Just a warning, this can get a bit TMI, so if you're not interested in hearing about the gritty details of the birthing process, I suggest you skip this post. :)
I was due on Thursday, February 9, 2012. Well, that day came and went with nothing to show for it. I had an appointment that following Monday, and the doctor checked my cervix. I was already 3 cm dilated. They went ahead and scheduled me to be induced on Thursday, February 16, one week after I was due. I was really hoping that I would go into labor before that, as I really wanted as close to a natural birth as I could handle.
To my disappoinment, I didn't go into labor before the designated day, so, on Thursday, February 16, 2012, my husband and I showed up at the hospital at 6:15 in the morning. Due to me being totally worried about the whole thing, I didn't get any sleep the night before. Um...yeah...not a good idea. Anywho, by the time they got all the paperwork done and my IV in (took them 4 sticks to get it in) it was 8:00 am and my induction started.
At first it wasn't too bad. I got to see Lucy's heartbeat on the monitor, as well as the strength of my contractions. That was pretty interesting. Because I had tested positive for the Strep B test, they had to give me penicillin every 4 hours during the labor. Oh my gosh I hated that stuff. They gave it to me via the IV and within half an hour, my arm started to burn. Apparently that's pretty natural, but still it was pretty annoying.
After a few hours, my contractions started getting to the point where it was getting hard for me to handle. I really wanted to stay away from getting a spinal epidural, so I decided to try some painkillers via the IV. They gave me Stadol. Within minutes it started working. And man did it work!
It didn't make the feeling of the contractions go away completely, but it helped a lot. It also made me really sleepy (which didn't help when added to the fact that I didn't get any sleep the night before). Most of the time while the drug was in effect, I was in this drugged sleep phase. I was consious of stuff going on around me (such as my mom sending Dylan out of the room to get something to eat) but I was just so tired that I couldn't open my eyes or say anything. I remember Dylan was saying something about how I had fallen asleep, and I replied that I wasn't....even though I was snoring. It's really weird to snore while you're still awake. I would become slightly alert when a strong contraction came along, but other than that, it was all good.
But, alas, all good things must come to and end. The Stadol started to wear off, and the nurses told me that they can give me another dose, but it won't work as well, and then after that, it pretty much won't work at all. They checked my cervix again and I was dilated to 6 cm. This was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. (Forgive me for forgetting the times when this all took place. Drugs + it being 3 weeks ago = a forgetful Shiloh.) They asked me again if I wanted an epidural and I said no. The nurses left the room and a really strong contraction hit me. This was probably one of the strongest ones that I had had up to that point and oh man did it hurt. I was almost crying and I finally broke down and asked for an epidural.
They went to get the anesthesiologist and while they did that, they got me up to go to the bathroom. For those of you not in the know, when you get a spinal epidural, you're pretty much paralyzed from the waist down. While walking back from the bathroom, another really strong contraction hit me, and I pretty much doubled over from the pain. I kept trying to say "Labor pain is good pain" in my head (something I heard from one of the labor videos I had watched) but that didn't really help a whole lot.
One random thing was that when I was on Stadol (I think, memory's a bit fuzzy), I started shaking really bad. I think it was just a combination of the meds in the IV as well as I had developed a fever sometime during my labor. It was kind of annoying to be dealing with contractions as well uncontrollable shaking.
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| Sometime during labor |
Yet, once the epidural started working, wow it made a difference! I guess I had a really strong contraction, and Dylan asked "Did you feel that?" My response was "Feel what?". Even though I really didn't want to get an epidural, I'm glad I did. I honestly don't think I would have been able to make it through without one. One bad side effect, though. As mentioned before it makes you really numb from the waist down. Well, I could barely feel my right leg. Like, if you poked it, I could still feel it in that weird numb way, but I couldn't move it at all. Kind of bad when you're suppose to hold your legs up when you start pushing, but I'll get to that in a minute.
So while on the epidural, I catch a few hours of sleep, watch the Antique Roadshow with Dyl and my mom, as well as watching the first part of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I found that when I went to sleep, I dilated faster (or so it seemed). After taking a nap, they checked my cervix again and found that I was dilated to 9 cms. Yay! Progress!
But progress was slow after that. I was stuck at 9 cm for awhile (again, can't remember exact times). At one point I had dilated to 9.5 cms and stayed there for awhile. Finally, they had me start pushing at 9 pm. They didn't think it would take that long. Uh...yeah....sure....
So they had me push for an hour. You think you know how to push, but when you're on an epidural, and can't really feel down there all that well, pushing becomes a lot harder. I guess I wasn't making any progress, 'cause the overseeing physician told them to let me rest for an hour. I think I may have fallen asleep for a bit, kind of hard to remember, but at 10 pm, they had me pushing again.
Again, they didn't think that it would take that long as they could feel her head pretty well. They apparently underestimated how big my child's head was. So for over 2 hours I pushed, with Dylan and my mom holding my legs up, since I couldn't do that myself thanks to the epidural.
Long story short, I pushed and pushed and pushed. They kept telling me "Just one more big push!" for about an hour. Yeah....one more push....right....Finally, I pushed her head out and the rest was pretty easy. Dylan was going to cut the umbilical cord, but it was wrapped around her neck and she wasn't breathing. So the doctor had to cut the cord and they had to use that suction-thingy to clear out her nose and throat so she could breath. Even when they got that clear, she whimpered more than cried. That was kind of scary for me, but they told me that she was doing fine. I was going to have her plopped right on my chest, but because of her traumatic entrance into the world, they had to do some tests and stuff right away to make sure she was okay. She was, thankfully.
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| Exhausted after giving birth |
Then came the afterbirth. Holy cow that was way easier than the actual birth. Oh, and if you're expecting and going to have the father in the room, please inform him what the afterbirth is. That way he won't be so freaked out when this balloon of bloody flesh comes out of you. Thankfully I had informed Dylan of this before, so he wasn't so surprised, but I, personally, was grossed out by it. But then they handed me Lucy, so I forgot about it pretty quickly.
I also tore pretty bad, apparently, as they took while to stitch me back up. I guess I had internal stitches as well, but they didn't really tell me much about that, and I didn't really ask.
Also, I was almost out of my epidural, and they said they weren't going to give me anymore once it ran out, something about a shortage or something. I don't really remember. But seriously, I only had some left in the tube underneath the dripper deal by the end of it all. I was terrified I was going to run out. Thank goodness I didn't, otherwise I don't know how I would have handled it.
Lucy Joanna was born at 12:11 am on Thursday, February 17, 2012. I was in labor for 16 hours and pushed for about 3. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. She also had a much bigger head than they first thought, and actually she had a large bump on the back of it which was all bruised. That got better pretty fast, though she still has her stork bite on the back of her neck. She was also pretty jaundice, but she got better before we left the hospital.
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| My first good look at her |
Because I was Strep B positive, we had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours, which was kind of nice because we didn't really have to worry about anything. At one point we needed some sleep and Lucy just wanted to cry and scream, so the nurses took her to the nursery so we could get some sleep.
So, there you have it, there's my birth story. I'm sure there are details in which I'm forgetting, but that's the major part. Feel free to ask questions if you have any. :)
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| Our happy family |
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| My perfect baby |
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