My labor story starts at 38 weeks. Sunday, July 8th, I
was in the hospital thinking I would have my baby. Saturday night when we were
driving home from the Payne's I felt a slight gush of fluid. I thought it might
be my water but I decided I would watch it for a bit. When I woke up on Sunday
morning I'd felt a few slight leaks throughout the night and my underwear was
damp. So I called the doctor and they said the only way to know is to get it
tested. He said that the more I walked around the more it would leak if it was
amniotic fluid. I have never been so sure of anything in my life. I knew my
water had broken and I was going to have a baby that day. I was TERRIFIED! I
couldn’t stop thinking about all the things I hadn’t done yet and I really
doubted my ability to be a mom. I tried to sleep but I was way too freaked out
and anxious. I showered and got ready
and we went to Sam's baby blessing and listened to Daniel speak. I was having
contractions often and they were harder and felt more pushing than tightening.
We went to the hospital and they checked me. I had progressed to a 1 and was
effacing and softening (I'd had zero progression on the previous Monday). But
it wasn't amniotic fluid. Not even close. By that time I had come to accept the
fact that my baby was coming and I was really excited to have her. When they
told me it wasn’t amniotic fluid I was absolutely devastated. But because I was
progressing they told me to walk around for an hour to get things going. It
didn't do enough to keep me but they were pretty sure I'd be in again that
night or the next morning. When they saw my address was a Logan address they
advised me not to go back. So for three weeks I waited and waited and felt
contractions all the time but nothing ever progressed. Each doctor appointment
was disappointing as I found out I had no progression and that even worse, my cervix
was posterior so he couldn’t even sweep my membranes. Tuesday night after
Wicked and Wednesday morning I was having decent contractions so I was
surprised and disappointed that there still less than no progress. At my 40 week appointment he finally set up
an induction date. I had to start Sunday night though because of my weird
cervix.
Sunday arrived and I hadn’t had the baby. But I did get
to see the new Batman and Wicked! So Sunday night (1 week over due) I went in about 9:30 and they
got me started on Cytotec. It’s different than Pitocin because its main purpose
is to ripen the cervix, not cause contractions. But contractions are necessary
for progression, they just aren’t as intense as the contractions you get from
Pitocin, if that makes sense. But it sure is painful still! By 2 AM I was ready for pain meds. They gave me a
drug that does nothing for the pain but makes you not care. It worked for me, I
felt great and regretted not asking for it sooner. I got that at 2:30 but by
3:30 it had worn off (which apparently was faster than usual). They gave me
another dose and said next time it worse off they would give me my
epidural. The second dose didn’t work
and I was in pain again quickly. I kept waiting for them to come in and give me
a second dose of Cytotec but they never did because I was having contractions
so often. I told myself at 4:15 I would ask for the epidural. Luckily for me,
the nurse came in right before I was about to call and by 4:30 the
anesthesiologist was in giving me my epidural. I was having contractions
constantly and because they were induced and not natural there was absolutely
no break or relief in pain. The pain
lessens for a few seconds and then it goes right of the charts. It’s really not
fun. Because I was in so much pain the
epidural was hard. I was shaking, crying, and my teeth were chattering
uncontrollably. The nurses were so great and nice to me! But once it started
working relief was amazing!
The epidural slowed the contractions so the nurse decided
to try the Pitocin at 6:10. By 6:45 she was in again because the baby’s heart
rate dropped and didn't go back up immediately. She rolled me to my other side and the baby’s heart rate
went back up to normal but she took me off the Petocin since I was progressing
just fine. She mentioned that if the baby’s heart rate hadn’t gone up she would
have put an internal monitor on the baby and that would mean breaking my
water. At 7:30 the doctor came in to
break my water. Because the baby’s heart
rate had dropped before, he wanted to put the monitor directly on her so he
broke my water and put a monitor on her head.
