Very long - L&D story...

On Monday 9/14 I woke up and thought I felt a weird amount of fluid collected on the bed. I figured this was either sweat (because I was dying slowly of the heat), discharge, or I had finally started to have the late 3rd trimester bladder leaks. It didn’t smell of anything, so I dismissed it, threw on a pad and went about my day. Tuesday morning was the same deal. Tuesday night R & I had been playing on our computers in the office when I stood up and finally felt a leak go running down my legs – insert tears here where I begin to apologize over and over again thinking I just peed on myself (as my bladder had now become a joke, I peed every 40 minutes). R wanted me to go to the hospital but I insisted I was fine and that I had an appointment in the morning with the nurse practitioner anyways, why make another false alarm trip to the hospital.

Wednesday what I had become an occasional leak was now an issue every time I compressed my stomach or got up from a sit/laying down position for more than 40 minutes. I went into my appointment at 10AM and mentioned the leak finally to the nurse. I hadn’t been feeling any contractions other than my normal Braxton hicks and I really expected nothing to come of it, but they went ahead and did a cervical swab and a fluid strip test. I was left alone for a few minutes so I called and chatted with my mom since it was her birthday and she wanted to know about my meeting with my lawyer that I was to rush off to after my appointment. Tari walked back in waving my fluid soaked strip in the air, proclaiming, “Dr. F is at the hospital right now on call – she wants you to head over ASAP for an AmniSure test and possible induction!” I believe this is where all of the color drained from my face – I was only 37 weeks, the car seat wasn’t in the car, R was at work, I am not ready to have this baby today damnit. I told her I had a quick appointment and I had to let the dogs out at home, but I’d be over to the hospital within 90 minutes.

After my appointment I popped home, loaded up my iPod with my final Hypnobabies tracks (which are for 38+ weeks & delivery), scooped up my dogs and put them outside (which would be the final time I saw my Chihuahua mix, Casey, who was stolen from our yard the next day) to go play. I drove myself blissfully down to the hospital, still partially believing they’d send me home. Once I got to the hospital I noticed that the parking structure was packed and that valet seemed to be running behind… a sign of what was to come (fwiw, 27 babies were delivered on the 17th and 32 women were in labor on the 18th – my hospital normally handles 10-13 births a day). Once I was checked in at L&D and safely deposited in my room at 12:30, the wait began. No one bothered to hook me up to anything until 4pm, when they finally got around to doing the Amnisure test. At 4:45pm my OB popped into the room (surprise!) to let me know that it was positive and due to the fact my labor had not officially started, she was ordering an induction. At this point I called R & my parents, signed away my consent, and dug into my water and protein bars in my hospital bag since it had been hours since I had eaten (a bad idea for someone with gestational diabetes).

At 5pm we began my IV (and antibotics for the extended water leak) and my first dosage of Cytotec. I had asked why we were using an off-label drug verses Cervidell to begin my induction and was told it was because Cytotec usually takes 4 hours to start whereas the others can take up to 12. Given I was 2cm+ at the OB’s office, they had hoped it would be the kick start my labor needed and we could move on from there. Turns out once I got to the hospital I had gone from 2cm to 1.5cm, maybe 1cm. Awesome. I could feel my birth plan beginning to slip away. R arrived at 6:15 with real food and was ready. I popped on my Hypnobabies tracks while he watched my contraction monitor, noting I couldn’t seem to feel any of my contractions – Hypnobabies was working! Dr. F popped in the room one more time to wish me good luck and told me her shift was over and that hopefully by the morning I’d have my daughter in my arms, and if not, she’d be back to catch her.

At 9pm I was checked again. Still 2cm. Next dose of Cytotec went in, which meant I had to be laying in bed, unable to move around. R & I watched TV, gabbed, our roommate even came by for a visit… and still nothing. I couldn’t feel my contractions, I was as comfortable as I could be in a hospital bed with fluid still leaking, and we were just waiting for things to pick up. 1am check – still the same. Frustration began to set in. My hips were killing me from laying still, my Crohn’s cramping were beginning to act up with every contraction, and I had been now awake for essentially 24 hours. Dose #3 of Cytotec goes in at 2am, after our nurse had disappeared for an hour. At this point, I can begin to feel my contractions as they fought with the feeling of wanting to puke (or get sick in any direction possible) grow stronger & I knew my stomach was bleeding with every contraction. R continues to be my awesome Hypnobabies coach, but I was getting more and more tired (and with that frustrated). I tried to sleep and failed miserably, all I want to do is puke and my body had shut down. At 5am, I looked at R in between sobs and told him I can’t do this the way I had wanted to, I needed something to take the edge off. He paged my nurse and I requested Morphine to see if that would help. The injection stung horribly but as soon as it was in completely over the course of three contractions, I was able to finally puke (and strain a muscle in my side in the process). I felt better for 35 minutes… until it began to wear off. I wrestled with myself and what I had wanted for my labor to be and I realized I was well beyond Hypnobabies at this moment, my body was fighting the induction and something needed to give.

