Birth Stories
Options
39 hours of labor!
Little Charlie Thomas came entered the Earthly sphere, kicking, breathing and punching at 10:45 April 27th. Ironically, on my great-grandpa's birthday. I never got to meet him, but according to my mom he was a pretty amazing grandpa. I'm sure Charlie will keep his birthday legacy well.
I started to go into labor on Monday night. My doctor, at my appointment at 5 o'clock told me that she wouldn't be surprised if I was already in early labor. I was 2 centimeters dilated already. Now, I know that women can go around for 2 weeks being dilated, but with the combination of bleeding and contractions, I know now that she was right!
My mom decided to come down Monday evening, after a day at work, so she could be here throughout the labor. I told her okay, but I was worried that she'd get here and I'd be in false labor, or not in labor at all, and so I was weary about her coming in the first place. But, she left Buffalo at 7 pm, and it was done.
The doctor told me to get as much sleep as I could that night, because I need to save all my energy for labor. Despite tylenol PM, I was not able to sleep. I wanted to make sure that my mom got in okay. I kept having (what I know now as pretty light and easy) contractions every so often, and I was just too excited about everything. After my mom got in at 4 am, I was able to grab a couple of hours on the couch. I wish I forced myself to get more sleep in retrospect, because it was the last opportunity I would have until after the baby came.
We woke up and Tom decided to take the day off of work, as it was pretty clear in the morning that I was in labor. To go to the hospital we needed my contractions to be between 3 and 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. In the morning they were varying, some were 5 minutes apart, some were 20 minutes apart. They also started to grow in intensity. At first in the beginning I thought how cool it was that I was really having a contraction. We took a long walk around the park, and sometimes I would be able to walk through the contractions, and sometimes I would have to stop and prop myself up against a tree and have my mom or Tom rub my back. I started to say some funny things out loud, loudly. A police car with two police ladies went by us, and the one woman looked at me as if to say, oh no, she better not be giving birth right here!
Walking definitely helped progress my contractions, but they were progressing very, very slowly. I think around 6 o'clock they were about 8 minutes apart and I was exhausted. I couldn't really get rest, seeing as a contraction would wake me up every 8 minutes. I think Tom was watching the last Sabres game. I remember calling Melanie and having to hang up on her because the contraction was too intense to talk through.
In the evening the contractions started to become pain of biblical proportions. I really had no idea how painful they would be. I know that sounds a little ridiculous. Luckily I had two support people around to rub my back and keep me focused.
Around 9 pm I wanted to go for another walk to see if that would help things go any faster, and so, my mom took me. We were just going to go around the block, but I was feeling good, and so we started to go a little further. I leaned against trees and my mom rubbed my back, and by the time we got home it was pretty clear things were getting a little bit further along.
Around 11 pm I was having contractions that were pretty unbearable. Every 4 minutes, like clockwork, they were coming. After an hour of having these contractions, my mom told me to call and see if we could go into the hospital. When I called the midwife, she asked what I wanted to do. I said that I wanted to go the hospital, and she told me that she'd meet me there.
Tom, who had just gone down for a nap, was quickly woken up. It was time to go! He had a temporary panic attack, running around the house and going into rooms, and then leaving rooms. I stuffed some last minute things in my overnight bag (which was pretty much already packed) and was ready to leave.
Luckily, right before midnight in Brooklyn, there's no traffic. It was hard to have to sit down in the car through the contractions, but Tom drove well. He said at one point, "This is what I've been practicing for since I've been 16. Being able to drive my wife safely to the hospital when she's in labor."
We parked in the garage. I didn't have Tom drop me off because I actually wanted to walk out a couple contractions at this point. I had one right before I went into the hospital, right over this nice Jewish man who probably thought there was a crazy person above him. He was nice and just kind of stared straight ahead and ignored me.
When we walked through the hospital the security guard pointed me in the right direction, and I was happy to find that everything was pretty much empty. The labor and delivery room at Maimonides hospital can be insane. There was once like 70 babies born within 48 hours there. So, I was terrified that when I went into labor I would be kicked out or not able to get a labor and delivery room. Fortunately, that was not the case at all.
The first thing we had to do was fill out paperwork. Filling out paperwork through contractions was awful. The lady was probably the most patient woman in the entire world, not letting my groans and wincing bother her in the least.
I then got put in a triage room where basically they check you out to make sure that you are in labor. I had to drop my pants right away. I thought I might be shy about showing the goods to my mom... especially my mom in front of Tom, but all propriety was out the window at this point. They had me put on what I originally thought was a mini skirt, but was really something to put over my belly. Underneath the stretchy material they attached one monitor for my contractions and one monitor for the baby's heartbeat. Baby's heartbeat looked good. It fluctuated, so when I was going through contractions it slowed down, but then it would pick up speed right away. I got to hear it the whole time pulsate on whatever equipment they had.
The first nurse that put all the equipment on me was really nice. She asked if it was my first... and I said yes. She said that she had 6 babies, and that I'll be fine. 6 babies. Can you imagine?
