Warning: If you aren't interested in reading about childbirth, this post isn't for you. :)
Since I didn't go into labor on my own with Ryder, I wondered what it would be like - would I know when to go to the hospital? At my 37 week appointment I was 70% effaced and 1cm dilated (I think). A few days later, while we were out for a walk, I leaked some fluid. I thought my water might have broken, but after that initial trickle, there was no more fluid, so I just waited until my 38 week appointment to have it checked out. The doctor said my water wasn't broken. I was still about 70% effaced and 3cm dilated. I was having a lot of contractions over the next few days, but they were on and off, and at varying levels of intensity. Some were really painful and I kept wondering if things were starting. Memorial day in particular I had a lot of pain and just had a feeling it wouldn't be too much longer. I was right.
Wednesday evening (5/30), we were out for our evening walk. Rudy and I were sharing the narrow sidewalk, with Ryder in the stroller. I said to him, "I'm going in the street so I can walk faster - let's get these contractions going." I moved to the street and within 30 seconds I felt fluid trickling out and then it turned into a big gush! It was about 7:30pm when my water broke. I stood in the street, feet apart (brand new tennis shoes, of course!) with a puddle on the ground. We literally stood there for a few minutes, not really knowing what to do! It was definitely a rush of excitement, anxiety, uncertainty. We were about 20 minutes from home, so we started making our way back. My parents had decided to go to the white mountains for a few days and I was counting on them to take care of Ryder when we had to go to the hospital. Thankfully, my sister was around and able to take care of him. Once we got home, we showered and finished packing our bags - good thing we didn't have to leave in a hurry because we definitely weren't ready. We loaded up Ryder and the dogs and headed out to drop them all off with my sister. Biggest mistake - not eating before we left. We had a little snack before our walk but planned to eat dinner afterward. I was STARVING for the rest of the night.
We got to the hospital around 10pm. I was having some contractions, but they weren't painful or very strong. We got checked into triage and they got me on the monitors. They did 2 tests to varify that my water had broken - one came back half positive, half negative (I don't know how that's possible) and the other negative - I was SHOCKED. I knew my water had broken, there was no other explanation. When the nurse checked me, she said I was at 6cm dilated. They called the doctor who was on-call (I have 4 different doctors) and she said it sounded like my water had broken and since I was dilated so far, they were keeping me. I am a carrier for group B strep and require antibiotics during labor - it's important that I get 2 doses in 4 hours before delivering. So by about midnight or 1am we got settled into our delivery room. The nurse checked and said she would call me 5cm, not 6. Bummer! She got my IV started, which is the absolute worst part for me. The nurse said, "You've got great veins and I'm an excellent poker, so this will be a piece of cake." Umm, not so much. My vein collapsed while she was trying to take blood and she ended up having to do it a second time in a different spot. Here is a picture of the failed IV location, a week after the fact.
My contractions were about 5 minutes apart but not painful. They said if they didn't get stronger, I'd have to have pitocin - which I REALLY hoped to avoid this time! So we walked the halls like crazy and I was doing tons of squats and lunges. I got tired of walking back and forth, so we decided to lay down and get some rest. Of my 4 doctors, 2 are female, 2 male. I had been crossing my fingers that I'd have a female for delivery. I was pretty happy that the female that I liked best was on call that night, until 7am. When the doctor checked me, she also said I was more like 5cm.
At 5am I got my second dose of antibiotics and since my contractions hadn't picked up, they decided to start the pitocin - major bummer. At that time, the nurses shift change happened and I got a new nurse. I wasn't crazy about the one we had all night and really liked the one that took over. The doctor tried to break my water, since they had not been able to confirm it had broken. Well she couldn't find anything to break and let me tell you it was pretty painful having her dig around with that tool! She did find a pocket of water but said that my water must have broken like I thought - DUH!!! They said sometimes it can tear up high, not allowing all the fluid out and that's probably why they couldn't confirm it with their tests. Anyway, they started the pitocin at a very low dose and over the course of an hour kept turning it up. By 6am the contractions were pretty intense and required me to really focus and concentrate - no epidural for me and I wasn't even going to consider it. Somewhere between 6 and 7 the contractions got BAD. Like WAY more painful than I remembered them being last time (good thing we can forget things like that). I really wasn't sure how long I could take it. After being up all night and only getting a few hours of sleep the night before, I was exhausted and had a hard time relaxing and breathing through each one. I felt completely out of control.
I have no idea what time it was - probably somewhere after 7 (bummer, the doctor I wanted was no longer there - my least favorite and a male was going to be the one to deliver now), the nurse checked me and said I was at 6cm. She said to let her know if I started having the urge to push. At that point the pain was SOOO bad and I felt like giving up - I kept saying, "I don't want to do this anymore, I want to go home!" I knew I was in transition at that point (the stage where you dilate from 7-10cm) because you generally feel like giving up. Anyway, with the next contraction after she told me to let her know if I felt the urge to push, I felt the urge to push. Let me just tell you that when you don't have an epidural, you can't fight the urge to push, your body just does it. The nurse said, " I JUST checked you and you were at 6!" But she checked me again and said I was close to 9cm! It took 2 contractions to go from 6cm to 9cm! This baby was coming FAST and the doctor wasn't there yet. I heard another nurse say he was at Sabino Canyon and Snyder (not very close to the hospital) and I knew there was no way I could hold out that long. My sweet nurse was pretty sure she was going to catch the baby - she stayed at the foot of the bed with her gloves on. She kept saying, "You can't trust a woman that hasn't had an epidural." Very true! The nice thing about my doctor's office is that it is located across the parking lot from the labor and delivery center at the hospital, so one of the other doctors was able to run over to deliver the baby - it was the other male, but I like him a lot. He's probably my favorite of the 4, besides the fact that he is a male. He got there JUST in time. I was sooo relieved to see him walk in the room! He got suited up and it was time! I only had to push TWICE and Bentley was out! I looked down to see his back with the cord wrapped around his shoulder and all around his body. I wasn't surprised because he was always so active in my belly. I was SOOO relieved that I only had to push twice. I was out of energy and couldn't imagine pushing for 2 hours, like I did with Ryder. It was so amazing to see his sweet little face for the first time! I noticed it was really blue though - turned out it was bruised. Apparently because he came out so fast, his face took all of the pressure.
I couldn't believe it was over! Although there's a lot that happens afterward that is pretty painful - they massage your stomach pretty hard to get as much blood out as possible (seriously hurts really bad) and then there's the stitches .... ugh. Have you ever had stitches without being numbed first? I have. Apparently the doctor assumed I had the epidural when he started stitching and at that point I said just got for it, forget the shot. But after the pain of labor, I guess it wasn't so bad.
Looking back on it, although the pain was excruciating and unbearable, it was a pretty easy birth. He was born about 12 hours after my water broke, but I was only in painful, hard labor for about 2 hours. Not bad at all! As quickly as it really got going, it was over. We were all exhausted afterward and with visitors and nurses checking my vitals pretty often, we didn't get to sleep at all the rest of that day. (Speaking of vitals - my resting heart rate was 33 that day - the nurses were pretty concerned at how low it was, but decided it was because I exercise a lot and must be really fit?)
Here's just a few pictures from our first couple days at home:
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