The delayed Passenger arrives! (Squeamish details inside...)
Early Monday morning, 10/24, at 5 am, I woke up having honest-to-gods contractions. Josh had gotten up about then to deal with Trixie, and whether it was that or the contractions, I was awake. They were uncomfortable (bad back-ache and a tight belly) and about 12-15 minutes apart. When Josh came back to bed about 5:45, I told him about it.
When we got up at 7am (he got another hour of sleep, but all I could do was doze between contractions) Trixie was being a full-on cranky-puss. VERY Two. We all have colds to one degree or another and her cough had kept her up. We finally got her and her things to daycare, with my contractions about 10 minutes apart by then.
We saw our friend M. on the way there and told her we were on our way to the hospital for the BPP, but that I was having contractions so it was likely that we'd be staying there. She was all set with bringing Trixie home with her daughter, so with lighter hearts we dropped Trixie off, told the teachers "This is it!" and went for breakfast at a nearby diner.
Our detailed ultrasound appointment was for 11:30, so we had plenty of time for a big breakfast (since I was in labor, I wanted to eat BEFORE going to the hospital) and we also picked up sandwiches, because the wait in Fetal Testing always takes forever. The walk from the store to the hospital was slow, but manageable, with the contractions. We were, shockingly, seen for the ultrasound at 12:30, only an hour later.
The baby was in good position and all parts accounted for, but when the doctor came to look he confirmed that the fluid was low and said "Did you bring a bag? You'll be having this baby today."
He sent us up one floor to Labor & Delivery triage and called Dr. C. to discuss the scan. Up in triage, we called my sister and asked her to bring our suitcase and meet us at the hospital. She was very excited and said she would see us in about an hour and a half.
Iris, the charge nurse, got us settled in room 12A-30, an L&D room where we would spend the next 15 hours. She was very nice and told us a funny story about her Daddy-obsessed 8-year-old. I was examined by Dr. S, who did NOT have a light touch with the cooter. I was 1-2 cm dilated by then and he asked what we had planned for the birth with Dr. C.. We said, a VBAC, if possible. He said Dr. C. was in favor of a second C-section; the baby was measuring over 8 pounds, the cervix was not particularly effaced and only 1-2 cm dilated.
I was pretty upset, since I was actually IN LABOR after all this time, but the "safety" factor involving a large baby and not very dilated etc., etc. was big enough that I agreed and signed the consent forms. The surgery was set for 4pm (it was now 1:30). By 2:30, when my sister arrived, the contractions were 6-8 minutes apart and getting quite painful.
They felt like a really bad menstrual cramp, involving the lower back as well as the worst gas pains ever -- at the same time. The pain was most intense in a band across my lower belly -- in the "low-rise" waistband area.
I was on two monitors, one for contractions, the other for the baby's heart rate. For a while I didn't have to wear them, so I stood up, sat on a stool while my sister rubbed my back, and best of all I could go labor on the toilet. I don't know why it was so reassuring -- maybe because I have had my fair share of bad gas pains in my life -- but it was.
It was so comfortable, relatively speaking, that I labored there for a good half hour. And in fact, I was still there when the anesthesiologist came by to interview me. Dr. F. didn't bat an eye and talked to me right there. (He was also very cute! I kept hoping he would notice my lovely and single sister, but Josh says "Didn't you see the wedding ring?" Josh mostly noticed that he had an amazing calm, like he'd been sampling his own wares, and I did too -- and if anyone's going to put a needle next to my spinal column I want them to be very VERY calm.)
They would wait on the epidural until just before the surgery, then scheduled for 4pm. When they found out my last meal at 10am had been a cheese omelet (hello! I was in LABOR!) they moved the surgery back to 6pm.
Alas, that meant no epidural -- and by 3pm I was watching the clock for 4pm and REALLY hurting. My sister rubbed my back, and Josh held my hands and I got through them by making low "oooing" sounds and blowing "horse-lips," but I was NOT happy. Lamaze mostly went out the window, since I had always planned to have pain relievers, but the things that stuck were all from our VBAC class.
Dr. C. arrived to do the C-section and found, to his surprise, that I was in active labor -- I actually told him "Hold on, I'm kind of busy" while I got through a contraction in front of him. Apparently the doctor who called him had not even mentioned that I was in labor. So boo on you, Dr. S! Dr. C. thought I was still in the same condition as last week (in which case, a second C-section would have made sense).
Anyway, kudos to him -- he said that there was no reason not to try and labor for a while, with pain relief. Or we could just go ahead with the C-section. I was in so much pain I really just wanted whatever would get me an epidural fastest. He checked, and I was at 2-3 cm by then and could barely think during contractions.
