My Labor Story

My due date was March 22, 2013. However, when I was 37 weeks Dr. Parker did an internal exam and found that I was 60% effaced, she had dropped to a -2 and I was 2 centimeters dilated. He said that I have a very ripe cervix for being a first time mom. Lol. The next week I was 80% effaced, -2, and dilated to a 2. Dr. Parker said that I could go into labor at any moment because I’m so ripe. He stripped my membranes and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if she came in the next 36 hours. Well, the weekend passed and no Haleigh. I had contractions from 5 PM to 5 AM after he stripped my membranes but they were not consistent. Over the next week I had contractions but they weren’t consistent. Dr. Parker told me that if she didn’t come by the 15^th he would induce me if I wanted to. We decided to get induced because my dad decided to take a job offer elsewhere which would cause my insurance to change. So we got induced on Friday March 15, 2013 at 1 PM.

They started the Pitocin and my contractions were going well. They also had to put me on some penicillin because I tested positive for GBS. The penicillin was the only thing that hurt and it just burned and made my vain ache. Whenever I had to go to the bathroom we had to unplug me from all of the monitors and then I had to wheel my IV thing into the bathroom with me. It was quite a task… and I had to do it like every 30 minutes. Lol. I was already 80% effaced, she had dropped to a -1, and I was dilated to a 2. Dr. Parker came to break my water an hour into the labor. I wasn’t really in any pain but I decided to get the epidural then. They said that contractions get more painful after your water has broken. The anesthesiologist was leaving and wouldn’t be back for 3 hours so they told me I had to decide if I wanted the epidural before getting my water broken or wait for 3 hours until he comes back.

The epidural didn’t hurt at all. I felt a little prick from the local numbing shot but that was it. I didn’t really feel my water being broke, except the gush of warm water running down my leg. After that everything felt great! I was pretty sure that I was going to have the easiest labor ever. I was dilating a centimeter an hour, which is average. My mom and Karla came and were waiting in the lobby so we invited them in our room and watched movies / hung out. I took a nap and just relaxed. My mom had everyone guess what time Haleigh would come, how much she would weigh and her length. Gus guessed 3:30 PM haha… Everyone was pretty off. They all thought I would only be in labor for a few hours. My nurse Paula’s guess was 12:30 AM, 5.15 oz, and 17.5 inches long. My guess was 9:45 PM 5.10 oz, 17.5 inches long. After Paula’s guess everyone wanted a re-guess. Lol.

Around 6 PM Adam went with his parents and my mom to the cafeteria to eat. I was taking a nap and the nurse, Heather, came to check on me. We had finally finished my penicillin, which I was grateful for. She turned the Pitocin up, like she’d been doing every 30 min. I told her that I felt numb from the neck down and asked if that’s normal. She said I shouldn’t be numb past my stomach. The anesthesiologist turned off my epidural and said we can turn it back on in a few hours after it’s had time to die down a little so that I can start to feel my arms and chest again.

Heather had me roll over to the other side at which point Haleigh’s heart beat dropped from 160 to 90. She quickly put oxygen on me, turned off the Pitocin, and had me turn back to the other side until it went back up. I wasn’t worried when this happened because my friend Julia had something similar happen to her, except her babies heart beat went to 20 and she had a lot of nurses rush in and start doing a bunch of stuff to save the baby. I was glad that Julia told me about that because it helped me stay calm, which only helped the situation. It only took a few minutes to get her heart beat back up. She then turned the Pitocin back on. Pitocin goes in increments of 4 and you can reach a max dosage of 20, I was at 16 when this happened. So we started it at 2 to be safe. Thirty minutes later she turned the Pitocin up to 4 and the same thing happened. Haleigh’s heartbeat dropped to around 90. This time Adam and Dr. Parker were there. Dr. Parker was very calm and patient. A bunch of nurses came in and Dr. Parker assured them that everything was fine. The nurses put a wire in me, which was attached to Haleigh’s head to monitor her heartbeat from the inside instead of using the outside monitors. They also did something similar to monitor my contractions. We had to turn the Pitocin down again to 2. This caused my labor to slow way down. The Pitocin was too strong and it was causing stress on Haleigh so we had to take it nice and slow to keep her heartbeat steady. I stayed dilated at a 5 for several hours with little progression and then started dilating again 1 cm per hour again.

