I went to work on Tuesday, Sept.2 and had a very busy day of juvenile justice. On the way home, I was starting to feel... different. Like maybe today was the day! I’d been having non-painful, irregular contractions the whole day, but the feeling that something was about to happen was more emotional or intuitive.
Steve and I went to our friends’ house for dinner, and I started thinking that it was all in my head because everything seemed normal again. Boo.
That night, for the first time during my pregnancy, I decided to sleep on the couch. I began a restless sleep, but by 11:00, I gave up. I felt weird and thought that something I ate at the dinner party didn’t agree with me. (Steve maintains that it was the strangely vast quantities of croutons served at each course of the dinner.) At 11:30, I started to experience contractions in my back. None of my previous contractions felt like that – ouch! My back really ached! (Not sure why, but I still thought this was a digestion issue and I ate a Fiber One granola bar at midnight in hopes that a little fiber would help! LOL) By 1:00, I got Steve out of bed to help me time the contractions. We timed three, but I really couldn’t focus on anything and decided we should just go to the hospital.
Next came thirty minutes of trying to get out the door. Me – calmly putting on mascara. (I am vain, even in labor!) Steve – where are my glasses? (I just saw you pack them) Where is the camera bag? (right by the door) Did you pack your medical records? (yes, they’ve been in my bag, in my car for a week) Where are my glasses? (you are holding them)
When we got to triage at 1:30am, the nurse checked me and I was 3 cms dilated and 90% effaced (I’d been 2 cms and 80% for a week and a half). The contractions were four minutes apart. To move things along, we had to walk around for an hour. The hospital is a weird place in the middle of the night. The halls were bright, but mostly deserted. I was breathing through the contractions that were still almost entirely in my back.
We went back to triage and I still wasn’t making any progress. The nurse was thinking about sending us home! NO!! One, I was in too much pain to handle it at home. Two, we live 20 minutes from the hospital and I was nervous about getting back. Three, I want this baby NOW!! Luckily, when the nurse called the doctor, he told her to give me until 5:30am. We watched the contraction monitor and listened to the baby’s heartbeat for a couple hours. At 6:00am, I was 3-4 cms and completely effaced, so we moved to the labor and delivery room!
By this time, the contractions were ridiculous. Steve was helping me remember how to breathe through them, but it was so hard. He was also pushing on my back like crazy to counter the insane amount of pressure I was feeling in my lower back. The hospital staff gave us a sock full of hot rice for my back that helped a little. I forgot to mention that I was throwing up every hour and the nausea was getting worse. I was completely exhausted, having had no sleep since 7:00 am the previous morning. I knew at this point that my carefully crafted birth plan was out the window. I had to have an epidural. The nurse said I would be able to SLEEP for a couple hours if I had one. That sounded amazing, since I that point, I was sobbing through another contraction in my back. It was torture.
The epidural was my biggest fear. I am terrified of needles, and a tube in my back was the worst thing I could think of, until the pain of these contractions. The anesthesiologist explained the risks as I threw up into a bucket. The epidural hurt a lot, but it was comparable to the intensity of the pain of my contractions. I had a hard time not flinching and the nurse anesthesiologist scolded me.
Once the epidural was in, I was amazed at the change. I couldn’t feel the contractions at all, although we could see them on the monitor. I was shivering so hard that my teeth were chattering though – just a side effect, I guess. Steve and I got a few hours of restless sleep. The doctor came to check my progress and I was at 6 cms. A few hours later, the nurse examined me and I was at 10cms and ready to start pushing.
I know that labor is very traumatic for the infant, so I was determined to push as efficiently as possible. Positions for pushing were limited due to the epidural. I was on my back with Steve holding one knee and a med student holding the other. I didn’t expect Steve to have to be so involved. I thought he would stand by my head and hold my hand! Instead, he was right in the middle of the action. After a few practice pushes, the nurse had me wait until the doctor could get there. My usual OB was on vacation, so Dr. Sayat from the practice got called in for the delivery.
They lowered the mirror on the ceiling so I could see what was going on. I also didn’t expect to want to see the carnage, but since I felt only pressure, no pain, it seemed as though I was watching someone else give birth on an HD flat screen. When I was pushing, I really couldn’t open my eyes much. I was straining so hard I thought my eyes might pop out! I just peeked at the end of every third push – and I could see some dark hair! After about an hour of pushing, I was told that I was getting very close and the doctor encouraged me to get the head out on the next push. And it was out! I had to stop pushing long enough for the baby’s mouth and nose to be suctioned, and then I could finish pushing out her body. The nurse said, “Look!” And I was still looking in the mirror above the bed! She said, “No, right in front of you!” I looked straight ahead and saw my daughter. It was all a blur. They whisked her away for a short moment, then set her right on my chest. This was just completely surreal. The poor girl had a big bump on her head from the delivery and I was extremely concerned, even though the nurse assured me that it would go down in a couple hours.
Steve called my mom in and the nurse weighed and measured the baby. She got 9/9 Apgar scores – which means completely healthy. (Steve kept calling them FICO scores.) Whew! The doctor helped me finish delivering the placenta. The mirror was still down and I got see how huge it was! The placenta is gross and looks like a cord attached to a blob the size of a liver. I had no clue it looked like that. The nurse put up the mirror when she saw me watching, but I wasn’t scared – it still felt like watching the surgery channel – someone else’s blood. The doctor continued to sew me up. I had a second degree tear. Claire Alexandra came into the world “sunny side up,” which makes for a more difficult delivery. The nurse and doctor both said that I did a great job and that many babies in that position require two and a half hours of pushing. They were also surprised that I did not require any Pitocin (a drug that speeds up contractions) to deliver. So, I congratulate my body on being awesome at giving birth.
Claire was 7 lbs, 14 oz, and 20.25 inches. She was born at 12:54 p.m. on September 3, 2008. Although nothing went as I planned, I have no regrets and feel quite blessed. My baby was born healthy AND I am no longer pregnant!!
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