My Birth Story 安敏 - (Mewwwwws)

Mewwwwws · October 2014

First of all I wanted to say that reading the birth stories here was very helpful in mentally prepping myself for all the different types of births out there and understanding what might come to by on my day of. Thank you to everyone else who shared their stories. Hopefully this story helps others too.

Short version: Baby girl 安敏 was born Sunday 10/12/14 at 2:44 AM, a day short of her due date. 6 lbs. 6 oz. 20.25 inches. Apgars 8 and 9.

Long version: My due date was 10/11/14 and woke up at 6 AM w/ a low ab cramp – felt like a mild period like cramp. Didn’t think too much of it, didn’t last too long, so I drifted back to sleep. Woke up around 8AM. Was feeling kinda worried about potentially going over in post-dates. Had a NST scheduled for Tuesday, was thinking that might have to be induced eventually – didn’t want that. Wanted the spontaneous childbirth experience. Was scared about pit contractions, wanted baby girl to come on her own terms when she was ready. But at same time didn’t want to take any chances that didn’t need to be taken either, so was reading up on inductions on my phone while in bed. Eventually got up, went downstairs. Parents were visiting, made us breakfast, eggs, bacon, toast. My mom put a celery leaf topping on the plate – just for color – but DH made me eat it, saying that it was ‘vegetables.’ That celery topping was the last thing I would eat before our daughter was born. I had been having these cramp like sensations since 8AM, starting out about 45 minutes apart so didn’t feel up too doing much. I really didn’t think these were contractions, but I did decide to start timing them w/ the Full Term app. So, the sensations were about 45 minutes apart starting out from 8 til noon. Then they got a little more frequent, maybe every 20 minutes maybe around noon. I think I was still in denial at this point, b/c they were not full tummy sensations – just lower abdomen… not sure what I was expecting. I didn’t tell anyone was having contractions til all our parents left for lunch. Then told DH that I was having these sensations but I didn’t want all the grandparents to freak out and for me to have caused a false alarm before knowing for sure that we were in labor. But b/c they were coming on stronger I felt more free to start laying down during them, doing deep breathing through them and in general expressing the discomfort. DH would press on my lower back /apply counterpressure during them which was helpful and I’d try to just relax into them as much as possible. Throughout this whole process they stayed about 45 seconds to a minute in length. Eventually at 2PM they started to kick up in frequency even more, going to about 5 minutes apart. Also started to get more painful. Had trouble standing during them. Couldn’t eat any thing either. DH took a shower and decided to pack up last minute items, and I did too. The shower felt amazing and I didn’t want to get out, but eventually I did and put together the last minute items for the suitcase. At this point it was about 3:30 or 4PM. The OB had told us to come in when I was having contractions for about a minute in length, at least 5 min apart, for three hours. It hadn’t been quite three hours, but we figured that by the time we made it to the hospital it would probably be that time. I had been waivering about even wanting to go in or not – I REALLY did not want to be sent back but it was getting more and more painful. So we headed out the door. It was such as weird sensation, waiting for the elevator while contractions were coming on, getting in the car. I went into the back seat and had to lean against the car seat… the whole time thinking that maybe the next time I saw this car seat, I would be bringing home a baby! I hung onto the hand rail above the door with the other hand, trying to breathe through them. It was hard to do. Near the hospital at a red light DH took a picture of me – the photo is him smiling broadly in the front seat and me in the back obviously in pain. He giggled – saying ‘This is it, honey, this is it!’ and me yelling ‘Stop it and just drive!’ And him saying ‘But it’s a red light…’ and me screaming ‘I don’t care that it’s a red light! This isn’t funny!’ Of course, now I see that photo and I’m all like – ‘Ha! Look at my face! I was in so much pain! That’s hilarious!’ Funny how you remember it in hindsight!

