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December 2010 Moms
Cheekers2010
member
Birth story (a little late and a lot long) PiPs
Cheekers2010
member
I don't know if I ever shared this last year. The whole experience ended up being pretty traumatic for me, but I've processed it a lot and I think I can look at things in a positive light. Because, after all, I have my little man.
This is really really long! Don't worry about not reading it. I just really want to get it written out before I forget things. Pictures at the end.
My EDD was December 12, 2010. I had GD and had struggled with crazy anxiety the whole pregnancy which led to high blood pressure readings whenever anyone tried to take my bp. Towards the end I was having full on panic attacks at every appointment. I think me and extra hormones don't get along very well together. I can laugh at it now but at the time it was AWFUL. Especially because I was being seen 3 or more times a week. I ended up having to switch from my planned birth center with a midwife to a hospital with a different midwife practice at 35 weeks. Total bummer for me but I just tried to make the best of it because there was nothing I could do.
On November 24th I had what was supposed to be my last growth ultrasound (I had a couple due to the GD). I was 37 weeks and 2 days. It was the day before Thanksgiving and we were the last ultrasound appointment. It was a really strange appointment. The tech was super chatty and never looked at the screen. She seemed to hardly be paying attention to what she was doing. When the doctor came in to check us, we were blindsided with the news that in her words "there was so much meconium in the amniotic fluid, we can hardly see the baby. You need to be induced tonight." I had prepared for them to tell me the baby was getting big or any number of other things, but I had never heard of this (and I hear a lot in my line of work). Although induction was the last thing I wanted and the one thing I had been terrified of, there was nothing I could say. That much meconium in his water meant that G was under a lot of stress. Oddly, though, he passed his BPP with a perfect score. They sent us over to the hospital to do a NST as well which he also passed perfectly. We had spoken to the one MFM doctor. At the hospital we also spoke to another MFM and to one of our midwives. They all concurred and the MFM doctor went so far as to say "We know he's alive now but I can't predict whether he will be tomorrow." So, we made the only decision we could. We went home to pack and clean up the house a little and have some dinner and then we returned to the hospital at midnight to begin the induction.
I had been having timeable ctx on and off for a few weeks already and it just so happened that when I got to the hospital I was having ctx every 3 minutes. This lasted for several hours so they couldn't give me the cervidil because I was already contracting. Finally my ctx started to space out and they gave me the cervidil. Which kicked me instantly into real labor. I was so glad because I wanted as natural a birth as possible and I wanted to avoid pitocin. This was around 3 am on Thanksgiving. I labored all morning and early afternoon with just my DH because I wanted to give my doula time to have Thanksgiving with her family. I finally asked her to come in around mid-afternoon. I had back labor from the get go which was very intense and nothing I was trying to get G to move to a better position was working. So, she came in and we tried a bunch of stuff-no dice. That evening the midwife checked me and I hadn't made much progress. I think I went from 2 to 3 cm the whole day. The midwife decided to try putting in another round of cervidil to soften my cervix up more. She also suggested I try a shot of morphine to allow me to get a little rest. I knew we were looking at a really long haul so I agreed even though it wasn't what I had wanted. I also suggested that my doula go home and sleep for a little while since that was what I was hoping to do. I don't know what I was thinking...obviously I wasn't. I was running on no sleep for almost 36 hours at that point. She left and I got the cervidil and decided to wait on the morphine to see what would happen. I had to stay in bed in the same position and that's when things went insane. I started having ctx on top of one another lasting forever. I ended up asking for the morphine which took awhile to come. Once I finally got it...it didn't do a darn thing. Nothing, nada, zilch. It was around this time that my water broke. I was still only 3 cm.
At some point after several hours of this I asked for an epidural. I knew that with my persistant back labor and really slow dilation despite strong and steady ctx that G was not in a good position and if there was any chance I was going to deliver him vaginally I needed to get the epi. The anesthesiologist who did it was fabulous and gave me the best "walking" epidural I have ever seen. Shortly after G's heart started having decels. At one point around 6 doctors and nurses ran into my room and frantically looked for his heartbeat. It finally came back but this was repeated several times in the wee hours of the morning. Finally my midwife suggested an amnioinfusion where they fill your uterus back up with fluid to try and remove the compression on his cord.
Much to my surprise, I had gotten to 8-9 cm about 2 hours after I got the epi. But then I stalled out. Around 8 am my midwife suggested I get some pitocin to try and get rid of that last cm. I couldn't believe I had made it that far and still ended up with pitocin. But, I think I had been at 9 cm for 6 hours at that point. We did that for a little while but G couldn't tolerate the pitocin. His heart rate continued to decel. I was GBS+ so I had been getting antibiotics for hours, too. During the morning my nurse took my temperature and it showed I had a fever. I asked them to check it again because I was pretty sure I didn't. It came back normal but of course from that point on they was a bunch of concern about my fever.
