Birth Story (in my frankness)
Okay, while its still fresh in my head....here is my rather frank personal experience of labor and delivery.
7:00PM Arrived at the hospital to prepare my undercarriage to cooperate for induction.
9:00 Pm All hooked up to monitors, settled into our birthing suite and praying for more than 50% effacement and some dialation.
7:30AM- 1 cm dialated, 2/3 effacement and water broken. Oh did this part hurt and yes I cried like a baby. I am sure if I had progressed more, things would not have felt so bad. The devil drug Pitocin was started to get me into active labor and gradually increased. I found by standing up and rocking "Elvis style" helped with contractions and making sure I could get this baby to drop like Times Square.
1PM- Barely 2 cm dialated and in A LOT of back pain. Contractions were coming at 2 minutes or less. Walking or laying down or rubbing back didn't seem to make a difference.
1:30PM- An IV pain relief to help take the edge off things was given, but only the tinniest amount in fear that it would slow labor down even more than the awefully slow pace it was going at. It did help a little but wore off in 35 minutes and I would be begging for another shot of the stuff.
4:00PM- Barely 4 cm dialated and baby at -1 station, I was told of an alternative to an epidural. At this point I was in such pain for so little progress and couldn't contimplate another 15 hours of this kind of show. I had hit my "wall" and contimplated a c-section. My whole body felt like it was being ripped apart through my back and I was shaking in pain. I believe there may have been a Linda Blair moment when Matt asked me to relax through my breathing and this demon posesed voice comes out with, "This is my relaxed breathing." Instead of an epidural, I was given a shot in the spine, but would allow me to still feel pressure and push for when the time came. Messing with your spinal cord is a whole new feeling in its self! Yet I was finally able to relax and catch a break from such intense contractions.
At this time, the room is quite, I am catching a few winks here and there. Matt is in and out of the room. Wasn't sure how much time had passed but recal waking up and realizing I was feeling the contractions again and feeling a bit cheated on the pain one had to go through to get the pain relief. Then I nearly eject out of the bed and blow chunks....right there on the sheets. And just in time for the husband and doctor to find me. After being checked, the Doc was surprised to fine that in 1 hour...I went from 4 cm to 10cm! Time to start pushing!
5:30PM- The stage is set for the star to make her presence and I am told of how to push. Matt helped in counting my push lengths and made sure to play photographer for the big debut. Matt was so in awe at all the action that he struggled in keeping my push counts. There was no crying, but dead set determination in getting this child out! Towards the end of each push, I would almost spasm and lose all control of the push. For once, my body finally got the idea of what to do and went on auto pilot.
5:56PM- Eliza is out and very aware! I didn't even have a chance to ask myself as to when I would hear her cry. After the cord was cut, they placed her on my chest and struggled to rub her down. Matt did his daddy thing as they put mommy back together down there and just couldn't believe the sight he just whitnessed. Much to the surprise of some, he saw the whole thing and didn't pass out on the floor.
Because they weren't expecting me to get to 10 cm that quickly after the spinal narcodic, it was hard to gaze at my daughter and not have the room spinning or wanting to fall asleep in the process. It took the next morning until I felt a bit more human.
I wonder if I had gone into labor naturally, would I have been able to handle things better. Yet my body was not being a team player and going another week wouldn't have done much help. I am glad I had Dr. Cooley and the wisdom that he brings in labor/delivery. He helped bring a healthy and wonderful baby girl into this world despite the interventions needed top get me to this point. And that is what is really important. I count my blessings though in this pregnancy
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