Birth Story

I am not sure if anyone is interested, but I thought I will share my birth story anyway. At the very least, it will serve me as a detailed record of the day he was born.

My due date was August 26 and when I had my routine doctors appointment on the 21st, I was not the least bit dilated. Doc said if nothing happened by my due date, we would talk about getting something done. Anyway, Monday morning at 7:30 I got my first official contraction. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a long time, but I knew instinctively that this was different. It wasn't very painful and I had another one at 7:50. It was 20 minutes apart and since I figured there was plenty of time, I didn't wake hubby. Then there was another at 8:10 and 8:30. By then, my parents had dressed and were ready to go to the hospital. Mom has a history of fast labors and she wanted me to get to the hospital fast. I was more inclined to wait a little more, but I finally woke R up and at 9, we headed to the hospital. We got there at 9:45 and by then, the contractions were coming every 5-6 minutes and lasted about 30-40 seconds. They put me in triage and a nurse checked me. I hated the nurse (and I usually love the nurses) they had at triage. Her name is Blair and at the end of our stay at triage, we named her "Blairwitch Project" She had the worst bedside manner and I had horrible bleeding ever from her cervical checks. I was terrified that she would be the nurse for labor, but thankfully there were other people at the L&D unit.

When they first checked me at 11:00 am, I was only dilated 0.5 cm! They asked us to go home. We had no plans of going home, so we waited at the hospital cafeteria and front lobby and finally went back at 3:30. When they checked me again, I was at 3 cm and 100% effaced and since I was really miserable by then, they decided to admit me. The doctor came and did an ultrasound and saw that he was posterior and a little transverse as well. She said that she was going to break my water and start the pitocin to speed up the labor. We neither agreed or disagreed and we had to wait another two hours before admitting me. By then, I was really getting miserable and unable to talk. Initially, we had resolved to wait until 6 cm to get the epidural. We figured that getting an epidural might slow down the progress of labor. But, at that point I was really in pain and yelling for the epidural.

They had not checked for dilation for a while figuring that I had a long way to go. At 6:00 pm, my water broke naturally and when they came and checked, they said I was completely dilated and it was too late for an epidural. Hubby got livid at this point since we had mentioned about the possibility of labor progressing fast and they had not taken that seriously. The main reason I had decided on an epidural was to avoid the "ring of fire." I had to calm him down since I didn't want to get the nurses back up at that point. Thankfully, another nurse came and checked and said I was at 9 cm and there was still time for an epidural. In spite of the pain, I felt good because I didn't feel as much of a wimp as I was actually in transition stage when I was moaning and groaning and not 4 or 6 cm as we thought I was.

But by the time the IV was in the system and the epidural took effect, it was time for pushing. Even with the epidural, I felt every contraction, and that helped with the pushing. I pushed for 45 minutes and they gave me rest for 1 hour and then again pushed for 45 minutes and finally he was born at 10:53 pm. I didn't need an episiotomy, but tore naturally. But, because he was in a transverse position, he had a hematoma when he was born. The size has reduced now, but the doctor says it will be 3 months before it completely goes away. He also had slight breathing problem and was taken away for observation immediately after birth, so I didn't get to hold him immediately.

I was in labor (including early labor) for almost 16 hours, but when I held him in my arms for the first time, all the pain and tiredness was just magically swept away! It is truly the best feeling in the world!!

I also should mention this as an aside:

When I was in the L&D room in a lot of pain and waiting for the epidural, hubby decided to figure out if I was in real labor or not. He asked me what 25 times 7 was. I answered 135 and then 165 before saying 175. He says that the fact that I actually multiplied in my mind was enough evidence for him that I was loopy and truly was in labor! Normally, I would just subtract 25 from 200.

They didn't teach this method of labor detection at Lamaze though.