2 weeks early. I told Greg we better head to the hospital, so we called my
wonderful Aunt Paula to come stay with our kids and off we went. (My parents
are living in China these days so we had to come up with a different game plan
than we have had with our previous children.)
When we got to the hospital, I was
surprised and disappointed to find out I was only dilated to a 1 and about 60%
effaced. They hooked me up to the monitors and the contractions were coming
consistently, so they kept me there for an hour and then checked me again and I
hadn’t progressed at all. The nurse was surprised based on the consistency of
the contractions that I wasn’t dilating more, but it didn’t happen so they sent
me home. I was so embarrassed and felt like an idiot, but there wasn’t anything
we could do about it, so we came home.
I had an appointment with my doctor
the next morning and I was pleasantly surprised when he examined me and I was now
dilated to a 3 and almost fully effaced. He said the baby’s head was “right
there” and my water was bulging. He said I was definitely in labor and had made
significant progress from just a few hours earlier when I was at the hospital.
He debated sending me upstairs to Labor & Delivery right then, but my
contractions had eased up a bit and weren’t as consistent, so he sent me home
with instructions to come back as soon as the contractions started up again. My
awesome sister was watching Garrett and Abby and told me to go home and get
some rest. I had a nice nap and was cleaning the bathrooms when I started
feeling the contractions starting up again. We headed back to the hospital and
arrived a little before 5 PM.
They examined me again and I was
still at a 3, so they hooked me up to the monitors and told me they would check
me again in an hour and see if I had progressed. If I had, I would stay and deliver
the baby. If not, the nurse said they would probably send me home again. I just
about died when she said that—this was my third baby and I knew what
real labor and contractions felt like. I told her I was worried about going
home because I would honestly have no idea when to come back and would probably
wait too long because I would not want to come just to get sent home again. She
asked me if I wanted to get up and walk around a bit to see if we could get
things going even more and I was more than happy to do so. Emily arrived about
that time and we cruised all over the Labor & Delivery floor for about 25 minutes while
Greg made some phone calls and worked on the computer in the room. I even snuck
into the bathroom and did some jumping jacks (100 of them—just in case you’re
wondering) just for an added bonus.
The suspense was as intense as
anything I’ve ever experienced when the nurse checked me again a little while
later. We were all delighted when I had progressed a bit and she consulted with
the doctor and they said I could stay! PHEW!!! My doctor had a meeting and
wouldn’t be available to deliver until after 9, so he told us to take it nice and
slow and he would be back in a bit. They hooked me back up to all the monitors
and we just hung out. She checked me periodically and I was progressing, so things
were going well. The contractions were consistent and uncomfortable, but not
awful. I figured I might as well get an epidural before it got too bad, so they
called the anesthesiologist and he came in. When he was finished, my left leg
was tingly and a bit numb, but I could completely feel my right leg and had
total control of it. Another doctor came in and broke my water after the anesthesiologist
finished and everybody was surprised when they went to change my bedding and I
could completely lift my bottom off the bed. I was worried something wasn’t
quite right with the epidural because I had so much feeling and control in my
lower body, but I wasn’t feeling any pain from the contractions, so they said I
was fine.
Mallory (Greg’s little sister) came
to visit and the four of us (Greg, Em, Mal, me) had a grand time just laughing
and hanging out. I had the best nurse (Aubrey) and we all got along really
well. She had a great sense of humor and we had a fun time laughing about the
new trends in labor and delivery. We joked about the “birth plans” people come
up with and I told her my birth plan only consisted of 3 parts: Go to hospital,
get an epidural, deliver baby. I felt like it was a solid plan and so far
everything was going well. It was about 9 PM at this point and I was still
progressing, but they decided to give me a little Pitocin to speed things up a
bit.
