Read at your own risk! I'll spare you the "Making of Abigail" story, but here is the story of how she made her grand entrance into the world...a must-have on any mommy blog, in my opinion.
So there I was, 40 weeks & 2 days pregnant, 39 pounds heavier and 39 times crankier than normal.
I went in for a nonstress test (NST) at 9am on a Friday. This is standard for anyone who goes "past due". Well, after sitting connected to monitors on my belly for 45 minutes, and drinking juice to wake the baby up, the doctor came in to tell me baby’s heartbeat wasn’t doing what they wanted it to, so they sent me to the hospital for further NST. I called my husband (in hormonal hysterics) and asked him to meet me at home, I threw my hospital bag together, which wasn’t fully packed yet, and stopped at Starbucks for a latte & lemon pound cake (to wake that baby up!!). I was sure that I would be sent home after 2 boring hours at the hospital, I just knew my baby was perfectly fine & it was going to be probably 2 more days before I went into labor. I’m controlling…so I decided that’s what was going to happen & I believed it!
We arrived at the hospital by 10:30am where they hooked me up to the nonstress test in the triage area. For the record– triage is not a comfy place to hang out for hours, it's like a less glorified version of the set on ER, and it is NOTHING like they show on Private Practice - which would have been more like it! (Can you tell I'm a big fan of the medical drama?) Baby was still not cooperating after another hour-long NST. They didn’t tell me at the time, but later they said “she was looking really bad”. What the heck!? Anyway, they eventually ordered a biophysical profile to see what was going on with my baby. That is where they do an ultrasound and check fluid levels, etc. I got that done around 1:30pm. They say that in the bio profile they are looking for the baby to do certain things that let them know she’s ok. They give baby 30 minutes to meet all criteria. Well, my baby did absolutely NOTHING, not a darn thing for 28 minutes. Then she met all the crieteria in the last 2 minutes of the test. Of course this then prompted the radiologist to come in & do his own exam, which took forever! Then we were sent back to triage…tick tock…tick tock…At this point I’d read every single people magazine for the past 6 months & was ready for them to tell me to go home & call if I noticed anything weird.
So, when I found out I was pregnant & needed to find an OB, I searched far & wide for a practice where i would be able to have a female doctor. Apparently there is shortage of female OB's in my area, so this was no small task. And what do you know? Now that I'm in the hospital having tests run, I find out neither of the OB’s in the practice I’d been seeing were on-call, so I was assigned to “Dr. Wong”, the hospital doc-of-the-day. Dr. Wong, whom I did not meet at all during all the testing that day, after looking to my biophysical profile results & chart, decided I needed to be induced to have this baby as soon as possible. He delivered this news via phone to the triage nurse who then informed me that I would not be leaving the hospital until I had my baby. They weren’t sure why, but her heart rate was consistently too "flat". And like magic, as soon as I got the news I was going to be induced, baby perked up & was doing perfect! But since she’d been weird all day, they stuck with the plan to induce.
Finally, around 5:00pm I was admitted & got a room. The room felt like a 5-star hotel after hours in the triage unit! Still not Private Practice standards, but pretty close. We got settled in & because I was “GBS positive” (google it) they hooked me up to an IV & started antibiotics. I was scheduled to start Pitocin at 9pm, so that my body would have time to absorb the antibiotics. Also, because of the baby being “flat” I was put on monitors & kept on monitors the entire time.
Of course, when I went in for my NST it was the one doctor appointment where I actually didn’t shower or shave my legs or do my hair! I actually rolled out of bed & went to the doctor in basically pj’s! I was so confident the appointment would be uneventful. So by Friday evening I was feeling “ripe”, and horrified at the idea of nurses being so up close & personal and having to work around my hairy legs & other parts. So…my kind parents (who drove straight to the hospital as soon as they found out I was admitted, even though I told them DO NOT COME yet) brought me some soap & a razor & the kind nurse let me unhook from the IV & monitoring long enough for a shower. I guess she knew it was to both of our benefits. (Side note – the nurses at the hospital ROCKED!!!!!!! All of my nurses were amazing & took great care of me.)
When I made my birth plan, I had decided that I wanted a natural birth, which means no medication. The nurses explained to me that I was being put on Pitocin and how that is quite different than the natural progression of labor, and not to feel bad if my plan changed. After that, they never mentioned it again & were fully supportive of my natural labor plan. I really appreciated that! I was worried that the nurses would try to push pain meds on me, but they didn’t at all! Yet they made it clear that I should not feel bad if I ended up needing them.
