Our sweet baby GIRL, Nora Jane, was born on Monday, April 18th at 8:03 pm.
Contractions woke me up at 5 am. I wouldn't say they hurt (especially in retrospect), but they were strong enough to wake me up. I paid attention to them for a couple of hours before dozing off again. Kurt and I got up around 8 am and decided to eat breakfast and go for a walk. The walk made the contractions stronger, but I could still (sort of ) walk through them.
By noon the contractions seemed to be getting stronger and closer together, so we decided to start timing them. They were a minute long consistently, but only about 7-8 minutes part. it was around this time that the contractions started to hurt. I was dismayed to discover that I was a moaner during contractions, but it was really all I could do.
By 5 pm the contractions were closer to five minutes apart, and by 8 pm they were 3-4 minutes apart. And they HURT. I wasn't able to relax. We called the hospital at 9 pm and went in. The triage nurse checked me and I was only 3.5 cm ( was 2 cm at my last appointment a few days earlier). That was a bummer. They decided to admit me and I hunkered down for a long night. I labored in the tub a couple of times, I bounce don the birthing ball, I tried hands and knees, I hung on Kurt's shoulders... it all sucked.
Monday, April 18th. A nurse checked me again around 5 am and I only went to 4.5 cm. Sooo, basically after 24 hours I only progressed 2.5 cm. I remember looking at the contraction monitor and the contractions were off the charts in intensity. All of the pain was in my back and hips, and from what I've heard, this "back labor" is the WORST. A posterior baby? It WOULD be just my luck that Nora was posterior, despite my best efforts at exercising and stretching. Given the amount of pain I was in, my level of exhaustion from being awake all night, and the fact that the contractions weren't productive, I asked for an epidural.
The epidural was an experience in itself. I was familiar with the procedure, so nothing was a surprise, but I didn't expect it to not go well! The anesthesiologist attempted to place the catheter in my back three times with no luck. He kept saying, "OK, you will feel some pressure and then a CRUNCH." Umm, yeah, I definitely felt the crunch. I guess he kept hitting bone and couldn't get the thing in. I was praying he wouldn't paralyze me. Finally he decided to try placing it below the next vertebrae and that worked. It was painful and stressful!
The drugs started working almost right away and I was soooo much more comfortable. I was able to get some rest, no thanks to the stupid blood pressure cuff I had to have on the entire time that would automatically inflate and take my blood pressure every 15 minutes. With the epidural, i was also hooked up to an IV with Pitocin to get things moving along. I was fine with it since I couldn't feel the contractions anyway. A nurse checked me again around 8 am and I think I was up to 6 cm by then. That was more like it! As she was checking, she accidentally broke my water. Awesome. The amniotic fluid had meconium in it, so they informed me that I would not be able to hold Nora right away because they needed to whisk her off to the warming station to suck the poo out of her mouth. AS this point, nothing had gone right, so I don't think it bothered me as much as it could have.
Kurt and I dozed off the rest of the moaning and I slowly, but surely dilated more. I was almost 10 cm by 5 pm, but the baby was still in a posterior position, so I had to get on my hands and knees to try to turn her. That was easier said than done with number legs! After another hour or so I was 10 cm and her head was VERY low and finally in the anterior position. However, ... one of the nurses decided to turn the Pitocin off at some point, so my contractions weren't close enough or strong enough to start pushing yet. They turned the Pitocin back on and we waited around for things to get more favorable.
Finally, I was able to start pushing around 6:50 pm. I actually like pushing because it felt like I was finally in control. My epidural started to wear off so I was feeling contractions again. They weren't as bad though since she was finally facing the right way. They wanted me to try pushing in different positions, but I actually preferred my back. It was a little slow at first, but it went much faster once I could actually feel myself pushing her out. Kurt held my leg and watched the whole thing. I could tell he was amazed at what I was doing. I gave one last huge push at 8:03 pm and she was here! I burst into tears right away because it was the most overwhelming experience ever. Kurt cut the cord and off she went to the warming station.
She was perfect. She had APGARs of 8 and 9, so the meconium thing wasn't a big deal at all.
Lindsay & Kurt, Milwaukee
No comments:
Post a Comment