Anyway, we pull up to the ER and DH helps me out. I’m only carrying my phone and a plastic bag in case I needed to vomit. The lady at the front desk of triage asks some questions and it kinda hits home when she asks when my due date is and I say ‘today’. So she sends me up in a wheelchair with staff while DH reparks his car. I’d never been in a wheelchair before, I’d never even been admitted to a hospital before, since I was born myself and it felt weird. At the L/D triage they asked me for a urine sample in the bathroom down the hallway and I walked out, no nurse waiting for me, wasn’t sure where to go, so headed back toward the L/D triage desk, carrying my pee in one hand and phone in the other hand and pausing to have a contraction and thinking it’s kinda rude that no one is there is help me when DH comes running up and I’m so glad to see him. He helps me get back to the L/D triage desk and they bring me to a room in triage to get checked. With the contraction monitor / tocometer they saw that I WAS in fact having contractions… it was a relief to hear that. The med student said ‘Well, she’s not faking’ and we laughed. The resident came in and did a check. Check was pretty painful. BUT she said I was at 5 cm! I was really, really happy that it wasn’t too early on, and really really happy it wasn’t too late to get an epidural. She said they would get me a room and asked if I wanted an epidural and just nodded vigorously and she said she would call anesthesia and get things moving. The next moment later I wondered if perhaps I should have waited on getting an epidural a little longer to avoid stalling the labor and dilation, but in the next contraction I thought – no – now is good. B/c they were getting more painful I couldn’t open my eyes… eventually the nurse came and asked if I could walk or if I wanted to be wheeled in the bed and I said I’d rather be wheeled in the bed. Eyes closed the whole time I never saw my progression down to the room, or opened my eyes while in the room, just kept them closed. Anesthesia resident came in and was trying to consent me but I just nodded through the contractions, kind rolling my head around in a manner to at least make it look like I was nodding. Signed the forms super quick. The attending came in, who happened to know my husband from a project they worked on together (DH is also a doctor working in the hospital where I delivered – but not in OB or anesthesia) and I could hear them talking / bantering about stuff but again I couldn’t open my eyes. DH tried to help them by trying to put a scrub hat on me but for the life of him couldn’t figure out how to put my hair up in the scrub hat without parts falling out. Nurse got an IV started while epidural site was being prepped, and I’m not sure if it was the fluids when they started running but I just started shaking. The nurses and anesthesia called it the ‘mommy shakes’ and that it was normal. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to stay still through the contractions and the shakes for the epidural but the nurse I had was so nice. She helped me sit up for the epidural placement and held my shoulders and I held her arms and I was able to be still. I still hadn’t actually seen anyone’s faces. The epidural placement didn’t hurt. DH actually ended up pushing in the lidocaine and anesthesiologist joked about how now DH would get to be the one to bill for the procedure and everyone laughed. But after it was in – WOW – what a change. It was like my whole body relaxed, and pretty rapidly. My eyes opened, I could finally see the room I was in. I thought they had left and said to DH – ‘Thank them for me!’ but they were still around – I just had ever opened my eyes to see them, so I didn’t know what anyone in the room had looked like! After the placed the epidural though, although I felt great, the baby’s reaction had a relative bradycardia. They said that happens all the time and they weren’t too concerned at all. So they put oxygen mask on me and heart rate of hers went back to normal. The resident gave me a button to press if I felt like I needed more. I pressed once right away but after that didn’t need to press again. It was positional, so I needed to shift from side to side to not allow all the fentanyl and not to pool on one side. My legs felt like they were asleep but I could move them pretty well. And no pain, just some mild pressure w/ contractions. My parents and DH’s all filed in, all four of them. My dad was very anxious seeing the oxygen mask on me, the IV in my arm and blood pressure cuff on my wrist, and the tocometers around my stomach and the ET-hand like pulse ox taped to my finger and epidural going into my back – it was quite a bit of ‘stuff’ to see probably. But when I smiled at him I could see him relax a little and winked at me, so I knew then he was ok.

Apparently I was the only one who was in labor that day on the maternity ward. So that was kind of nice; I felt less pressured to ‘have this baby out’ to free up a room. The grandparents were impressed by seeing the contractions come so regularly they were still 2-3 minutes apart. I wasn’t allowed to get up and walk though I probably could have, so they had to straight cath me once in a while. I actually couldn’t feel any pain at all when it was happening so that was good. I decided to try to sleep a bit while the pain was gone, before I was going to have to start pushing. First I finished up the third trimester part of the baby book then we put on some music and dimmed the lights. My OB (who also works w/ DH) stopped by to say help. As it happened she wasn’t on call that day but was working in her lab too across the street that night and said that she would try to be the one to deliver me but she had to go to a family obligation starting 7 AM Sunday… so joked that I’d need to have the baby out before then. I didn’t really mind if she was the OB who delivered or not, but it was sweet that she wanted to be there when she didn’t have to be at all. She said that they would give a cervical check in a few hours. It was around 7PM that we got the epidural and she said she might check around 11 or so. She said that if we didn’t progress in dilation that we might need to give Pitocin or break the water. I didn’t want either of that really though, I just wanted baby to come on her own. So I decided to just relax and tried to push off the cervical check as long as possible. I asked my nurse ‘Do I really need to get either of those if I’m not dilated?’ and Renee said ‘It’s always your choice… but I’ll really bet that you’ll progress – you’re going so well as it is!’ She was so supportive! There were so many thoughts going through my head . I was trying to sleep to rest and I kept my eyes closed but could just only think about the pros and cons of having to have Pitocin or the water broken and what to say to them if I didn’t progress. I couldn’t sleep at all.

Finally the resident returned around 11:30 / 12 or so for the check. Check wasn’t as painful really at all. She asked if I felt like I had the urge to push or any pressure like I was going to have a BM, which I didn’t at all and she said ‘Hmm. Well, you’re complete.’ I was SO happy! Still, my water hadn’t broken so she asked if she could break the water, which I said Ok to, though in retrospect I think I probably could have labored down longer. There was meconium but they said no reason to do anything different other than have a peds team in the room and they would need to check her and that b/c of this I might not get to do skin to skin RIGHT away, which was fine w/ me – just wanted them to do what they needed to do, check out what they needed to check out and suction if needed. So OB returned and asked if we wanted to do some practice pushes. So, asked everyone to leave except for DH and my mom and we started pushing. It was a weird sensation b/c I still had no pain. I could feel the contractions coming on and I think they might have turned down the epidural a little bit to help too. I tried pushing on my side, flat on my back and also tried squatting on the back of the bed, facing the head of the bed and kneeling. They said that I was progressing a little bit on each set, though I couldn’t feel it… up til it seemed she was crowning. My mom was so great. She was stroking my hair and forehead, so soothing and calming! Though I wasn’t in pain I was keeping my eyes closed for the majority of the time, trying to prep myself for what was to come. Eventually the baby made her way down the stations… and the pressure started to build. They called for OB and the intern to return. Now people were breaking down the bed, stirrups / leg supports appeared and someone put my legs into them. Apparently the peds team arrived, but I didn’t see them come in – my eyes were closed. OB and intern came back in and it’s about 2:30 probably at this point. I don’t remember much of how long this next part took to get her head out but I felt the fire and started vocalizing through the contractions. I could hear Renee saying ‘I know it hurts, I know, but you’re doing so good – it’s not much longer now’. The next push she said ‘push right through it – push right into it’ so I did and then felt massive pain and then the head was out! And my body reflexively pushed again and the shoulders and then the body came out pretty rapidly afterward. She started crying right away and they took her to the warmer and the peds team vigorously scrubbed her and suctioned her just in case. But her Apgar’s were 8 and 9 and she was pink and rosy. My mom video recorded it and I was crying, listening to her cries. DH was going between me and the baby, telling me she was just perfect and doing so good and kissing me and telling me he loved me and that I did such a good job. I had so much relief w/ her doing well and also OUT of my body now. She was born at 2:44 AM. Placenta came later. DH cut the cord. They put her on my chest then while I got stitched up. I had a 2^nd degree tear and some small lacerations interiorly they said. She breastfed a little bit and eventually when she became drowsy and snoozy then the grandparents came in and took a look at her. Oohed, awed. I was so hungry – so the nurse gave me a snack while they then weighed her and did measurements and things like that. She is 6 lbs 6 oz, 20.25 inches, Head circumference 33 cm, and very beautiful, though we are of course biased. J

Thank you for reading, thank you for sharing. Hold on everyone w/ inside babies – they are a’coming!