At 9:00 pm – 12 hours after I initially went in for my NST – they started Pitocin. I finally met Dr. Wong and I didn’t like him! He gave me the creeps. He reminded me of the doctor from “Knocked Up” and he was pretty pessimistic. He was talking c-section & saying things like “baby might not be able to handle contractions, so in that case we’d do a c-section immediately”. Since a cesarean was my biggest fear EVER I was NOT happy with his Debbie Downer attitude. Anyway, not a fan of Dr. Wong, and at that point I was wishing I knew my OB’s home # cause if I could just tell her I was there with Dr. Wong, I was sure she’d come rescue me!
Well, because of the unappealing NST results earlier in the day, Dr. Wong-Attitude (yes, I gave him a 2nd last name) started me super duper slow on Pitocin. It was so slow that I barely felt anything and by the time they gave me a little more dose (upped every hour, I believe), my body had absorbed the previous one, so really it was getting us nowhere. It went on like that all night long…it was a very long night.
Finally, at 7am on Saturday, Dr. Peeper came on shift, relieving Dr. Wong-Attitude, & based on the monitoring all night and baby looking perfect, he decided to up my Pitocin to the normal amount. FINALLY! Oh and I must say that I LOVE Dr. Peeper! He had a great bedside manner & wasn’t all “doom & gloom” like Dr. Wong-Attitude. Kind of a creepy last name for an OB though – Dr. Peeper!
Dr. Peeper said they’d check me at 9am to see about breaking my water, because I was already at 3.5cm and usually breaking the water gets things progressing. Well, at 9 he came with the giant crochet hook (that thing is freakin creepy!!!) that they use to break your water, but unfortunately it was uneventful. Baby’s head wasn’t down far enough & he couldn’t safely break my water at that point. So, he said he’d come back in 2 hours. In the meantime the nurse grabbed me a labor ball & set it up against my bed like a throne – it was quite impressive! I also walked around & around the hospital – still hooked up to monitors & an IV so I felt like a weirdo!
When Dr. Peeper came back at 11 (he was prompt – this is another reason I really liked him!) baby was down where she needed to be & I was a bit more dilated. That’s when he actually used the crochet hook & WOW! That was a weird feeling! At that moment I felt like a moron for thinking my water could have broken & be leaking the week before…now I know that you KNOW when your water breaks. There was so much water & I was wearing my cheap Fred Meyer gown that made me feel a little pretty (it was lavendar & had flowers all over it), but the water ruined it, so I had to change into the ugly hospital gown.
I went into the bathroom to change & get cleaned up. That’s when the contractions kicked in where I could finally feel them. Before that, I could feel the tightening, but nothing more than mild cramps. Now I knew what the real thing was! WOW! By this point I was so saturated with pitocin that as soon as my water was broken my contractions were immediately less than 2 minutes apart and STRONG! I got stuck in the bathroom for several minutes trying to get my gown on & get cleaned up. I was like oh WOW here we go!
I made it out of the bathroom after 3 contractions, and got back onto the bed. Set up my movie on the laptop & told my husband NO MORE VISITORS! This was it! Finally I knew what real labor was like! Well, I never really got to watch my movie. Contractions got stronger & stronger, and I couldn’t do anything other than focus on the stupid seagull in the cheesy art hanging on the wall in front of me. Labor is literally so painful you can't do anything but focus & breathe through it. I just kept thinking about the poor women way back when, who probably thought they were dying. I found that I couldn’t stand anyone talking or making noise. My mom called (of course! Grr!) to check on me because she knew they broke my water & she was banned from the room and when my husband answered I kicked him out but told him he better come right back cause I needed him! I couldn’t believe how strong & fast things happened after they broke my water. It was a shocking difference. I was starting to think that my natural birth plan needed to change. I really didn’t want to give up but this was the absolute worst pain I’d ever felt.
My nurse was awesome! She seemed to know how to handle me, she left me alone & then after a while offered to get me a labor ball or let me get into the tub, whatever I wanted. After a couple hours, I couldn’t handle sitting in bed any longer. The contractions were getting unbearable and sitting in one spot was just making it worse. So I asked to have a bath. My husband started the water while the nurse set me up with water-proof monitors (yes – CONSTANT monitoring). I sat on the toilet while all this was done (sexy - eh?). After a couple contractions in there with the water running I couldn’t take it anymore (the noise of the water running)! I told my husband to turn the water off, even though the tub was only about ½ full. I got into the tub & it actually helped. I really needed more water to be comfortable, but the contractions were right on top of each other and I couldn’t handle the noise. It felt like as soon as I breathed through one contraction, the next was starting up. UGH! I had been hinting at an epidural for about an hour by that point. I kept saying "I think the natural plan is going to change..." But since I'd trained my husband so well - he did not offer to ask for the epidural for me. I wanted so badly for someone else ot just offer, so it wouldn't be me giving up. Finally I told my husband to tell the nurse my birth plan had changed…and that meant it changed NOW. She came in 5 minutes later & said the anesthesiologist was available immediately, so any time I was ready, he was. I probably could have made it through a few more contractions, but with an offer like that I said ok I’m ready NOW and hopped out of the tub.
