Birth Story (warning-LONG!)

First off, I was fully aware that I might not get the birth I wanted, but I wanted to prepare for the birth I wanted anyway and hope for the best. Here is what I had prepared for and planned on.  I wanted a natural childbirth, no drugs, no induction, and definitely not a C-section. I decided to go with the Hypnobirthing method since it made sense to me. Wil and I took classes and I practiced the breathing techniques and the relaxation. Wil was a bit skeptical at first, but was a good sport and went along with it and helped me with my relaxation exercises. I was really excited about Hypnobirthing.

On the evening of Monday, October 28th, Wil and I headed to his family party. I had been having contractions off and on, but nothing had been consistant. Wil wanted me to walk around to try to get things moving, so we figured a big family Halloween party would be great for that. We arrived around 5:30 pm. The food there was good, as it always is at these parties, but I had no appetite and got a little nauseous when I tried to force myself to eat. I needed to eat, but couldn't stomach it so I stopped. As the party continued, the contractions started getting stronger and closer together, making it more difficult for me to focus on people talking to us and on walking. Finally, at 7 pm, they were really close together (about 2-5 min) and I told Wil that we needed to go home. 

The contractions continued and became consistently 5 minutes apart (sometimes less) and were lasting a while. They weren't really too uncomfortable, especially if I remained relaxed and breathed through them like I was taught to in Hypnobirthing. When it came time to sleep, I tried to lay down, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. Wil had to work at 6:30 the next morning and I didn't want to keep him up with my tossing and turning, so I went to the nursery and laid down in my recliner instead. I relaxed and maybe dozed a bit, but contractions were still consistent so I couldn't actually sleep. By 2 am, I was exhausted. They were coming 2 minutes apart and lasting for at least a minute every time. I decided it was time to go to the hospital. 

I woke Wil up and we made our way to the hospital. I felt a little bad since Wil was supposed to work that morning, but I knew his bosses knew that I was going to have the baby any day, so I didn't stress about it much. We arrived at the hospital and they checked me. I was having consistent contractions, but I was still only 1 centimeter dilated (just as I had been the day before at my doctor's appointment). There was no change. Everything else looked fine, so they decided to send me home. Since I hadn't slept, they gave me some Loritab to try to take the edge off of things so I could relax. I took it with some grape juice they offered to try to get some sugar in me. Both of these turned out to be bad ideas. Within about a minute, I threw up. I forgot that my stomach isn't fond of grape juice (and neither are my taste buds for that matter), and that I wasn't super fond of really sweet things since getting pregnant. That grape juice was about as sweet as you can get and was nasty! Loritab also shouldn't be taken on an empty stomach and I hadn't really eaten since lunch on Monday. Anyway, they sent me home with a bag in case I needed to throw up on the way home. 

When we got home, Wil had to get ready for work (it was about 6:15 am on Tuesday at this point). He had already called and let them know he would be late. I laid down and tried to sleep. It didn't happen and I was getting more and more uncomfortable as the morning progressed. To try to get things moving along and hoping I would start dilating more, I sat on my balance ball and bounced and rocked. I walked around the house a little, but stopped that before long since I was so weak and tired. I tried to eat some toast, which usually helps when I have an upset stomach, but just ended up throwing up again. I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. I was really starting to feel miserable. 

Wil ended up getting off work early and came home around 1 instead of 2:30 or 3. He said he was worried about me and wanted to see how I was doing. I could barely talk or focus on him. I was so tired and my body seemed to be pretty dang worn out. I didn't want to go back to the hospital again until my water broke, since I didn't want to be sent home again. I figured that once my water broke, I would be dilated more. Around 4:30 pm, I told Wil I didn't think I could take it anymore and wanted to go back to the hospital to get checked and hopefully have the baby. He questioned me to make sure that's what I really wanted. I decided it was and he came over to help me get up. He put his arms around me from behind and lifted my belly a bit to try to help relieve some pressure. As soon as he did, we both felt a pop. I ran to the bathroom (more like waddled). Sure enough, my water had broken. We headed out to the hospital again.

When we got there, I could barely walk, so I got into a wheel chair and went to a delivery room to get checked again. As I was changing into the hospital robe, another gush happened and the floor became very wet. When the nurse came in, she said my water definitely broke so I wasn't leaving until I had the baby. I was checked and was still only 1 centimeter dilated and 75% effaced. It seemed it would be a while before my baby came.

At this point, it had been more than 24 hours since I'd slept and almost 24 hours since I'd eaten. I was really out of it. My doctor happened to be the on call doctor that night (which I was very grateful for since she is amazing). I didn't want an IV, but since I hadn't eaten, and the baby's heart rate was a little low (not scary low, but not where they wanted it), I got put on a drip to help with my blood sugar levels. When they checked me, they also found out that I had a uterine infection. Apparently, my water broke before I thought it had and I got an infection so I was also put on antibiotics as well. My doctor said there was a chance that my baby would have an infection as well when she came out.

Around 7 pm, I still hadn't progressed at all and was having a very difficult time focusing on the questions the nurses or my doctor asked and could only focus on breathing. My doctor said it would probably be another 12 hours before I had the baby. She recommended that I get the epidural even though she knew I wanted a natural birth. Somewhere around this time, she mentioned that if something didn't change, I would have to get a C-section, but she was holding off on that. I also had to be put on oxygen to help stabilize the baby's heart rate.. Because of my infection, lack of sleep and food, and the fact that I was having consistent contractions, but not dilating at all, I decided to get the epidural. I needed to rest and I was way beyond exhausted at this point. We all hoped that me being able to rest would help things progress.

Within minutes of getting the epidural, I started chatting with Wil and the nurse and making jokes. They both commented that I looked SO much better, and Wil confessed that he had been really worried about how out of it I was. We were both glad I'd gotten the epidural. I was giddy and VERY awake for a little while after that so it took a while, but I was finally able to sleep a bit. The baby started doing better as well, so everyone was happy. Since I wasn't dilating on my own, even after the epidural, Pitocin was added to my IV line to get things going. Thankfully, it worked, and with the oxygen on, the baby was doing fine so we were able to avoid a C-section. 

With the help of the Pitocin, I finally started progressing. Finally, I was fully dilated and ready to push. The baby was turned in a not so ideal position, so my doctor, who should have been off by now, but wanted to stay to deliver my baby and see how I was doing, had to turn her. The baby turned easily and I pushed for 45 minutes. When the baby's head became visible, my doctor and the nurse kept saying, "That's a lot of hair. Wow look at that hair," and other things along those lines. I wanted to do skin to skin contact for a while once the baby was born, but wasn't able to because the baby wasn't transitioning well. Our doctor verified that the ultrasound was correct and we had a baby girl, but cutting the cord couldn't be delayed. She had the nurse call the NICU team in. 

The NICU nurses rushed in and and took my baby before I could really see her. They were finally able to get her to breath. Once she had been weighed and measured, 7 lbs 15 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long (my doctor guessed she would be 8 lbs so she was just slightly off), my doctor laid her on my chest for about 30 seconds and then they rushed her away. Because I had an infection, they had to take her to the NICU to start antibiotics right away to make sure she would be ok

As I said when I started writing this, nothing went as I had planned or had wanted. The only thing on my birth plan that I got was a vaginal birth, and honestly, I'm ok with that. Would I have preferred things had gone differently? Of course, but I ended up with a healthy little girl so I am satisfied.