Very soon after my midwife was in the room with me. It was a midwife who I saw several times, and I was happy to start the night with her. For all I knew she would be the one delivering my baby. She did an internal and told me I was 4 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. I couldn't believe that after all of those contractions I was only what seemed like a fraction more progressed than before. She asked me if I wanted to walk around or be admitted. She asked if I wanted the epidural. I asked, if I get the epidural, is there a chance that I could get some sleep? Remember at this point I'd had about 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours... and with a lot of hard work again, I wanted to sleep if possible. She said, it was possible to sleep... and so that was that. I was going to get admitted.
Another nurse who was in the room had her eyes light up and say, "Good job! This is your first baby and we don't have to send you home. You did a good job." It did make me feel better.
We went to labor room number two, which was going to be our home for the next 12 hours or so. As they put the equipment on me in there, I still was going through contractions... and getting my hand held and my back rubbed by my mom and Tom. I started to get nervous about the epidural. I wanted it, but I was nervous about the procedure. Before long, the epidural guy was in the room. I asked if he was good at giving epidurals and he said, "I'm the best. I can almost give an epidural to myself." Pretty cocky, but with a guy inserting drugs into your spine, it's the kind of attitude I could appreciate.
He explained the risks... there's about a 1/100 chance that I could get severe headaches after, and then he said there was risks that were like 1 in a million, but I said I don't have to hear them. My decision was made. Tom and mom had to leave the room, and a nurse came in to assist the anesthesiologist. I was so scared being all alone, but I knew it would get easier after the procedure was over. I never looked or got to see the needle. I had to hunch over. The most dangerous thing would be if I had a contraction when he was doing the procedure. At this point they were 2-3 minutes apart, and the procedure took about a minute, so he explained he that he'd try to time it so that he would be putting in the catheter that goes into my spine right after a contraction so he'd have the most time. When he put it in, he asked if I felt pressure to the right or the left, and I did a little, so he adjusted, and after a minute the procedure was over and I didn't feel another bad contraction for the whole time.
After things were over I got the shakes really bad. Tom and mom came back into the room, and I was shivering. He explained it was a side effect, just not as common as some other side effects. I guess my blood pressure dropped pretty low at one point... but, I recovered after a few minutes.
My midwife came back in after the procedure was over, and she did another internal and broke my water. It was so fast, and it smelled kind of bad. After, she told me that she was just going to let us rest for a few hours and come back in the morning. At this point it was about 2:30, and she didn't come back until 6.
So, My mom got this chair that folded out into a bed, and Tom just slept in a chair and table. I had the hospital bed. It was hard to adjust and I was afraid to move with the epidural in my back. I know that both Tom and my mom slept, but I don't think I did. I played around with my phone a lot. I texted my two best friends to explain how great the epidural was, and I started to drain the battery on my phone. Tom would tell you that he saw me sleeping, but I'm not so sure. Oh, the only thing I could eat was ice chips at this point, so I had a steady supply of those. I couldn't get in a comfortable sleeping position. I'm a side sleeper, not a back sleeper... so it was tough...
So from about 2:30 to 6 am, I checked my phone, looked at texts, listened to my baby's heartbeat, and didn't feel any contractions. A nurse came in every 30 minutes or so just to check the monitors and make sure that everything was okay. I had to lie on my side a little bit, and once she helped me get propped up a little more on my right side. I wanted to sleep, but the excitement and everything was just too much.
Eventually some other nurse came in and brought a tray of gadgets to use in delivery and they were covered up with a big green sheet. She didn't stay long. My epidural started to wear off a little bit and I got terrified that intense contractions would come back. I mentioned something when the nurse came in, so a different anesthesiologist came in to "top me off". There was a cold shiver down my back, and then relief. He said that it would take about 20 minutes to really kick in, but it seemed to be working just fine.
Around 6 am Jen the midwife came back into check me, and explained that her shift was over, and it was time for Lydia to take over. I knew that when I signed up for the practice that any one of the midwives could deliver me, but I was happy that Lydia was there. I saw her several times and I felt completely comfortable with her. There was also a change of nurses. Jahmilah was the nurse, and she was a calming force in the room. I asked if she had any kids (I was kind of loopy by this point in time) and she said no. I told her the epidural was amazing, and she chuckled.
After I was checked, Jen told me I was now 9 1/2 centimeters dilated, but the baby was still pretty high up in my birth canal, at station -2.
I forgot to mention this before, but right after I got the epidural it's pretty hard to move your legs. That's why I had so much trouble rolling myself over. Only my arms worked. The weird thing was as I was being examined I could feel pressure on my legs and when they went inside my vag to check me, I could feel a little pleasure on my clitoris. Jen, the midwife, looked at me funny and asked "You can feel that?" I told her that I could, but it wasn't painful. I was pretty hopeful that I might have an orgasmic birth (google it if you aren't familiar), but after that check up the sensation was no more. As my mom stepped out, I told Tom. We had an empty room and he could mess around down there if he wanted to, but he wasn't game.
I also forgot to mention that they had to put a catheter inside me to drain my urine. That was kind of weird... but... I didn't feel it! They have to do this because you are numb, so if they don't, you'll pee all over yourself.
