We went over my birth vision which I had finished the evening before. I argued with her a bit about the due date. She eventually told me too bad, we go by the ultrasound. Nicely though, of course. Then she said my blood pressure was a little high and she was going to re-check me. So she did that. It was stil high.
Then she said I could get dressed and she was going to find out the answers to the questions she hadn't been able to answer me about. Then Dr. Lebovitz came in. I think she checked my blood pressure too. Then she said that since it was high they wanted me to go down to the lab to get blood drawn and do another urine sample. Then I would go to triage so they could monitor the baby and my blood pressure for a while. If things didn't look good they would then induce me.
Commence freak out. I held it together until I had JR on the phone but then I could barely talk. I told him he didn't need to come to the hospital because what were the chances that they were actually going to keep me and induce me? Pretty slim, right? Wrong.
By the time I got to triage is was probably 1:30 or 2:00. They checked me in and kept asking questions about what I wanted when the baby was delivered and stuff. I'm all "Psshh. Whatevah. I'm not staying here." Wrong.
So they hooked me up to the baby's heart monitor and the blood pressure cuff and the pulse oximeter. And I just hung out there for a little while. I didn't think it was very long but then Dr. Lebovitz and the new doctor came in. They said baby was doing fine but my tests came back and the protein in my urine was above the limit and they were going to induce me.
That's when I called JR and told him he needed to come. Luckily we had most of our stuff together and a list of everything else we needed to grab. He had to feed the cats and take some laundry off the line. But it seemed to go pretty smoothly. Lisa took him to our house and then brought him to the hospital.
They moved me down the hall to labor and delivery. The rooms are pretty nice. Here I had Kaida's heart monitor, a contraction monitor, the blood pressure cuff, the pulse oximeter, and an IV. Surprisingly enough I was still able to move around a little which was the highest priority item in my birth vision.
He had been keeping in touch with Monique the Doula since my phone battery was low. After I got to labor and delivery she came to the hospital and waited with me until JR got there. So that was good. At least I wasn't sitting there alone freaking out.
They gave me the cervidil at 4. JR arrived around 5 and Monique went home to try to rest (she'd been up with her toddler all night 'cause he was sick). Luckily they said I could eat at this point. But just clear foods. So Jello, popsicles, italian ice, broth, juice. Pretty hard to satisfy your 39 weeks pregnant hunger with that when you haven't eaten since 7:30 am.
I got another does of cervidil at a little after 8 and Dr. Lebovitz said she'd be back around midnight to check me again. At midnight I heard a little *Pop* on Kaida's heart monitor and then felt my water break. That freaked me out too. Like, "oh shit, there's no turning back now."
So when Dr. Lebovitz showed up she said they'd start the pitocin. We asked how long she thought it would be and she said probably sometime late Thursday afternoon. JR updated Monique. We thought she maybe didn't have to come right away (we were silly and thought pitocin labor progressed like normal labor). Normally the Doulas wait until you go to the hospital to join you (so contraction about 5 minutes apart) but when JR told her they were starting the pitocin she said she'd come on over. Thank God she did.
Almost as soon as they started the pitocin I started contracting fast. Like every minute or so. And while we thought they were bad at the beginning they just kept getting worse. If Monique hadn't been there JR would have had a breakdown and I would have asked for the epidural at 1 am. She kept us up and changing positions. Reminded me about breathing, helped me communicate with the nurses (it's hard to ask questions and get an answer when you're contracting halfway through the conversation.) I really think all the moving around helped the labor progress more quickly.
I used the breathing they taught us in class. Slow deep breaths. But my breaths in hurt very low in my uterus so that was not expected and distracting. On my breaths out I would say Ohhhhhhhh. And the lower I said it the better it was. But very often my Ohs would get higher and higher pitched and morph into ows. JR said sometime they were Nooooos. So Monique spent most of the night telling me to say it lower and trying to be motivational. But for some reason "Each contraction brings you one step closer to your baby." did not work for me.
I used my hands as my focal point. I was either holding someone's hands and rubbing their fingers or rubbing a towel or cloth with my fingers. JR said his fingers hurt from all the friction.
