If you have read my previous posts, you will know I wanted to do an all-natural, un-medicated birth. If you were coming to find out if that happened, let me save you some time and tell you, NO. I used medication and loved myself in the end for it! My birth plan was a very cute idea in theory, but literally everything I had planned went out the window. Which quite honestly doesn't bug me at all.
Here it goes! The break down of the 50 hours Joshua and I spent in the L&D Room:
Previously established: We had to induce because I was 2 weeks past my due date and my health care provider requires an induction once you hit 42 weeks. Plan derail #1. I went in at a generous 2 cm - 50% effaced.
8/31 - 6:00 AM: We walked in, anxiously anticipating the birth of Thomas Allen Harper. We were told we were scheduled for 9/1. Damn it. Pregnancy brain got the date wrong. Oh well, they admitted us anyway.
8/31 - 7:00 AM: A nurse comes in to hook me up to monitors. They call my Dr. to tell them I am a day early. She explains they are going to do a non stress test on the baby and if he passes, I get to go home. Awesome! Maybe then I can start labor on my own! She places monitors on my belly.
8/31 -7:15 AM: -Baby moves - *beep* *beep* *beep* 4 nurses rush in, I have oxygen on my face all of the sudden and I am told I am NOT going home. What the hell just happened? The baby moved, his "heart rate dropped" and the nurses wigged out. I still believe he just skipped off the monitor, but whatever. I was already at the hospital and I may as well start the process. Lets get going.
8/31 - 8:00 AM - My Angel nurse, Joanie, comes in and is about to hook up pitocin. She goes through my birth plan with me and explains how induction works. She saw some tears in my eyes and said "You don't have to do this right now. I can monitor him and see if I can have the doctor discharge you." Yes! Let's do that! He is a master at monitoring!
8/31 - 10:30 AM- Baby monitoring looks beautiful and even with Joanie at bat to let me go home, the Dr. was still concerned with the initial "drop" in heart rate. I'm getting induced.
8/31- 11:00 AM - Pitocin Starts.
8/31- 6:00 PM: Nothing happened for 7 hours. Nothing. So they took me off pitocin, put in a Foley Balloon (plan derail #2), let me eat food (YES!) and prayed for over night progress. That thing was a real joy. Caused partial cramping, but no unbearable pain. I slept as well as I could.
9/1 - 3:00 AM - Started pitocin again.
9/1 - 11:00 AM - Foley balloon is removed. I am now at 4 cm - 75% effaced. Hooray! It's working!
9/1 - 2:30 PM: They broke my waters. (Plan derail #3) Still no pain, mild contractions.
9/1 - 5:00 PM: Sill no pain. They came in and broke the water again. That got me to 6cm.
9/1 - 5:04 PM: Aw! There's the pain. Started practicing my hypnobaby techniques. (In the plan)
9/1 - 6:00 PM: So many thoughts went through my head, but one final one stuck. Let's bring on the epidural! I was already pretty tired and I still had a while to go. My family was just in there and we were all laughing and having a good time. Now, I could hardly get though 2 minutes before I had to stop and breathe. It got intense very quickly. My nurses smiled and were so happy I made that decision. (Plan derail #4)
9/1 - 6:30 PM: Epidural is in and working. All is good in the world. Family came in again, I was laughing and Joshua and I were able to sleep.
9/2 -1:15 AM: Nurse came in to check me and said, "Are you ready to push?" Well, hell yeah I am! This is the moment we have all been waiting for!
9/2 - 2:15 AM: I pushed for a good hour, but was not progressing much. We decided to wait it out an hour and try again.
9/2 - 2:45 AM: I felt a lot of pressure, so I called the nurse in so we would push again.
9/2 - 5:30 AM: My midwife was called in to help. Great! That meant we were close!
9/2 - 6:00 AM: Small breakdown on my part. I was tired, frustrated and I still didn't have my baby. They let me cry it out for about 3 minutes. My mom started bragging on me and how I did Crossfit and how many pull ups and push-ups I could do… they quit feeling sorry for me and had me start pushing again/
9/2- 7:30 AM: Baby was in a bad position and even with my pushing getting stronger, he was coming down but stuck on my pelvic bone. They called an MD in to help. Bringing an MD in means there are some more invasive procedures about to take place. I pushed like hell.
9/2- 8:20 AM: The MD came in, watched me do another round of pushing. She was impressed and Joshua was proud. Then she stuck a vacuum on my baby's head (Plan derail #5) and told me to give it all I had. She said "this usually works with one try, but you have 10 minutes. If it doesn't work, you're going straight in for surgery." Oh, hell no. Not after all of this. I did 3 big pushes and we got his head out! One more big push, an episiotomy (plan derail #6) and a big pull from the MD and the next thing you know….
9/2 - 8:26 AM: Thomas Allen Harper was entered into the world!!
They handed me my slimy screaming baby and tears and emotions flooded my face. The was the prettiest potato looking newborn I have ever seen. I saw his hands looks like Josh's and his pretty blonde hair. His long lanky limbs and little lips. Joshua got to cut the cord and he was so proud of this new being we created. We got to do skin to skin for about an hour. My family, who spent the night in the hospital waiting room, flooded in to meet him. We recovered for 2 hours and then were moved to our room where we spent 2 more blissful days!
I have to give credit to my Crossfit conditioning. Without it, I would not have been able to push that hard, for that long. Thomas' vitals looked amazing the whole time because he was just as conditioned as I was. Hypno baby training also came in handy, even with medication. I needed to conserve my energy between contractions and self hypnosis assisted in that. After we went to our recovery room, I had nurses coming in the whole time saying, "That was the hardest and longest I have seen anyone push in "x" amount of years. You were amazing!" And "We are so happy you were strong and able to deliver naturally!" It felt so good to hear I did a good job. I was just doing whatever I could to help him along. In the end, even with all the plan derails, I am so happy with my birth and delivery experience. My angel nurses, Joanie and Jenny, made it possible. They looked after me and supported me in everything I did. My midwife, Pat, was so patient with me, even at the end of her 24 hour shift in which she already delivered 4 other babies. And of course, my mother and my husband. They worked hard to pull me through it and i needed them both so much. I am thrilled I was able to pull through and deliver him naturally, even if it took a needle down my spine to do so. I would do it again to feel the love I felt for Thomas that day, and every day after. Orange Coast Memorial really took care of us and we will be going back when #2 comes along!
