Matthew Ryan's Birth Story

Okay, this is not pretty but the good news is after a couple of weeks I barely remembered anything but the facts of labor, and I could not tell you how much anything hurt or what it felt like. So for those who haven't gone through this, it really is true that new moms get amnesia after the birth, even when your worst fears come true it is still ok.

November 14th 2007 - I go to a routine Dr visit. I had been diagnosed with Cholostasis of Pregnancy (constant itching, something to do with liver enzymes) which can be fatal to the baby after 36 weeks. I had made it to 38 weeks and the Dr. decided that I would be induced on Nov. 17th.

Nov 17th - I went in at 8:00pm to get the cervadil and spend the night. It turns out I was already contracting but I wasn't even feeling them. As soon as they gave me the cervadil I started with contractions I could feel, but not anything too painful. I responded so well to the cervadil that the nurses had to keep coming in to wake me up and take my temp to ensure I was not stressing my uterus.

Nov 18th - After a sleepless night the Dr. came into check me about 11:00am, my contractions were still consistent but not too bad. I was almost 2 cm dialated and they broke my water, this is when the fun began. I started really feeling the contractions but I wanted to go as natural as possible. As the day wore on I progressed very slowly. At around 5:00pm I was only 4 cm dialated, and I decided to take the IV meds for pain. The meds help and I was able to sleep for an hour. That was lovely, although the meds made me feel like I was in a cartoon. I don't know that it helped much with the pain, but it did relax me. I continued to dialate very slowly and even though I thought I would be a mommy by Nov 18th, midnight came and went.

Nov 19th - I had a second dose of IV meds, but it did not work as the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. I got comfortable on my side, but Matthew did not like it there. At 1:00am I was 10 cm dialated but I had no desire to push. In fact for me pushing hure more than the contractions. At this point I was having 4 min contractions and they were off the charts. I told the nurse I wanted to wait to push, and tried pushing throughout the hour with out ever feeling the need. At 2:00am I started pushing for real although I still did not feel the need. I was so tired for labor and not sleeping that I started to feel hopeless. It turns out that a scar on my cervix was in the way and altrhough I was pushing well, it kept catching the baby, and since it was scar tissue it was not stretching. The nurse attempted to move it, and it was the most painful thing I have ever experianced. I pushed for another couple hours and although I kept moving him down he could not get past the scar tissue. The nurse tried one last time at 4:30am to move the scar tissue, because at this point I was falling asleep between contractions. After attempting to move it I told her I was done and refused to push anymore. I kept saying we needed to find another way, and that I was happy to have the epidural and sleep for a couple of hours and then push him out. The Dr. came in a checked me, and pretty much said I was too swollen to push him out, and that we should go for a c-section. I was so relieved to see a light at the end of the tunnel I could not even breathe. Then everything started to go so quickly, they preped me and got me into surgery. I almost kissed the Dr. who got me the spinal block, it felt amazing. At 5:02 Matty entered the world. I was so happy to see him, I cried.

Although it did not go the way I planned, and for a while I was really bothered that I got all the way to 10 and couldn't push him out, it felt like I had failed, looking back I realize that it went the way it was supposed to go, and that everything was worth it for my baby.