Dr. F. came back and he and another doctor whose name I instantly forgot did the epidural right there on the bed. I leaned forward and braced myself on Josh, while Alicia, our nurse, helped steady me so I could stay completely still (between contractions, and let me just say: ow) while they put the needle in my back. I was glad I had had the experience before, as it was a familiar sensation. They put the needle in and taped my back down.
The relief was wonderful. Unfortunately, I didn't react well to the Fentanyl and started shivering uncontrollably and itching all over my upper body. The nurses covered me with blankets and turned the heat up and after an hour of that, somehow they were surprised that I had a fever! (This is relevant later.) But despite that, I was able to lie down and sleep/doze a bit. The contractions sometimes woke me up and I would breathe through them. But overall, I had no problems with a nice slow dilation with pain relief.
By midnight, when Dr. R. accidentally broke my waters while checking me, I was at 8cm. Her cervical checking was FAR better than either male doctor -- she pressed on the bones, and the counter-pressure made the probing far less painful. They called Dr. C. back and by 2:30am I was at 9 cm dilated and 90 percent effaced.
I was starting to worry about pushing, but I couldn't feel any more contractions. When I said so to Sophie, she checked the monitor and said they were being picked up just fine. Suits me! I guess they had the epidural up pretty high. They turned it back down so I could feel the urge to push, but I didn't feel very many of the contractions themselves, just the pushing urge. Which, frankly, felt exactly like the urge to take a crap.
At about 3am, Dr. C. came in and they fired up the baby warmer in the corner of the room, and started prepping for me to push. I slid down the bed, half of which dropped away, and they put more pads and plastic bags underneath me to catch any blood/poop/whatever. Sophie held my left leg and Josh held my right. My sister had been holding my leg, but after one push she turned white and was told to sit down lest she be sent to the ER. She manned the cameras and cheerleading instead.
I barely felt any contractions, though I did feel some urge to push, so Sophie had her hand on my belly and would tell me when the contraction was building. There were surprisingly long pauses between them.
During the pushing, I was to grab my thighs and pull them back to me, while in a crunch, chin down. I would take a deep breath, hold it, and push by bearing down as though pooping. I pooped a lot and it felt great and I didn't care one bit. It was hard to hold my breath because I usually let out my breath when I'm bearing down to poop.
I would get three or four pushes per contraction, and it was obviously getting somewhere. My pelvis was very sore -- I remember a friend saying she felt as though she was "laboring in her bottom" and that's what it felt like for me by then.
Dr. C. got out the vacuum to help as the baby's heart rate was up. So three more pushes and I felt the head in the birth canal. I thought another push would get the head out and then I could take a break and then push out the rest. Well, the baby basically did a swan-dive head-first out of my vagina as though squirted from a squirt gun. I opened my eyes in time to see the baby's butt and -- a penis! -- flying out of me. Very much a boy. That was at 3:43am.
Dr. C. cut the cord and handed him to the pediatrician and baby warmer. Then he pulled out the cord and the placenta was delivered, though I didn't feel it. Then he started sewing up my third-degree tear.
Through all this, Josh and I were crying and looking at each other and saying "We have a son!" My sister was crying and taking pictures. He was a big boy -- 8 pounds 12 ounces! He was having some breathing problems and because of that and the tachycardia and my "fever" they took him off to the NICU, though I did get to hold him and say hello first. That "fever" meant 48 hours of antibiotics and a stay in the NICU for him (and a bag of them in my IV for me).
After the big clean-up, Dr. C. shook our hands and congratulated us on our new son and on having the VBAC I wanted. We had great nurses all night -- first Iris, then Alicia and finally the incomparable Sophie. The one bad-bedside-manner nurse who came in thankfully left after one visit.
Postpartum assessment: This is a hundred times better to recover from than a C-section, even with stitches.
Posted by designatedgirl at November 1, 2005 05:36 PMyay for you! a fine job! i also, yuo may recall, had the "is it a poop or is it a baby?" labor. i know just how you felt.
Posted by: terry at November 2, 2005 05:46 AMThe funny part is how very much I didn't care -- I've read so many birth stories where women were afraid to poop durin birth or squeamish about it, but I figure anyone down at the business end of things has seen a lot worse.
And thanks for the comment! Glad someone's reading.
Congratulations again! What a fantastic effort! Someone once described labor to me as "like shitting a watermelon." You have a very fine-looking "watermelon."
Love you all.