Labor to Delivery: My Story

Every woman has their own unique story about the birth of their child.  For some lucky women, the process goes fairly quickly.  I am not one of those women.  I was admitted to the hospital on a Friday night, and finally had a c-section that Sunday morning.  Luckily, I managed to take down some notes during the process so that I could remember what happened and how I felt.  This is my story.

December 16, 2011

10:30 am

I’ve been having some contractions this morning.  I'm pretty sure that's what they are anyway.  They are different than the ones I have feltin the past.  It starts with a tinglingin my sides.  Then my whole belly doesthis involuntary suck in thing (like when you suck in trying to fit into a pairof jeans that are just a size too small).  Then everything relaxes after a little bit.  So far they are sporadic.  But I'm writing down the times so I can keeptrack.  They don't hurt, they are justweird.  It could be something. It couldbe nothing.  Could just be gas for all Iknow.  Will see what happens.

Since my doctor is out of town this week, with my luck I'm probably going into labor.  Just perfect.  So instead of the doctor that I have grown to trust over nine months, I will get his substitute doctor whom I have never met.  Okay, that thought caused my stress level to skyrocket, so we'll switch over to happy thoughts....and ice cream.  :-)

2:30 pm

Well, the contractions are starting to last longer and arebecoming more intense.  They don’t reallyhurt if I’m sitting down, but if I’m walking they are a little painful.  I called my doctor’s office to see what theysuggest I do.  Their rule of thumb fromthe beginning has always been when contractions are five minutes apart for anhour, then its time to go to the hospital. Okay, so mine are ten minutes apart. If they are going to have to let a different doctor know, maybe theywill want some time for a heads up. Unfortunately, when I called my doctor's office, it just rang and rang.  No voicemail or answering service pickedup.  So, I called my doctor’s cellphone.  It went straight tovoicemail.  I left a brief messagedescribing the contractions, that they were ten minutes apart and becoming moreintense, and asked him to call me back with instructions with what to do sinceno one at his office was answering the phones. Not knowing what else to do, I looked up the doctor who is filling infor mine while he is gone and found his office number.  Yep, that's right, they didn't even give me his number.  Customer service at its finest!

His office picked up after only two rings.  I spoke with a very nice young woman namedClaudia.  When I was done describing whatwas going on with me, she only had one thing to say: “Hang up the phone and goto the hospital, RIGHT NOW!”  I told herwhich hospital and gave her my cell phone number and promised to meet thedoctor there.  Next I called my mom andtold her that we were heading for the hospital. She said she already had her bag packed and was leaving shortly.

We were all set to go.  My husband was putting my bag in the truck as I was taking a last look at our home.  That's when the panic set in.  Am I ready for this?  Will I be a good mother?  What if something happens?  Who the hell is this doctor anyway?  What if he isn't any good?  What am I going to do?  All these questions were racing through my mind.  I was standing in the dining room, holding onto a chair, frozen.  My husband wrapped his arms around me, and said exactly what I needed to hear.  Everything is going to be okay, just breathe.  Yeah, just breathe.  I can do that.

5 pm

We arrived at the hospital a little after 5pm.  I had just gotten out of my truck when my mompulled up.  What excellent timing!  Together, we all went to triage and signed mein.  They took me back and hooked me upto a fetal monitor to monitor my contractions and the baby’s movements.  The nurse did a vaginal exam.  She said I wasn’t dilated at all, but shewanted to see what the fetal monitor showed. Only one person was allowed back with me, so Eddie and Mom took turnssitting with me.   A little over an hour later, they admittedme, though not because they thought I was in full out labor.  The nurse said she wanted to send me home, but was worried about my blood pressure being so high.  Um, ok???  According to the fetal monitor, mycontractions were two to four minutes apart. And they were going to send me home?  I don't think so.  I told the nurse I would rather stay in case something happened.  She agreed and the process began.  Woo hoo! 

We all make the tripupstairs to my new room and get settled in. They again hook me up to a fetal monitor and we wait.  The hardest thing about pregnancy is that you are always waiting!  We waited nine long months for this.  And now that its toward the end, each hour seems like a week.  Impatient?  Me?  Nah....okay maybe a little.

A fewhours later, they do another vaginal exam, but I’m still not dilated atall.  The contractions aren't that painful, but they decide to give me someAmbien to help me sleep and they would check me again in the morning.  With this decided, mom heads for home, andEddie sets up the couch in our hospital room to sleep for the night.  The worst part of the whole thing wastrying to get up to go to the bathroom. I’d have to scramble out of bed, unhook my tubes from the fetal monitor,and carry my IV rack thingy into the bathroom, all so I can go pee.  Now imagine trying to do this while under theinfluence of a sleeping pill.  Oh yeah,it was tons of fun!  I couldn’t waituntil morning.

But the best part was being able to fall asleep to the soundof Annabelle’s heart beat coming from the fetal monitor.  It was amazing!  Looking back, I should have recorded it.  I LOVE that sound!

