“Oh no!” I cried. Around 2:20AM on Tuesday, I suddenly woke up, feeling like I was peeing on myself. I realized pretty quickly that my water had just broken and my bladder had nothing to do with it. I shakily called the doctor and reported the news. She said to labor at home until 7-8am or until the contractions were 45-60 seconds long and coming 5-7 minutes apart. About an hour later, I started to feel contractions. Soon enough, they were coming in a pattern. We used an online contraction timer since we were too anxious and tired to keep up with timing them with a watch. Around 5am, they were about 30-40 seconds long and coming every 3-4 minutes. We decided to go to the hospital, but I think I was scared and started stalling. I decided I should have a little snack- a banana and an orange. I decided to watch TV to see if it was going to snow. I was still trying to procrastinate when I talked to my mom around 7am when we realized that I had 3 longer contractions during our 11 minute conversation.
The ride to the hospital was totally surreal; we were going to have our baby. I just couldn’t believe that he was coming 15 days before his due date. I just *knew* he would be late and here I was, completely surprised by labor. When we got to the hospital, Joe had to go down and register me since the hospital had not processed the preregistration paperwork that we had mailed the week before. In the meantime, I got changed into a gown and had my vitals checked. Everything looked great and baby was keeping up a healthy heart rate. At 8am, the doctor checked me and I was 2.5 cm dilated, 50% effaced and at station -2. At my 36 week appointment, I had the same check done, but asked to not know the numbers. Joe did find them out and they were 1cm, 50%, -2.
I labored in many positions, in and out of bed. My mom came and we walked up and down the hall of L&D and let my husband rest. (He had worked 40 hours in the last 48.) Around noon, the doctor checked me again and I was only 3cm, 70%, +2. Because my water had broken close to 10 hours prior, the doctor was concerned about how slow my labor was progressing. So, it was decided we would start a low dose of pitocin, one of the only things I feared about labor… This is about where all sense of time ceases to exist and the exact numbers start to become blurry. I was checked several times over the next few hours and each time there was little to no change and the pitocin drip was upped. On average, I was only dialating half a centimeter every 90 minutes. (Successful progress on pitocin is 1 cm an hour.) The contractions were strong and came very close together. I was limited to laboring on the bed and directly next to the bed since I had to have a fetal monitor on in addition to the pitocin drip. Finally, after 3 long contractions on top of each other without a break, I asked for pain relief. We decided to try an iv drug as I wasn’t ready for an epidural. It made me feel very relaxed (like being drunk) between contractions, but did not help with the actual pain.
Each time the doctor came in to check progress, it was a disappointment. Around 7pm, the doctor started talking about the possibility of a caesarean birth. I was upset because it seemed that everything that could go wrong, was going wrong. He agreed to let me keep trying to get past 5cm, which he said was the threshold. At the next check, progress had been made and I was finally at 5.5 cm. At this point, it was time for an epidural. I was exhausted and the nurse had explained that first time mothers often push for 2-3 hours. I knew that I didn’t have the strength to do this at this point if I was going to labor at this level of pitocin. Also, I was not out of the clear yet for the c-section because the baby was not dropping. If he did not move down, he would be surgically removed.
The epidural was put in and I started to feel relief. But about an hour in, I realized that it only seemed to be working on the right side. The anesthesiologist said he would have to put it back in. The second epidural produced the same results except this time I was feeling more on the right side. Bummer. The good news was that the distraction of the epidural and the contractions, made time go quickly at this point, and suddenly it was time to push as baby had finally moved down around 10:30pm. Let me be clear on this one point… I felt like this whole day of labor was rough, but it was all in the ‘I can handle it’ category. Pushing, on the other hand, was torture. My mom and Joe were holding my legs to help me, but each push was exhaustive and painful. My epidural never reached the left side and had worn off in my lower back and the baby was bearing down on the right side of my pelvis and I could feel it.
Greyson Oliver came into the world after 2 ½ hours of pushing at 12:49 am 3/3/10. Mommy, Daddy and Nana all cried and hugged and kissed. He was perfect in every way. The doctor delivered the placenta, which because of the pitocin, I did not have to actively push out. I had a second degree tear that required stitches. After about an hour, he nursed for the first time. He measured 21 inches and weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces.
The ride to the hospital was totally surreal; we were going to have our baby. I just couldn’t believe that he was coming 15 days before his due date. I just *knew* he would be late and here I was, completely surprised by labor. When we got to the hospital, Joe had to go down and register me since the hospital had not processed the preregistration paperwork that we had mailed the week before. In the meantime, I got changed into a gown and had my vitals checked. Everything looked great and baby was keeping up a healthy heart rate. At 8am, the doctor checked me and I was 2.5 cm dilated, 50% effaced and at station -2. At my 36 week appointment, I had the same check done, but asked to not know the numbers. Joe did find them out and they were 1cm, 50%, -2.
I labored in many positions, in and out of bed. My mom came and we walked up and down the hall of L&D and let my husband rest. (He had worked 40 hours in the last 48.) Around noon, the doctor checked me again and I was only 3cm, 70%, +2. Because my water had broken close to 10 hours prior, the doctor was concerned about how slow my labor was progressing. So, it was decided we would start a low dose of pitocin, one of the only things I feared about labor… This is about where all sense of time ceases to exist and the exact numbers start to become blurry. I was checked several times over the next few hours and each time there was little to no change and the pitocin drip was upped. On average, I was only dialating half a centimeter every 90 minutes. (Successful progress on pitocin is 1 cm an hour.) The contractions were strong and came very close together. I was limited to laboring on the bed and directly next to the bed since I had to have a fetal monitor on in addition to the pitocin drip. Finally, after 3 long contractions on top of each other without a break, I asked for pain relief. We decided to try an iv drug as I wasn’t ready for an epidural. It made me feel very relaxed (like being drunk) between contractions, but did not help with the actual pain.
Each time the doctor came in to check progress, it was a disappointment. Around 7pm, the doctor started talking about the possibility of a caesarean birth. I was upset because it seemed that everything that could go wrong, was going wrong. He agreed to let me keep trying to get past 5cm, which he said was the threshold. At the next check, progress had been made and I was finally at 5.5 cm. At this point, it was time for an epidural. I was exhausted and the nurse had explained that first time mothers often push for 2-3 hours. I knew that I didn’t have the strength to do this at this point if I was going to labor at this level of pitocin. Also, I was not out of the clear yet for the c-section because the baby was not dropping. If he did not move down, he would be surgically removed.
The epidural was put in and I started to feel relief. But about an hour in, I realized that it only seemed to be working on the right side. The anesthesiologist said he would have to put it back in. The second epidural produced the same results except this time I was feeling more on the right side. Bummer. The good news was that the distraction of the epidural and the contractions, made time go quickly at this point, and suddenly it was time to push as baby had finally moved down around 10:30pm. Let me be clear on this one point… I felt like this whole day of labor was rough, but it was all in the ‘I can handle it’ category. Pushing, on the other hand, was torture. My mom and Joe were holding my legs to help me, but each push was exhaustive and painful. My epidural never reached the left side and had worn off in my lower back and the baby was bearing down on the right side of my pelvis and I could feel it.
Greyson Oliver came into the world after 2 ½ hours of pushing at 12:49 am 3/3/10. Mommy, Daddy and Nana all cried and hugged and kissed. He was perfect in every way. The doctor delivered the placenta, which because of the pitocin, I did not have to actively push out. I had a second degree tear that required stitches. After about an hour, he nursed for the first time. He measured 21 inches and weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces.
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