Lauren Michaela's Birth Story 8/3/10

For 9 long months I counted down the days to the day I would deliver. I spent 6 months throwing up everyday,(and the last three months at least once a week). I tested positive for gestational diabetes at 13 weeks. Then my blood pressure shot up and I had to be put on medication and monitored regularly. My thyroid stopped working at some point which I also had to be medicated for. My daughter kicked me in the right side of my rib cage so hard, that she fractured one of my ribs.I developed carpal tunnel in the last 2 months. The indigestion and nausea and fatigue were endless. From 32 weeks on I had to have 2 non-stress tests a week. Needless to say I was ready to be done with the pregnancy part of motherhood almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant.

As I approached 32 weeks, I started to feel more and more confident that my baby would stay in long enough to be healthy. At this point my doctors informed me that they would induce me 1-2 weeks before my due date, should I go that far into the pregnancy. This also made me excited-knowing that my misery would not be drawn out and I wouldn't have to experience the discomfort of being "overdue." 

By my calculations (according to my last missed period) my due date was 8/4/10. The doctors however, went by my first ultrasound and set my date as 8/10/10. So I figured, I won't go past the 3rd of August.  Well on July 26th, I was informed that due to bed availability, I would not be induced until August 5th. I just could not imagine being pregnant another 10 days!!! And what happened to the whole inducing me 1-2 weeks before my due date? And after experiencing contractions for a few weeks, I was sure I couldn't take it anymore. That Thursday, the 29th I went to my normal non-stress test, and then to lunch with my child's father. I thought maybe a trip to Sam's Club might bring things on-especially with all the walking you have to do around there.

 So we went to Sam's Club. At some point I decided to pick up some apple juice-and as I lifted it I got a terrible sharp pain in my right side-what I believe was a contraction. I went home, and continued to get these pains pretty regularly. All through the night into Friday, the contractions came steadily. Even though I was uncomfortable, I went into full-on cleaning mode-figuring a baby would be coming home very soon! I cleaned until 2 in the morning-Saturday morning-before going to bed. About an hour later I started to experience contractions every 10 minutes that were much more intense than the ones I had been experiencing. These felt like someone taking a sledgehammer to my lower back. I slept in between them and when I got up around 8am to go to the bathroom, it looked like part of my mucus plug had come out. Time to go to the hospital I thought! So we went, around noon, and I waited until 4 to be seen. At this point i was now having contractions every 5 minutes, and they were bringing me to tears! I kept telling myself that no matter what, I was going to keep my composure, not yell or scream, that I could handle this. And I managed to keep it together pretty well. Around 4 the doctor came in and told me that I was too calm to be in labor, checked me- I was 1cm, and told me that I should come back when my contractions were 4 minutes apart, not 5. I was so upset. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this pain. So I went home, and every 5 minutes all through the evening and into the night-I'd have to get on all fours-the only way I could deal with the painful back labor I was having.

 By early Sunday morning I was in so much pain I was in tears constantly. I was breathing and blowing, and was permanently planted on all fours in the middle of my living room floor. My contractions were 2-4 minutes apart. I waited until 3pm Sunday afternoon to return to the hospital. The ride there was one I will never forget. I was in my mothers van planted on the floor on my hands and knees crying. She dropped me off at the door and I made it inside, and told the receptionist I needed a wheelchair so I could make it to labor and delivery. I sat in an available one near the desk and waited for 10 min for someone to come get me. During one contraction I contemplated getting down on the floor in the middle of the main lobby but decided not to humiliate myself that way so I sat in the chair and breathed, blew, and cried. While being pushed in the wheelchair through the halls, the bumps and turns intensified my pain and discomfort, and it was evident when I reached the 3rd floor-labor and delivery. My mother was there waiting with the registration nurse and when she saw me dissolve into tears for the thousandth time that day, she did too. I was taken to a triage room given a gown and told to pee in a cup. As I made it into the bathroom, I had to stop and grip the railings, and wondered if I was making handprints in them. As I sat on the toilet I saw what was a mass of mucous and blood-obviously the rest of the "plug". I knew this time I wouldn't be going anywhere...

When the nurse came to check me, she told me I was still a 1cm, and said I'd probably be sent home again-even though my contractions were every 2 minutes. The doctor came in, checked me again-(not a comfortable experience) and said they'd send me home. My mother went into all out crazy mode and insisted they do something, and they just kept saying that there were no beds available, and I was scheduled to be induced that Thursday anyway-5 days away! I kept saying over and over again that there was no way I could stay in all this pain that much longer-and how could they send me home when I was obviously in labor? All because of bed availability? The doctor left and said she'd be back in a few minutes, and this is when the nurse suggested I request a "therapeutic rest". I was desperate for pain relief and rest, so I asked the doctor. She seemed not so keen on the idea but said she'd ask another doctor. Well a few minutes later she returned to say that they'd move me to another section of the hospital and give me some pain meds in an IV to help me sleep and then I'd go home in the morning. The nurse started an IV of fluids and they moved me to another section of the hospital. A new nurse came in- while I was having a contraction and put a shot of something into my IV. My friend who was there asked what they were giving me and she said MORPHINE! I was in shock that they were giving me this kind of drug- and not something like Nubayne. So I fell asleep around 11:30p.m.....

Even with the morphine I felt every contraction. I'd wake up and breathe through it and then pass out again. At 7a.m. the morphine had completely worn off and I was on my side clutching the bed, panicking. The contractions were back with a vengeance. I begged and pleaded for more pain relief and was given a muscle relaxer. They even started to prepare me for discharge. They decided to have a midwife come check me around 10a.m. before I would leave. As she checked me she said, "wow you are in labor, you're 4cm dialated." To which I replied "NO S***!!!" At this point they started me on Nubayne and brought someone in to help me breathe through contractions. Around noon on Monday, the nurses helped me out of the bed to get into the wheelchair to move me to labor and delivery, and as I stood on my feet, I felt a ton of water run down my leg- my water broke! At this point I expressed my frustration for everyone who had been trying to tell me I wasn't in labor!

About 15 minutes after being settled into my room in Labor and Delivery, my best friends arrived, the anesthesiologists! I'd made my request for an epidural very apparent, and it took 5 minutes for them to administer the epidural! Over the next few hours I spent my time rotating from side to side, talking to my friends and family, and Lauren's dad, Marcos had arrived as well. Around 6 everyone went for dinner in the cafeteria, and I waited....

At 8pm my blood pressure had skyrocketed, and the doctors decided to give me Magnesium Sulfate to open my blood vessels, and prevent a stroke from occuring. It makes you sick! My body felt like I was on fire, and I was nauseas and sick! Everyone was rotating washcloths in icewater and putting them on me, and I would burn through one in 30 seconds or less. At 11pm I was 7cm and they decided pitosin would speed up my labor. Around this time I fell asleep...

At 2am Tuesday morning, I woke up and asked someone for a bucket. I vomited about 5 or 6 times, and someone got the nurse. She came in and said she bet I was fully dialated and thats when she checked me. I was 10cm dialated! Time to push! I felt lots of pressure, as if the baby's head was in my crotch. I started pushing at 2:15, and at 2:38a.m.- after days of pain, and 9 months of misery- Lauren Michaela Enriquez Whitman entered the world, screaming at the top of her lungs, weighing 6lbs 15oz and 18in long. Nothing could describe how I felt as I looked down and saw little feet kicking around- the ones that had been inside me all this time beating me up. My 2 best friends, Marcos, my mom and myself cried out of happiness, and Marcos and I hugged and thanked each other for our little girl.