 

December 17, 2011

Saturday morning comes and I was impatiently waiting for thevaginal exam, hoping that some progress had been made during the night.  But, alas, still not dilated.  So they tell me no more food or drinks otherthan water, and they hook me up to IV fluids and Pitocin to try to force thelabor to progress.  After a few hours onthe Pitocin, the contractions became non-stop and boy were they powerful.  It just made the whole process of getting upto go to the bathroom that much more fun. Unfortunately, with them pumping me full of IV fluids, by the time I gotback into bed from the bathroom, I had to pee again.  During one of the times that the nurses camein to check on my vitals, she commented on the contraction readings and askedhow I was doing.  I said I was hanging inthere, but wished that the contraction I had been having for the last fifteenminutes would end.  She took pity on meand offered me some Demerol (spelling?) to help me deal with the pain.  Thinking ahead, she also gave me something toprevent nausea, the main side effect of the pain meds.  It does not take long at all for that stuffto kick in.  Pain?  What pain? All I felt was happy, giddy, silly, and of course, the urge to pee.  Usually receiving pain medication will slowdown the contractions that are associated with labor.  Well, according to the fetal monitor theywere still coming in one right after the other, I just wasn’t feeling any ofthem.  Yay!

 

Towards the end of the day, they performed another vaginalexam, and still I was not dilated at all. They said my cervix felt a little looser, but only a teeny tiny littlebit.  So they take me off the Pitocin anddecide to insert something vaginally that will release a drug during the nightthat will hopefully loosen my cervix so that when they hook me back up toPitocin again the next day it will be more effective.  Oh goody, I get to do this againtomorrow.  But, with the Pitocin beingdisconnected, I was finally able to eat some real food.  Off to the cafeteria we go.  I haven’t had solid food since lunch theprevious day, and boy were my eyes bigger than my stomach.  But I didn’t care.  So, I thoroughly enjoyed my plate of chickentenders, french fries, grilled cheese sandwich, and broccoli cheese bites.  Hey, it seemed like a good idea at thetime.  I couldn’t even eat half of whatwas on my plate.  By the time I made itback up to my room I was so exhausted that I instantly went to sleep.

The next time I woke up, I was told the doc would be comingto my room to talk to me.  He did anothervaginal exam, again commenting on how far back my cervix was lying (the nursesthat had been doing my pelvic exams had trouble finding it because it was sofar back).  He felt around it and saidthat he could feel quite a bit of scar tissue and asked if I had had anysurgeries.  I told him yes, three totalabout ten years ago, all within the same year: two cryo surgeries where theyfreeze your cervix and one leep surgery where they use electricity to burn awaya layer of the cervix.  This was doneto prevent infection after I had an ovarian cyst the size of a golf ball burst on me.  This apparently was behind the mystery of mylabor not progressing properly.  Thedoctor explained that all of this scar tissue was holding the cervix closed andpreventing me from dilating.  He stillwanted to try the insertion of the drug overnight to see if it would helploosen things any.  But he said if itdidn’t work well enough, rather than doing another day of Pitocin he wouldrather see me get an epidural first thing in the morning and we would discussthe possibility of doing a c-section. Either way, he said, you will be having this baby tomorrow.

Tomorrow, ironically, is my due date.  So, baby girl, looks like you will be cominginto this world right on time.  Myinitial excitement was drowned out by the ambien and pain meds they gave me totry to lessen the side effects of the drugs that were inserted vaginally.  Sleep came very quickly.

December 18, 2011

I woke up in the middle of the night to a beeping noise.  The fetal monitor had run out of paper and the machine was emitting this annoying beep that reminded me of the fryers at McDonald's.  I hit the nurse call button and waited.  I had Eddie pick up the fetal monitor readout off the floor.  The last reading just before it ran out of paper was a little over two hours ago.  After fifteen minutes, I hit the button again.  And again in another ten.  Then I started getting a little panicky.  Where the hell is the nurse?  Did they abandon me?  I thought they were supposed to check on me.  What if something happens?  Just as I get myself all worked up, a nurse walks in.  Not my normal nurse, Debbie, who had been helping me with everything (she was amazing!).  This one walks up, looks at me and says "What's the problem?".  Keep in mind the machine is still beeping.  Me being the smart ass that I am look right at her and say "I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure the fetal monitor is not supposed to be making that noise."  She sighs, yes sighs, and walks over to it.  "Oh, its out of paper." She changes it and says, "Is that it?"  Uh, yeah, that's it.  Thanks a bunch.  Sorry for being such an inconvenience.

Morning comes and nurse Debbie walks in.  I tell her what happened and her jaw drops to the floor.  After apologizing profusely, she politely excuses herself, promising to be right back.  She comes back in ten minutes, pulls up a chair and sits down next to the bed.  "I am going to be your private nurse for the rest of the day.  Your doctor will be in to check on you in an hour or so."  Since we had enough time, my husband left to go feed the dogs and make sure they were okay.  With him gone, I turned to nurse Debbie.

