My parents and youngest sister were already on their way down to stay with us for a few days after the birth and they arrived around 9 that night. After some catching up, we decided to head to bed because we had to be at the hospital at 7 am the next day.
Come Wednesday, Keegan, my mom, and myself got up at 6, made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and went to the hospital (we decided my dad and sister would come to the hospital later on once things got rolling.) We arrived at the Emergency room around 7 and began the check in process. Unfortunately Labor and Delivery had experienced a very busy night, so there wasn't a room immediately available. We decided to wait in the Labor and Delivery waiting room instead of the Emergency room for a room to become available.
Approximately 7:30, Keegan and I were brought into a Labor and Delivery triage room to begin monitoring. Baby and I had to be monitored for about 20 minutes before they were willing to start the Pitocin. We were excited to find out that our nurse, Chelsea, from our preterm labor scare would be our nurse that day as well!
8:15 we were brought into our labor room. I changed into the hospital gown, but kept my bra on for comfort (this will become important later on in the story.) After a quick set of vitals were taken, I got an IV in my left wrist and Pitocin was started at the lowest dose and set to increase every 10 minutes until my contractions were to my OB's liking.
The contractions I was getting from the Pitocin were manageable, but I was had the worst back pain of my life that didn't stop in between contractions and was absolutely exhausting. Around 11:30, I asked for my first dose of IV pain medications. I'm pretty sure that if I didn't have the back pain, I would have been able to labor without medications of any sort.
At 1:05, I felt a pop and a huge gush of liquid, my water broke! The next few contractions after my water broke were the most intense feeling I had ever felt in my life. I ended up asking for an epidural to try and combat the back pain and allow my body to rest. Chelsea checked me and said I was at a 4 and hadn't really progressed much.
We waited for about an hour and a half for the anesthesiologist, and right before he walked in, Chelsea decided to check me again and announced I had progressed to an 8! I decided not to get the epidural because I figured if I had progressed that far, I could make it the rest of the way without the epidural. There was a flurry of excitement; the nurses brought in a large table with all of the equipment needed for delivery because everyone thought I would be delivering within the hour!
I labored another 1-2 hours in which my body started spontaneously pushing. It was the weirdest feeling, I would get a contraction and I could feel the muscles in my abdomen contract and push down. Everyone was telling me not push because I wasn't fully dialted, but it was something I couldn't control!
Dr. L came in to check me and said that she believed I was only at a 6 which was the most heartbreaking thing to hear. She also said that my cervix was swelling from the pushing, so she suggested getting an epidural to let my body relax and stop the pushing urges. While we were waiting for the anesthesiologist, I decided to get a second dose of IV pain medications which relaxed my body enough to labor to a 7 when I was checked again right before getting the epidural.
At this point of labor, I don't remember much because I was in such a zone trying to manage the contractions. I do know that my mom, sister and Keegan were asked to leave the room by the anesthesiologist and I remember trying to tell the anesthesiologist that I had had 4 spinals previously so I was nervous about getting the epidural. Everything went fine, thankfully, and the epidural felt amazing. The next few hours were spent sitting around, talking, and finishing our game of Ticket to Ride that Keegan and I had begun earlier in the day.
Chelsea eventually ended her shift, and we met our new nurse, Jennifer. Around 9 pm, Jennifer checked me and I was fully dilated with only a bit of a cervix lip left. Jennifer announced we were ready to push, so we did a few practice pushes and the cervix lip moved. Due to the epidural, I had to have Keegan or Jennifer tell me when a contraction was starting so I could push. I was able to feel the back pain during a few of them, but I wasn't able to feel anything in my stomach. During the pushing stage, the epidural started to wear off, and we eventually had to call for a second dose due to my increase in back pain and feeling returning to my right side.
In total, I ended up pushing for two hours. We got close enough that we could see Kieran's hair when I'd push, but he got stuck behind my pubic bone. Around 11, Dr. L came in to check on our progress and looked at the printout of the contractions and Kieran's heartbeat. Dr. L ripped off the sheet and started looking at it closely with our nurse, Jennifer. She eventually told us that Kieran's heartbeat had started to decelerate at the beginning of my contractions and accelerating at the end, which was concerning. After some time, his heartbeat would decelerate in between contractions which made her believe he was in distress and a c-section was necessary.
She also checked me once more, felt Kieran's head and agreed it was stuck behind my pubic bone. She felt the top and bottom of his head and decided that it was too large to fit through my pelvis, another reason why a c-section was necessary...
I've never heard of anyone actually having a baby too big! Do you have a small pelvis? Thanks for writing this out! It's a great resource :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have a small pelvis, at least it was never mentioned in any of my OB appointments. We knew that baby would be big, he had measured big throughout my pregnancy, but my OB never said anything about his size causing problems.
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