So, back to the story, at 6 am after Lydia checked me, she concurred with Jen that I was 9 1/2 centimeters and the baby needed to drop. I should mention that internals are very uncomfortable, but with the epidural... not uncomfortable at all! Lydia suggested that we let the contractions do their job, and that since the baby's heartbeat was still strong, that we wait to push for a little while. So, we waited more.
During this time mom and Tom woke up and we were all in pretty goofy moods. We counted down the time where we could call people, and we called my Honey and Papa to let them know the baby would be coming soon. I think that we called Tom's parents too. I went from being giddy and chatty to being completely exhausted from one moment to the next. Again, there wasn't really any rest, even though I should have been trying to sleep.
I got my epidural topped off again at some point and I started to feel pressure in my back. The nurse told me it was normal, no epidural was going to take care of it, and it was the baby starting to descend down the birth canal. Everything was getting closer!
Around 9 o'clock Lydia came in to check me again... and the baby hadn't really made any progress. He went from station -2 to station 0, and to be ready to come out, he needed to be at station +10. So, it was time to push. She warned me and said it would probably be anywhere from 2 to 3 hours since he was so far up in the birth canal. At this point my contractions were steady at 2 minutes apart, and they were lasting for about a minute. I was so happy that I wasn't feeling anything at this point. I shouldn't say I wasn't feeling anything. I felt a pressure, but it was definitely no pain.
Lydia also asked around this point if it would be okay if 2 students assisted her. I could chose to have one or two, but she stated that she wouldn't mind the extra help, but it was completely up to me whether it was okay or not. I had the choice. I told her that as a teacher, I knew the best learning came from doing, and it would be pretty hypocritical of me to say no. I told her as long as it wasn't a group of like 10 people, 2 people were fine.
Soon after the nursing students came in and tried to decipher all of the equipment and what was happening. They also had a list of questions for me. At this point I wasn't giddy, I was starting to get exhausted and out of it, so I was nice to them, but I was a little bit delirious. The questions they asked me were sort of silly, and I already answered them. Some were about my pregnancy... if I had prenatal care and took prenatal drugs... how much exercise I did and so forth. But when they started asking me about my hobbies, I started to fall asleep. I didn't energy for those type of questions.
At around 9:20 it was time to push. The midwife positioned me where she needed me on the table. Again, I was pretty numb from the waist down, so moving me was kind of a challenge. I was starting to get scared about the pushing. I really felt like I didn't have enough energy to answer the nursing students' questions, how was I going to have enough energy to push??
When I started to push Tom and my mom were at my head on the right side, the two nursing students had one of my legs, Jahmilah the nurse was by my left side, and Lydia was in prime baby catching position. I thought it was a good time at this point to ask about the episiotomy. If you don't know what that is, basically it's when the delivering doctor makes a cut somewhere between your vagina and you butt hole to help the baby's head escape from your womb. She told me that she would only do this if it was absolutely necessary and the baby appeared to be in distress. I told her that I supported that protocol. Definitely didn't want to get cut down there unless the baby needed it to happen.
Lydia told me that she was going to have me push during contractions. For every contraction I should push three times for about 10 seconds. She said that with the epidural it would feel like the biggest bowel movement I ever took. I should feel a lot of pressure, but no pain. She also said that she wasn't going to count when I pushed, but I should try. She also wasn't going to tell me how I was doing, and reminded me it could take a long time... up to 3 hours. I was exhausted, but the idea of pushing gave me a new burst of energy.
The nurses and Lydia could tell when I was having a contraction based on my monitor, so they told me when it was time to push. There were two guard rails on either side that came up on the bed where I needed to hold onto to get some leverage for pushing. I was supposed to pull myself up a little bit, keep my arms bent, and push like I was taking a really big poopy. (Poopy is mommy talk for ***)
Without further ado, I started pushing. I could tell it was going to take me a couple tries to get it right. I knew from my birthing class that despite how good my pushing was, I was going to be told I was doing a good job as to not get discouraged. During every push my focal point was Lydia's eyes. Any time that I started to make grunting noises or feel like I needed to be loud, she reminded me to keep calm. She never raised her voice or got overly excited. She would just say push push push, breath... push push push, breath... It sounds silly, but I would forget to breath.
During the beginning pushes I remember looking over at Tom. He had this look on his face that resembled a mix between terror, awe, amazement, and shock. I don't think he could really fathom what I was starting to do, and what was going to come out of where. Logically he knew what was going to happen, but until it actually happens I think it's hard to visualize.
So, every two minutes or so, I had another push. At the beginning, I knew that instead of just feeling like I was pooping, I actually pooped. Luckily because of my high fiber diet, the little poop balls were solid and easily caught by Lydia. She asked for some tissues and discretely caught my poop balls. Tom and my mom didn't even realize that I pooped in the bed. If you don't know a lot about birth stories, you might not know this is very common. Because the muscles are pretty much the same for pooping and birthing babies, lots of mommies poop during delivery. I'm glad to have joined the ranks. I'm also glad that the midwife kept it discrete.
