Birth Story

Over the course of the week since my first unplanned L&D visit, I'd gotten used to a pattern of contractions becoming more regular over the course of the day only to disappear entirely by the following morning, so when I noticed my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart on Sunday night, I didn't think much of it. However, in getting ready for bed, I did realize that they were becoming much stronger than usual so I began timing them. By 1 :30 AM, they were 3-4 minutes apart and strong enough that I couldn't talk or walk through them so we prepared to go to the hospital. By the time we arrived, they were 2 minutes apart so the nurses brought me to a room immediately. However, I was still only 5 cm. dilated and 90% effaced when they checked me around 3 AM (I'd been 4 cm/70% on Friday) so I figured I had a long ways to go. After 5 attempts and 4 blown veins, the nurse finally got my IV antibiotics started (I'm GBS positive), and the monitoring began.

Unfortunately, my blood pressure was quite high so my doctor decided I needed to remain confined to bed for the whole of labor and dictated which side I could lie on and when. This wouldn't have been a big deal if I hadn't planned on a natural birth that required me to be able to move around, and the pressure in my back soon became unbearable as I fought the urge to push. With each contraction, I grew more unable to focus on my breathing and relaxing as I just concentrated on not pushing since I wasn't 10 cm. yet. Finally, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep fighting the urge without either getting an epi or being allowed to at least sit up, and since the latter wasn't an option, I told the nurse I wanted an epi. While C and I were really disappointed, I know that these were unexpected circumstances with not being allowed to move, and I managed to labor to 9 cm. without anything, so I feel OK about it. Getting the epi wasn't as bad as I'd expected, though I was unable to keep from pushing during contractions several times, which stressed me out because I didn't want to hurt anything. The doctor came in shortly after the epi, confirmed that I was almost 10 cm., and broke my water to help relieve some of the pressure.

It's a good thing that I did get the epi because, even though I was at 10 cm. by around 5:30 AM, I couldn't have another IV of antibiotics until 7:30 and it'd take an hour for that to be administered so I had to just labor down for over 3 hours because they wanted me to have 2 doses of antibiotics. Even this ended up working out, though, because by the time I was allowed to start pushing, the head was at +2 and the epi was weak enough that I wasn't in pain but I could still feel the urge to push and move my legs. Since they never were able to pick up my contractions on the monitors, being able to feel the pressure was crucial since no one could tell me when to push. Once they let me start pushing, things moved quickly. I had to wear the oxygen mask due to some distress from Ethan, but that was probably the most uncomfortable part because pushing wasn't that hard. After only about 40 minutes of pushing, the head was out and the doctor told me to stop pushing. I did, but Ethan had other plans, apparently, because the rest of his body slipped out on its own, much to the doctor's surprise!

We had planned on delaying cord clamping and having him on my chest for the first hour, but since the cord was so short he would only reach my lower abdomen, we agreed to go ahead and have the cord cut so that I could actually hold him. I also wanted to breastfeed in the first hour, but the nurse who had been so helpful during labor ended up being much less supportive after he was born and kept telling me he wasn't interested in nursing so I should go ahead and let her call the nursery to come check him out. I finally gave in just a few minutes shy of the full hour, but I still regret not having breastfed until a couple of hours after he was born.

So while my birth didn't exactly go as hoped, I still am happy with the experience and obviously am thrilled with the result! Ethan is such a good baby, rarely crying, sleeping very well, and latching like a pro most of the time. I had supply issues that required a formula supplement for 3 days (just 1.5 oz./day by an at-breast tube feeder) in order to rehydrate him and treat some mild jaundice, but my supply seems to be increasing with fenugreek and pumping, and he's gained back some of the weight he lost. All in all, we're doing well!