On Thursday, January 9th, at 10:30 p.m., I had literally just drifted off to sleep after a long day at work when I was awoken by a huge gush of liquid. Before realizing it was my water breaking, I may or may not have thought that I just peed the bed. I had the Hollywood movie gush that just kept on gushing. So much for just a trickle as so many people will tell you!
Devin wasn't home, but he had texted me to let me know he was on his way. He probably thought I was playing a nasty joke when he received this reply: Good, because I am pretty sure my water just broke.
On our way to the hospital, I realized I had left my wallet (which had my insurance card and license of course) at home and we had to turn around, luckily it was so late and no one was out. When we finally arrived at the hospital at around 1 a.m. we found out that I was 3 cm, (I had been at almost a 2 the week before at my appt.). We got into the delivery room and got hooked up to all the monitors. I was pretty relaxed considering life as I knew it was about to completely change.
I had decided long ago to have a natural un-medicated birth and was going strong breathing through the most painful of contractions. It was when my contractions started to not let up, and when I started throwing up with every contraction that I could not breathe through them anymore, which meant I no longer had a means of coping with the pain. I reluctantly asked for an epidural which was put into place by 4:30 a.m. AMAZING.
My nurse decided to check me right after hoping I would be at least 5 cm, imagine my surprise when she said “or, how about 8?” I, of course, joked around saying “you mean, I almost made it?”
About 1.5 hours later, I was completely dilated but baby was still at 0 station so we wanted to give him a little time to move down on his own before I started pushing. The nurses and OB's were sure that I would have this baby out by 7 a.m. due to my quick progression.
But of course, 7 a.m. is shift change, so I had to wait awhile before my new nurse was ready. With the first set of pushing, baby’s heart rate kept dropping and even flat lined a few times which was pretty scary for us. I was put on oxygen and flipped to my side to help get his heart rate back up and more regular as all the pushing was continuing to cause his heart rate to slow significantly. I had another OB come in and check me and we decided to hold off on the pushing and use a peanut pillow (most awkward thing ever) to help widen my pelvis and naturally move baby down. It seemed to help because all pushing from then on did not cause the same heart rate drops as earlier, only small dips in which the oxygen between pushes helped—I did not have to use it the whole time.
My nurse thought baby was posterior--which means face down (confirming my thoughts that baby had changed positions just that week...but that is another story), but one of my OBs could not tell...thanks doc!
Long story short, baby was finally born Friday, 1/10, at 1:45 p.m...after 5+ hours of pushing and a little help from pitocin. I am lucky to have had a really awesome on call OB who stayed in the room with me for the last 2 or so hours and would not let me end up with a c-section. She decided that the first hour of pushing did not do anything but cause stress, and the hours on the epidural did not do enough. She actually let the epidural run out so I could start feeling contractions again, and boy did I, especially since I was going for so long. I absolutely LOVED that she did this and that I was able to feel the last bit of painful contractions and intense pressure to know when to push...what an AMAZING feeling, not just what my body felt like but that I was leading my own pushing and telling them when it was time. Turns out, baby was posterior which was most likely why my contractions were so strong and why I had to push for so long, when a baby is in that less than ideal position, labor intensifies and lengthens.
I could not believe how quickly I dilated for a FTM and that I made it all the way to 8 cm without the epidural. I also could not believe how long I pushed...I was “that girl who pushed 5 hours” that weekend at the hospital.
Believe it or not, I'm already looking forward to experiencing labor and attempting a natural birth all over again!
Baby Bug - First skin to skin
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