Mostly went natural, even with induction

lovesinthehouse

The fluid surrounding my baby was low and I was induced at 37w4d. Overall, the baby was measuring in the 23^rd percentile, which is okay. The abdomen by itself, however, was measuring in the 2^nd percentile. (All organs looked fine, the abdomen just wasn?t fattening up.) This meant that the baby?s energy was going toward head growth. These disproportionate growth measurements along with the low fluid, signaled that the placenta was breaking down. She thought it would be better to get the baby out, where it could get its nutrients from me vs. the placenta, while it has the strength to go through a delivery. The longer we wait, the increased risk of stillbirth.

We checked in at 7:30 p.m. and filled out paperwork. At 9:30 p.m., after hooking me up to monitors, the nurse inserted the Cervadil, a prostaglandin used to ripen the cervix. This would stay in overnight, for 12 hours, making my cervix ?more favorable? for labor. And they said we should sleep.

What they didn?t count on was how my body reacted to the Cervadil: shakes, diarrhea, a fever, and contractions ? oh, the contractions. They weren?t bad, but were right on top of each other so I had no rest. And I had to stay still in bed, so as not to move the monitors so they picked up my lower heartbeat instead of the baby?s. I hated being in that bed. I cried and told DH I didn?t think I could do this drug-free. He spooned me and rubbed my head and we tried ? and failed ? to sleep.

The next morning my doctor came in to assess the situation. I had progressed to 3.5 cm and 75% effacement. We decided to remove the Cervadil and wait a few hours to see if labor would continue on its own. In the meantime, my new nurse let me take the monitors off for a bit and take a bath. And when the monitors went back on, she gave me the okay to move around, use the birthing ball, etc., saying we?d just fix the monitors if we had to. I was so grateful to be out of bed, able to deal with contractions how my body saw fit.

11:30 a.m. rolled around and I had made no progress. Time for Pitocin. They started me off at 2 miliunits/minute and would increase by 2 every half hour. We made it up to 8, when contractions were barely a minute apart, and they lowered it to 7.

By this time, I was so exhausted that I was able to fall asleep for a minute or two at a time in between contractions. Since I was being monitored, DH said there were times that I actually slept through two or three contractions.

At 5:30 p.m. I felt a ?pop.? I thought it was a strong kick until I felt the fluid spurt out. My water broke on its own, and I was instantly in more pain. My doctor checked me again. Only 5.5 cm and 90% effaced.

I thought I was going to die. I had been laboring for so long and was barely halfway to full dilation. On top of that, pain had increased tenfold. I sobbed to DH and wailed, ?I can?t do this?I need medication?I can?t do this.?

Thankfully, every time I said this, no one really responded. Either another contraction came on and DH was forcing me to breathe with him, or the nurse was showing him pressure points for my knees and back, or she was having me move into different squatting positions to help move the baby down and encourage progress.

Finally my doctor suggested a small amount of pain reliever in my IV. She said it wouldn?t do much but take the edge off to help me focus. I went for it. And I didn?t notice a damn difference. Neither did DH. But my doctor and nurse thought I was more focused.

I stopped watching the clock after that. I could hardly focus enough to breathe through contractions. At some point I decided I needed to push a little. I couldn?t just ?breathe through them? anymore. The problem was I was still only like 8.5-9 cm dilated.

But I pushed a little anyway. My doctor?s shift had ended 20 minutes prior and she headed home, and now they were calling her to come back. As I lay there, wanting this baby out, the staff was getting things ready ? rolling in a big table with various instruments and I don?t even know what else, but they were busy.

My doctor showed up and had me alter positions a little. I was now onto my third nurse, who had DH hold my left leg while she supported my right. My doctor didn?t give me much direction when it came to pushing. She let me do what I needed to do.

Never in my life have I exerted so much force that I grunted, groaned, and screamed, even, to counter balance my efforts that weren?t quite showing results yet. I didn?t realize how many muscles it requires to push out a baby until the next day, when my entire body ached. Despite how I would flop back in exhaustion between contractions, pushing actually felt good. I felt like I was doing something productive and this ordeal was almost over. I always thought that pushing a baby?s head out of an orifice normally 10 times smaller would be the painful part of labor, but contractions are by far the worst. After about an hour of pushing, my doctor massaging and numbing me up, at 8:25 p.m., our baby slipped out and into the world.

?One, two,? my doctor and the nurse counted in sync as she unwrapped the cord from around its neck. She spread the little legs and asked, ?What is it, DH?? He turned to me, with tears in his eyes, and barely above a whisper, said, ?It?s a boy.? Within seconds he was on my bare chest, screaming and flailing around. Even though I knew the air was a shock to his skin and he probably wouldn?t calm down for a while, I stroked him and kissed him and tried to comfort him with words. I couldn?t care less about the discomfort in my abdomen as my doctor applied pressure to encourage the placenta to break free, nor the slight tug of the stitches, repairing my second-degree tear. All that crossed my mind was, ?It?s all over,? and ?I have a son.? I?d glance over at DH and he just huddled by the two of us, crying.

I had to hand him over for the usual tests and DH followed him. My boy weighed in at 6 lbs., 10 oz., a full pound heavier than they suspected at the ultrasound the morning before, and measured 19 inches long. Although he is a skinny baby, he is perfectly healthy and completely adorable (ask anyone ? it?s not just us!).

While the nurse helped me clean up, she asked how I felt about going natural now that it was over. I thought about it for a minute. At first, I said I would definitely consider drugs if I get myself in this predicament again. However, if I had had an epidural, and was confined to the bed, I?m 100% sure that labor would not have progressed as quickly and I think 23 hours of contractions is long enough, thankyouverymuch.

Although it was not at all what I imagined, I was very pleased with my labor and delivery experience, and that is solely because DH was an awesome coach and I felt like my doctor and nurses were on my team. Besides, we met our ultimate goal: getting the baby out safe and sound.

jcmayhew

He is adorable! Congratulations!!

halfpintlbk

Great story and he is beautiful!!!

Raylenea

I wish we could clone your husband. I think he is a Doula in the making;) But not to give him too much credit because I know who really did all the work. Way to go and congratulations!