Birth story - aka "What do you mean I'm ready to push???"

GeneGoddess · September 2009

Sorry for the late (and very long) post, but I thought this version of navel gazing might be a distraction from all of the other navel gazers today.

Friday (of Labor Day weekend) was a full moon. I worked the night shift on Thursday night and there was general craziness in the ER. No contractions other than Braxton-Hicks and I otherwise felt fine. Friday day, DH and I took a few pics of me...really the only "pregnancy" photos taken - at 39 weeks! I had threatened that if we didn't do it soon, it would be "too late". Turns out to be prophetic... That afternoon I went to Target and BRU and bought some bottles and a diaper pail, figuring that I needed to do it at some point. Came home and watched TV and continued sewing cloth diaper wipes (I'm SUCH a closet Martha Stewart). About 11pm, I got up to go to the bathroom and thought, "Wow...my pants are awfully wet...and I've never "leaked" before...and it doesn't look or smell like urine". Told DH, I think my water broke. He gets excited and asks if we should call someone. I think, well, it's 11pm and I'm not contracting. I'm GBS negative and no one will really get worried until I'm 24hrs post rupture of membranes (doctors make the WORST patients), so I'm just going to sleep in my nice comfy bed and call in the AM. Slept with a lap pad under me and proceeded to sleep poorly due to nerves until about 4am, then slept great until about 8am.

I then decided that I HAD to have McDonald's for breakfast (don't ask - I never eat fast food and haven't been to a McD for at least a year). Called the OB on call - great, it's one I don't like. He gripes at me that I should have called immediately (ugh) and to come in and "maybe grab breakfast at a drivethrough instead". So, 2 1/2 hours later (told you I was bad), after packing, etc, DH and I head to the hospital. We get there around noon and I am the TENTH laboring woman to arrive in the previous four hours...it's CRAZY. And, since DH and I are laughing and relaxed in our triage room, the writhing and screaming women are seen first. NOT a big deal. I'm not contracting and am in a good mood. We finally get seen (and my OB gripes at me a bit more) and head up to a room. At this point, I have my first internal (OUCH) and am 1cm, minimally effaced, and "high". Basically, nothing.

My choices are now this: "watch and wait" to see if labor will start on its own (which was basically what I was doing at home - no progression), vaginal cervadil to help with dilation (mmm...maybe), or try a nice low dose of Pitocin. Decided to try the Pit, which was started about 5pm. About 6pm, I'm having regular contractions and ask the nurse (who has been working in L&D for almost 40yrs!) for some drugs. She says, "Let's see how the pain is". She watches me for about 10min while I have about 5 contractions (that I grade 6-7/10 - most medical people never get close to 10 as we dramatically underestimate our own pain). She says, "Yep, let's get you some drugs". The anesthesiologist arrives and gives me a epidural. I then proceed to tell him how much I love him and his drugs. My OB returns and I'm now 3cm and 30% effaced - this is about 8pm. So we keep going.

Then the epidural wears off on only the left side (???). I'm contracting regularly and it hurts. So he removes the old catheter and places a new one. Again, I tell him how much I love him and his lovely drugs. And I proceed to painlessly contract (drugs are GREAT) for another 2hrs. My OB checks me again at 10pm and I'm now a smidge under 5cm and 70% effaced and +2 station. At this point, we're thinking Sunday morning is a good time for a baby (I'm guessing 3am). We get set for a long night.

And then the excitement starts...

(THIS IS WHERE YOU SHOULD START READING IF YOU JUST WANT THE QUICK AND DIRTY DELIVERY FACTS)

About 11pm, the epidural wears off AGAIN and I start feeling contractions on the left side only. Plus, I feel like I need to take a poo (to put it indelicately). We call for the anesthesiologist again, but he doesn't respond...something about a code blue...but what about MY pain??? (OK, totally kidding - my pain is WAY down on his priority list for good cause). About 11:30pm, anesthesia arrives and my OB comes in. "Let's check you just in case". "Oh, you are now fully effaced and dilated and +2 - would you like to push?" WTF??? I had just gone from under 5cm to ready to push in under 90min. And then the little stinker started to have late decels (poor heartrate recovery after a contraction). And they can't get a good heart tracing on external monitoring. So the OB places a scalp electrode. Which, of course, allows me to obsessively stare at the monitor and freak out (if you don't know, I'm a Ped and have been to hundreds of deliveries - I know the bad things).

Over the next 10-15 minutes, the following things happen: I'm placed on oxygen, the heart rate continues to drop with very poor recovery, I'm starting to freak out about emergency crash c-sections (which I have seen and dislike), I get an episiotomy (without full anesthesia - ouch), the vacuum comes out, I push a total of five times (seriously), DH's hand almost gets broken by my squeezing... And our daughter arrives! Holy SH*T!

She ended up having a loose nuchal cord and a little bit of "birth stunning" (really fast deliveries tend to have kiddos that arrive and are somewhat "stunned" - they may not cry, they can have some reduced tone, may need a bit of stimulation to get them to take a deep breath, etc). But she was immediately placed on my chest (versus the warming table) and DH cut the cord. Then taken to the warmer for stim, cleaning, and vitals. APGARs were 8/9/9 (-1 color, -1 tone at 1min, then -1 color at 5 and 10). She was 7.5lbs and 20in. And within 15min of arrival was already suckling at the breast. She recovered well from the "stunning". DH and I, on the other hand... Born 10min to midnight on SATURDAY - guess she wanted to be a 5th baby and not a 6th.

We're all home now and doing well (she's already almost back at birthweight, the little pig - hence the "Bissell" nickname). And as we waited until we saw her to pick out a name - welcome to Autumn!

And for those who actually waded through this story, I hope it wasn't too boring or self obsessive! Happy Friday!