After months of preparation and prayer, Lauren Evelyn Rottier was born on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 3:05 pm, weighing 6 pounds 14 ounces and 20 3/4 inches long.
I've started to realize in life that many situations do not go as I would like or as I plan, yet I am learning to be grateful for the little things. I was told 15 years ago that I had slim chances of ever having children of my own, and as i got older, new conditions were discovered that made those chances even smaller, but God clearly has a different plan. Will and I were stunned to find out in November of 2010 that I was 3 months pregnant. At that time, I had a 6 cm fibroid growing in my uterus, which the doctor cautioned could cause a miscarriage. If the baby did make it through the pregnancy, he expected it to be 6-8 weeks premature, due to the additional space the fibroid was taking.
We kept the pregnancy quiet, waiting to pass that invisible date into the "safety zone." We decided to tell our families at Christmas, as my growing bump was beginning to appear. The doctor did an ultrasound at each appointment to carefully watch the fibroid, as they tend to grow astronomically during pregnancy. Miraculously, it not only grew very little, but stayed on the complete opposite side of the ideal area for the baby to attach and grow. At 28 weeks, a test was done to determine if I had developed gestational diabetes, another likely situation with a disease I have called polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. A side effect to PCOS is glucose intolerance; my body finds it difficult to process any sugars I ingest, and digest, and digests all into fat stores instead of energy.
Amazingly, my sugar numbers were ideal, and the doctor suggested pregnancy may have pressed a "pause button" on my PCOS condition. however, at this appointment my blood pressure was slightly elevated at 140/90. There was no significant weight gain, protein, or headaches to indicate pre-eclampsia, so it was yet another thing to keep monitoring. At each consecutive appointment, no change for the better or worse had occurred. My doctor began to talk about inducing me early, as I was not showing signs of premature labor from the fibroid (!) and he was concerned about the effects of my high blood pressure on the baby and myself. I was very uncomfortable with being induced, and insisted that I would like to have a June baby (my due date was the 7th). Each week, he would suggest inducing me if it did not get better, and each week, I would remind him of my June goal. My last day of teaching (and my last spring concert) was June 1st, and he set my induction for Friday, June 3rd. Will and I tried everything we had researched to "induce naturally" on the 1st and the 2nd, but the baby was comfortable and wouldn't come out on its own.
Friday morning, we arrived at the hospital at 6am with doughnuts in tow for the nurses, and a few bags for ourselves. It was evident by our luggage that we were first timers! We settled in to our beautiful, spacious suite, a little nervous about the unknowns of the day. The doctor broke my water at 7 am, and was pleased to see I was 2-3 cm dilated and 50-60% effaced on my own (thank you evening primrose)! I was a high risk for a cesarean section due to the fibroid--he had seen a fibroid rip off a uterine wall once after delivery me in the operating room, which I said absolutely not, so he put me in the room closest to the operating room in case he had to rush me down the hall.) I was also started on antibiotics for group B strep and hooked up to what I can only describe as mini blood pressure cuffs on my calves that would gradually inflate then deflate to keep circulation going in my legs (I also have a blood clotting disorder...) At 7:30 am, they started Pitocin at a very low dosage, and the contractions finally started. I was allowed to get up to use the bathroom, however, I didn't realize how close to danger my body really was. AS I began to find out, my blood pressure was much higher than it had been at my appointments, and they were extremely concerned about my risk for a seizure or stroke. I was started on magnesium by 8 am, and heartbroken that I could no longer move around to cope with the pain or even use the bathroom. I was slowly watching my natural, unmedicated birth plan go down the drain. At this point, I was still determined to at least not have an epidural, and kept reminding myself I could do this!
Thankfully, I managed to escape without any severe effects of the magnesium, only feeling a little "out of it." At 10:30 am, I was dilated to 5cm, but my blood pressure was still around 160s/105 and a call to my doctor was made. he was very aware of my wish for a "Bradley birth," and asked to speak with me personally on the phone. he explained all of his concerns, and how much I wanted a natural childbirth, but at this point he was extremely concerned about my safety and the baby. He gave me a choice between getting an epidural or a cesarean. My intuition was also telling me something didn't feel right (which probably didn't help my blood pressure either), and I accepted an epidural, requesting that it stay as low-dosage as possible. Of course, all the horror stories about epidurals started going through my mind, and I began to sob and apologize to Will for failing at giving birth! Will was in a panic about getting my blood pressure higher, and kept reminding me to calm down, that it was okay.
The anesthesiologist was really wonderful, and put my epidural in a little higher in my spine, so I would still have feeling in my legs and feel/know when to push. As soon as he put it in, my blood pressure pummeled down to 110/60 and I felt insanely dizzy and nauseous. It was one of the most miserable few minutes of the day. it helped my doctor feel better about not having a cesarean though, and that made me feel a little better too. Although I could no longer feel my contractions in my abdomen, i could feel significant pressure and pain in my lower torso, and continued to be "in the zone" during contractions and grumble at Will whenever he tried to talk during one. :) Around 2:00 pm, I started feeling what I can only describe as "pushy," and by 2:30 I was fully dilated!
My doctor arrived at 2:45 and the hard work began. I can honestly say that pushing is the most frustrating part of labor. it's hard work, and you feel as if it will never accomplish anything. In my opinion, the cesarean rate is so high in medicated birth solely because you have to push on your back. I wanted to sit up, stand up, squat, have gravity help me out, and I was confined to my bed. Agh! After 20 minutes of hard pushing (it felt much longer!). Lauren came out all in one push. I'll never forget my doctor telling me" it's a girl!" We had elected not to find out the gender throughout our dozens of ultrasounds, but with Will's family history, COMPLETELY expected a boy! They put her right on my tummy, and she was eating in 5 seconds. We wanted to wait to clamp the cord, but she started getting a little blue on my tummy, so I asked them to take her and give her oxygen (I was already, but the doctor shoved the scissors in his hand anyway! After "the rest" came out, the doctor quickly did an ultrasound to make sure my fibroid was behaving (not ripping off the uterine wall) while my uterus was contracting back down. To his amazement, everything was cooperating perfectly. He sat there, completely awestruck, starting at me. He finally listed off all the things I had "going against" me: PCOS, a large fibroid, a blood clotting disorder, etc..., the nurses just started to laugh, and he declared I must have a personal flock of guardian angels. He kept me on magnesium overnight to make sure I would not have a seizure or stroke, and I ended up having 2 full IV bags of Pitocin by the end of the day to make sure I would not hemorrhage. I was pumped full of so many different fluids, that I looked like a giant sausage ompah loompah. The nurses were actually looking forward to our natural birth, and everyone felt awful that I did not have anything close to the birth experience I was hoping for, so they were EXTREMELY accommodating whenever they could. They went out of their way to locate an oral version of the Vitamin K for us, never pushed the Hep B or eye gel (just had us sign the waivers during discharge), kept Lauren in our room our entire stay without pressure... I may be biased, but I think I had the best L&D nurses in the world! We later found out that our room was the best/largest room with the biggest walk-in shower too! We didn't have to be out until midnight on Sunday, so we decided to stay until after dinner and make sure we were relaxed and ready to go home and go to bed! My experience giving birth was nothing like I had hoped or planned it would be, but I safely delivered a beautiful baby girl, and we were able to go home on time and start adjusting to our new family.
Kate & Will, Menomonee Falls
