Birth Story

Sunday, June 19- Monday, June 20

                I was woken up at around 2 am with a stomach ache.  I thought nothing of it and went back to bed.  The stomach ache came back, left, and I fell back asleep.  After a few of these aches I thought, “Well maybe these aren’t just stomach aches, maybe they are contractions.”  As the aches went on through the morning I convinced myself that they were contractions and got really excited, even though we were scheduled for an induction that night.  Jeff and I spent the day visiting my mom, going to the mall, and watching TV, anything to pass the time until it was time to go to the hospital.  Eventually the contractions got closer together and we were wondering if induction was the best way to go because I had started the labor process naturally.  We called our midwife and she said to go ahead and go in because we were already a week overdue and it could take a few more days if we tried to go about it naturally.  We wanted to do anything to keep the baby safe.

                At 7:00 we made our way towards the hospital.  We were both very excited and I was a little nervous knowing the next time I went home I would have a little baby in the car with me.  Crazy.  We got to the hospital and had to do something paperwork and confirmations of information.  When the administrative business was done we were shown to our room and got ready to start the process.  I got in my gown and into bed.  They put in my IV lock and placed the cytotek.  They figured they would let the medicine start the process of dilating me, I was only at 1 cm, and that I would start pitocin around 4 am and shoot for a late Monday afternoon baby.  Mom came to visit and we just sat and chatted while the baby and I were monitored. 

                It didn’t take long for the contractions to start up again and they hurt a little more than the ones I was experiencing through the day.  I was excited and ready to get the show on the road.  Mom left after the monitoring was completed and Jeff and I were left to settle down for the night and get some rest.

                Of course, things never go as expected.  The contractions got a lot worse very fast.  I tried walking during the contractions and it didn’t help.  I laid in bed and that didn’t help either.  I got up to use the bathroom and when I got back to bed, I sat down and felt a gush as my water broke during a contraction.  We rang the nurse, she checked, and sure enough my water did break and I was in active labor but only around 3 cm.  This was around 1 am.

                We decided to try and get into the Jacuzzi bath as my contractions were harder and closer together than anyone expected them to be and the bath can, supposedly, help them slow down and spread out a bit.  The bath was relaxing when I wasn’t contracting but I was at the point where I was contracting every two minutes for about 50-60 seconds at a time.  So I was only getting about a minute’s rest between contractions.  Plus, I had a Jacuzzi jet hitting me square in the behind.  So after a little while we decided that I needed to get out because I was in too much pain, the contractions weren’t slowing, and I just couldn’t get comfortable. 

                We tried a few “hands and knees” positions that were supposed to also help alleviate pain and maybe spread out contractions.  These positions were even worse and at this point I told Jeff I just couldn’t do it anymore.  I had to have an epidural.

                We had to wait a little bit for the anesthesiologist since he was helping another mama but he eventually made it.  Between these intense contractions he was able to get me prepped and started on the epidural.  I didn’t feel any pain because I was concentrated on the pain of my contractions.  There was a shock that went down my leg that he warned me of and it felt like electricity raced down my right leg and I ended up kicking Jeff because he was right in front of me.

                When he had finished, I was really worried about having another contraction because I could still feel my legs and move my feet around with purpose.  I thought that the epidural didn’t take.  When the nurse warned me that I had my first contraction with an epidural coming, I braced myself and felt nothing!  It was such a relief after having contractions for over 24 hours, 5 of those hours were the very intense very frequent contractions.  I was checked and was at 6 cm by the time the epidural was placed.  That was around 3-3:30 am.

                Jeff and I were finally able to relax a little bit and get some rest for the big day ahead of us.  I woke up around 7 or so.  I was being monitored and got checked.  I don’t remember much that happened leading up to the time to push but at 8 am, I started the pushing process.

                Throughout the night and continuing through pushing, I was in such pain that I have parts of the night and pushing process missing from my memory.  It was like a blacked out and Jeff has to fill me in often about things that happened.  This happened a lot during the pushing so my recollection may not be as good as Jeff’s is.

                I was excited to start pushing.  I knew with the first pushes, that nothing was happening and I was just getting the hang of it.  In my mind, I thought pushing wouldn’t take too long.  I’ve heard the horror stories of pushing for 2+ hours and I figured that I would have my baby within an hour and a half at the most.  As time kept ticking by and I was getting more and more tired I figured something was up. 

                Baby was facing up making passing through the bones impossible.  In addition to facing the wrong way, he would also come down when I pushed but go right back up when the push was done.  We were hoping he would hurry and turn over but he was in no rush.  My midwife left the room at one point and when she came back she was talking to someone saying that the doctor said it was okay to proceed and that the “factors”, or something like that, were not effecting the baby yet.  I was already emotional and not knowing what she was talking about, but knowing that it wasn’t good, didn’t help.

                Through the blackout, fatigue, and emotional fog I was in, I was told that we were going to need some help.  Help came in the form of an actual doctor, his student (we think), two additional nurses, my personal nurse, my midwife, her student, and I don’t even know who else.  The room was packed.   I was told that the doctor would have to use forceps if I couldn’t get the baby out and he was willing to give me a few pushes to get it done.

                I pushed like I had never pushed in my life.  It didn’t seem like I was getting anything done.  I was tired, the epidural had worn off, and I was ready to give up.  The contractions were awful and the need to push was overwhelming.  I had been pushing 4 times per contraction.  During one, the doctor had me push 5 times and I think that’s what really helped me.  I did my best to focus and get the baby out.

                Finally, after 3 hours and 15 minutes of pushing, Keighan was born at 11:16 am.  Jeff was able to announce that “It’s a boy!” and all I really remember is having this slippery beautiful baby on my belly and me holding on to his leg and torso for dear life.  His cord had been wrapped around his neck when he was born.  I don’t know exactly what was wrong but the two extra nurses who had been in the room were going to take him because there were vitals that weren’t where they were supposed to be.  Apparently, I didn’t take that very lightly and I didn’t want them to take him from me.  They gave him oxygen while he laid on me and whatever the other vital was, I think temperature, found itself normal after a minute or so.  They didn’t have to take him away and we were able to keep him with us.

                I had extensive repair work that had to be done after the birth.  It took about 45 minutes to get stitched up and fixed up.  I didn’t really notice other than the shot and pressure that were obvious nuisances.   Later, it hit me how much repair work had been done.  And two and a half weeks later, I am still taking medicine periodically to help the pain subside.

                Nothing went according to plan.  The birth plan was a joke.  You can’t depend on having the perfect labor and delivery.  All I know is that, as bad as I think mine was it was completely and utterly worth it.  I would go through it a million times over because in the end you have the most amazing perfect gift from God.  We have been truly blessed and thank God everyday for Keighan and the amazing transformation our family has gone through.