Trust: It's a Work in Progress: My first birth story...

As I had mentioned in my previous post, we had a bit of a heads up that this delivery may not go as I had hoped. Since Ebenezer had not made his appearance by the time of my scheduled induction we headed to the hospital Wednesday night. While my heart was doing better, I was still very jittery entering the hospital. I had hoped that even though I was needing to be induced I could avoid be hooked to monitors until I was in real labor - I was wrong.

After changing clothes, getting me into bed and squaring away a bit of paperwork, the poking and wiring up began! I have inherited my mother's veins - good because she has a very strong heart and circulatory system - bad because it is very hard to hit her veins. I was poked and dug around on twice by one nurse before the other more experienced nurse came along and got me the first try... why can't I get those ladies first? Anyway, then came the cevadil - this was inserted into my cervix to apply the hormones directly where they needed to be - not fun but over quickly. After that came the blood pressure cuff, heart tone monitor and contraction monitor. By the time they were finished - of course - I had to go to the bathroom! Unfortunately that had to wait about two hours to give the cevadil time to work in case it fell out!

All wired up (and feeling more than a little like a robot) we said good-bye to Mom and the girls and were told to sleep... hard to do with the bustle of the nurse checking on me and the blood pressure cuff, but we managed a little rest anyway.

At 7 the next morning (Thursday) we met our next nurse. Her name was Genny and she was AWESOME! She took out the cervadil, checked me and declared that I was 2 cm dilated, enough to start the pitocin. Apparently I had been contracting through the night but I didn't really start feeling them until the pit. started. When she started the pit. she also started a fluid drip to move the pit. along. This meant I had another thing to take with me when I would get up to go to the bathroom or try to move through a contraction.

Dancing with my hubby...

Genny was stellar because she had an awesome bedside manner, she was cheerful and upbeat and happy to answer all of my questions. She explained what she was looking for on the monitors, what she wanted to see and what would be cause for concern and why. All-in-all she was great and very encouraging.

I was able to handle the contractions pretty well sitting and walking until about 1 in the afternoon. Then they started picking up and I could no longer sit or lie through one - the only way I could get through them was "dancing" with Chris. He supported me while we swayed side-to-side, he also reminded me to breathe and relax.

At about 2 we decided I should go ahead and get the epidural. I was getting tired and I was only dilated to about 4 cm, I really couldn't get much rest between contractions and I knew I had a long way to go. Plus, the contractions were getting so intense I was worried I wouldn't be able to hold still for the epidural later.

At the time it was THE scariest thing I had ever done in my life. I did a lot of research during the nine months of pregnancy, so I knew what they had to do and the risks involved. I knew how vital it was for me to hold still and I was worried because I knew I would have to go through several contractions during the process. It didn't hurt as bad as I though it was going to, although the popping noises were disconcerting. Genny helped me to hold still and told me when/how to push my back out and stay calm.

Once that was finished I had another, skinny, tube to add to my growing collection! And it meant I could no longer get out of bed so a catheter was also added to my tubular collection!

Relief from the contractions came quickly and, mostly, from then on out contractions were just lines on the monitor. Chris went home for a rest while Mom stayed with me the rest of the afternoon. After the epidural Eb started to have minor issues with his heart rate. It wasn't responding well to the contractions, so Genny would come in and move me every now and then and his heart would start doing what it was supposed to again. During this time my water broke on it's own! I had wondered for a while if I had lost my mucous plug or if I had sprung an amniotic leak - everyone kept telling me I wouldn't miss something like that and after seeing the mess I understand what they meant! Other than that the rest of that shift was pretty uneventful with me making slow but steady progress toward having a baby.

The night shift was not so good. The nurse for that shift did not have a good bedside manner, she did not seem familiar with the equipment, checked me too often (every hour to two hours as compared to Genny's four), took forever entering information that the other nurses took minutes to do and pumped me full of liquid instead to try to help Eb's heartbeat instead of taking the time to help me move... the list goes on. Knowing what I know now I would have demanded a different nurse - but I didn't know that was an option, it was my first baby and we all know how I am about confrontation. Before my midwife finally came in and intervened I had spiked a fever, my legs were the size of small trees and I was completely exhausted and frustrated. She told the nurse to slow down on trying to push me in labor and Chris asked her to be faster about entering her information and I finally got a little rest. The only good news was that by midnight I was 8 cm dilated and 100% effaced.

When the morning shift started (Friday) I hadn't progressed any further, however, and in fact went to 80% effaced. Sadly, this meant it was time to think about a C-section, the thing we all know I did Not want. At about 8 the midwife on call came in and explained that Eb being as big as he was and me having to be induced meant my body just wasn't progressing like it needed to. Since I had spiked a fever after my water broke they were also concerned about infection, so she really thought it was time to have the c-section. I knew she was right but that didn't keep me from crying anyway.

They quickly turned off the pitocin and got me some more pain killer while I waited for the surgeon (several times I would started felling the contractions again, but it was very localized, when this happened they would give me an extra dose of the epidural stuff). We thought I was going to have to wait several hours because there was another patient ahead of me, but she ended up getting an epidural and they took me first since I had a fever.

So it was time to do the new scariest thing I've ever done! Chris had to wait until I was all the way prepped before he could come back. The operating room was smaller than I expected. They started the spinal block and checked where I was numb, then they scrubbed down my belly with antiseptic and raised the sheet. Then they let Chris in and started the operation. I didn't keep close track of the time but it seemed really quick. Unfortunately, I am one of the unlucky few people who still has some sensation during a spinal block... when they were getting Eb's head out (he was pretty wedged into the birth canal) it really hurt! (Because of this they had to give me an IV pain killer which caused me to forget some later events once it kicked in.) After his head was out I could feel them push on my upper abdomen and then I could hear Eb cry!!! After they suctioned his nose they held him up for me to see and then took him to the side to check him out and clean him up some.

Apparently, Chris was able to bring him over for me to see and touch, but I don't remember anything else until I was back in my room. I do remember feeling better about the C-section after seeing how BIG he was! Our baby boy was born at 9:21 am on Jan. 20th. He weighed in at 9lb 12oz and was 21 inches long with a healthy set of lungs!

I had to wait a couple of hours before I got to see and hold him after that. He went to the special care nursery and I went to my room for recovery. Chris stayed with Eb and Mom stayed with me. While in the nursery Chris called me to tell me about Eb. It was so bittersweet. I wanted to be there with Chris while he met and bonded with our son, but I was so happy to get to at least hear him marvel and delight over our amazing miracle!

Eb did awesome on his APGAR! He got an 8/9! I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering how wiggly he was in the womb!

When Chris was finally able to bring Eb to me I was so relieved to have all of us together finally! Our perfect little ten fingered, ten toed miracle was finally in my arms!