Birth Story

Here is Char's birth story as best as I can remember it. Please keep in mind I was in pain, exhausted and drugged up. Hubby might remember some portions differently :-)

On Tuesday morning, January 19th I woke up at 1AM and discovered my water had broke. My water had broke at 37W 6D, over two weeks away from my due date (although I was full term).

I felt unprepared for this. In birthing class we learned that only 10% of women have their water actually break prior to labor and many times it needs to be broken (we even saw the tool they use). We did not discuss induction, only natural labor stages and C-section. But I knew that because my water had broke, our baby would be coming, ready or not. I called the hospital and spoke to the attending on call. He prepared me that labor should begin and if not,come in at 7:30AM.

Here is where I begin to freak out because I am not ready for my maternity leave. It was karma kicking my ass for being a procrastinator! Hubby was urging me to get rest (yeah right) but I had not worked that Monday. I stayed home due to the MLK day snow storm. (BTW- If I had known that MLK day would be the last day of my pregnancy, I would have done something more productive than watch the entire season of Jersey Shore On Demand). I quickly logged on and started sending rapid fire emails with instructions for my leave. I had a chuckle wishing I could see coworkers reaction when they logged on Tuesday morning and saw 2o emails from me all sent at 2AM.

Finally around 2:30AM I tried to sleep with no luck. I took a shower to relax and managed to get about a hour of rest.

When the time came, Kris and I went to the hospital which is only a mile away. We did not even bring my poorly packed hospital bag because I figured they would induce me and send me home like other friends had experienced. NOPE! Upon arrival I was examined to confirm that my water did indeed break (I guess it is common for pregnant women to assume this has happened). There was no doubt that this was the case and I was promptly admitted, no going home.

I was first induced with a cervix ripening agent (gross) called Cervidil. Typically women are given this and sent home to sleep but since I was at risk for infection, I was to stay in bed with a saline drip and a fetal heart monitor on my stomach. It was hoped was that Cervidil alone might send me into natural labor. For twelve hours I was to stay in bed except to use the bathroom. With all this technology we have, the hospital's wireless heart monitor was crap, so I was actually attached to the computer. Now being very pregnant and having a saline drip meant that I had to pee every 30 minutes. Not fun. I would have to unplug the monitor and push my IV drip to the bathroom (all this with my ass hanging out of a Johnny gown). Dignity is slowly leaving me at this point. During the wait, Kris ran around, got my hospital bag, made calls, and went to the store for lollipops. We watched comedies (Dodge Ball & 50 First Dates) and played Cribbage.

By 10PM Tuesday night it was time to start Pitocin to get my uterus going. Once the Pitocin hit my veins, things started moving. The first contraction that I felt, I did not even realize what it was. I thought it was just the baby moving around. The nurse pointed out on the computer screen the small peak on the contraction monitor.

After two hours of Pitocin, I was in pain (what I thought was bad pain at the time) and the Attending Physician checked me and I was not moving forward with dilation at all! Another thing that I was not prepared for was the restrictive nature of being induced. No positions to reduce labor pains, no walking around. I think that I might have started freaking out at this point and to help me get rest, the doc ordered morphine. I had anticipated getting a epidural but did not expect morphine. At that point, I was too freaked out to care or protest. The morphine helped me sleep in between contractions but did not kill the pain at all. It also made me very dizzy and hot. I think that I might have barked at Kris to stop breathing on me while he was trying to coach me through a contraction. After a couple more hours, laying on the hospital bed was unbearable (the portion that detaches was located right at my lower back and was killing me) so with help I was able to move to a arm chair. MUCH better! For hours, I sat up, dozing off in between contractions and breathing through them. It was cool to watch the monitor and see the peaks and valleys. I could actually see contractions coming and then feel a little sense of relief when the peak started to head downwards.

At 4AM the pain was becoming unbearable but the nurse didn't seem to believe me. Hubby said that I was being too polite, I really needed to drop some f-bombs or something. Finally at 6:30ish, the Attending came back to check me and I was at 4cm. Whoo hoo epidural time. Now I have learned the worst time to have a epidural ordered is around 7AM. That is when the shifts change and also when many surgeries are scheduled which make the anesthesiologists very busy. So almost two hours after I was given the green light for a epidural, it was administered. Many people ask if the epidural hurt. At that point, NO. In addition, they gave me a shot of lidocaine prior to putting the line in.

Once the epidural kicked in, the pain was gone but I now felt pressure. I felt the most uncontrollable pressure on my ummmm, rectum. Seriously like I was going to pass gas and could not stop it. In addition, my jaw was chattering uncontrollably. Like so hard and fast I thought that my fillings would fall out. The Resident came in to check me. In the span of 2 hours from when the Attending checked, I had gone from 4cm to full 1ocm and fully effaced. Typically this can take 8 hours to make this progress. Kris and I thought we would get a nap after the epidural kicked in but it was practically show time.

The Resident gave me some time to calm down and get my jaw chattering under control. At 10AM it was time to push. In the delivery room was Kris, the Resident, the Medical Student, and the Nurse. I made a comment that there were four people staring intently at my vagina (Scrubs reference) and the Nurse said "I'm not starring" (she was awesome). Now because of the intense rectum pressure, I was paranoid of pooping. This is the dirty little labor secret, women sometimes poop during delivery. Probably the funniest moment of delivery occurred when the Medical Student tried to give me some encouragement by saying "Push like you're making a bowel movement"but all I heard was "You're making a bowel movement." Hubby and I will always laugh about this. Oh and because you need to know...there was NO pooping for me during delivery.

Delivery was not as bad as I anticipated. Every push I could feel progress. I was surprised that the epidural did not do anything for the ummm.....VJ pain. But even that wasn't so bad (OK my baby was only 7lbs 2 ounces).

In the end, Charlotte arrived after 47 minutes of pushing (pretty awesome time for a 1st time delivery). They placed Char on my chest and the first thing I noticed were her long finger nails, no wonder my water broke. It was true, once that baby is in your arms, it is hard to remember the pain. I remember that labor sucked but consider myself fortunate that it went quickly and smoothly.