Garrett's Birth Story, Part Two

*If you haven't read Part One, scroll down to the post below!*

So Seth and I headed to the hospital at 5 a.m. on September 19. The ride was miserable, but that's about all I remember of the twenty minute drive (to the same hospital where Seth and I were both born, by the way!)

I was wheeled through the ER entrance in a wheelchair, trying desperately not to have a contraction IN FRONT OF PEOPLE, and was taken to maternity triage. The part I remember best about this stop was that they WEIGHED ME. And that was only the beginning of the indignities.

I was hooked up to a monitor and had an exam, where it was discovered I was having very regular contractions every three minutes, and was dilated to 3 cm, so I was admitted to Labor and Delivery. One of the nurses in triage said to my doula, "Wow! She's in a great contraction pattern! I bet we'll have a baby by noon!"

When I arrived in my room, we first had to fend off all of the med pushers. Luckily, my doula (who also works as a L&D nurse at the same hospital) was able to explain that I did not want (or need) any pitocin, that I did not want to be hooked up to an IV pole, and that I did not want to be offered pain medication.

Those things are all such standard practice, I'm sure they would not have honored my requests had my doula not been there. So they inserted a hep-lock in the back of my left hand, just in case I did end up needing fluids or meds through an IV later, and I was free to roam until the hourly monitoring on the baby (where I would have to lay in bed for 20 minutes).

So beginning at 5:30 a.m., I labored at the hospital. It's all pretty fuzzy, and I just remember doing everything I could think of to deal with the pain.

We walked the halls.

I ate popsicles.

I sucked on suckers.

I begged for water (which we would hide when the nurses came in).

I went to the bathroom a million times.

I sat on the birthing ball.

I cried.

My doula did her patented "double-hip squeeze" to ease the pain of back labor (the baby's head was turned in the opposite direction of how it should have been).

I held onto Seth's neck and swayed and moaned (my patented "sick-cow bellow").

I did everything EXCEPT stay in that damn bed, which was intolerable to me.

At 6:30 a.m., I was still only 3 cm dilated.

So I headed to the shower. I sat on the shower seat while Seth and our doula took turns aiming the hot water at my back.

At 11:30 a.m., I was dilated to 4 cm.

At 3:30 p.m., 6 cm.

We were going on 15 hours of labor that Wednesday, September 19, having had no sleep since Tuesday night. To say we were all exhausted would be a major understatement.

At 5:00 p.m. (16.5 hours in), I'd finally dilated to 8 cm. The labor nurse felt that it would be a good time to break my water, hoping that would speed things up. I agreed.

My doctor arrived to check me at 6 p.m., and announced that I was 6 cm dilated. I immediately burst into tears, the only laboring woman in the world whose cervix goes BACKWARDS. The nurses explained that I was 6 cm instead of 8 cm because the bag of waters was no longer pushing and stretching my cervix open.

It was at this point that my doctor recommended an epidural. He felt the baby was really big, and that I had to get some rest before I had to start the hard work of pushing. I was still holding my ground as far as 'no meds', but everyone in the room - my mom, Seth, the nurses, my doula - were in agreement. I had to let my body rest.

So I had an epidural placed at 6:30. To this day, I still feel like a quitter, but that is another post within itself. Everyone was supportive, or trying to be - "there's no gold stars, Stacey...you just want a healthy baby, no matter how it gets here!" And I'll just tell you, friends - I DO keep a little bag of gold stars, and when I visit friends who've delivered naturally (hey, Shawna!), I give them their damn gold star. So YES, there are gold stars for labor. I have them.

Anyway, I will admit that the epidural was a miracle from heaven helpful. The pain went away, but there was still that uncomfortable, disturbing sensation of pressure. However, Seth was able to go grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria, and I got in some catnapping and visiting with family and friends. It was fascinating to watch those double-peaked contractions on the monitor and not feel them at all.

But once the interventions have started, there is no going back...I got a permanent blood pressure cuff that nearly severed my arm every 20 minutes, and at 8:00 I was catheterized.

At 8:30, the baby's heart tones were showing signs that it was getting tired. At that point, I got an "amnio-infusion", although I'm still not sure what the hell that is. I also had another exam and I was 9 cm dilated!

By 9:30 (about 21 hours in, now), I was fully dilated and ready to push.

After pushing, with very little progress, for 2-1/2 hours, my doctor suggests that my epidural should be turned off (and I also hear him give the nurses a little chewing out for letting me push so long without calling him). I am starting to have a real fear that this baby is only going to be able to get here by c-section. I can feel everyone else thinking it.

So the baby that should have been "here by noon!" on Thursday, September 19, is NOT.

It's now Friday, September 20. At 1 a.m., I'm in my third hour of hard pushing, my 24th hour of labor, and have been awake since 6 am on Wednesday.

The pushing business is getting serious, as the baby's heart rate is dropping with each contraction. Someone starts pushing on the top of my belly, trying to help force the baby down. One of the nurses (I like to call her Old Horse Face Nurse) yells frantically, "YOU'VE GOT TO PUSH THIS BABY OUT RIGHT NOW". I'm thinking Horse Face had never tried to push anything out of HER totally numb hoo-ha.

My doctor does an episiotomy, and attaches the vacuum extractor to the baby's head to help pull him out. Finally, amid my screaming of very ugly swear words, the baby's head is out and I'm pretty sure I'm about to die. I actually whispered, "Am I going to die?" to my doula. Once I was fairly certain that I would not die, I was convinced that my entire pelvic and hip region was going to be broken in half. And that is when the baby's shoulders got stuck.

At 1:21 a.m. on September 20, our first baby was finally delivered. I vividly recall the sensation of the baby's body slithering out. It is the most bizarre thing I have ever felt. And then ALL THAT PAIN was gone in an instant.

They announced that it was a screaming, pink, 8 pound and 1 ounce BOY! We looked at him for a while before deciding that he looked like a Garrett.

He got cleaned up, I got stitched up, and then got to enjoy Horse Face Nurse "massaging" my belly to help my uterus contract ("since you don't want any pitocin").

Garrett nursed immediately, and then I was wheeled to my room with a teddy bear and balloons sitting on my tummy.

For all of you having your first baby (FREMA!), childbirth is messy, exhausting, disgusting, surprising, beautiful, and surreal. As many words as I've used to describe it here, it still doesn't do it justice.

*I didn't have a digital camera when Garrett was born, so I'll come back to add some pictures after I scan them!*