As I kept pushing and pushing I noticed that I was actually able to start feeling my contractions. Not in a painful way, but in a way where I could feel the pressure of them coming. So, instead of the nurse and midwife telling me to push, I told them I was ready to push. I asked permission, but they allowed me to do it.
After maybe 20 minutes or a half an hour of pushing, it was clear I was making real progress. Lydia invited the nursing students, remember they had never seen a live birth before, to look at my progress when I was pushing. By the looks of amazement on their faces, it was clear that finally I was making some good progress. At this point, my mom got curious too. Even though she thought she would stay up by my head, she wandered down to see the baby show happening at my lower half. Later she told me that there was a tiny half circle, sort of like this () where she could see the baby coming through.
Because of the long labor the baby's head was swollen, so it was difficult for Lydia to tell if he was really in face down position. At this point, when she could start to see the head coming down the birth canal and it was in good reach, she started to take baby shampoo to lube up my vagina to ease his journey down. She massaged his way and tried to ease his head gently with her fingers during contractions. She was so calm and just kept encouraging me.
I should note that at any time there was a large mirror where I could have viewed my own delivery. I can probably count on both my fingers and toes the times where I've actually looked at my vagina. The first time I put a tampon in. Maybe some dirty photos with Tom. I have a pretty picture of my vagina in my head, and I really didn't want the vision of a baby coming through to tamper with my pretty picture. I should note that 10 days after, I still haven't taken a look. I'll keep the image that's in my head, in my head.
So, I kept pushing and pushing and by the looks on everyone's faces, especially the nursing students, I could tell I was starting to make some real progress. I could feel the pressure of the baby making his way down. At this point, my mom was full time looking at the baby being born. When his head wasn't fully out yet, Lydia asked if I wanted to feel his head. I told her yes, and I was able to feel his head. It was definitely a little swollen, but I could feel some hair.
As I started to make more progress, Tom kind of left his trance and started rubbing my shoulders and neck a little bit, and encouraged me as I started to push. About 45 minutes into it, I started to close my eyes a little between contractions and attempt to get a little rest. It definitely gave me the energy necessary to keep going.
All of the sudden, or as much as all of the sudden could be after an hour of pushing, I started to genuinely feel his head leaving me... or at least being on the outside and not the inside any more. I knew by the amazed looks on everyone's faces that it was getting close. Even Tom was taking a peek, even though he said he would just be looking straight in my eyes. He said that my clitoris and all of my lady parts were about 40 times the size that they normally would be because of all the blood and the pressure. He later said it would be like his penis was 4 feet long. It's amazing what the lady parts can do.
Lydia said that if she was a doctor she would give me an episiotomy at this point just to get the baby out. But, since his heart rate was stable and I still had energy, she was going to let nature try to take it's course. So for 10 more minutes I pushed and pushed and pushed. 10 minutes later his heart rate did drop, so she told me that she was going to make a tiny cut and we should be meeting him soon. Tom and mom must have been so memorized, they don't even remember her saying this to me. Tom didn't know I was cut until I told him later.
Sure enough, she cut and the next push he was out. Like in all of the sonogram pictures, and even now, his hands were at his face, so I guess his head came out, and then his hand shot up like superman flying through my vagina. He literally decided to crawl out as his arms were flailing and legs were kicking his way out. He had enough of being an inside baby and was ready for the outside.
I heard his cries immediately. He sounded like a little billy goat. His cries weren't bad or annoying at all, just kind of an acknowledgment that he entered the world.
Immediately they put him on my chest after giving him a brief wipe-down. He was covered in blood and this white stuff was all on his legs. I guess it helped protect his skin from the water that he was surrounded in. I looked over at Tom and he was laughing crying, I was crying, and so was my mom. He told me that it was the happiest he'd ever seen me. I had done it. I gave birth to our son.
We had lots of bonding time right after as I delivered the placenta. Tom cut the cord, which he said was a pretty awesome feeling. After 10 minutes of him being on my chest, skin to skin, the nurses came to do his first measurements, tests, and to put gooey stuff in his eyes to prevent infection. Lydia started to stitch me up. Not only did I have the episiotomy, but the trick with his hand coming out gave me a second degree tear in my labia, which isn't the worst... it didn't go through the muscle, but she said it might be a little painful in the days to come. She said it wasn't an awful tear, though.
After the initial tests, Charlie Thomas came back to my chest. I tried breastfeeding, but I was so exhausted it was difficult to take everyone's advice. I would say it was noon before we were taken up to my room, so we got tons of bonding time together.
When it was time to go up, Charlie was taken to the nursery to get cleaned up, weighed and be monitored to make sure he was able to keep up his body temperature. I got to go to my room. Crazily enough, I was put in a room with someone I had lamaze class with. In this huge hospital with so many other people, I was rooming with someone who I was familiar with.
And so, that's my birth story. I hope that after 10 days it's as detailed as it would have been if I had the energy to write it right after I gave birth.
