The Labor and Delivery
Well... here I am back at work. Did you miss me? I know... I missed you too.
Anyways, wondering how everything went?
Well... I have a beautiful baby girl (CJ). She was 7lbs. 6oz. and 20.5in. long. She is perfect!
I was in labor 37 hours. That's right... it's not a typo... 3-7. 37 hours. Although, to be truthful, the labor was only painful for the last 24 hours.
They began induction at 7am on Friday morning, and she was born at 8:10pm on Saturday night.
At the first check, around 9am that first morning, I was dialated 2cm. They wanted me at 4cm before they gave me the petocin and epidural. Unfortunately, regardless of how much pain I was in, I stayed at 2cm all that day, throughout that night, and well into the late afternoon of the next day.
The first day was composed primarily of watching "Friends" seasons 1 & 2, talking with relatives who stopped by for a visit, and the occasional poking and prodding by nurses. I could feel the contractions, but they were mostly like menstrual cramps - nothing too hard.
But by 8pm that night, I was definitely in pain. At that point, I said no more visitors until after she was born. B sat beside me the whole time. He even slept in a recliner by my bed all night.
I was in a lot of pain that night. They were giving me antibiotics for some bacteria they found in the birthing canal (strep B, I think). Because of the drugs, they had to give me a lot of saline fluid via the IV. As a result, I was up to the bathroom ever half hour all night - cables, IV's, bags, and monitors in towe.
By the next morning, I was praying to GOD that I had dialated enough for drugs. Unfortunately, I was still at 2cm.
Sometime around noon on Saturday, my doctor came in to check me and gave the okay for me to get the Petocin and some pain medicine via the IV. I was supposed to get this pain medicine (demoral, I think) every three hours. But just two hours after receiving my first dose, the pain was back and stronger than ever. I told them I needed more, but they said I had to wait at least half an hour before they could administer the second dose. Around 2:30 they gave me more, but it did absolutely nothing except make me groggy.
By this point, the pain was so intense (particularly in my back), I was throwing up with every contraction.
Around 3pm, they came in to check again.
Still 2cm.
*warning* The next few detail may be TMI for some readers***
Finally, the doctor came is and said they were going to place a catheter (sp?) balloon behind my cervix in order to soften it and help it efface.
They tried for what seemed like an eternity (probably only 10 minutes or so) to get it in, to no avail. This was BY FAR the MOST PAINFUL part of the entire process. I was having contraction every 2-3 minutes, which were still making my dry heave. And she was shoving this THING up my YOU-KNOW-WHAT.
After several failed attempts, she finally said, "Screw it, we're going to break your water." (Of course, I paraphrased that last part. What?! You expect me to remember EVERY detail?!)
Still, after breaking the water, nothing happened.
2cm.
Some time between 4pm and 5pm (I think), the doctor came in to "talk." She said, "I am ready to call this a failed induction. Here are your options:"
A.) I could get the spinal tap epidural and get prepped for a c-section.
B.) I could get the regular epidural and continue with the labor to see what happened. However, if labor did not progress and they had to do a c-section anyway, I would be able to feel the surgery.
Hm.
I was so out of it by this point - both from the drugs and from the pain - I asked B to decide.
He said, "Well, we have said from the beginning that we don't want a c-section. So do you want to just keep going?"
I agreed, and the epidural was there in a matter of minutes.
Within 15min of getting the epidural, I felt like my entire world changed. There was no pain, and I got to sleep. (I found out afterwards that B spent my nap time crying and praying because he was so worried about me. Isn't that sweet?)
Over the next 3 hours or so, every time they checked me I had dialated more.
By 6:30, the nurses were coming in and checking the baby - a lot. I knew something wasn't right because they began to talk fast and whisper. Finally, one of the nurses came over with a big - fake - smile.
"Everything is fine," she said. "The baby just seems to be a little short on oxygen."
They strapped an oxygen mask on me and the word "fetal distress" was thrown around a couple times.
At about 7:15pm, things became pretty serious. The doctor came in to check me. I was only at 9cm, but she said that would have to do. This baby needed to come out.
They flipped me onto my back, put my legs up, and told me to start pushing. They told me that because this was a "big baby" (they estimated her to weigh +9lbs) I should prepare to push for 2 or 3 hours. One nurse said, "I'm guessing she'll be here before midnight."
*sheesh* Guessing?
But 45 minutes later, at 8:10pm, my beautiful little girl just popped right out. I didn't get to see her right away, and B did not get to cut the chord because it was wrapped around her neck and she was blue.
I kept asking, "Is she okay?" But nobody was paying attention to me.
I found out later why everyone had been so worried. Apparently, in addition to being wrapped around her neck, the umbilical chord was wedged between her head and my pelvic bone. As a result, every time I would have a contraction, it would pinch the chord, cutting off her oxygen supply.
In the end, everything was fine, and she was a perfectly pink little angel.
Welp, I'm going home for the day now... I will tell more later.
Peace out.