The anesthesiologist came in (who I quickly developed a giant crush on – funny how that happens!) and administered the epidural. It was painless. I didn’t feel anything, it was relatively quick. I think I had 2 or 3 contractions & it was over. I felt so little that I thought my contractions may have stopped! I was like oh no the epidural stopped my labor! But it didn’t, it was just the epidural doing its job. AMAZING!
They checked me after I got the epidural & I had made it to 8cm naturally (for those of you who don't know - you start pushing once you make it to 10cm). I was pleased with myself for that. I knew I needed pain relief and I did not feel bad for getting it. If I had it to do over again, I would go with the same exact birth plan – try to do things naturally, but be ok asking for relief if I couldn’t take it. I still think I probably could have done it on my own if it wasn’t for the Pitocin.
So, once I got the epidural I could watch my movie! Ha! And my husband started getting the feeling back in his hands. We hung out for a little while & then I felt pressure – like I needed to poop. The nurse checked & I was at 10…I think it was only an hour or two from the epidural to when I was at 10. Baby was looking a little flat again, so they put me on oxygen - that's right, I was hooked up to 2 monitors strapped around my belly, an IV, blood pressure machine, epidural catheter coming out of my back, and now oxygen. The nurse said she was going to let me labor down a bit - which is when you are at 10cm, but you let the baby move down with each contraction on its own, without pushing. They had shift change at around 7pm, so I remember I started pushing just before 6:00. It was really hard to feel to push. The epidural worked more on my left side. So my left leg was completely dead, but I could somewhat feel contractions on my right side.
A new nurse came in & picked up where mine left off. She did a good job of coaching me through the contractions & pushing because it was really hard for me to tell if I was doing things right. Dr. Peeper came in to check on me and said that they usually give people 3 hours to push. I was surprised it took so long (That is not what they show you on TLC's "A Baby Story"). I was pushing 4 times per contraction & contractions were about 2 minutes apart. After 2.5 hours I had made progress, but it was VERY slow. Dr. Peeper said he would give me until 9:00 (3 hours) and then we’d have to discuss options. I knew what that meant! Heck no – there was NO way I was getting a c-section after all this! So, that's when I got serious about pushing. The nurses brought me a bar they connected to my bed & tied a sheet on it - each time I pushed I pulled as hard as I could on the sheet & it helped me push harder. They’d turned down the epidural about 1 hour into pushing so by this point I could feel what I was doing a lot better.
Well the sheet & push bar did the trick! When Dr. Peeper came back at around 8:45 I had made quick progress and was getting close. He said because of my progress he would give me more time. Finally, just after 9:00 the Dr. came in with his baby catching outfit & mask. I pushed the hardest yet because I really wanted to impress the doctor with my pushing (looking back – why the heck did I care about impressing him???). I think I pushed for 2 or 3 contractions once the doctor came, and that was it. It was the weirdest/coolest feeling when I was crowning. I could actually feel the baby’s head right THERE. But it wasn’t painful because of the epidural, just lots of pressure. Finally, at 9:19pm on Saturday, October 24th, 2009, Abigail Jean was born – a healthy 7lb 4oz, 18.5 inches long.
They immediately put her on my chest, as I wanted but she wasn’t crying & responsive enough so they took her to the warmer to get her to wake up. After they got her crying to their satisfaction, they gave her back to me. At some point I let them borrow her again for a quick minute to weigh her and put clothes on her. They gave her back & I tried feeding her. She ate for 1.5 hours!!! Finally I asked the nurse “how long should she eat for?” and she said “at least 20 minutes” I was like, “Oh, well it’s been 1.5 hours!” She said I could stop then! HAHA!
They sent me home with diaper ice packs, motrin, and stool softener. Stool softener, because after you've pushed a baby out of your vajayjay, you do not want to be pushing anything else out! It’s amazing how your body naturally recovers & all you need is some ibuprofen! I had a very easy recovery. I mean really, this whole process just made me amazed at how I really was naturally meant to be a mom. Everything worked like it was supossed to. I was so proud of my body! Ha!
So there ya go, it's not pretty & it definitely was the most uncomfortable/painful 36 hours of my entire life, but SO worth it! In closing, I'd like to say that my husband was AMAZING as my labor coach. He was completely supportive, got me anything I asked for, and was there for me 100%.
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