It was an amazing experience. Right after, Tom was already talking about having another baby. I think I can wait a year or two before I have this experience again. It was amazing and exhausting and wonderful and terrifying.
I'm so happy that I have a son to share my life with now.
I started to go into labor on Monday night. My doctor, at my appointment at 5 o'clock told me that she wouldn't be surprised if I was already in early labor. I was 2 centimeters dilated already. Now, I know that women can go around for 2 weeks being dilated, but with the combination of bleeding and contractions, I know now that she was right!
My mom decided to come down Monday evening, after a day at work, so she could be here throughout the labor. I told her okay, but I was worried that she'd get here and I'd be in false labor, or not in labor at all, and so I was weary about her coming in the first place. But, she left Buffalo at 7 pm, and it was done.
The doctor told me to get as much sleep as I could that night, because I need to save all my energy for labor. Despite tylenol PM, I was not able to sleep. I wanted to make sure that my mom got in okay. I kept having (what I know now as pretty light and easy) contractions every so often, and I was just too excited about everything. After my mom got in at 4 am, I was able to grab a couple of hours on the couch. I wish I forced myself to get more sleep in retrospect, because it was the last opportunity I would have until after the baby came.
We woke up and Tom decided to take the day off of work, as it was pretty clear in the morning that I was in labor. To go to the hospital we needed my contractions to be between 3 and 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. In the morning they were varying, some were 5 minutes apart, some were 20 minutes apart. They also started to grow in intensity. At first in the beginning I thought how cool it was that I was really having a contraction. We took a long walk around the park, and sometimes I would be able to walk through the contractions, and sometimes I would have to stop and prop myself up against a tree and have my mom or Tom rub my back. I started to say some funny things out loud, loudly. A police car with two police ladies went by us, and the one woman looked at me as if to say, oh no, she better not be giving birth right here!
Walking definitely helped progress my contractions, but they were progressing very, very slowly. I think around 6 o'clock they were about 8 minutes apart and I was exhausted. I couldn't really get rest, seeing as a contraction would wake me up every 8 minutes. I think Tom was watching the last Sabres game. I remember calling Melanie and having to hang up on her because the contraction was too intense to talk through.
In the evening the contractions started to become pain of biblical proportions. I really had no idea how painful they would be. I know that sounds a little ridiculous. Luckily I had two support people around to rub my back and keep me focused.
Around 9 pm I wanted to go for another walk to see if that would help things go any faster, and so, my mom took me. We were just going to go around the block, but I was feeling good, and so we started to go a little further. I leaned against trees and my mom rubbed my back, and by the time we got home it was pretty clear things were getting a little bit further along.
Around 11 pm I was having contractions that were pretty unbearable. Every 4 minutes, like clockwork, they were coming. After an hour of having these contractions, my mom told me to call and see if we could go into the hospital. When I called the midwife, she asked what I wanted to do. I said that I wanted to go the hospital, and she told me that she'd meet me there.
Tom, who had just gone down for a nap, was quickly woken up. It was time to go! He had a temporary panic attack, running around the house and going into rooms, and then leaving rooms. I stuffed some last minute things in my overnight bag (which was pretty much already packed) and was ready to leave.
Luckily, right before midnight in Brooklyn, there's no traffic. It was hard to have to sit down in the car through the contractions, but Tom drove well. He said at one point, "This is what I've been practicing for since I've been 16. Being able to drive my wife safely to the hospital when she's in labor."
We parked in the garage. I didn't have Tom drop me off because I actually wanted to walk out a couple contractions at this point. I had one right before I went into the hospital, right over this nice Jewish man who probably thought there was a crazy person above him. He was nice and just kind of stared straight ahead and ignored me.
When we walked through the hospital the security guard pointed me in the right direction, and I was happy to find that everything was pretty much empty. The labor and delivery room at Maimonides hospital can be insane. There was once like 70 babies born within 48 hours there. So, I was terrified that when I went into labor I would be kicked out or not able to get a labor and delivery room. Fortunately, that was not the case at all.
The first thing we had to do was fill out paperwork. Filling out paperwork through contractions was awful. The lady was probably the most patient woman in the entire world, not letting my groans and wincing bother her in the least.
I then got put in a triage room where basically they check you out to make sure that you are in labor. I had to drop my pants right away. I thought I might be shy about showing the goods to my mom... especially my mom in front of Tom, but all propriety was out the window at this point. They had me put on what I originally thought was a mini skirt, but was really something to put over my belly. Underneath the stretchy material they attached one monitor for my contractions and one monitor for the baby's heartbeat. Baby's heartbeat looked good. It fluctuated, so when I was going through contractions it slowed down, but then it would pick up speed right away. I got to hear it the whole time pulsate on whatever equipment they had.
The first nurse that put all the equipment on me was really nice. She asked if it was my first... and I said yes. She said that she had 6 babies, and that I'll be fine. 6 babies. Can you imagine?
