Birth StoryTuesday, October 2nd I was now officially overdue. My ultrasound the day before showed the baby was fairly big. They were estimating him at 8lbs 10oz on his due date. I was only dilated about 1cm so Dr Johnson said I could go to the hospital for a cervix ripening gel at 11:00am to help me dilate further. I went in and got the gel and within 15 minutes it started my body into cramping and they sent me home after about an hour observation. I spent the rest of the day at home with the cramps getting worse and worse.
By 7:00pm Tuesday I was convinced I was in labor because the cramping/contractions were so bad I had a hard time sitting still, was breaking a sweat, and had to do deep breathing to get through them. We drove to the hospital thinking the baby would be here that night. Well when we got to the hospital and they got me hooked up to the fetal monitors and monitored me for an hour or so, they said that although I was in a lot of pain, the contractions were only “early labor” and not productive enough to do much to open my cervix. I cried and cried because I was in severe pain and I couldn’t believe they were sending me home in so much pain. At this point I was kind of scared because I didn’t know how to tell whether or not to drive back to the hospital when I was in “active labor.” We drove back home at about 11pm and I didn’t really get any sleep that night.
Wednesday, Oct 3rd I had another OB appt at 8:00am. Dr Johnson said I was only dilated to 2cm and said we needed to talk about the fact that the baby was estimating so large. He said that 8lbs 10oz isn’t all that big for some women, but there’s no way to tell if a baby will be too large for MY pelvis until we’re there in the delivery room. He wanted to go over with us the risks of trying to deliver a baby that may not fit through the birth canal and asked us if we wanted to consider an elective cesarean section for the safety of the baby. Or, we could go back into the hospital that afternoon for another dose of the cervical ripening gel and see if that second dose would do the trick.
We left the doctor’s office and went out for brunch to talk over the risks and decided to go ahead with another dose of the gel even though it was terrible for me the first time. We went back to the hospital for it at 3pm but they were so busy we had to wait for a room for over three hours. At around 6pm they hooked me back up to the monitors before giving me my second dose of the gel and determined I was contracting on my own and that they couldn’t give me another dose of the gel because of my contractions. They kept me for observation til about 9pm and called Dr Johnson who THANKFULLY was the doctor on call that night. He said if I wanted to that I could stay in the hospital and have the baby that night. We agreed, so I got into a labor and delivery room and got set up to have my labor progress.
At about 10pm Wednesday night Dr Johnson came in and we decided to break my water to see if that would get things going a bit more naturally before introducing pitocin (the labor induction drug.) Once my water broke, the contractions got super intense. As time went on, they got much MUCH stronger and eventually they were so strong I couldn’t think straight. I also started to shiver uncontrollably so much that the fetal monitors on my belly were bouncing loudly and it was getting hard to hear the baby’s heart beat. My contractions became so intense that they were each two minutes long (typically a contraction is 45 to 60 seconds) and they were also one on top of the next, so I was getting no rest in between.
Thursday, October 4th around midnight: I was by now begging for my epidural and our nurse put the call into the anesthesiologist but he was caught up in two emergency c-sections and could not get to me right away. Sometime around 3am he finally came in and I was beside myself with pain. I couldn’t believe how bad it was! I was surprised how long the epidural process takes, but 10 min or so after it finally got in I was starting to feel better. By now I was dilated to 5cm and they wanted me to rest as much as possible before I was fully dilated and would have to push. They shut the lights off and told us to nap but we were in the room right next to the emergency c-section room and there was lots of foot-traffic noise and people hollering to each other, so of course I didn’t get any real rest. Besides that, the epidural made my blood pressure drop quite low and it kept setting off the emergency "low blood pressure" alarms about every 5 - 10 minutes. Aaron started shutting it off in his sleep! I had to holler at him to wake up and press the nurse call button so they could increase my IV fluids and make me feel better and get my blood pressure back to a safe level.
After a while, my nurse came in to check me a bit before 6am. She said I was fully dilated to 10cm and although I was kind of glad, I was mostly freaked out because she also said the baby had quite a molded head which was an indication he may be too big to fit, and also I was SO EXHAUSTED!!! I knew there was just about no way I could push a baby out after having been in what I thought was labor the whole day before and having no sleep for the last two nights, and here I am at 6am the third day wondering if I can push out a baby they are concerned might be too big for me. I tried to tell Aaron and the nurse (our nurse, Becky, was a godsend!) that I was too exhausted to push and I didn’t think I could do it. Becky said she talked to Dr Johnson and he said I should try to push for half an hour at least and see if I could bring the baby’s head down and make some progress which would indicate I could probably get him out. I pushed for quite a while but they had to turn down my epidural so I could better feel how to push. I was starting to feel a LOT OF PAIN AND PRESSURE at this point!!!
I was also back into the uncontrollable shivering with my epidural worn down and with my two-minute contractions and me pushing as hard as I could on top of them, the baby’s heart rate was dropping to an unsafe level. They asked me if they could put a probe up the birth canal and into the baby’s skull to make sure he was okay. I said “fine, just make sure he’s okay.” Then they were concerned about the amount of pressure my contractions were exerting so they had to bring in another person to insert some kind of other probe to monitor the strength of the contractions and make sure they were effective. The baby was still showing some signs of distress and by now I was in an almost panic besides my pain.
About an hour and a half of pushing later it was about 7:30am, they said the baby was coming down okay. I didn’t believe them though as Aaron and Becky were encouraging me! I just wanted that baby OUT so I would be out of pain and he would be safe outside of me. The baby’s heart rate kept dropping with each long contraction so they gave me the pitocin (induction) drug to see if it would help break up my naturally long contractions and get me into a more manageable contraction pattern. I also had to try to breathe with an oxygen mask on because the baby wasn’t doing too well, but I have a terrible claustrophobic fear of those masks and had a very hard time dealing with that while trying to push.
Finally Dr Johnson came and and had me push three times on one long contraction, try to breathe through the next one, then push on the third, etc. It helped me to catch my breath a bit. The baby was still not doing well so they had me roll onto my left side and I had to push while on my side. That was SO uncomfortable and I hated it, but at this point there was nothing else I could do and I was in so much pain that was all I could think about. Then they rolled me back onto my back for me to finish pushing as the baby was almost crowning. I had been pushing for two hours at this point.
By now it was about 8:00am and the next thing I remember the doctor was throwing his delivery clothes on and telling me just to breathe and not push, but I couldn’t! My body was pushing without me! They said the head was out but I sure couldn’t tell. It just felt painful. Then all of the sudden with a big gush the baby’s body came out and I felt the hugest relief of my entire life! Everyone was cheering and I could finally open my eyes and breathe as they plopped Levi onto my belly. He was a wet and bloody mess and he was the MOST BEAUTIFUL creature I had ever laid eyes on. He was born at 8:12am.
I grabbed Levi’s wet body and he clamped his tiny fingers so tightly around my finger it was a moment I’ll never forget! I was crying and laughing so hard I couldn’t hardly see at all anymore, but it was the most joyous moment in my life. Later, Aaron recalled that in that moment I was laughing, crying, and shaking but it was “as beautiful as a ray of sunshine.” That is truly the way I remember it- SUNSHINE.
The nurse took Levi by Aaron to get him cleaned up, warmed up and wrapped up. The nurse asked what his name was, and I smiled at Aaron and he said "Levi Clarence" with a big grin. Aaron held Levi close to my bed as they stitched me back up (I had quite a bit of tearing) and he kept asking me if I wanted to hold Levi, but I kept saying “no” because I was so exhausted I could hardly keep my eyes open or lift my arm and I knew if I tried to hold him I’d probably drop him. Besides, it was more than enough to see my darling husband cradling my gorgeous newborn son.
It was beyond A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!
