My Birth Story- 3 Weeks Early

Leighton Grace was born on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 9:24 PM. She arrived three weeks before her estimated delivery date of June 17th. She is healthy and absolutely beautiful.  At birth, she weighed 6lbs, 14oz and was 20?.

In the eight month of my pregnancy I found out I had polyhydramnios. Polyhydramnios is when the level of the amniotic fluid surrounding the baby is too high.  Polyhydramnios can cause pre-term labor, umbilical cord accidents and placental abruption. During my normal weekly check ups I was measuring 1-2 weeks ahead so I had a growth ultrasound.  During that ultrasound my amniotic fluid level measured high (26 cms) and I was officially diagnosed with poly. During a subsequent level II ultrasound the fluid level went up to over 28 cms the week before I ended up delivering. 

On Thursday, May 21 I went to the doctor for my usual 36 week appointment.  During that appointment I had my first internal exam.  Over the course of the week I had been feeling crampy and not so great overall. When my doctor did my exam she said ?OH MY? right away.  I was surprised to find out I was 2 cms dilated, 100% effaced and at Station 0. I was placed on half days at work and told to take it easy to prevent pre-term labor.

Over Memorial Day weekend I felt pretty crappy overall.  I was having painful but not time able contractions had horrible back pain.  Over the course of Sunday and Monday night I had lots of painful but not erratic contractions. I also had bloody show both nights.  On the night of Monday, May25 th the bloody show continued and I felt a few big gushes.  It wasn?t urine but I didn?t think it was my water breaking since I had already been warned that with the poly it would be a LOT of water when it actually did break.  On Tuesday I called my doctor and told her about all my back pain, contractions, bloody show and the gushes I felt over the weekend.  My doctor told me to go to L&D to get checked out.

On Tuesday, May 26th I arrived at L&D around 2:00 pm.  I had an NST that went well and then an internal.  My water hadn?t broke but, at that point I was 4cms, 100% effaced and still station 0.  My doctor came in to talk to me about my options.  I was told my options were to start the pitocin or wait and see what happens.  Since I was 36w 6d I decided I didn?t want to start the pitocin.  I decided to spend the night in L&D and was admitted to wait and see what happened.  That night I was literally up all night.  DH stayed over at the hospital with me and slept in a chair.  My contractions and back pain that night was horrible. I roamed the halls of L&D since it was too painful to sit in bed or even talk through some of the contractions. 

On the morning of Wednesday, May 27th I had another internal and I was still 4 cms.  I didn?t know what to do.  I was in way too much pain to go home and see what happened but I didn?t want to start pitocin since I was still 3 weeks away from my EDD. I was also worried about going home and having my water break at home since umbilical cord accidents were a risk with the poly.  As I was sitting there waiting for my doctor to come in my water broke on its own at 8:30 am.  I was relived that my water broke on its own and I wouldn?t have to make a decision about what to do.  I was also a little scared though since I was still three weeks away from my due date. I couldn?t believe how much there was when my water broke.  All day there were huge gushes with each contraction and it just kept coming and coming. Around 10:30 I got my epidural and it was like heaven!  I had a small pond under me from getting the epidural and my water running down my leg and onto the floor while they were putting it in. I had been having such horrible back labor and it was finally relieved when I got the epi.  I hadn?t slept in days so as soon as the epi kicked in I fell asleep for a few hours.  Throughout the afternoon they gave me a little pitocin and I continued to nap and dilate further.  Around 6:30 pm I was around 7 cms dilated.  At about 7:00 pm I was finally 10 cms dilated.  The nurses told me that they were going to allow the baby?s head to passively descend for about 20-30 minutes and then I was going to start pushing.  I was still really tired so I feel asleep during the passive descent. I woke up around 8:00 pm and was ready to start pushing.  We did a practice push and the nurse saw that part of the water bag was still intact.  After all the gushes there was still more water!  I couldn?t believe that after my water leaking all day there was still more! The doctor came in to break that part of the bag and told me we were ready to have a baby.

I started pushing around 8:55 pm.  My husband and my mother were in the delivery room with me.  DH initially didn?t think he wanted to watch the labor but once I started pushing he held my leg and watched the whole thing.  He was a great labor coach.  Leighton was finally born at 9:24 pm.  I had a first degree tear on the top.  I felt really great after the delivery.  I think the hardest part about the L&D was the back labor before the epi and not the actual delivery!