Around 12:30 AM Dr. Parker said that I was ready to start pushing. Instant relief came over me since I had been at this for a little over 11.5 hours and I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and pain. The anesthesiologist came and turned my epidural back on around 12 AM but only turned it to half a dosage to avoid numbing my entire body again. I kept telling Heater that my tailbone really hurt. She said pressure is normal but pain is not but the epidural will kick back in soon and I shouldn’t be able to feel very much again. My tailbone still killed after the epidural was turned on so the anesthesiologist came back and turned it to a full dosage, but I was still in so much pain. Adam had to push on it until I was able to start pushing. Putting pressure directly on my tailbone helped to relieve the pain a little.

It was now time to push. Heather told me that she and Adam would each hold one of my legs, I need to keep my chin to my chest take a deep breath and hold it then push for 10 seconds. We will do this 3 times in a row then give you a break. “Wait, I don’t have stirrups? Isn’t Dr. Parker supposed to be here for this?” “No, Dr. Parker will come in a little bit, and you’ll have stirrups then but for now we’re going to do this.” Naively I thought I would only push for 10 minutes and not even be able to feel anything like some of my friends did. I started pushing and could feel so much pressure. I could feel her head descending through the birthing canal and my body trying to expand to fit her through. I don’t know if everyone was just really nice or if it’s true, but they all told me I’m a good pusher and that I was doing really well. Heather kept cheerfully counting “10, 9, 8…. You’re doing so well…. 5, 4, 3, almost there…” They brought a mirror in so that I could see my progress from pushing, all of my friends recommended this because they couldn’t even feel the pushing part, but it was actually more discouraging for me because I could feel very well where she was and looking in the mirror only to see a quarter size amount of her head that never seemed to enlarge was frustrating. I felt like I was pushing in vain but everyone kept telling me that I was doing so well and I was a great pusher.

Haleigh’s heartbeat started to drop again. She stayed at 90-120 the rest of the labor. Dr. Parker was calm and said it would be ok but I needed to wear oxygen again and push only every other contraction, the Pitocin was turned off at this point too, which didn’t really matter since I was only at .5 compared to the original 16 I was at previously. I hated wearing oxygen because it dried my throat out and it was hard to get a drink when I needed one. I felt excruciating pain in my tailbone during the contractions when I couldn’t push. I have never been in so much pain before; this was definitely a 10. Pushing relieved the pain though and I knew that the better I pushed the sooner it would be over and I would get to see my precious daughter. After almost 1.5 hours of pushing, Dr. Parker came in and said we could get her out in one more push. I looked in the mirror, still not seeing very much head and I thought yeah right! Dr. Parker told me that if he says stop pushing I need to stop. So I began my pushing cycle and on the last time through he said stop so I did. He did an episiotomy, which I felt, and then pulled her the rest of the way out by her head. Her umbilical cord was too short for me to hold her. I couldn’t even see her because she was down by my feet. I saw her in the mirror a little but then she was immediately brought to the other side of the room where the nursery people measured her and what not. Respiratory was also there to monitor her since her heartbeat dropped so much during the labor. Adam was able to take pictures and they bonded instantly. She made eye contact with him and was very alert the whole time. Dr. Parker immediately started stitching me up, and I felt every single stitch. That was when my thought that the epidural didn’t take the second time was confirmed. In some ways I was proud of myself that I pretty much did it naturally. At least now I know that if I wanted to do it naturally one time I could. It was probably 20 minutes before I even got to hold her. I tried to breastfeed and she was sucking by couldn’t latch on because my nipples were flat.  This is NOT how I planned it. I wanted her to go on my chest immediately and I wanted to breastfeed within the first hour. I felt so disappointed and baby blues set in immediately for me. I thought that after all of that work and pain I would have an instant bond and would cry or something but nothing…. Just discouragement. Ugh I felt like "What is going on?! This is the happiest day of my life, why do I feel like this? What's wrong with me?" 
After talking with other moms, I've found that others felt similar. Baby blues can set in immediately or a few days later, but if it persists or sets in months later you may want to call your OB because it could be postpartum depression.