The monitor that had been tracking her heart rate before
magnifies the heartbeat’s sound so it’s like listening to it through a
stethoscope (what you hear at every doc appointment). This new monitor beeped
and was kind of annoying so I just tuned it out. Her heart rate was about 150.
Go to http://www.metronomeonline.com/
and listen to how fast 152-160 is and imagine that a high pitched beeping and
you’ll understand why I quickly ignored it. The doctor was happy with my
progression to a 4, especially since the last time he’d seen me, about a week
before, there was less than no progress. He told me that he was hopeful we’d
have her here by dinner time. He left the room to check on another patient and
the nurse still needed to ask him something so she told me she was going to
step outside so she could catch him before he went down to his clinic. I was
laying there relaxed, half asleep, and very drugged when everything changed.
All of a sudden four nurses came running in and started
throwing me around the bed and put me on oxygen. I asked what was going on and
they said the baby’s heart rate was dropping. Before, shifting my position got
her heart rate up again but it wasn’t working this time. I started listening to
the beeping and was terrified at how slow it was. Her heart rate had dropped to
80 and the beeping was getting slower. In order to try to understand my panic go back to that metronome and listen to the difference in speed imagining that it is the sound of your child's heartbeat. The doctor was in the room again and he
had his hand inside me jiggling her head which actually helped (definitely glad
I was completely numb!) for a bit. I don’t remember exactly what happened,
mostly because I wasn’t even sure what was going on then. All I remember is a
lot of nurses running around and talking to each other. I could feel the panic in the room, the nurses were panicking and I could tell they were scared for me which only scared me more. The oxygen mask took up
a lot of my face and I didn’t have my contacts in or glasses on so everything
was really blurry. I remember looking over the mask at Dave who was sitting on
the chair by the window. As I listened to the slow heart rate and tried to figure
out what was happening I started crying and getting really, really scared. They don’t tell you a lot- they just try to
fix the problem. I remember him saying he’d need the vacuum but I was only at a
4. I’m assuming they would just get her out as soon as possible if they could
keep her stable but not too long after he asked for that I heard him say, “We
have to get her out immediately.” I wish I was a better writer so I could really portray all
my emotions going on in that moment. It's really difficult to get
across the pure panic, fear, and hysteria I was feeling. My baby... I
want my baby... was all I could think about. What if they couldn't get
her out in time? Then they gave me a clipboard and said “We’re
giving you a C-Section. Sign that it’s OK.” I asked if it was absolutely necessary
because it sounded like her heart rate was going up. But that was with a lot of
constant work from the doctor jiggling her head and the nurses rolling me
around. It wasn’t staying up so I signed it. The anesthesiologist was there to
give me a large dose of epidural and morphine then they wheeled me away. By
that point I was hysterical. I couldn’t stop shaking or crying. I have never
been so terrified in my life. I wasn’t sure what was happening or what was
going to happen to my precious baby.
In the operating room they took a wipe and rubbed it up
my belly and asked me to tell them when I could feel it was cold. I was numb
enough so they started surgery and 7 minutes later Eliza was here! She was born
at 7:55 and was totally fine.
I guess the contractions stressed her out too much and she also had a bowel movement and
might have swallowed some meconium. If I had started labor on my own I would
have had no idea that the contractions were stressing her out and I might have
lost her. The nurse could have broken my water before the doctor got there but
she didn’t and I’m so glad that even at the end of a 12 hour night shift she was
alert enough and able enough to get Eliza’s heart rate back up and take me off
the petocin. I’m also grateful that when my doctor broke my water and everything
went downhill, the shifts had just changed so everyone was fresh and
alert. Everyone who was needed to
perform a C-section was there too so there was no delay.
There were a lot of little miracles to get my sweet
daughter here and I am grateful every day for each of them. Sometimes I think
about how if just one thing had gone differently that I might not have her and
I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I realized how lucky and blessed I am to be
able to have her and I hope I never take it for granted!