Very soon after my midwife was in the room with me. It was a midwife who I saw several times, and I was happy to start the night with her. For all I knew she would be the one delivering my baby. She did an internal and told me I was 4 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. I couldn't believe that after all of those contractions I was only what seemed like a fraction more progressed than before. She asked me if I wanted to walk around or be admitted. She asked if I wanted the epidural. I asked, if I get the epidural, is there a chance that I could get some sleep? Remember at this point I'd had about 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours... and with a lot of hard work again, I wanted to sleep if possible. She said, it was possible to sleep... and so that was that. I was going to get admitted.
Another nurse who was in the room had her eyes light up and say, "Good job! This is your first baby and we don't have to send you home. You did a good job." It did make me feel better.
We went to labor room number two, which was going to be our home for the next 12 hours or so. As they put the equipment on me in there, I still was going through contractions... and getting my hand held and my back rubbed by my mom and Tom. I started to get nervous about the epidural. I wanted it, but I was nervous about the procedure. Before long, the epidural guy was in the room. I asked if he was good at giving epidurals and he said, "I'm the best. I can almost give an epidural to myself." Pretty cocky, but with a guy inserting drugs into your spine, it's the kind of attitude I could appreciate.
He explained the risks... there's about a 1/100 chance that I could get severe headaches after, and then he said there was risks that were like 1 in a million, but I said I don't have to hear them. My decision was made. Tom and mom had to leave the room, and a nurse came in to assist the anesthesiologist. I was so scared being all alone, but I knew it would get easier after the procedure was over. I never looked or got to see the needle. I had to hunch over. The most dangerous thing would be if I had a contraction when he was doing the procedure. At this point they were 2-3 minutes apart, and the procedure took about a minute, so he explained he that he'd try to time it so that he would be putting in the catheter that goes into my spine right after a contraction so he'd have the most time. When he put it in, he asked if I felt pressure to the right or the left, and I did a little, so he adjusted, and after a minute the procedure was over and I didn't feel another bad contraction for the whole time.
After things were over I got the shakes really bad. Tom and mom came back into the room, and I was shivering. He explained it was a side effect, just not as common as some other side effects. I guess my blood pressure dropped pretty low at one point... but, I recovered after a few minutes.
My midwife came back in after the procedure was over, and she did another internal and broke my water. It was so fast, and it smelled kind of bad. After, she told me that she was just going to let us rest for a few hours and come back in the morning. At this point it was about 2:30, and she didn't come back until 6.
So, My mom got this chair that folded out into a bed, and Tom just slept in a chair and table. I had the hospital bed. It was hard to adjust and I was afraid to move with the epidural in my back. I know that both Tom and my mom slept, but I don't think I did. I played around with my phone a lot. I texted my two best friends to explain how great the epidural was, and I started to drain the battery on my phone. Tom would tell you that he saw me sleeping, but I'm not so sure. Oh, the only thing I could eat was ice chips at this point, so I had a steady supply of those. I couldn't get in a comfortable sleeping position. I'm a side sleeper, not a back sleeper... so it was tough...
So from about 2:30 to 6 am, I checked my phone, looked at texts, listened to my baby's heartbeat, and didn't feel any contractions. A nurse came in every 30 minutes or so just to check the monitors and make sure that everything was okay. I had to lie on my side a little bit, and once she helped me get propped up a little more on my right side. I wanted to sleep, but the excitement and everything was just too much.
Eventually some other nurse came in and brought a tray of gadgets to use in delivery and they were covered up with a big green sheet. She didn't stay long. My epidural started to wear off a little bit and I got terrified that intense contractions would come back. I mentioned something when the nurse came in, so a different anesthesiologist came in to "top me off". There was a cold shiver down my back, and then relief. He said that it would take about 20 minutes to really kick in, but it seemed to be working just fine.
Around 6 am Jen the midwife came back into check me, and explained that her shift was over, and it was time for Lydia to take over. I knew that when I signed up for the practice that any one of the midwives could deliver me, but I was happy that Lydia was there. I saw her several times and I felt completely comfortable with her. There was also a change of nurses. Jahmilah was the nurse, and she was a calming force in the room. I asked if she had any kids (I was kind of loopy by this point in time) and she said no. I told her the epidural was amazing, and she chuckled.
After I was checked, Jen told me I was now 9 1/2 centimeters dilated, but the baby was still pretty high up in my birth canal, at station -2.
I forgot to mention this before, but right after I got the epidural it's pretty hard to move your legs. That's why I had so much trouble rolling myself over. Only my arms worked. The weird thing was as I was being examined I could feel pressure on my legs and when they went inside my vag to check me, I could feel a little pleasure on my clitoris. Jen, the midwife, looked at me funny and asked "You can feel that?" I told her that I could, but it wasn't painful. I was pretty hopeful that I might have an orgasmic birth (google it if you aren't familiar), but after that check up the sensation was no more. As my mom stepped out, I told Tom. We had an empty room and he could mess around down there if he wanted to, but he wasn't game.
I also forgot to mention that they had to put a catheter inside me to drain my urine. That was kind of weird... but... I didn't feel it! They have to do this because you are numb, so if they don't, you'll pee all over yourself.
