Camille's birth story (whitney4126)

whitney4126 · September 2014

My long and overdue birth story.

I prepped for 9 months for a natural birth experience. I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, and was totally set to labor at home as long as possible and have a birth experience at the hospital without so much as IV. Well my birth plan went pretty much out the window when my blood pressure suddenly shot up at 39.5 weeks. At my appointment at 39 weeks, 3 days my midwife made me go straight to the hospital and get admitted for monitoring. After several hours, it had not gone down. The nurse came in and said they were wanting to go ahead and induce me, but they would let me go home for the weekend if I was able to get my BP down a little and agree to do a 24 hour urine test over the weekend. Of course I wanted to avoid induction, to increase my odds of natural childbirth. She helped me lay completely flat, turn the lights off, think happy thoughts, and I was able to get a lower reading. Over the weekend I checked my BP several times and it stayed high. I began to wrap my head around the fact that I was facing induction Monday, but I still tried all kinds of natural things (walking, sex, spicy food, etc.) to try to make it happen on its own, but it didn't. Sure enough, I went in Monday and she told me to go ahead to the hospital, but she agreed to let me avoid pitocin as long as possible and try other natural methods of induction.

They put a foley bulb in at 10:30pm Monday night. I was restricted from eating, and they put an IV in my hand. Contractions started pretty much immediately, and I cramped in between them. They had given me an ambient, but it did nothing and I was up all night. I let DH sleep for 4 hours because I knew I needed him the next day. Those 4 hours were rough. I instantly felt better when I woke him up at 6am. It was messing with me going through it alone, and I already felt like I forgot all of the coping I had learned. The night nurse basically left me alone and told me to call her if I wanted pain relief. The next morning at 7, a new nurse came on, and this woman was amazing. She actually teaches the natural childbirth classes at the hospital. She spent so much time with me that day. I get emotional just thinking about her. She reminded me how to breath through the contractions and encouraged me to get into different positions. At 9:30 am my foley bulb came out and I was between 5-6 cm, 100% effaced, and the baby was low. She said that was great because it meant that active labor had begun and my body had taken over. My midwife offered to break my water at 9:30am, but I was excited at the prospect of my body doing the rest on its own, so I asked her if we could hold off for a few hours. Over the next few hours the contractions got closer together and more intense, but I was handling them. At 2:30pm, the midwife came back and checked me. I had made no progress since 9:30, so she went ahead and broke my water. Things got so intense so quickly. For the first hour I sat on the birthing ball and rocked while my husband pressed on my lower back. It was very painful, but it felt so great in between contractions, and I felt empowered knowing that I was doing it. Over the next couple of hours, it got more and more intense and I started seriously doubting whether I could handle this. DH kept putting me off when I made statements about not knowing how much longer I could do it. The nurse helped me change positions several times. The pain got worst and worst. I started to feel like all of the bones in my body were breaking. I seriously cannot explain what it felt like. I was unable to effectively breath through contractions anymore, and started loudly (scary loud) moaning and groaning. I'm sure I was scaring the other women in the hall who were just checking in. I had asked several times about being checked again, but the nurse kept encouraging me to wait. I lost my mucous plug and bloody show. I barely remember the last hour of natural labor. I felt like I was going to pass out from the pain. Eventually I started yelling at my amazing husband and nurse and demanded that I be checked. I just knew I was in transition. So I got checked, and 9 hours after my initial check, I was still between 5-6cm. At that point, I screamed for an epidural. After the epidural was put in, the nurses and midwife were all saying that they just knew I would deliver within a couple of hours. I hated the epidural. I couldn't rest because I was totally conscious of my heavy dead legs. They pumped me full of pitocin. It ended up being 9 more hours before I was completely dilated. I stayed at 9.5cm for 3 hours. When I was ready to push, I was running a fever and they started to notice an odor from my amniotic fluid. They got antibiotics hooked up quickly. I later found out that my fluid tested positive for staff and had I gone anymore time, baby would have been at risk of infection and I would have had to have a c-section. I pushed for an hour and a half. The epidural had worn off by the end. Crowning hurt like hell. I requested a mirror and watched the whole time, which really helped me push more effectively. The worst was that I pooped 3 times (small amounts), and I hated my husband watching that. Baby came out and was placed on my chest, and that moment was everything that I had wanted. I had a 2nd degree tear, but it really wasn't too bad. I watched her stitch me up and deliver the placenta. So, after 30 hours of active labor, Camille Kennedy was born at 4:17am on Sept. 10th, weighing 7 lbs, 2oz, 19inches long. They had said she would be 8.5lbs, and had even suggested at one point that labor might be stalling because she was too big to have vaginally. There were so many things that didn't go as I had wished in my birth story, but I am completely at peace with it. Even though I got an epidural, the natural labor experience that I had was a spiritual experience. And my baby girl is so perfect that nothing else really mattered.