For those of you interested in the labor and delivery details read on, otherwise stop here and avoid the gruesome details. :)
I was one of the lucky people who is blessed with an easy and trouble-free pregnancy. I did have nausea and fatigue at the beginning, but from about 14 weeks on I felt great. I noticed my Braxton-Hicks contractions from about midway through my pregnancy, but they started getting more and more frequent during the last couple weeks. This caused a lot of anticipation on my part as I kept hoping they were picking up for real.
On Monday night they started coming every 10 minutes and I didn't get very much sleep because they were pretty "crampy". All day Tuesday they continued and I ran errands and cleaned the house and tried not to think about it too much. I was scheduled to see the OB Wednesday morning and probably be induced on Thursday, so I was almost done no matter what.
By Tuesday evening they were getting more and more painful and frequent. I called and told Drew so he could come home just in case. Around 10 p.m. I decided it was time to go, when we got to the hospital the contractions were every 4 minutes and really hurting. I was therefore very disappointed to be told I was only at a 3. I had always thought I was pretty good at handling pain. We stayed for a couple hours while they monitored the baby and rechecked me. I was still a 3 despite the fact that the contractions were hurting bad enough that I asked for pain medication. And I never take pain medication. I was planning on getting nothing until the epidural when I got to 6-7 cm.
They gave me 2 percocets and sent me home. I started to panic on the way home because I couldn't handle the pain and the contractions were sometimes just 3 minutes apart. I hardly had time to recollect myself. We tried to go to bed and I took a couple benadryl in desperation. I had no idea how I was going to make it through the night. I don't know how much time passed at home, maybe an hour or so. I was up out of bed every time a contraction hit. The medications didn't seem to help at all, but I started to breathe and relax better through the contractions because I was ready to do whatever made the pain not so awful. I felt so desperate and scared.
I finally tried to go to the bathroom and there was a lot of blood. Okay, so as a nurse I know that blood always looks more abundant than it is, but I decided it was time to go back to the hospital. So, we got back in the car and drove the 20 minute drive back to the hospital. We had called them on the way and I guess when they saw me doubled over in pain they took me seriously. They put me in a wheelchair and took me to a room and started hooking me up and looking for an IV site. I was getting better at breathing through the contractions at this point and it helped a lot. I was at a "5" when the nurse checked me and I was told the bleeding was normal during labor. They said the anesthesiologist would place my epidural as soon as he finished down the hall. I was so happy to hear that.
I got some Fentanyl through the IV which didn't do much and they started bolusing fluids. The anesthesiologist had some trouble getting my epidural in, but it was placed within an hour or so of my arrival. At this point they rechecked me and I was already at a "7". After a very slow start, things were progressing pretty fast now. I think it was because I had finally relaxed and let the contractions do their work.
Then it was just time to rest and wait. Within a couple hours I was at 9 cm, so the OB came and broke my water so the baby could drop down more. Soon I was at 10 cm, but a small lip of the cervix still needed to go away so we waited some more. At 10 a.m. I was ready to push. My epidural was even starting to wear off enough that I could feel the contractions and pressure and knew when to push. The baby was already so low that we could see her head the first time I pushed. Drew looked so excited.
The pushing was the easiest part and the most enjoyable. I felt in control and empowered. After 30 minutes, we had to slow down pushing to wait for the OB. I didn't want to stop, but I tried to rest through a couple contractions. When the OB arrived I think I pushed for two more contractions and the baby's head was out. It was surreal. Then the whole baby was out and placed on my stomach. She looked a little blue at first, but pinked up quickly.
We were so happy to welcome Lillian Marie into the world at 11:01 a.m. 11/17/10. She was 8 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long.
After her birth the next 24 hours were pretty much a blur. I didn't get out of bed until around 10 the next morning. Her shoulder had caused a significant internal laceration that had opened up some varicosities. The OB worked on suturing for a long time, but the bleeding continued. She came back and they used my epidural to re-numb me and sutured some more. They put in packing and I got another catheter. Soon I was bleeding through the packing so in came about 4 nurses and 2 doctors and the anesthesiologist to remedicate me. Both OBs rechecked me and decided the bleeding wasn't uterine or cervical, but that I needed to go to Interventional Radiology for a procedure to slow the bleeding. I was wheeled away for an angiogram and embolization of my left uterine artery. They put a catheter through my femoral artery and placed an embolus to slow blood flow to the area. I fell asleep during the procedure. After they finished I was told that I had to lay completely flat for 4 hours. And I couldn't breastfeed for 24 hours. Luckily the procedure worked and my bleeding slowed.
My hematocrit the next morning was 31 (I think I started at 40-41) so all in all it wasn't too bad and I didn't need to be transfused. It did mean that I lost my first day of feeding and bonding with Lilly, but after a couple difficult days she learned how to breastfeed instead of bottle feed and I started feeling more alive again.
We are both doing great and I am so thankful for a very happy, healthy baby!