So, back to the story, at 6 am after Lydia checked me, she concurred with Jen that I was 9 1/2 centimeters and the baby needed to drop. I should mention that internals are very uncomfortable, but with the epidural... not uncomfortable at all! Lydia suggested that we let the contractions do their job, and that since the baby's heartbeat was still strong, that we wait to push for a little while. So, we waited more.
During this time mom and Tom woke up and we were all in pretty goofy moods. We counted down the time where we could call people, and we called my Honey and Papa to let them know the baby would be coming soon. I think that we called Tom's parents too. I went from being giddy and chatty to being completely exhausted from one moment to the next. Again, there wasn't really any rest, even though I should have been trying to sleep.
I got my epidural topped off again at some point and I started to feel pressure in my back. The nurse told me it was normal, no epidural was going to take care of it, and it was the baby starting to descend down the birth canal. Everything was getting closer!
Around 9 o'clock Lydia came in to check me again... and the baby hadn't really made any progress. He went from station -2 to station 0, and to be ready to come out, he needed to be at station +10. So, it was time to push. She warned me and said it would probably be anywhere from 2 to 3 hours since he was so far up in the birth canal. At this point my contractions were steady at 2 minutes apart, and they were lasting for about a minute. I was so happy that I wasn't feeling anything at this point. I shouldn't say I wasn't feeling anything. I felt a pressure, but it was definitely no pain.
Lydia also asked around this point if it would be okay if 2 students assisted her. I could chose to have one or two, but she stated that she wouldn't mind the extra help, but it was completely up to me whether it was okay or not. I had the choice. I told her that as a teacher, I knew the best learning came from doing, and it would be pretty hypocritical of me to say no. I told her as long as it wasn't a group of like 10 people, 2 people were fine.
Soon after the nursing students came in and tried to decipher all of the equipment and what was happening. They also had a list of questions for me. At this point I wasn't giddy, I was starting to get exhausted and out of it, so I was nice to them, but I was a little bit delirious. The questions they asked me were sort of silly, and I already answered them. Some were about my pregnancy... if I had prenatal care and took prenatal drugs... how much exercise I did and so forth. But when they started asking me about my hobbies, I started to fall asleep. I didn't energy for those type of questions.
At around 9:20 it was time to push. The midwife positioned me where she needed me on the table. Again, I was pretty numb from the waist down, so moving me was kind of a challenge. I was starting to get scared about the pushing. I really felt like I didn't have enough energy to answer the nursing students' questions, how was I going to have enough energy to push??
When I started to push Tom and my mom were at my head on the right side, the two nursing students had one of my legs, Jahmilah the nurse was by my left side, and Lydia was in prime baby catching position. I thought it was a good time at this point to ask about the episiotomy. If you don't know what that is, basically it's when the delivering doctor makes a cut somewhere between your vagina and you butt hole to help the baby's head escape from your womb. She told me that she would only do this if it was absolutely necessary and the baby appeared to be in distress. I told her that I supported that protocol. Definitely didn't want to get cut down there unless the baby needed it to happen.
Lydia told me that she was going to have me push during contractions. For every contraction I should push three times for about 10 seconds. She said that with the epidural it would feel like the biggest bowel movement I ever took. I should feel a lot of pressure, but no pain. She also said that she wasn't going to count when I pushed, but I should try. She also wasn't going to tell me how I was doing, and reminded me it could take a long time... up to 3 hours. I was exhausted, but the idea of pushing gave me a new burst of energy.
The nurses and Lydia could tell when I was having a contraction based on my monitor, so they told me when it was time to push. There were two guard rails on either side that came up on the bed where I needed to hold onto to get some leverage for pushing. I was supposed to pull myself up a little bit, keep my arms bent, and push like I was taking a really big poopy. (Poopy is mommy talk for ***)
Without further ado, I started pushing. I could tell it was going to take me a couple tries to get it right. I knew from my birthing class that despite how good my pushing was, I was going to be told I was doing a good job as to not get discouraged. During every push my focal point was Lydia's eyes. Any time that I started to make grunting noises or feel like I needed to be loud, she reminded me to keep calm. She never raised her voice or got overly excited. She would just say push push push, breath... push push push, breath... It sounds silly, but I would forget to breath.
During the beginning pushes I remember looking over at Tom. He had this look on his face that resembled a mix between terror, awe, amazement, and shock. I don't think he could really fathom what I was starting to do, and what was going to come out of where. Logically he knew what was going to happen, but until it actually happens I think it's hard to visualize.
So, every two minutes or so, I had another push. At the beginning, I knew that instead of just feeling like I was pooping, I actually pooped. Luckily because of my high fiber diet, the little poop balls were solid and easily caught by Lydia. She asked for some tissues and discretely caught my poop balls. Tom and my mom didn't even realize that I pooped in the bed. If you don't know a lot about birth stories, you might not know this is very common. Because the muscles are pretty much the same for pooping and birthing babies, lots of mommies poop during delivery. I'm glad to have joined the ranks. I'm also glad that the midwife kept it discrete.