We used massagers, a comb squeezed in my hand to release endorphins, the double hip squeeze (which was fantastic for the one contraction it worked for), I tried the aromatherapy but couldn't get it to distract me enough. I sat in a rocking chair, on the birthing ball, on the bed. I stood, I kneeled on the bed, and sometimes sitting on the toilet was the best position. Sometimes it was the worst too. Things change as labor progresses.
All the nurses and everyone were very positive, encouraging, and helpful too. They never said whoa, you look like you're in rough shape, want some drugs? I would guess that's because I gave them a copy of the birth vision for the file. So I really appreciate that.
Occassionally I would ask the time. I remember 4 am. And I remember it getting light out. The next time I asked it was 10 am. In that time we did ask about drugs other than the epidural. I was getting so tired that I just wanted to sit or sleep for a little bit. I had stadol in the morning sometime, maybe 7 or 8? I was able to sleep a tiny bit but it didn't take the edge off enough for me to sleep through them. I think I was probably sleeping as much between contractions without the stadol as I was with.
Going off the stadol sucked too. 'Cause I'd either managed to forget how bad they were or they got worse in that hour. I would describe the feeling as a rock trying to burrow its way out of your bottom. We discussed the epidural almost immediately. I decided I wanted it but somehow that didn't get communicated to the medical staff. When we did let them know for sure the nurse had to come take some blood since it had been almost 24 hours since my last blood test. They needed to check my platelets to see if I could even get an epidural. That blood test takes a half hour when it's marked stat.
So about 15-30 contractions later the anesthesiologist burst in. My guess is he's used to seeing people who are 4 or so centimeters along, you know, contracting every 4 or 5 minutes. He was quite boisterous until he saw that I was in the middle of a contraction. I'm pretty sure I scared him. I think I may have scared everyone who came into the room that night, day? Whatever.
He talked to me about something. I have no idea what. The next time I opened my eyes (I did the contractions mostly with my eyes closed) there were 4 more people in the room. I guess they were part of the drug dealing team. And some students. Halfway through the epidural JR came back from getting some food and then another teacher for one of the students came in too. It was getting a little crowded.
The Doctor said "you're going to feel some pressure." Ha. I'm going to guess he's never given birth 'cause what he was doing to my back was not pressure.
Once I was all hooked up he was trying to make jokes. Sorry dude but I wasn't numb yet and I'd been awake for 28 hours. Maybe they were funny but that wasn't really a laughing time for me.
Once I was not feeling the contractions anymore I asked about Kaida. I asked how her heart rate was. It was the first time since they gave me the pitocin that I was able to even think about her. So I think the epidural was a very good decision. And that's why it's a birth vision and not a birth plan.
I talked with JR for a bit. Monique slept a little, I slept for maybe an hour. Then Dr. Lebovitz came and checked me and said I was ready to go and they would turn down the epidural for me. So a little while later she came back and we started pushing. I couldn't really feel anything so I guess epidurals don't wear off very quickly.
With the contractions (which were now inexplicably 4-5 minutes apart): two deep cleansing breaths, push for a count of 10, deep breath, push for a count of ten, deep breath, push for a count of 10. JR said I did 5 sets. It seemed very fast to me.
I wasn't sure I was going to want to see it in the mirror but it really helped to see that I was actually doing something even though I couldn't feel it. So we knew she had hair quite a while before she was actually born.
After a couple pushes they broke the bed down 'cause I guess that meant things were really happening. They called the pediatricians (because of the preeclampsia they needed to check her over right away, 4 of them, I guess one for each limb?) so the room was swarmed with people again. Dr. Lebovitz explained that they would cut the cord quickly and take her almost right away so at least I knew to expect that.
Then she said that Kaida's heart rate was varying a lot and if I didn't get her out in the next couple sets of pushes she would need to use the vacuum extractor. So I was pretty motivated. JR said she opened the package of the extractor and then Kaida was born with the next set of pushes.
They put her on my stomach and I got one hand on her. The nurse started scrubbing her with a towel and JR cut the cord. Then she was gone.
I wish that moment had lasted a little longer because it was the best feeling having her there with me.
It seemed like forever before they brought her back to us. And I actually asked if she was a girl because no one ever said "It's a girl!"
But then we got her and we fell in love.
All 10 fingers, all 10 toes, lots of hair.
6 Lbs. 2 Oz.
20 inches long
August 19th, 2010, 12:51 pm.
Seriously adorable.
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