A week ago I got my first hemorrhoid, and boy was it a doozy!  It was very painful and made me scared to have a bowel movement.  As you know, with pregnancy comes constipation.  Well, I was constipated when I was admitted and had been complaining about it to nurse Debbie.  The bed they had me on had this very annoying lumbar thingy that sits right under your butt.  Its great if you need to have a baby and need some leverage so you don't slide around.  But its horrible when you are constipated because it pushes right on it, making the feeling that you need to go that much more intense.  But I couldn't go!

So, I brought it up again to nurse Debbie after my husband left.  She looked at me and asked if the evening nurse had given me anything for it.  I said no, the only time I saw her was when the machine ran out of paper.  She said a few choice curse words that I will not repeat but will admit made me smile.  Since I might be having a c-section today she couldn't give me any medicine for it.  But she could give me an enema.  Um, what is that?  Basically, you shoot water up there and loosen everything up and then it forces EVERYTHING out.  Cool, lets do it.  I don't care, I just want to poop.  I told her about my hemorrhoid and she offered to do it for me.  I agreed.  We did it.  And I am proud to say I made it all the way from the bed to the toilet without spilling anything.  Wahoo!  After a few minutes she told me to stop holding it in and just let go.  I was so happy I started crying, thanking her profusely.  She started singing the poopy song (which she admitted she sings with her three year old when she goes).  It was gross and neat and wonderful.  Did I mention how amazing nurse Debbie was?

That finished, I clean up and get back into bed.  The lumbar thingy was no longer painful, it was quite comfortable actually.

A short while later, the doctor walks in, asks how I'm doing.  I am doing fantastic!!!  Nurse Debbie and I share a smile but don't let him in on the joke.  He does a vaginal exam and tells me that I have not progressed any and he would like to do a c-section.  I say ok.  He says great lets go.  NO!  My husband isn't here!  You can't do it without him!  Right then, my mom walks in.  Yay Mom!  The doctor agrees to wait fifteen minutes, but that we couldn't wait much more than that.  Okay.  I try to call Eddie, and his phone is sitting on the table in my hospital room.  Great.  Thank god my mom was there!  She assures me everything will be fine and that he will make it in time.  I look at nurse Debbie and ask if she will stay with me during the surgery.  She said yep, after what happened last night she was not leaving my side.  My mom gave us a quizzical look so we filled her in.  She handled it well, thanking nurse Debbie for looking after me.

The doc comes back and says we have to go.  Right as I open my mouth to say no, Eddie walks in.  Okay, lets go.  I didn't even have to get up.  They just wheeled the bed out the door and down the hall to the surgery section.  Neat!  We get to the waiting room, the room where they will bring the baby while they are stitching me closed.  They hand Eddie a smurf outfit and put a blue cap on me.  It was super stylish.

 

 

They ask Eddie and Mom to wait there while they wheel me over to surgery and put the epidural in.  Only one of them was allowed in during the surgery, so Mom had to wait by herself for a while.  Once the epidural was in, Eddie joined me and grabbed my hand.  They had a sheet up so I wouldn't be able to see anything, thank goodness.  They made sure I was numb and then they started.  I couldn't feel anything!  It was great!

That is until the doctor said the scariest words I've ever heard in my life.  "The cord is wrapped around her neck."  I held my breath.  I know it was only a few seconds, but it seemed like hours.  When she finally cried out it was the best sound I had ever heard in my life!  It was music to my ears.  And boy did she have a set of lungs!  I couldn't see her, but I could hear her, and I knew everything was going to be okay. 

Eddie, as promised, was taking pictures like a mad man.  That is until they handed her to him.  He gave the nurse his camera and they took a picture of the first time I saw her.

She was so beautiful!  I started crying.  Eddie and the baby left to go get all her measurements and stuff.  I called out to the anesthesiologist that I was crying and couldn't breathe.  She came into view and said everything was okay, I could go to sleep if I wanted.  Hey, that sounds like a great idea.  It seemed like only a few minutes, but I was told it was closer to an hour that they woke me up and told me we were going to see the baby.  They wheel me in, and the shock takes hold.  I was freezing and I start shaking like crazy!  They throw blankets on me.  When that doesn't work they put this garbage bag looking thing over me from the neck down and start blowing hot air into it, inflating it like a balloon.  Ahhh, warmth.  The nurses tell me I can't hold the baby until I'm done shaking.  So I try to get it under control.  A little difficult when you're still numb.

Finally, the shaking subsides and I can hold my baby girl.  She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!  I start crying again as I hold her tight and kiss her.  Got to love those hormones!  She is perfect!

That is my story.  I hope you enjoyed it.  If you would like to share your story with me, please email me.  I would love to hear it!