Evan is Here! Long Birth Story
I had the Foley Catheter put in on Wednesday and it had fallen out Thursday morning. That meant that I was already 3-4 cm dilated. When they first put in the catheter I started having very regular and strong contractions. I was sure that the baby was going to be born that day without meds....but I was wrong. I was induced on schedule, Thursday Dec 20/07. We waited all day for the call to go in but L&D were busy all day and night. Finally at 10:30 pm we got the call to come to the hospital right away to be induced. We were there by 11:15 and they broke my water at 11:25 pm. The baby had disengaged and they had to reach WAY up to get to the sac to break it but once they did I began having half decent contractions. About 2 hours later they asked me if I wanted to go to the bathroom and after I did the contractions started to get more intense. They asked before the trip to the bathroom if I wanted an epi because the anethesiologist had time between ceasarian sections to fit me in. I had said no, but after the intensity of the contractions post bathroom trip I thought I'd better get one in case the Dr was a long time getting back to me.
He put in the epi and it started to work great. Well at least for the first 20 minutes, long enough for the Dr to leave and go to the C-sections. It wore off 20 minutes later and because by then I was on the Oxytocin, I was in extreme pain. It hurt like a "you know what". Anyhow the contractions weren't that strong, just close enough together to give me any down time in between them or time to build up to the worst pain. The nurse checked me with ice to see what and where I could feel it and it turned out that there was just a 5" diameter of space on my left side that I was actually frozen, so they got the Dr for me again. 1 hour later and he was back and stayed to make sure that this time it took full affect before he would leave me. It was smooth sailing from then until the end pain wise.
At 4:00 am the nurse checked me and I was 5-6 cm dilated and then at 6:30 am I was 6-7 cm. Here's where I get ticked off at the on call OB. He came in to check me right after the nurse did (only the 2nd time I had seen him all night) he said that I was only 5-6 cm and wrote that down in my chart. When My OB got in he looked at the chart and saw that I was 6-7 cm dilated at 4:00 and 6:30 and said that we would have to do a c-section because I had stalled out. He didn't realize that the nurse had done the first check and a second check that showed that I had progressed. I was kind of anxious then because I didnt' want to have a c-section if I could help it. Oh, also at 6:30 am the Dr took me off of the Oxytocin because the baby's hb had accelerated to 180 during a couple of my contractions, so I had been labouring on my own for about 2 hours before my Dr had come in.
My OB put me back on Oxytocin and told the nurse to keep an eye on the baby's hb and he'd be back in 1- 1 1/2 hours to see if I'd progressed. If I hadn't we were going into the OR.
The nurse was great and she kept upping the Oxytocin and the baby's hb was stable at 155 so she continued to increase the drug everytime she checked on me. At about 10:30 am I told my husband to get the nurse because I thought my epi was wearing off again and I was scared to go through that pain again. I could feel a ton of pain in my tailbone and my lower abdomen. She came in and asked if I was feeling pain or pressure. I said that I wasn't sure but it was very intense and I didn't want it to get any worse. She checked me and the reason it was so intense is because I was 9 cm + dilated. There was just a small lip of my cervix left and then I was fully dilated. She put me in this position with my feet touching in front of me on an elavated pillow to help me/the baby get rid of that lip.
Anyway the Dr came in about 10 minutes later with a smile on his face and said that he's heard that I made some progress. After checking me he said that I was ready to go/push. The nurse said that because I was a first time mom she wanted to let my contractions move the baby down on his own for a while. I'm glad she did because it made the pushing easier. She also took the pillow out from under my legs and asked my husband to grab the other end of a towel. He and I played tug of war during my pushes to help round out my pelvis (helping the baby's head move under my pubic bone). On each push I pulled and so did DH, for a count of 10, 4 times per contraction. The nurse called the Dr and said that the baby was ready. He, thinking that I was a first time mom and would be a while, took his time getting back to the room. After only 20 minutes of pushing Evan made his debut. The Dr walked in as he was finishing his entrance and asked what had happened. He said that next time I'd better not sneeze or I'd deliver on the spot.
Anyhow, Evan Charles weighed in at 7lbs 3oz at birth and dropped to 6lbs 8oz in the hospital due to me not having enough colostrum (sp?). We supplemented formula for 1 day through an eye dropper (I didn't want to use a bottle) and he gained an ounce. My milk came in that night and he's been putting on about an oz a day since then. He's just over 7lbs now and breast feeding is going great!
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