At 6am I was checked again – surprise, no progress. I was on a time crunch, if I didn’t deliver by 6pm, I’d be heading for a c-section. The nurse left to go get yet another dosage of Cytotec before her shift officially changed over. The day nurses popped in and checked me again – finally, 4cm. Insert much crying here. It meant I was far enough along to start the Pitocin, which meant labor was only going to get harder… and it was time to admit defeat and request the epidural, as my morphine had completely worn off and I was now pulling my monitors off just so I could stand, rock, and wiggle through my contractions. My genius move was in waiting until shift change & the morning – right at the start of all of the scheduled c-sections with one anesthesiologist on the floor. I ended up waiting nearly two and a half hours before he walked into the room (by then our awesome and amazing nurses had prepped me, prepped the room, I had signed everything – all he had to do was shake my hand, tell me to curl up into a ball, and breathe). The epidural was cake – my IV hurt much worse. Fifteen minutes later after shifting between my left and right side, I finally felt relaxed enough to try and sleep, realizing it was 10:15am and that I was running on empty. The nurses verified that I was having contractions on my own now so they were going to hold off on the Pitocin and would check me later. I did have one reaction to the epidural – full body shakes that I couldn’t control – but I’d gladly take them.

I managed to sleep for about 30 minutes before I realized where I was and my eyes flew open (I have a major hospital phobia). R continued to sleep in his make-shift bed between two regular chairs, so I let him rest since he never left my side. My contractions had waned off so my nurses came in to start the Pitocin on the lowest drip level & to pump me full of juice (since I had gestational diabetes I needed to keep my sugar levels up). I called & chatted with my mom, watched some bad mid-morning TV, listened to more of my Hypnobabies tracks to help keep me calm and just in general relaxed. At 12:15 the nurses came back in to check me – 6cm, yay for progress but Bella had pulled out her internal fetal monitor (again, this was the second time)! R woke up & curled up in bed with me to watch some TV. Five minutes later, I mentioned that I felt a TON of pressure and I think I have the urge to push. I paged the nurse and mentioned it over the intercom but they stated they just checked me & I was six. Alrighty then. Fifteen minutes later, I know I have to push – R jumps into the hall to grab one of my nurses. My nurse comes in holding another dosage for my epidural and R practically screams, “She feels like she needs to push!” so she reluctantly checks again (since they were trying to limit internals due to my extended water breakage) . Sure enough – 10cm and her head was right there. Off goes my epidural and in comes my second nurse to begin setup while they feverishly attempt to call my OB who’s now at her office, seeing patients (20 minutes away).

While we waited, I started listening to my Hypnobabies again to keep calm and try to prevent my body from pushing with each contraction (which it pretty much does naturally). After 30 minutes, I had enough with the Hypnobabies because people kept coming in and out, trying to figure out my OB’s progress since she still wasn’t there yet and I was now crowning with contractions. I told R that my love for my OB was dwindling with each extra contraction since they had turned off the epi. Finally, 45 minutes later Dr. F walks in donning her scrubs (and her pearls!), ready and raring to go. Once everyone was in position, things moved quickly. I tried my best Kill Bill “wiggle your big toe” approach to grabbing my own legs but after staying awake for days and the drugs that was shot. My first push was huge progress, but my OB, nurse, and R all together said, “HUGE BABY!” when they saw her head – which didn’t really surprise me with the gestational diabetes. My OB apologized and said, “I know we said an episiotomy was a last resort but with this angle, you’re going to tear and I want to control it.” I shrugged – nothing else went to plan, this shouldn’t either, and I couldn’t even feel the cutting (but I sure could hear it). Next push her head came out & Dr. F was able to ease the cord from around her neck (with the extra room from the episiotomy) and finally with a third, she was out and into my OB’s hands, where she said, “Okay I was wrong – she wasn’t huge but the extra room was needed, what a peanut!” Bella was born at 1:27pm, after roughly 22 hours of hospital labor (16 natural) and 50+ hours of pre & early labor (estimated time of water rupture).

Due to her constant removal of her monitors, we had no idea her HR had dropped and that she had the cord wrapped as tightly as she did, so she immediately went over with the nurses to be cleaned up, receive oxygen, and be assessed while Dr. F delivered the afterbirth & stitched me up. Once they gave her a few puffs of oxygen, she went from gray/blue to pink and then immediately onto R’s chest while they finished up the assessments (our hospital practices Kangaroo skin-to-skin care). She passed her Apgar’s with 8s & 9s. Once I was finished being worked on she curled up on my chest where we were both finally able to relax.

Bella was considered a late-term premature baby – at 37 weeks her lungs were mature but some of the other functions and needs aren’t 100% there (harder time regulating body temp, the occasional erratic breath, lowered immune system, harder time breast feeding, etc). Due to this, we had a lot of head bumping with our pediatrician’s partner who saw us at the hospital, which eventually lead to me staying an extra day and a half longer that needed and our requirement on discharge was that I “gave up breast feeding” among other issues – but more of that to follow at another time. Remember that you have to be your own advocate for the care you want for yourself & your little one.