my lonnng birth story/pip
On june 6th (my due date!) I was standing in the kitchen talking to Jeff when my water broke. I couldn't believe it! I had fully expected to be pregnant for 40+ weeks & had joked all day about it being my due date and getting jipped with no baby. So we were shocked and ecstatic when it happened. I had always wondered if I would know when it happened.. and you know! We called our doula and she told me to get some rest and call her when we needed her. We decided to go for a walk one last time as just the two of us and I could feel my contractions starting up, though they were bearable and still far apart. We got home and laid down but I was pretty restless from excitement and anticipation. I eventually fell asleep and expected to wake up in a few hours when the contractions became more intense?.but they didn't. Morning came and they were still erratic and no longer timable. We tried walking, bouncing on the ball, and nipple stimulation to get things started and nothing seemed to work. It had now been 12 hours since my water broke and my doula said I needed to call my midwife and let them know. Our plan all along had been to labor at home for as long as possible and I knew calling my midwife threw that out the window since it had been so long. I felt defeated already.
My midwife told me I needed to come in as soon as possible. I stalled the process by taking a shower and eating but knew that we did need to go in at this point. She confirmed that my water had broken and admitted me to labor and delivery. There are lots of various opinions on pitocin and a natural birth. Pitocin had been one of my biggest fears in my natural birth plan all along, but at this point with labor not progressing after so many hours I was left without option. We asked that they start me off on the lowest dosage possible & stop it when labor started to progress to give my body a chance to take over on it's own. Unfortunately I had to have fetal monitors, and this confined me to the bed and/or sitting on the birthing ball next to the bed, or standing. My mobility options were very limited. After about an hour the contractions started, and soon I couldn't talk through them. Since I was handling the contractions so well my doula recommended I stay on the pitocin. We had used the bradley method and all of my relaxation techniques went out the window. I was howling a low growl and either on all fours swaying or rocking with Jeff holding me up. Eventually I hit a wall, they were coming back to back and lasting 1-3 minutes and sometimes not even a minute apart?.at this point it had been 24 hours since my water broke. My doula got me into the shower & it was amazing relief but not enough. Between the exhaustion and the contractions I could barely stand. I had been in hard active labor at this point for 14 hours. I said I was done and for 2 more hours both my midwife and Jeff stalled me when I asked for the doctor. Jeff said it was the hardest thing he has had to do because he could see I was in excruciating pain, but according to Cami my doula she thought I was in transition and knew it would be over soon.
It wasn't though, and after another hour of me asking to see the midwife they finally agreed. I crawled up onto the bed to have an exam. My doula kept telling me that this was the end & I could do it, I remember her saying to me that it was 90% over and that I should be proud I had done it. The midwife checked me and no one said a word as she typed my progress into the computer.
I knew something was wrong. I looked up to the screen & it said I was 3cm. I was defeated, no way could this be right!! I was 3cm that morning when I was admitted to labor and delivery. I had been in hard active labor for 14 hours now with NO progress. How could this be?
The next several hours were a whirlwind. I was in so much pain that I had began to come and go out of realizing what was happening. They were unable to find the baby's heartbeat and I was quickly put on oxygen as they used an internal monitor to find him and found his heartbeat to be dropping. He was showing signals of distress with every contraction I had. A doctor showed up to administer pain medications and I cried and cried. After only one hour though, I went from a 3 to a 6. My body had been working against me, and with a posterior baby I was just not going to dilate on my own.
Several more hours passed and due to the distress of the baby and my lack of progress they gave me 2 hours to show significant signs I was progressing or I would have to have a c-section. At this point almost every detail of my birth plan had been thrown out the window. I prayed that labor would progress, and soon I started feeling strong contractions. An alarm went off alerting the nurses that my pain medication was empty?..I was feeling everything & they were strong and becoming stronger and much more intense. My midwife checked me and I had made it to 9cm with just a small lip! I started crying, it was the best news I had heard since our adventure had began?..at least I would still be able to have the vaginal delivery I wanted so much. Hearing that I was 9cm and ready also sent me into a panic?.after not feeling the strength and pain of the contractions for several hours I did not know if I could handle the pain. Jeff and my doula consoled me and calmed me down and I was ready to start pushing. The pain was indescribable & nothing like I had ever felt. The baby was also still posterior and laying on a nerve that caused me to have severe pain in my left hip. Pushing was the only thing that relieved it, it felt so good to push! But those few minutes in between pushing seemed like an eternity. I had been laboring at this point for 34 hours and I was exhausted. Pushing is the hardest thing I have ever done and I felt like I was never going to get him out. My doula and I were playing tug of war with a sheet to get me to push on the peak of the contraction and it was the most effective. After 2 1/2 hours of pushing Milo Elliott Rogers was born weighing 7 lb. 15 oz and 20 inches long. He had his cord wrapped around his neck twice, hence the distress every time I had a contraction.
My birth did not go the way that I planned, in fact every aspect that could have gone wrong did. But nothing changed the moment that my son was born. Nothing else mattered and the pride and love I felt had nothing to do with the road we had taken to get there.
Re: my lonnng birth story/pip
DD#1 is 3! And LO#2 is on his/her way! Due Feb 26th, 2014.
BFP#1: EDD 5/7/2010 born on 5/20/2010. A little girl named Emily.
BFP#2: m/c 10/29/2012 EDD was 6/21/2012 Baby Hope was 6 weeks 3 days.
BFP#3: Twin B stopped growing at 8 weeks and 5 days. Found on 8/10/2014. EDD was 2/26/2014. Twin A is still doing great and due date is 2/26/14.
Raeleigh Elizabeth http://theturnerpage.blogspot.com/
OMG Congrats!!!! You have been in my thoughts the last couple days after not seeing you post. I'm sorry to hear it didn't go as planned but so happy to hear you did it! You had the natural birth you longed for! Very inspiring.
SO happy for the three of you. Your baby is adorable.