At 39 weeks I was checked to see if I dilated at all. I was dilated to a 1 cm and about 60% effaced. Once again, at 40 weeks I was checked. I would have thought I dilated some more, but I was still sitting at a 1 cm. This was a Friday, and I was scheduled to be induced the following Wednesday if I have not had the baby by then. Just for fun because I know nothing will actually work unless your body is truly ready, I tried all the tales in the book to get labor going. Nothing.
Monday I had another appointment, and I was still sitting at a 1 cm. In my head, I was thinking that something had to be wrong with me. Why was I not dilating? I was already over 40 weeks and so ready to have this baby. Tuesday came, and we were going to go ahead and go to the hospital that evening (around 5) to get started with a catheter and a small dose of pitocin. I got the apartment cleaned since I already knew that it was the day we would get to soon meet our little man.
Luckily our story begins and ends with us being chipper. :-) The time between was not so much. Glenn and I arrived to the hospital excited and anticipating the birth of our little man the next day. We got taken to our room, and they immediately put the catheter inside me. They then hooked me up to an IV and started the pitocin. Keep in mind I chose to do a natural birth, so the entire labor was without an epidural. I had to be hooked up to a monitor the entire time because I was on pitocin (which is the inducing drug to get contractions going).
A little later that evening, they gave me a sleeping pill to hopefully give me somewhat of a rest during the night before the real adventure begins.
Wednesday morning they came in around 6 a.m. to take the catheter out and turn up the pitocin. They checked to see how far I had dilated, and it was to a 2.5 cm. They planned on turning the pitocin up every half hour to an hour. I spent the morning mostly sitting on the birthing ball and eating a few little snacks to hopefully keep my energy level up before the real contractions start. Around 8 a.m. my Midwife came in to check to see how far I dilated since earlier and break my water to really get the ball moving. She said I dilated to a 4 and that with that kind of progress, I could have a baby by noon.
However, this is where the real adventure began. Johnathan was still high up there and through my bag of water she felt something. She could not identify what it was, but said it was either the umbilical cord or his little nose. Since they were not sure they would not break my water. If they broke my water, and it was the umbilical cord. . . I would have to go straight to an emergency c-section. We would not want to risk the baby dropping and cutting off the umbilical cord. Another factor was that every time I had a contraction, his heart rate would drop and then spike back up immediately. I was then restricted to the bed in case it was the baby putting pressure on the umbilical cord given that it was the umbilical cord and not his face. This made the whole morning seem like eternity. I could not get out of bed and cope with the pain. Glenn stayed by the bedside and probably thought I was going to break his hand or something. I had to wait for my water to break on its own.
Around noon my water had broke which is what we were all wanting, so we could find out if it was the umbilical cord or his nose my Midwife was feeling. The worst of all the pain was just about to hit, and I had to suffer right through it for the next hour. My Midwife would not be able to be back in the room until 1 p.m. That hour was the longest, most painful hour I have ever experienced in my life.
The contractions were harder and closer together than they had ever been. I wanted to just cry and poor Glenn was trying to offer words of encouragement, but I could not take it anymore and just told him to 'SHUT UP!'
I kept saying I could not take it anymore, but it was mostly because I was restricted to the bed and could not get up to cope with the pain I was feeling. The biggest motivation of not getting an epidural was A) This was the only thing on my birth wish list that was actually going to get and B) if I got the epidural I was afraid it would slow the process down, and that would mess up all the progress I have done. I was more than grateful to see have Glenn there holding my hand through it all. Finally, around 1:00 my Midwife comes in and checks to see what it was that she was feeling. I had dilated to a 6 at this point, and to our relief it was Johnathan's little nose that she was feeling--not the umbilical cord. However, Johnathan's heart rate still continued to drop with every contraction and spike back up afterword. They wanted to try and put a direct monitor on him, but because of how he was positioned, they were afraid of getting it on his eyes.