As I kept pushing and pushing I noticed that I was actually able to start feeling my contractions. Not in a painful way, but in a way where I could feel the pressure of them coming. So, instead of the nurse and midwife telling me to push, I told them I was ready to push. I asked permission, but they allowed me to do it.
After maybe 20 minutes or a half an hour of pushing, it was clear I was making real progress. Lydia invited the nursing students, remember they had never seen a live birth before, to look at my progress when I was pushing. By the looks of amazement on their faces, it was clear that finally I was making some good progress. At this point, my mom got curious too. Even though she thought she would stay up by my head, she wandered down to see the baby show happening at my lower half. Later she told me that there was a tiny half circle, sort of like this () where she could see the baby coming through.
Because of the long labor the baby's head was swollen, so it was difficult for Lydia to tell if he was really in face down position. At this point, when she could start to see the head coming down the birth canal and it was in good reach, she started to take baby shampoo to lube up my vagina to ease his journey down. She massaged his way and tried to ease his head gently with her fingers during contractions. She was so calm and just kept encouraging me.
I should note that at any time there was a large mirror where I could have viewed my own delivery. I can probably count on both my fingers and toes the times where I've actually looked at my vagina. The first time I put a tampon in. Maybe some dirty photos with Tom. I have a pretty picture of my vagina in my head, and I really didn't want the vision of a baby coming through to tamper with my pretty picture. I should note that 10 days after, I still haven't taken a look. I'll keep the image that's in my head, in my head.
So, I kept pushing and pushing and by the looks on everyone's faces, especially the nursing students, I could tell I was starting to make some real progress. I could feel the pressure of the baby making his way down. At this point, my mom was full time looking at the baby being born. When his head wasn't fully out yet, Lydia asked if I wanted to feel his head. I told her yes, and I was able to feel his head. It was definitely a little swollen, but I could feel some hair.
As I started to make more progress, Tom kind of left his trance and started rubbing my shoulders and neck a little bit, and encouraged me as I started to push. About 45 minutes into it, I started to close my eyes a little between contractions and attempt to get a little rest. It definitely gave me the energy necessary to keep going.
All of the sudden, or as much as all of the sudden could be after an hour of pushing, I started to genuinely feel his head leaving me... or at least being on the outside and not the inside any more. I knew by the amazed looks on everyone's faces that it was getting close. Even Tom was taking a peek, even though he said he would just be looking straight in my eyes. He said that my clitoris and all of my lady parts were about 40 times the size that they normally would be because of all the blood and the pressure. He later said it would be like his penis was 4 feet long. It's amazing what the lady parts can do.
Lydia said that if she was a doctor she would give me an episiotomy at this point just to get the baby out. But, since his heart rate was stable and I still had energy, she was going to let nature try to take it's course. So for 10 more minutes I pushed and pushed and pushed. 10 minutes later his heart rate did drop, so she told me that she was going to make a tiny cut and we should be meeting him soon. Tom and mom must have been so memorized, they don't even remember her saying this to me. Tom didn't know I was cut until I told him later.
Sure enough, she cut and the next push he was out. Like in all of the sonogram pictures, and even now, his hands were at his face, so I guess his head came out, and then his hand shot up like superman flying through my vagina. He literally decided to crawl out as his arms were flailing and legs were kicking his way out. He had enough of being an inside baby and was ready for the outside.
I heard his cries immediately. He sounded like a little billy goat. His cries weren't bad or annoying at all, just kind of an acknowledgment that he entered the world.
Immediately they put him on my chest after giving him a brief wipe-down. He was covered in blood and this white stuff was all on his legs. I guess it helped protect his skin from the water that he was surrounded in. I looked over at Tom and he was laughing crying, I was crying, and so was my mom. He told me that it was the happiest he'd ever seen me. I had done it. I gave birth to our son.
We had lots of bonding time right after as I delivered the placenta. Tom cut the cord, which he said was a pretty awesome feeling. After 10 minutes of him being on my chest, skin to skin, the nurses came to do his first measurements, tests, and to put gooey stuff in his eyes to prevent infection. Lydia started to stitch me up. Not only did I have the episiotomy, but the trick with his hand coming out gave me a second degree tear in my labia, which isn't the worst... it didn't go through the muscle, but she said it might be a little painful in the days to come. She said it wasn't an awful tear, though.
After the initial tests, Charlie Thomas came back to my chest. I tried breastfeeding, but I was so exhausted it was difficult to take everyone's advice. I would say it was noon before we were taken up to my room, so we got tons of bonding time together.
When it was time to go up, Charlie was taken to the nursery to get cleaned up, weighed and be monitored to make sure he was able to keep up his body temperature. I got to go to my room. Crazily enough, I was put in a room with someone I had lamaze class with. In this huge hospital with so many other people, I was rooming with someone who I was familiar with.
And so, that's my birth story. I hope that after 10 days it's as detailed as it would have been if I had the energy to write it right after I gave birth.
It was an amazing experience. Right after, Tom was already talking about having another baby. I think I can wait a year or two before I have this experience again. It was amazing and exhausting and wonderful and terrifying.
I'm so happy that I have a son to share my life with now.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: 39 hours of labor!