My Labor Story

Since my blog has become some what of my journal, I figured why not write out my labor story here. It was quite the journey, very scary at times, but we are so thankful everything turned out well. So, here it is...

When I was 37 weeks pregnant I went for my routine doctor's appointment and had high blood pressure. My doctor wanted to watch Clay and I really well to make sure the high blood pressure was not effecting either one of us. So, she had us do a non-stress test. This is where they put you on a monitor for about 30 min and watch the baby's heart rate to make sure he is doing well. Then they do an ultrasound to check your amniotic fluid. I had to go in twice a week to do this testing. Well, the first two went great. On Friday May 29th, (when I had just turned 38 weeks) I went to my regular doctor's appointment, and everything was fine there (my blood pressure wasn't even that high). Then I went to do my non-stress test. I was on the heart monitor for 30 minutes and Clay's heart rate was fine, then I went to do the ultrasound. I was LEAST worried that anything would go wrong with the ultrasound. Well, she kept looking and looking for the amniotic fluid and then told us to wait there while she went and got someone else to look. They came in and tried to find the fluid. Then they told us that my fluid needed to be between 10 and 20 and it was only at 3.6. So, the nurse said "happy birthday" and I freaked. I was like "whoa whoa whoa, what do you mean happy birthday." She said that there was no way the doctor was going to let me go home with that low of amniotic fluid. She said they would either want to induce me or hospitalize me and put me on IV for 24 hours to see if the fluids went up. So, they went and told my OB, she came in and said that they had to induce. I asked her about the IV thing and she said, "no way... we have to induce, not with fluid being only 3.6." And of course, I started crying. This was soooo not the way I expected my labor to go. I was barely 38 weeks. I asked her if we could go home just to get our stuff and she told us no, that we had to go up to labor and delivery right away. Of course I had heard of your chances of having to have a csection going up when you are induced, especially that early. We had found out that I was 2 cm and 60-70% effaced, so my doctor told me that I was "favorable" for a vaginal delivery.

So, off we went. It was such a surreal experience. Before I knew it I was hooked up to a fetal monitor, a contraction monitor, had an IV (yeah, the nurse couldn't get it into my wrist because my veins were so small and so she had to put it in the bendy part of my elbow (?? yeah, I don't know what it's called). I kept thinking this is SOOOO not how I wanted to labor. I mean, I was preparing and trying to have a natural labor, with no epidural. I had talked to my doctor about just monitoring me once in awhile and not having an IV, ect so I could move around and get comfortable. Well, not only was I being induced (which I have heard makes harder labor) but I was basically strapped into this bed for ALL of it, even before I had my first contraction.

As I am getting hooked up to every monitor in the world, Rob called my mom, and (I heard) she freaked, although she did come to the hospital with a calm look on her face (anything for her daughter). We had to give her our keys and she had to go to our house and get all our stuff. (Remember, we went to the hospital just expecting to have a doctor's appointment and go home. We even made a grocery list while I was doing the fetal monitor in prenatal testing to stop by Walmart on the way home) Yeah, I mostly had everything packed, but Rob hadn't packed anything. So mom went and got all our stuff and came back. You should have seen her walk into the door with all our stuff by herself. She had found a wheelchair to put most of our stuff in and was carrying my birthing ball. It was hilarious!

So, they started the patocin (sp?) at about 2 pm and I started having contractions about 30-45 min later. They progressively got worse, but I was still doing fine. At about 6 cm, my water broke. When I was 8 cm (yes, going into transition, the hardest part of labor) I felt the urge to push so my mom went and told the nurse and all of a sudden about 15 doctors and nurses came rushing into the room. At this point I am in a lot of pain and had my eyes closed the entire time. All I knew what that there were a ton of people around me and they were telling me to move around. I could tell something was wrong, but I had no idea if it was something I was doing wrong or something was wrong with the baby. Then they made me lay on my back (I was having back labor, so this was extremely uncomfortable) and I could tell they were putting something in me. Ok, here I am in transition, no pain killers and they are doing all this stuff to make me even more in pain. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I still have a had time recalling what happened, what I heard and did. Anyway, come to find out, Clay had gone into distress ( his heart rate went down). They put 2 internal monitors inside of me and on the baby. One to watch his heart rate and one to watch the contractions. They also put a catheter in me and had called the anaesthesiologist because they were getting me ready for an EMERGENCY C-SECTION! They tried one last thing, putting fluid inside my uterus to try and cushion the umbilical cord and said that if his heart rate did not go up in the next contraction, they were going to bring me to do the c-section. I guess his heart rate went back up (PRAISE THE LORD) and everything calmed down in the room. I still had no idea what happened. I just knew something had gone wrong and I was freaking out. I didn't know if I was doing something wrong and I couldn't think straight. So, I asked how much longer I had and the nurse told me probably and few hours and I said, I want an epidural.

So, the anaesthesiologist came in (almost right away, I think he was there because they had just called him for my emergency c-section) . I got the ep. and the nurse checked me and I was 10 cm. Now, most women's reaction when they get the ep is so grateful to the anaesthesiologist, and say that they are their favorite person, etc. When I found out I was 10 cm, my reaction was "You mean I just got an ep. and I am 10 CM!!!" The nurse did tell me that Clay was still very high and that even though I was 10 cm, they did not want me to push but wait to let him come down more. OK, this is proof to me that Clay was not ready to come out. In all the classes and books I have read, when you are 10 cm, that's it. It is time to push. NEVER did I read that they would not have you push yet because the baby was too high. It just didn't seem right. It was like we were forcing the poor little guy to come out and he was resisting.

Anyway, I went for another hour and a half before they had me push. This is when Rob and mom told me what had happened and that I almost had a c-section. And since it would have been an emergency c-section, and I had not had an epidural they would have had to knock me out and I would have woken up with a baby. I am SOO thankful that did not happen. Well, about a little after 12 midnight, they said Clay was still pretty high, but that I could start pushing if I wanted to and I said sure. So, I pushed for about an hour and out came baby Clay. The doctor put him on my chest and he was screaming!! All I wanted to do was hold him and tell him everything thing was going to be ok. About 2 seconds after the doctor put him in my arms, Clay pooped ALL OVER ME. I mean it filled my hand and ran down my arm, was all over the bed and even all over the blood pressure thing. The nurse came over and said she had never seen a baby do that before. It was awesome! I wish we had taken a picture.

The whole experience was crazy! I mean, I still can't believe it happened. All I said for about 30 minutes after having him was "I can't believe we have a baby." over and over again. Although I don't think Clay was "ready" to come out, I am thankful we did what we did. Especially after what happened with the distress thing. The doctor explained later that there is this coating on the umbilical cord that helps it keep it's shape after your water breaks, so the baby continues to get blood while you are in labor. Well, what happens sometimes when you have low amniotic fluid is that that begins to dry up, so when your water breaks, it compresses the cord. So, when they put fluid back up in me, it must have cushioned the cord enough. Who knows what could have happened if we went longer and I had even less amniotic fluid. Although this whole labor and delivery thing did not go anything like I had expected or planned, I believe in the sovereignty of God. I know that God is in control and everything went according to his perfect plan! Oh, man, what a crazy experience.