At this point my midwife checked to see if she could figure what his position was. It turns out that his head was asynclitic (Tilted up and to the side). There was no way he was coming out with his head like that. It was what was causing both the back labor and the stall since his head wasn't pressing on my cervix to open it that last cm. She told me I couldn't deliver that way and that she wanted to order a c-section. I begged for a little more time to make a last ditch effort to change his position. I had been trying all along but I hadn't done any of the more significant things I knew how to do. One of them is called the belly lift. You basically lift the baby up out of the pelvis from outside and hope that his head will get unstuck. I hadn't wanted to do this earlier because if his cord got further compressed by us moving him that way, we were looking at an emergency c-section. At this point, though, we were looking a c-section anyway and everyone was on high alert for us already so it was the safest situation where I could do this. My husband got behind me and lifted my big old belly and G up as high as he could. Shortly after I started feeling incredible pressure. It worked! My midwife checked and his head was pointing down and I was 10 cm. I started pushing and G was born about 50 minutes later.
G's heart rate continued to be scary low through pushing, but he came out crying. He had apgars of 8 and 9. Shortly after he was born we found out that his blood sugar was incredibly low (due to the stress on him during the really long labor). He had to go to the nursery where he got donor milk. He also had tachypnea because his lungs weren't fully developed. He wasn't able to room in with us but we were able to take him home after 4 days in the nursery.
Oh, and the kicker to this whole story is....there was no meconium in his water. That's right. The ultrasound that caused the induction was wrong. His water was as clear as day.
Whew....that's about it. I know I left a lot of details out, but probably put too many in for all of you! LOL 
Here are some pictures of G.
In the hospital
A couple days old
A couple weeks old
Eta:typos
BFP2: 10/27/13(edd 7/10/14) "Speck" ~ M/C 12/5/13
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Birth story (a little late and a lot long) PiPs
Kellog, that is an amazing story. I would have been so scared if the doctor told me that there was so much meconium that they couldn't even see the baby!! And then for there to be none at the end after all of that... I think I would have been very resentful to the doctor for 'ruining' my labor. But obviously they did what they thought was best at the time.
When you said that your DH lifted G in your belly and it WORKED I got all teary eyed. I feel like you and DH saved the day together.
GREAT JOB! 
::BIGHUGS:: I love you and your little cutie!
I've thought many times about writing a letter of complaint. I'm not sure why I haven't yet.
Thanks lady! I felt like we saved the day, too! I was soooo glad to avoid a c-section.
BTW-love you and Jack, too.
I was so sad for a long time that I wasn't able to have the natural labor that I wanted. But, in the end, I made the best decisions that I could at every step of the way. It's what I always tell my clients but it's so hard when it's you having to make the tough decisions.
eta:typo
That's such an amazing story! I can't believe they were wrong at the meconium! How does that happen?
So glad you and your cutie ended up just fine. Great pictures :-)
Ditto all of this!
And you're right- you got your beautiful baby boy at the end, so it made it all worth it.
It really does make it worth it! I still hope if there's a next time it will be a better experience.
I know, right! I still don't understand how they could screw up that badly.
DS's head got stuck transverse and I stalled at 8cm. I had no idea there were positions you could do to change that - I was told that he was not in danger then, but was likely to bein a few hours, so I had a non-emergency, emergency c/s. And I was gutted. I never in a million years expected that and it took me a few years to get over it - in fact, I still feel lik eI could have done better (like you!).
Way to go - I love that your DH became super dad and helped get G out!
You did the absolute best you could! I ended up being lucky. I tried all the other positions and tricks but none worked. You might have tried all kinds of stuff, too, and ended up in the same place. I was really lucky in my midwife, too. By the time I started pushing I had been stalled at a 9 for 16 hours. Not many caregivers would have stuck with me and helped me find ways to keep G healthy in there. When my midwife finally gave up, I almost did, too. When you're in labor, you're so vulnerable and dependent on your caregiver. No one could blame you for listening to your doctor. I'm babbling on but I just mean to say that you did make the best decisions you could given the knowledge you had.
Ugh...I was really straight up freaking out most of the time.
Aw, Mands! Thanks for making me cry! Lol. Seriously, though, thank you. And, needless to say, I wish I could be your doula too!
It's just recent that I seem to be able to read other birth stories without feeling sad. I'm sorry you've felt the same way. Well, let's see...how bout you and Mands have your next babies at the same time. Then I can fly out once! We all win... Ha ha
Ok, well we're going to start ttc sometime this spring/summer... I'll have to convice Mands to wait it out a bit!
But wait... how will we work that around YOUR future baby plans? Man, this is going to take some planning! hahaha!
Can you be a skype doula?
Now you're talking