Thursday (4/21/11) was our weekly appointment to the doctor and I was only 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. I hadn’t had any BH contractions, no loss of MP, no drop of the baby, nothing to tell me I was close to having him. I was feeling pretty down in the dumps because I was just over being pregnant at this point. The doctor definitely brightened my day when she did a quick u/s to see Dylan’s position. Friday (4/22/11) Jason and I decided to rent a movie just to kind of relax knowing my due date was in two days. We rented Country Strong (which was a really good movie) and ended up in bed by 10pm. I made one of my nightly trips to the bathroom around midnight…nothing. Then, what felt like 2 minutes but was actually 45 minutes, I woke up feeling like I was starting to pee myself. I ran to the bathroom as fast as I could while trying to “hold it in” but by the time I went to pull down my pants, my water broke all over my pants, the toilet and the floor. I just sat there for a second thinking, “Is this really happening right now?!” I yelled in to Jason saying my water broke and of course he was like “how do you know?!” Well…the fact that I couldn’t hold it in and it was A LOT of “pee” and it was clear definitely confirmed it was AF. We called the doctor and let him know. He said we didn’t have to run any red lights to get to the hospital but we should head in since my water broke. So, I showered, straightened my hair and ate a little breakfast.
On the way to the hospital I experienced my first real contraction. We arrived at the hospital around 2:45am. All the nurses were like “we’ve been waiting for you!”. They got me all checked in and checked me…no change. They hooked me up to receive IV fluids (standard for when water breaks). My nurse told me the doctor was giving me until 5am and if I had no progression, they would start pitocin. Well, my contractions weren’t really picking up and I hadn’t changed so at 5am the nurse started the pitocin drip on the lowest dose. I knew every time the nurse came in she was upping the pitocin drip but I didn’t say anything because the pain was manageable. BTW…I wanted a natural childbirth. At 7am there was a shift change so I got a new nurse and a new doctor. I was okay with this because it was one of my favorite doctors, Dr. W! I bounced on the birthing ball, tried standing and swaying my hips, and laid in the bed. Around 10am the pain was getting to be a bit unbearable. At this point I made the decision to have an analgesic (can’t remember the name of the medicine) to help take the edge off. Basically I slept in between my contractions. When a contraction would pick up, Jason was right there reading the monitor and letting me know when the contraction peaked and was starting to decrease. This really helped me get through the tough ones. From 10am to 3:30pm it was all a blur. I had my eyes closed the entire time, I would rest and then a contraction would come and I would breathe through them as best I could. I later found out that they had upped my pitocin to a 20, which is the highest they’d go for someone with no pain meds. From the 10am-3:30pm window, I received two of the analgesics. When they checked me at 3:30pm, I was only 5cm dilated and 100% effaced and still a 0 station. At this point the doctor was worried Dylan may not fit through my pelvis since he was still high. Because I had already labored for 12 hours, I decided to get the epidural in hopes it would relax my body and I would open up. My anesthesiologist was the head of the department and he did an amazing job. I didn’t feel a single thing…expect for the back to back contractions I was having! Once I received the epi, Jason pretty much had to tell me when I was having a contraction because I couldn’t feel anything! I was finally able to visit with my family that drove in for the birth. Again, at 7pm there was another shift change for the nurse. When my third nurse came in, she was like “you’re still here?!” “yeah, I’m still here!” At 7:30pm the doctor checked me and I was at 9cm, 0 station. Again, he was nervous that Dylan wouldn’t fit. Finally at 9:30pm I was 10cm still 0 station and I could start pushing around 10:30pm!! They turned my epi off and immediately I started feeling my intense contractions again. Right before I started pushing, they turned it back on but it definitely didn’t help because I could still feel them. Because he hadn’t dropped yet, at every push I felt like I was crushing him and the pain in my upper stomach hurt worse than the actual pushing. My contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes so it was pretty boring in between pushes. At this point, I just wanted to push until he came out! So from 10:30pm until 1am I pushed and pushed but nothing happened. Well something happened…I pooped all over the bed…eeeeewww! My nurse ended up getting the charge nurse at this point and she had me push and nothing was changing. Then the doctor came in, checked me and told me I was “shucked”. Apparently that meant that he wasn’t coming out vaginally and they prepped me for an emergency c-section since it had already been over 24 hours since my water broke. It was the scariest thing I have ever been through but I knew it was the only decision and it had to be done. Jason was absolutely amazing and stayed strong during this scary time. He doesn’t do well with blood, needles, etc so for him to stay calm for me really truly shows what an amazing person he is. He ran out and told all of my family, who had been there since 10am, that I was going in for a c-section. They brought me into the operating room, got me all set up and brought in Jason. At 1:18am Dylan was born! About 30 seconds later I heard the most precious little cry I have ever heard. He scored a 9 and a 9 on his APGAR so I was very pleased. He weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 20.5 inches long. Jason went over and cut the cord and stayed with him while they cleaned him off. They brought him over to me and he looked so peaceful. The doctor told me that my pelvis is too small to vaginally deliver. He said that normally when he does a c-section after someone was pushing, he has to extract the baby out of the pelvis area and poor Dylan hadn’t even made it that far. Basically his head was bouncing on my pelvis bone the whole time. Definitely explains why I never dropped!
After being in labor for 25 hours, trying to go natural, getting an epidural and then a c-section, I feel I have experienced every aspect of childbirth that I could ever imagine. Knowing that I can never vaginally deliver is a little sad, but at least next time around we’ll know we don’t have to go through another full day of labor! I wouldn’t change any of it!
When I was in recovery, we noticed that his tongue wasn’t fully extending and he had a little divot in the front of his tongue. We were told he was tongue tied. Over the few days we were in the hospital we kept an eye on it but he was latching beautifully and they weren’t too concerned but recommended we see an ENT once we were released. We were released on 4/27 and saw the specialist on 4/28. She told us that he had a pretty severe tongue tie and that she could fix it right then and there. We decided to go ahead with the procedure. So, I went in the room with the doctor and nurse while they performed the procedure and once they were done, I had to hold pressure with a gauze under his tongue for 10 minutes. Dylan slept through the whole thing!! He made it so easy for me. He is no longer tongue tied and latches even better than before.
He is truly a miracle and I can’t even imagine life without him. I look down at him while he feeds and I can’t help but get all teary eyed at the thought that Jason and I created him. WE made this little person and he is ours for the rest of our lives. We are absolutely head over heels in love with him and cannot wait to watch him grow.
