Monday, December 10, 2007

birth story

Thursday around 2 am I woke up with very frequent and painful contractions. I counted/timed them for about half an hour and when I realized that they were roughly 4 minutes apart I decided to wake up Jason.

I called the midwife on call and when she called back she told me to run a hot bath, drink a lot of water and relax in the tub. If within 1 hour the contractions had not stopped, I should get ready and come in to the birthing center.
I took the bath and though it felt good these contractions were really starting to hurt. They were painful enough that I could not speak thru them. I began to sweat profusely and started to feel really nauseated.

I got out of the bathtub (I needed help because every time a contraction hit I felt like I couldn't continue. I sat down on the toilet because I felt like I had to go... That's when I noticed the blood.....


We scrambled to get things together - after the last preterm labor scare I was put on strict bedrest so none of my stuff was packed :-(
I can say that I did have some moments of INSANE IMPATIENCE with my husband during those 15/20 mins that he rushed around to get everything ready. I believe that I even threw a piece of clothing at him that I deemed inappropriate to pack in my hospital bag :-/

By the time we were ready to walk out of the door I was in the fetal position on the living room floor. This is how intense my contractions had become.
On the drive to the birthing center (about 10 mins door to door) I threw up several times in the car. Awful.

When we finally got there Jason ran up, got a wheelchair and wheeled me in.

They were waiting for me and pretty much admitted me right away and got me all hooked up to the monitors.


For the next 12 hours or so I labored hard.... I threw up over and over again even though i hadn't eaten anything except water since 8pm the night before.
The pains were horrible. Awful. I was totally gone in laborland. I remember at one point breathing thru the pains and focusing on the space needle which could be seen from the window in our birthing room.
I also remember focusing on the blue tiles on the floor of the bathroom to center myself. Sounds crazy but it works when you are desperate to focus on anything except the pain.

At hour number 13 i started giving up.... the pain was too much. I begged and pleaded with Jason thru tears saying how I could not take it anymore. He pushed me on for another hour or so. Then finally I used our "safe word" to indicate that I was done begging.
I wanted pain relief and I didn't want to ask again.

I should also mention a bit of TMI.... thru the entire labor I was bleeding... passing large blood clots... one after the other. This was troubling to the nurses, midwives and doctor on call. They didn't know the source of the bleeding and it didn't seem to stop.

I finally got an epidural. It was nice for about an hour. They checked me and I was at 8 centimeters.
The baby was nowhere near my birth canal and my bag of waters was still intact! Weird.

They did 3 ultrasounds to see what was up. Apparently there was an extra bit of membrane with water that was blocking Fenix's head from descending.
After this they talked thru 3 scenarios.
1. pierce my bag of waters with a very tiny needle. let the water slowly come out and see if the baby slips down into the birth canal
2. wait and let the bag break on it's own, risking a prolapsed cord from the gush and then of course i would have to have an emergency c-section if that happened
3. go ahead and just get the c-section

I'll take door number 1! So that's what we did. They prepped me and took me to the OR in case when they pierced the bag it ended up gushing anyway. They had everything staged for a c-section in the event that it was needed.
They broke the bag and I felt the warm water arc and splash on my foot! That was bizarre.

They checked my cervix again in about 10 mins and I was complete, baby's head was way down (+3) and it was time to push!

I pushed for an hour in the OR. They had a big mirror so i could see. Jason held one leg, the nurse held the other and our midwife sat on the edge of the bed looking at the baby.
We saw his head and hair within that first hour of pushing. They suggested that we go back to the birthing room since everything was fine now. So that's what we did.
I had a few very strong contractions on our way to the room. They call this 'laboring down' since I didn't push at all during those. Well the pressure was so intense that by the time I got to the room I knew he would be here within the hour
I pushed for about 5 more contractions and BAM there he was! I started crying and hyperventilating with joy. It was incredible. Jason was able to catch him and cut the cord.
My little boy had arrived.

Oh and as for the bleeding, my placenta had an extra lobe! That extra lobe had abrupted which is probably what started labor and was the source of all the blood clots/bleeding. I saw it and it was very bizarre looking... like an extra piece of liver hanging off of the placenta. Eww.

1 comment:

Matt Lindgren, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist said...

Holey moley guacaomole. I'm totally reminded of why I'm scared of pregnancy. (hehe)
Wow! You survived! and now you have a beautiful baby boy! He's darling! Congratulations!