Summer889's Birth Story (pain med-free, long, PIP)

Summer889 · January 2014

Well, I finally had my baby - a little boy (we were team green) named Matthew Ryan! He was born Sunday 1/19 at 1:07am weighing 6 lbs 12 ozs and 21.5 inches long (a tall skinny boy just like his dad!).

Here's my novel of a birth story if you care to read it:

On Friday 1/17, I was 41 weeks pregnant and went in at 8am for a routine non-stress test and amniotic fluid level check. After the tech did the ultrasound, she sent me over to the hospital to see the midwife on call who told me they weren't able to measure ANY amniotic fluid around the baby. She said this is very rare and usually means the placenta isn't functioning well anymore. While they don't like to induce, she did not feel comfortable letting me leave the hospital. I got really emotional since this was a complete surprise, but agreed that since the baby's safety was at stake, induction made sense. They got me started on continuous fetal monitoring. Thankfully, baby's heart sounded strong and steady so she thought I could still have the pain med-free vaginal delivery I wanted.

When DH got there, we all sat down to discuss my induction options. Since I was just 1 cm dilated and 30% effaced, we settled on Cervadil overnight followed by Pitocin in the morning. They placed the Cervadil at 6pm and gave me an Ambien so I could sleep through all the hospital noises. DH went home for the night so hopefully we'd both be well rested for labor the next day.

Around 3:30am, a midwife, 2 nurses and an OB rushed into my room and said my body was having contractions (although I couldn't feel them) and baby had just had a long heart decel. They would have to take the Cervadil out. I had only progressed to a "tight 2" and 50% effaced. I was drowsy so we didn't discuss much, but I figured this wasn't good.

The next morning, two midwives came to see me and said my baby was having late heart decels, which are apparently quite concerning. They no longer felt that we could induce labor since the baby likely would not tolerate stronger contractions. They wanted to try IV fluids as a last ditch effort to put a little amniotic fluid around the baby, but said I would most likely need a c-section. Again, I got really emotional. When DH returned to the hospital, he brought some happy movies to comfort and distract me while we waited to see if the IV fluids would do any good.

Incredibly, around this time my contractions started to become more regular and grow steadily stronger. Either the few hours of Cervadil worked or else my body just decided to go into labor on its own. Around 11, the midwves came back, finally with good news: baby was tolerating my contractions just fine! They said I might be able to have a vaginal birth after all, but first wanted to give baby a labor test to see if he or she could tolerate stronger labor contractions. The plan was to start Pitocin and gradually increase it until I had at least 3 contractions in 10 minutes. If baby still didn't have heart decels, we could proceed. However, as a precaution, they didn't want to start the Pitocin until the c-section team was ready just in case baby got into trouble. There was already a c-section scheduled, so we'd have to wait 1.5 hours to get started.

We called our doula to join us at noon, and she arrived just as my contractions got too strong to talk through. I switched to wireless fetal monitors to move around better, and the 3 of us labored together for awhile - standing, rocking, sitting on a birth ball, trying lots of things. I soon felt nauseous and got noticeably more serious, and we all knew I was in active labor. The midwives came back and said that my body had progressed on its own to 3 contractions in 10 mins and baby was fine, so we were a go for vaginal birth. I was so incredibly happy! Another cervical check showed I was 4cm.

The penicillin IV (I was GBS+) was rough -- I felt incredibly cold and started shivering uncontrollably. I got in bed under 3 blankets, but still couldn't relax and was so uncomfortable. Around 6pm, I went to the bathroom and also started puking. Cue lots of doctors rushing into my room, looking like a surgical team. The midwife got me back in bed ASAP to lay on my left side, and told me the baby had another big heart decel. Worse, when I moved around, the fetal monitor would lose signal. Alone that would've been OK, but the decels made the dropouts a problem. She asked to insert an internal fetal monitor, which also meant breaking my water prematurely - two things I REALLY did not want.

I was super frustrated by all these interventions and now I couldn't even get out of bed. All my plans for the worst of labor, like using the shower or tub, were out the window. I seriously began to doubt that I could do it. And I was worried that I might go through all this, and still end up with a c-section. DH was supportive and reminded me not to give up. So I agreed to the internal monitor. Before and after checks showed I went from 5 to 7 cm when they broke my water. For some reason, reaching 7 cm was was a mental game changer for me. I knew I was in the home stretch - transition - and that it would be intense but over soon. I re-committed myself and got down to business.

DH, my doula, and the midwives were awesome coaches and helped me relax through the final hours of contractions. Even after all our practicing (we took 12 weeks of Bradley classes to prepare for this!) it was difficult, but the deep breathing really helped. By 8 pm, I was fully dilated! Unfortunately, I felt no urge to push. The midwives explained that ordinarily, I would labor down and wait to push when my body was ready. But baby's continued decels made them feel it was important to get him out as quickly as possible, so she asked me to try pushing anyway.

Pushing without the urge was surprisingly difficult. Even with the midwives' coaching, it was hard to get the hang of it. My contractions actually spaced out, became irregular, and felt less intense. I tried pretty much every pushing position possible from bed, but it was really slow going. Three hours or so into pushing, my midwife suggested a "whiff" of Pitocin to speed things up. They promised to go slow and not ramp it up quickly, so I agreed. It was a good call, because it made the contractions more intense and closer together, and pushing got much easier. I finally got into a rhythm and they told me I was moving the baby down really well.

I hardly noticed any pain while pushing. I was totally focused, plus I think the pressure of the baby's head helped numb things. When I finally felt a burning sensation, I knew it meant baby's head was beginning to crown and I got excited because I knew the end was finally near! Around the 4 hour mark (midnight), the midwives offered me a break from pushing, but I said no - I just wanted to be done already. All in all, it took almost 5 hours of pushing to get the baby out. They think his head went into my pelvis at a funny angle and that was part of the problem. He also came out clutching his own umbilical cord tightly, which they think may have contributed to the heart decels (for all that my bag of waters was empty of fluid, they couldn't find anything visibly wrong with my placenta). When they finally placed him on my chest, it was magical. He was alert with eyes wide open right from the beginning. DH cut the cord after it stopped pulsing and got to announce that the baby was a boy. We spent an hour just cuddling him skin to skin before DH took him to the pediatrician to get checked out.

Overall, I'm really happy with my birth. There were a lot more interventions than I'd hoped for, but I also had what I think was a pretty serious complication. And thanks to my awesome midwives, I still managed to avoid needing a c-section or an epidural. I know those aren't the worst things in the world, but a pain med-free vaginal delivery was my goal and I'm very pleased that I accomplished that!

Now if you made it to the end, here are some cute baby pictures for you: