So now I can be one of "those" moms: Long PIP

You know, those moms that when you tell them you're pregnant they tell you about their labor horror story? well?

So it all started Thursday night (8/4) around 10 pm while I was working. (I'm a nurse that works 7p-7a). I noticed around that time that the discharge that I had been having seemed much more watery but I hadn't noticed any gushes and honestly couldn't really tell if it was fluid or just discharge. I did notice that there was a WHOLE lot more of it because I was going to the bathroom about every 45 minutes instead of the usual 2 hours. Anywho, like a good nurse I continued with my shift and chalked it up to discharge since I wasn't sure. I was having some contractions but nothing intense or measurable and they felt like Braxton Hicks which I've been having since early 2nd trimester, especially while at work. I got off work Friday morning and was still a little concerned about the discharge because it seemed to be like there was more and my back was really beginning to ache, but again I was 9 months pregnant so I kind of assumed that the back pain was due to being on my feet all night so I decided to shower and take a nap and then see what happened. I showered and napped and felt a lot better for about an hour and then began to feel bad again. I was still having contractions but again nothing timeable. I went ahead and decided to call my MD even though I knew they were going to send me to L&D since there was a chance that my water may have broken. MD acted as predicted so I called DH, we loaded the car (just in case) and headed to L&D. We arrived and they tried to test for fluid and got a "well maybe, maybe not" result. (Apparently blood can also change the pH and could make the little paper change colors, and I had some bloody show after the internal when I first got there). I was 3 cm and 80% when I arrived at about 11:30. (I was 2 cm and 60% at my 38 week apt 3 days before). 

So MD decided to monitor for an hour and check again. That hour sucked, but eventually ended and they checked for fluid again and couldn't get any on the test paper. They called the MD back, she ordered an u/s and found out that my fluid had dropped 10 points from the u/s that I had on Tuesday. So I was admitted and immediately started on Pitocin (which was not what I wanted at all!).

 We moved from triage to L&D and got all set up. My mom arrived lightning fast and was there by my side the whole time. I wanted a natural labor so I walked in my 5 foot radius (they wouldn?t let me off the fetal monitors and I couldn?t walk around since my water was broken), moaned, sat on a birthing ball, and sucked lots of ice chips. I labored until around 9:30 pm on my own with the maximum dose of Pitocin. I hadn?t been checked again because the nurses said that they would check when I wanted them to. After almost 24 hours of labor, at around 9:30 pm, I was hoping to be around 7 or 8 cm and had prepared mentally to start transition. I asked to be checked and was only 5 cm. It was at that point that I realized my birth was not going even almost the way I wanted it to. I had my family visiting and several friends who had come to visit (which was wonderful) and I wasn?t able to enjoy the company of anyone, except my mom who would come and sit by me and rub my arm to help console me. I decided to get a shot of Stadol to take the edge off. The Stadol helped with the pain but instantly made me feel drunk. I took a small nap (I had slept about 2 hours in the last 48 hours) and woke up an hour later with the same intense back pain and constant contractions (no relief in between). It was at that point that I decided to get an epidural. I did NOT want the Stadol shot again and was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was sleep a little before my inside baby became an outside miracle.

The anesthesiologist came in and was AMAZING! She started the epidural on the first try and within 3 minutes my legs were numb and I was feeling relief. I was able to doze intermittently throughout the rest of the night after that. The nurses were checking every 2 hours since I was no longer able to feel what was going on (I could still feel pressure, but no pain). Labor still progressed very slowly and finally at 6:00 am-ish the rest of my bag ruptured (I had apparently had a slow amniotic leak at the top of my uterus) and labor finally began to progress. I was still 7 cm when they checked at 6:00 and by 8:15 I was 10 cm and ready to push.

After the nurse got everything ready I began pushing at 8:30 and wasn?t sure that I would make it. I kept telling my mom that I didn?t think I could do it and both her and DH kept telling me that I could. Pushing was actually very relieving and it felt really good to be actively doing something to get my baby here. After her head emerged the cord was wrapped around her neck, loosely. The doc cut the cord and after 36 hours of labor and an hour and a half of pushing at 9:54 am on Saturday August 6, 2011, weighing 7 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long, Maggie was born. They put the little slimy nugget on my chest and began to clean her up. She soon started crying as did I, DH, my mom and best friend who were all in the room.

After being on Pitocin for over 20 hours my uterus had thrown in the towel and refused to contract. So they lowered the dose of pitocin, massaged every 30 minutes-1 hour and began to re-up the dose (apparently re-starting the dose can sometimes increase its effectiveness). It eventually tightened up, but after having my water broke for 36 hours and spiking a fever I had to be put on antibiotics. So 4 different IVs, around the clock antibiotics, 3 doses of Cytotec (YUCK!), and 2 catheters later and we were able to go home. I lost a lot of blood (so much in fact that I was on the verge of a blood transfusion) but am doing great now and I couldn?t be more in love! She?s perfect!