My natural hospital birth!

I apologize in advance, this is long!

My due date was August 30th and once I went over that, I was eager to deliver. I wanted to have a natural birth, in the birth center at UCSD hospital. My husband was incredibly supportive and read the Bradley method to help him prepare to be my coach. 

On Tuesday 9/4, I went to the hospital in the morning for an ultrasound and monitoring because baby's movement wasn't regular. Fluid levels were slightly low but not too concerning. My blood pressure was extremely high, as it had been at every visit the past few weeks. I told the midwife my frustrations with not going into labor yet and she said I could try castor oil. The castor oil made me so sick but gave me strong contractions about 5 minutes apart at midnight. We got our bags ready and headed in... Only to find I was at the exact same as last week 2cm 80. We went home discouraged.

 I had my regular appointment Wednesday afternoon 9/5 and was officially diagnosed with gestational hypertension. We set an induction date for the next night at 41 weeks. I was unhappy because an induction meant I couldn't deliver in the birth center also meant continuous monitoring and an IV. The morning of the scheduled induction, I was up since 2am with strong contractions about 78 minutes apart. During the night, I told my husband that I had to have the epidural. If this wasn't even labor and it hurt this bad, how was I going to get through a pitocin induced labor? At 8 am we had an appointment for ultrasound and NST. We were hoping to just be admitted and induced then because the hospital was an hour drive from home. The car ride actually wasn't bad, since the contractions were 78 minutes apart, I only had about 7 in the car. I told the nurses when we got there that I had been having contractions and they didn't seem too concerned. During my ultrasound though, they found the amniotic fluid level had dropped further and warranted being admitted to the hospital. 

I was admitted to labor and delivery. It  was awful being strapped to all the monitors and I kept thrashing around with every contraction I'm pretty sure the nurses hated me with how much readjusting they had to do. The midwife told me the plan was to get me hydrated and recheck my levels and release me if all was well. About 3 hours after I was admitted, a nurse called frantically for an OB in my room. Since this was a university hospital, a group of about 5 people rushed in. They told me baby's heartbeat had dropped, my oxygen levels were low and my BP was too high. They put an oxygen mask on and quickly pulled my gown up to check me. I could barely hear the OB's shocked voice say that I was 8 cm dilated. My husband turned to me and said "What did she say?!". The nurse asked if I had wanted a natural birth or epidural. I told her I guess I was having a natural birth. Everyone except me laughed at that. Everything became a mad rush to get me a room I was still in observation. I hadn't had my IV set up yet or even finished all the paperwork. Several nurses stopped in to check on me and mentioned how well I was coping and asked how we prepared for this. To be honest, I thought I was doing terribly because I wasn't getting up and moving. My husband was frantically texting family and had to leave at one point to put more time on our parking space. Not long after I was moved into my room, they checked me and I was at 10 cm. Since my fluid levels were so low, I only felt a slight trickle when my water broke. 

I was offered IV pain medication to get a little rest before pushing. Baby was still at a 0 station so we had some time. The low dose of fentanyl helped me snooze between contractions. After it wore off, I started to push even though the midwife told me not to. It wasn't exactly a feeling I could fight, it took over my whole body. The midwife was pushy and kept trying to get me to change positions. But at this point, I had found my perfect position in bed and did not want to move. I am so thankful for the kind nurse who told me to do what I wanted and just tell the midwife "no" if I didn't want to. Pushing took much longer than I expected. When my husband and the midwife announced they saw his head and it would be "soon", I was thinking 1015 minutes. It took over 2 hours. I won't lie; it hurt. A new midwife took over sometime during pushing and told me I was going to tear if I didn't change positions. I'm pretty sure I yelled at her that I didn't care, I just wanted him out. With the last pushes, I told myself I would not stop pushing until he came. I could feel the tearing  but I pushed through it and out came my beautiful baby boy. It was incredible. 

Ryker was born at 4:31pm! 7 pounds and 21 inches long! The pushing hurt like hell but seeing my baby afterward made any unpleasant memories fade. I held him on my chest while I delivered the placenta. My husband held him while they stitched me up and I took some photos of them. Even though my delivery did not go as planned, it was perfect and I am so glad that I went natural as I had originally planned.