Labor and Delivery

Exactly as the title states, this posting is about my labor and delivery. Please skip it if this does not interest you.

For some reason I have this compulsion to give all the details of my labor and delivery. I wonder if this happens to all mothers or if I am just weird. I suppose it is because this is something I had never been through before, and because the experience was nothing like I imagined or my prenatal classes could have prepared me for. But also, I guess I am proud of my accomplishment; as you will find out I had to overcome a lot of my fears and experience a lot of unpleasant things for the first time.

My due date was October 1st. A week before I went into labor my sister had her first baby (my nephew Ian). Her due date was a week before mine, so all of the sudden I was feeling the pressure to deliver (pun intended). However, I had been convinced that I would be one of those women who last well into their 42nd week and have to be induced.

I was beginning to get anxious and my doc confirmed on the Friday before that I was 1cm dilated and 60% thinned. But then you hear those stories about women who are dilated to 3 or 4 cms and wait another three weeks for something to happen. Not to mention I had until that point never felt a contraction, Braxton Hicks or otherwise. The night before I went into labor my annual bout of hayfever acted up in a major way. At about 3 am I went into the office to read since I couldn't sleep and my sniffling was keeping Joe up. I never did get back to sleep and when I got up for good I thought "please don't let it be today, I am so exhausted!"

I had plans with my friend Dawn that day (Sept 20) so I got ready, ate some leftover pizza which turned out to be the last solid food I ate for almost 24 hours, and rested on the sofa to count fetal movements. I then got up to check the mail and just as I reached the box: gush, gush, gush. At first I thought it might just be bladder incontinence (not unusual during pregnancy) but if it was it was unlike any bladder incontinence I had ever experienced before. It kept coming in occassional gushes every few minutes. My pulse began to quicken and I simultaneously began to laugh and cry. Needless to say, I had to change my pants. So there I was pantsless in the hallway calling Poor Dawn (who didn't answer and showed up at my house after finally getting my message and furiously pounded on my door terrified that I was passed out on the floor), my husband to come home, and then the clinic to find out if it was indeed time.

The nurse told me to wait 15 minutes and call back to see if I had "soaked a pad." Unfortunately I had not by that time, the gushes had diminished and I was beginning to feel ridiculous for jumping to the conclusion that my water had broken. The nurse asked me to come in anyway just to be sure. And at the clinic where the gushes picked up again my doctor said "Yup, your water is broken" and sent us directly to the hospital.

At the hospital I was made to strip down and put on a glorified gown and lay down on the bed where I was strapped to the machine that records the baby's heart rate and your contractions. The nurse asked me about my contractions and I said "I don't know, I've never had one and I don't know what they feel like." She said "Really? Because you are having one right now." It turns out they were four minutes apart and don't worry I could really feel them after I was given pitocin. But first they wanted me to walk around to induce them naturally. No such luck.

I am terrified of needles. That probably sounds silly given the situation I had put myself in but I guess I figured I wouldn't have a choice when it came time. The IV, at that time, was the most unpleasant experience in my life. But boy does that pitocin really do the job. Within a couple of hours I was in unbearable discomfort and pain. The doc checked and wouldn't you know it I was still only 1 cm dilated!!! Regardless, I was ready for the epidural.

Needle in spine? Who cares! I needed relief and I got it. Unfortunately my discomfort was replaced with intense nausea. Now I had read in books that sometimes women in labor throw up, and I thought "Yeah, right. Not me!" Ha, ha, ha. I threw up twice. And because of the epidural I had to do it in a semireclining position with my husband and my nurse holding a bucket in front of me. At the same time I was starving, thirsty, exhausted and unable to sleep...

Several hours later it was finally time! (the epidural/pitocin combo works fast and if you are ever in labor and offered an epidural to help things along you should take it, your cervix will go from 1 to 10 in no time at all). So I began to push and just as little fella's head started to decend into the birth canal my epidural wore off. OUCH!!! I pushed pain medication-free for 2 hours with minimal results. Not to mention that my nurse, although she was a lovely lady, kept coaching me with soft reassurances like "keep going, you can do it" over and over and over. Not cool. This point was my new most unpleasant experience and was 100 times worse than the last.

Now in my prenatal classes they talked about forceps and the vacuum and I thought "I would never take such a risk with my baby." The doctor suggested the vacuum and I heartily agreed. The pregnancy magazines also talk about an "unneccesary" procedure called an episiotomy. Oh yeah, I had opinions on those too but when the doctor mumbled something about episiotomy, or maybe something about no time for local to do the episiotomy I said "whatever." It only took 15 more minutes of pushing and finally he was here.

I would love to say that the world around me fell away and I felt an immediate bond with this new creature and just wanted to lay there with his squirming body on my chest forever, but I really just wanted a soda and then to sleep. Don't get me wrong, I immediately loved my son. As much as I tried to resist the temptation to picture what he might look like during my pregnancy I did try to imagine his face. But I couldn't possibly imagine what I saw when they placed him writhing and crying on my chest: The. Most. Beautiful. Baby.

Little JJ was born at 6:15 am on September 21st. 7 lbs 5 oz 21 in. And yes, after I had some time to rest it finally hit me the magnitude of what my husband and I had created and accomplished. It continues to hit me all the time, several times a day, and I don't know that it will ever sink in completely. It is just amazing.