This is for the ladies who asked. Some of it might be tmi so if you aren't into details (and believe you me, this one is full of details), you might not want to go any further :)
Normally, I hate needles and being poked and having blood drawn (which you'd think a pregnant woman would be used to.. But nope!). My hopes for labour were to go as natural as possible. I wanted to be on my feet till I needed to push and I knew I would be terribly upset if I had to have a c section. Of course if the situation called for it and if the doc seriously recommended it, I'd go with it, but I wouldn't be happy about it a single bit. Well, I didn't have the c section but I know for a fact that if I got a lazy doctor, I would have gotten a c section.. I'm so grateful that I had a great doc!
In my 38th week of pregnancy, we'd started trying to start things off, get the ball rolling. Nothing too drastic.. Just a lot of walking. Nothing seemed to be happening and It felt like this baby was a little too comfortable and didn't want to come out.. All I'd had up to that point was Braxton hicks.. strong but not regular and I was so desperate to just have my baby already!.
On the 12th of March between 12:30am and 1:30am Joe and I went for a long walk (which I think started things off) and got back home.. Tried to get some sleep but I was in pain and didn't manage to sleep until about 4am which sucked, because my water broke an hour and a half later. I remember waking up to the feeling of a gush of water and I jumped out of bed, completely stunned and it didn't occur to me to do something about it.. I just stood there while the water kept coming out! Ofcourse, after that the contractions started off and they got pretty strong. I woke joe up immediately and we called the hospital and they told us to take our time, eat, relax and then come in. I had a shower, got ready and we left for the hospital.
We got there at 7am. It took a while to get me hooked up and at 9am I was 2cms dilated with contractions 6mins apart and the baby was still high so they sent us for a one hour walk which helped us progress to 3cms and 80% effacement when they checked again at 11am. At that point, they said my blood pressure was borderline high every time they checked and were worried it would be pre-e so they stuck in the needle for an IV "just in case". They also said they were worried I wasn't progressing as expected, contractions weren't regular and they said I just might need to be put on pitocin, and that's where my dreams of an all natural labour and delivery crashed. But of course, had to go with the flow.. I'd prepared myself for something like this.
So at 12 we moved out of triage with all the screaming women and into a great room with a great view. Contractions were happening and I thought i was dealing pretty well.. The nurse came in and told us that they were putting me on pitocin (because the contractions weren't regular) I'd have 2 at a time, one immediately after the first and then a break. So they started pitocin at 12:15 at the lowest possible level - 2 and pulled the dose up to 4 a half hour later. At this point, my blood pressure was normal.
Now, I'd read about pitocin and knew something about it making contractions worse than what they are naturally and when asked about the epidural (which I initially thought I'd try without) I tried to stay strong. Well, that didn't last long. Lol. Luckily for me, they told me the doc that did the epidurals had just finished a procedure and was going to be available in a bit and asked again if I wanted it, I said 'heck yeah!'
So we got the epi in at 2:15 and it was the best feeling ever! Felt high for the first few minutes or so and I shivered for a while. I didn't feel the contraction pain, but LOTS of pressure.. And I could still move my legs consciously.
After an hour of monitoring the baby's heart rate and the contractions, the nurse came in and told me the baby didn't seem to be handling either the pitocin or the contractions very well. His heart rate was high. So they shut down the pitocin at 3:15 and switched it back on a half hour later.. their idea was to slowly increase the dose and hopefully the baby would just get used to it. They also had me change positions which seemed to help.
Now the epidural was still working, but not as effectively (or maybe after that intense pain, having the relief made a BIG difference.. which i'd gotten used to). The pressure seems to be getting ridiculously intense and I totally forgot about the epi top up button. So I laboured like this till 7pm when they checked again and I was at 6 or 7 and was 90% effaced. The nurse reminded me about the top up button and I went the next few hours pressing the button every 15 mins (doesn't work before the 15 mins since the last top up so you don't overdose on the medication). It helped dull the pain a lot. At 9:15 I was at 8cms. That's when they realized I had a fever. This changed things because they were worried about infections. They waited 2 hours to see if it went down, but it didn't so I had 3 Tylenol tablets and tons of ice chips and cold wet tissue on my head and neck, trying to get the temperature down.
At 12am on the 13th of march, I was at 9cms and an hour later the nurse said my temperature was dropping and we could start pushing in another hour. At 2am after another check, my contractions were so intense but still irregular so the doc wanted to wait yet another hour before pushing to see if they get a little more regular (which they didn't). So at 3:15am we started pushing anyway. Took a bit to get the hang of things but I when I got it, we did some effective pushing. But with the contractions being as irregular as they were, I'd push hard and the baby would come closer to crowning and when there was a break from contractions, he would slowly slip back in and all the hard work would hardly matter.. But we powered through and kept pushing. Eventually, the baby did start crowning and they said I needed an episiotomy. Got it at 4:30 and my baby boy, Jeremy Was born at 4:35!
He was silent till Joe cut the cord and almost immediately, we got to hear that tiny little voice that we'd been waiting SO long to hear.. *sigh* Tears :')
Joe was the first to hold him. Then I got to hold him and admire him (which was slightly hard with the distraction of being stitched up!) I felt every single stitch. Yep, thats how weak the epi was for me!
Not much went as I'd hoped and I had a very eventful labour.. way too much happening. But many people told me to keep an open mind and at our prenatal class, I heard the most important thing a pregnant woman should know about labour and delivery - That no two labours are the same and how well it goes for you totally depends on how you work with what you are dealt.
And at the end of it, you're left with the aftermath of giving birth (which normally isn't much from what I hear for natural births, but it wasn't as smooth for me) , but more importantly, the reason you went through all that pain - a gorgeous baby!
I thought all newborn babies looked like potatoes but the second I saw Jeremy, after he was pulled out, I was so amazed at how gorgeous he was! All i could say was 'omg, he's beautiful!!'.. Beautiful memories!!