The Midwife had an actual doctor come in to check me and see what his thoughts were. Johnathan was face presentation, which meant that he was going to come out face first instead of the back of his head. This is still possible to push, but he may just be a little more bruised in the face. All we needed him to do was turn his body a little more to the left, so I could actually push him out. This would also may help his head possibly move a little bit down, so it would not be completely face presentation. Though, because we were taking a chance for the next few hours, they explained that if it does not work, there would really be no other option but a c-section. We understood completely, but my Midwife, Nurse, Glenn, and I were all on board with seeing what happened in the next few hours before letting this last resort end all the laboring I have done up to this point. They went ahead a prepped my body for c-section just in case that was the only option left. They put another catheter in me (one for urine) which was nice for the remainder of the time because I did not have to worry about going to the bathroom with these terrible contractions.
My Midwife and nurse stayed with us the remainder of the time. Since there was no threat of the umbilical cord, I was finally able to leave the bed. it is about 2:00 p.m. and I had been restricted to that bed since 8:00 that morning. The contractions felt like they eased up a bit since I was able to cope with them more so out of bed. I rocked on the ball for a bit, and they had me do some small lunges to see if that would help baby rotate some. I wanted so bad to sit in the tub, but they could not get the wireless monitor to work, so I had to continue being hooked up to the machine. After a while, my Midwife had me get on the bed and rock on all fours. She felt so sure and positive that I would not have to end in a c-section, so we decided to go ahead and take the catheter out of me.
Not to long after, she checked to see if the baby had moved at all. He did; however, he rotated in the complete opposite way than we wanted. He was still face presentation (so not breached because he was head down), but he turned his body in a way were it would be impossible to push him out. Meaning, his back was against my back. There was no option but a c-section at this point. I had labored for 23 straight hours on pitocin without any epidural. I felt loved and had such great support from my Midwife and my nurse. They told me because how he was positioned, that is why my body never actually went into labor on its own. There was never enough pressure on my cervix to get things going because it was his face there instead of the back of his head. They also told me that because of this position, I am a very high candidate for VBAC (so I would not have to have a c-section for my next birth). They also said with me being restricted to bed and laboring on pitocin for a straight 23 hours, I have the highest potential to really have a natural birth next time because of how strong-willed mentally and physically I was. Not many people can do what I just did they told me.
Though, after 23 hours, I was emotionally and physically drained and since I mentally knew that there was no option but a c-section. . . I looked at Glenn and said "Get me that spinal block now!" Again, I did not do an epidural because that would take a lot longer to kick in, and the spinal block would actually completely numb me, and I would not have to have any anesthesia. So, I could be mentally there and remember the birth of our baby. T
They put the catheter back in and took me to the room where the c-section will take place. Luckily for me, my Midwife and nurse had operation room privileges and were able to assist in the c-section. This comforted me because they would still be there, and I would not have to have a whole new crew that I did not know.
Glenn waited outside the room until after they put the spinal block in me and put the curtain up. Glenn came in, and the spinal block kicked in instantly. I felt nothing. Glenn saw that I was smiling and making jokes. . . he thought "this was not Brittany like 10 minutes ago. What on earth did you do to her?"
In less than an hour, our baby boy was born at 4:47 p.m Wednesday, June 24th. They took him to the NICU for examination. He was pretty swollen in the face because of all the pressure that was put on his face since he was face presentation. The swelling went down pretty fast. Glenn was in the NICU with him for his first hour of life. They were going to let me do some skin on skin right away, but he needed a bit of a boost in oxygen. He, however, was a perfectly healthy little boy weighing 7 lbs 12 oz and was 20 inches.
Glenn brought him to me not long into the second hour of his life as I was in the recovery room. I was so pleased that as soon as he made contact with my skin, he immediately latched on and started breastfeeding. Though, I got nothing I wanted in my so called birth wish list, I would not change a thing. I felt that any though it ended in a c-section, the 24 hours of long suffering pain was worth every bit and made me feel as though I did my part. . . especially since the only thing I got that I wanted was 'no epidural.'
We love our little boy and welcome Johnathan Glenn Mackay into our little family.
The slide show with music is the first few days of our little man's life. The beginning is the labor, but pictures were stopped being taken when things became more intense, so you will notice it jumping fairly quickly to the c-section.
Enjoy
No comments:
Post a Comment