TMI Tuesdays: My Birth Story

I wasn't sure if this is, in fact, waaay too much information, but it is titled appropriately, so proceed at your own risk :)

Hubby and I (well, technically, I was the only patient ;) checked into the hospital on an afternoon, almost 2 weeks past my due date. I was checked, and not only I was not at all dilated, my cervix still hasn't even begun to ripen, so no signs of upcoming labor whatsoever! I was given cervix ripening drugs and tethered to a baby heart rate monitor, contraction monitor, and an IV. We hung out, watched some TV, had my mom come by so she knew where to find us the next day, then tried to get some sleep.

By midnight, I could no longer sleep as I was having some major cramps. I let Hubby keep resting and tried to continue relaxing.

By 1 am, I was officially having contractions. Although I hated being tethered to all the monitors (which would inevitably go off every time I moved and the nurse would come in to adjust them), it was kind of fun to watch the contraction one go up and down as I was feeling the contractions. I was still able to just lay in bed and relax through them with deep breaths.

At 2 am, my doctor came by to check on me. It turned out that he's a stickler about checking one's cervix because it increases the risk of infection, so I still had to wait till 5 am to find out if my cervix has softened and if my contractions were making it open. The decision was that at 5 am, if my cervix has started to open, I would be allowed to continue to labor without more drugs; otherwise, I would be started on Pitocin.

By 3 am, the contractions were no longer something I could just lay through. While I really wanted to just walk around, because of all the wires all I could do for each contraction is stand up, sway from side to side while taking deep breaths, and then lay back down for the break (keeping the monitors happy through this was quite difficult). At 3-4 minutes apart, 50-60 seconds in duration, they contractions were painful but manageable; if I would have gone into labor on my own, this would have been the point at which we would have headed to the hospital.

By 4 am, I was in pain. Hubby was now recruited to stand with me and let me lean on him through the contractions. I was hanging onto the hope that I was making progress and would not need to be given more drugs.

At 5 am, that hope was shattered. I was checked and told that my cervix was fully shut. Onward with the Pitocin. Additionally, they started worrying about the baby's heart rate, and I was also put on IV fluids to perk her up (I was not allowed to eat from the time we checked into the hospital, so although I didn't feel hungry, I guess I needed a little help in the hydration department).

By 6 am, I was in agony. My contractions were now 60-90 seconds long, 2 minutes apart (so only 30 second breaks in between the long ones). My whole body was shivering, I felt like going to the bathroom every 10 minutes (quite a trick with all the wires and IV and through all the pain, even with Hubby's help), and I now knew that deep breathing was not a successful strategy for this amount of pain; walking may have been, but alas, I didn't get to try it. I began groaning through the contractions, squeezing Hubby's hands with all my might, and had no time to even try to sit down between them. I was counting seconds till 7 am, at which point I would be checked again.

By 7 am, I was delirious from the pain. I howled through the contractions that were now 60-120 seconds long, with only 20-30 second breaks in between. I alternated between thinking I was going to die, and wondering how the hell I was still conscious (I sure didn't want to be). I was checked again, and I was 3 cm dilated. Amidst all the pain, that number sounded very, very far away from 10. Although I no longer had the presence of mind to know what was really going on, Hubby later informed me that they were quite concerned about the baby's heart rate getting low and my blood pressure being 180/98 and climbing. The only thing I knew now was that I needed help, so I begged for an epidural.

By 8 am, the epidural was on. I started feeling enough relief from the pain to realize the situation with the baby's heart rate and get quite worried about her. I was checked again, and was 8 cm dilated! To give the baby and I a break, the doctor turned off the Pitocin. By now the epidural was really working, and I was able to dose off to sleep!

By 9 am, the baby's heart rate was back to normal, and I felt like a semi-human again. Unfortunately, my contractions have started slowing without the Pitocin, so it was turned back on. Except now I couldn't feel the pain!

At 9:30am, I was checked again, and I was fully dilated! Time to push!

Now, call me crazy, but I actually liked this part of labor. Quite likely because I was no longer in painful agony, and could now focus on soon having my baby in my arms. I was also glad that learning how to use my transverse muscles has really paid off: even though I could only feel pressure because of the epidural, I was able to do exactly what the nurses were telling me to do, and just a few contractions later they were sending for the doctor and saying it won't be much longer.

The doctor was very particular on how to push: he wanted steady pushes, hard pushes, light pushes, and at some point he did not want me to push at all. Soon the baby's head was out, and it was by far the strangest thing I have ever seen. Another light push, and, suddenly, there was a cry! The doc said that it was textbook delivery, and had Hubby cut the cord. The pediatrician had to whisk the baby away for suctioning as she had a lot of fluid from being so overdue, but she was only a few feet away from me and within minutes she was on my chest, eyes open and looking around curiously. The doc said congratulations and left, and I tried feeding the baby.

I was so taken with this little human in my arms that it wasn't till some time later that I realized that there was no hustle and bustle to fix me up; I asked the nurse about it and she said there was no need as I didn't tear, like most patients of this particular doctor. I knew I was going to appreciate this in the coming weeks!

We spent the rest of the day staring at each other and huddling together. Suddenly the pain didn't matter, nor it mattered where we were and how many medical people had to come by and prod us with thermometers, blood pressure cuffs, etc. We were now the proud parents of the sweetest little girl on the planet.