Everything was going great and we were
having a glorious time until I started feeling some pretty intense pain with my
contractions. I kept pushing the button to give me more medicine through the
epidural, but it didn’t really seem to be helping. I don’t remember ever
having to push the button with my previous deliveries, so I was surprised that
I had to keep pushing it. I endured it for a while, but it was getting pretty
painful, so I called my nurse back in and told her I was starting to feel quite
a bit of pain. She said sometimes towards the end of delivery you can progress
too quickly and the epidural can’t quite keep up with it, so she called the
anesthesiologist in. He gave me a dose of medicine directly into the epidural
line and said within 10-15 minutes I would be completely numb and wouldn’t feel
anything from my stomach down. The pain was getting really intense with each
contraction, so that sounded great to me! I watched the clock and waited with
every tick for the medicine to kick in, but it never did. The pain was getting
almost unbearable and I called the nurse back in after 10 minutes to see if I
could get more medicine because the previous dose hadn’t worked. She was
expecting to find me chilling and feeling great and was surprised when I was
doing worse. At this point, I started to get really worried.
(Note: I know people have mixed
feelings about epidurals and I don’t want to offend anybody here, but I’ve
never felt even the tiniest desire to deliver a baby without one. To me, it’s
as crazy as going in for surgery and telling the surgeon to just cut you open without
any anesthesia. Why anybody would ever want to willingly subject themselves to that
much pain is beyond me when there is help available, but everybody is different
and it’s all good.)
The nurse examined me and my
biggest fears were confirmed when she said I was fully dilated. I asked her
something like, “So what does that mean?” and she answered with, “It means you
deliver the baby.” I asked her if there was anything they could do and she left
to talk to the anesthesiologist. The contractions were coming every couple of
minutes and lasted for about 90 seconds. The pain was unlike anything I’ve ever
experienced and I was just gripping the sides of the bed for all I was worth
and just trying to get through it. The nurse came back and said it was clear
the epidural was completely not working and our only option was to replace it,
but we just didn’t have time and I would likely deliver the baby in the middle
of it if we tried. She said the doctor was on his way and they started preparing the room
for delivery. A couple of nurses gave me a crash course in pain management and
breathing techniques (a “natural” delivery was never on my list of things to
accomplish so I never bothered to take a birthing class) and we endured the
next few minutes while we waited for the doctor. Greg, Em, and Mal were
completely freaked out and I felt bad for ruining the party—we were having so
much fun until the dang epidural quit working. In between contractions I told
the nurse, “This was NOT part of my birth plan!” We got a little chuckle out of
that, but it didn’t last long between the contractions were coming right on top
of each other and it only felt like I had about 30 seconds of relief before
they started up again.
I’ve never been so happy to see
anybody as I was when my doctor walked in. I knew the worst was still to come,
but it would all be over soon. It only took a few agonizing pushes and our beautiful
little Reese was born at 11:36 PM on July 31. (She snuck in just in time for a
July instead of August birthday). She was 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 18.5 inches
long with red hair like her big brother. We think she’s perfect and couldn’t be
any happier to have her in our family!
Thanks to Em for the great pictures!
FYI: The top line is the baby's heartbeat and the bottom line is the contractions.
We are ready to rock...bring on the baby!!!
This makes me laugh every time I look at it. They asked me if I was allergic to anything and I told them I wasn't allergic to any medications and they asked about foods. I am allergic to Mahi Mahi (random, I know) and I cracked up when they wrote it on the board. I'm pretty sure they don't serve anybody Mahi Mahi in the delivery room so I'm not sure why it needed to be up there, but whatever...
You will also notice what great parents Greg and I are..."Baby to warmer" is code for "please clean the baby up and have her looking more human than alien before you hand her to mom" and "MD to cut cord" really means "her dad will pass out if he even looks at the cord, let alone cut it." We rock, I know.
The best birthing support crew ever!!!
Sweet Emily tried to help me when the epidural wasn't working. I think Greg and Mal were a bit freaked out...
She's here!!!
After this experience, I've modified my birth plan a bit and will be definitely be passing out copies to all of the nurses and especially the anesthesiologist next time. Here it is:
1. Go to hospital.
2. Get WORKING epidural.
3. Deliver baby.
