Month: February 2015

Birth Story Part 2: In Labor and Delivery

Posted on by thepeepsmama

This part of the story takes place in my Labor and Delivery room. The timing of this portion is all a blur to me, but I do know the basic order of events and I will try to piece it all together.

The first challenge was finding a hospital gown that I didn’t want to rip off of myself- because the material aggravated my Obstetric Cholestasis and made me super itchy. When I mentioned my discomfort to one of the doctors he offered me a dose do benedryl via my iv. I’m not usually one to say yes to drugs but I was desperate for relief. It was also supposed to make me drowsy- and I was hoping to be able to rest. Sadly the benedryl didn’t work as well as I had hoped and I was too uncomfortable from the contractions to be able to sleep.

Right away when I got to my room I was hooked up to the monitors for the babies and for my contractions. I wanted to take a bath so badly, but I wasn’t allowed to (can’t remember why at the moment) I think they just wanted to monitor the babies. Eventually I was allowed to take a bath for about 20 minutes in between monitoring sessions.

I rotated between soaking in the bath to the bed (when I had to be monitored) and then to the birthing ball and back to the bathroom to lean on the towel rack while someone put pressure on my lower back. I would also try to stand up and sway back and forth and make figure eights with my hips in between contractions. These things all really helped me stay on top of the pain. After about 10 hours of constantly having to get back in bed to be monitored I finally realized that if I put the birthing ball next to the bed I could ask the nurse to attach the monitors to my belly while I stayed in the ball. This was so much better than having to lay in bed during my contractions.

Something I learned from my Bradley Method class was to make sure all of my muscles were completely relaxed during a contraction. During labor we referred to this as “going limp”. If I started to tense up someone (mom, sister or husband) would remind me to “go limp” and I would hang my head down, dangle my arms at my sides and basically focus on focussing on nothing. This was the only way I could get through my contractions. It was like being in a zone. If I could get there I could make it through. A few times when I tried to make it from one if my stations to the next and I ran out of time before the contraction started- this was when I really struggled to relax and the contractions were much harder to make it through. So my tip for anyone preparing for labor is to go limp BEFORE a contraction starts.

I felt like my labor was moving along well and I kept assuming that I was further along than I actually was. I was progressing, but my cervix wasn’t dilating as quickly as I thought it would. Sometime in the afternoon the doctor gave me the option of stripping my membranes or breaking my water. I opted for the membranes, and while the doctor was doing that I felt a gush of fluid. We thought my water had broken but a few hours later found out that it was just my membranes. So we had to break my water later on. This felt like a massive gush of hot water. Not warm like I expected but almost to the point of being uncomfortably hot. And the water just kept flowing and flowing and flowing… Now I know that the smaller gushes I felt were nothing close to being my actual water breaking. Shortly after this though the nurse began to monitor the babies constantly so I had one last soak in the tub and then I was confined to the bed and birthing ball.

Almost as soon as my water broke my contractions intensified and I really struggled to stay on top of the pain. At that point I considered getting the epidural earlier than I had planned. Originally I wanted to wait till right before going into the OR for delivery so the babies wouldn’t have much time to be affected by the drugs.  Since I had already been in labor for around 30 hours and I hadn’t slept for close to 3 days I was wondering why I should wait to get the epidural. My husband tried to get me to hold off, so I waited another hour. Then I started feeling a lot of pressure so I thought the babies were getting ready to come out. Then I panicked and thought I waited too long to get the epidural. So I was placed in the waiting list for my epidural. Once I was in the list then time passed so slowly. All I could think about was getting the epidural. The anesthesiologist finally arrived and prepped me (and everyone else had to leave the room including my husband). Right before she was going to place the epidural she got an emergency call and had to rush out to a c-section. I felt bad for the other woman needing the emergency c-section (but mainly I felt bad for myself- selfish I know) but at that point I was so ready for the epidural that I wanted to scream “are you kidding me!” after the anesthesiologist as she left the room. Thankfully I refrained. The contractions were coming one right after the other. Maybe a minute between but it seemed like as soon as one diminished another wave would start. I was left alone with a nurse (who wasn’t very kind and understanding) I don’t think she said a word to me while I waited. Because of that though I was forced to focus on getting through the contractions on my own. I was able to deal with them and stay on top of the pain better than I was when I had my family members caring for me. I think I was forced to be strong- and it kind of worked for me. I still am so thankful for my mom, sister and supportive husband who labored with me the entire time.

Finally (after 20 or so additional minutes of waiting- that seemed like an eternity) the anesthesiologist returned and placed my epidural. After they had placed the catheter and set me up in my bed they administered the drugs. I was given a button to push every hour to give myself additional doses. I actually tried to give myself more meds too early and it won’t let you. Once you get the epidural you can’t get out of bed (because your legs basically stop working from the drugs). So at last I was able to rest for about an hour- and my helpers took a much needed rest as well.

For some reason the nurse kept making me turn from side to side. I remember this because each time I had to turn over my bag of urine from the catheter had to be passed over me and hung on the other side of the bed. I mainly was spending time resting on my right side which meant that the drugs were settling in my right side and my left side was no longer numb. I was annoyed that I couldn’t lay on my left side so I could numb the left side that was hurting pretty bad again. Then I found out the reason why.

Every time I had a contraction baby A’s heart rate was dropping into the low 70s and then spiking higher and continued to do this for a few hours (I think, I’m still fuzzy on all the details) the doctors think it was due to a low volume of fluid of amniotic fluid left after my water for Baby A broke which was causing the cord to be compressed. At one point his heart rate was down for over 4 min so they decided it was time to deliver. My husband, who is in medical school was actually surprised that they had let me continue to labor for so long rather than taking me in for a c-section right away. He told me that most doctors would have done that but my doctor just kept monitoring me closely. She told me afterward that she was right on the border of making the decision to do a c-section.

I still wasn’t fully dilated yet (so the resident doctor tried to open my cervix manually while I pushed. We were still in my labor and delivery room and I knew the plan was to deliver in the OR. I started to sense that there was a need to get things going faster and this was super stressful. At that point about 5 additional nurses plus my doctor rushed in. They put my oxygen mask on (I had been using the mask earlier but it was hanging around my neck during the pushing session.) They told me that I needed to get more oxygen to my baby because his heart rate was too low. I got really scared and my first thought was to have a c-section in order to get the babies out immediately so I suggested this to my doctor. I was thinking that cutting me open was sounding like a much less risky option for the babies at that point. My doctor said we didn’t need to operate so we headed to the OR to attempt a vaginal delivery anyway. My doctor was confident that with the help of forceps (that thought terrified me even more) she could help get baby A out quickly.

Someone threw a pair of scrubs at my husband and yelled “let’s go” we were already wheeling out of the room leaving my husband behind in the bathroom changing. I fought hard to fight back the tears (but now as I recall the events and write this post the tears are flowing freely).  I raised my fingers while clutching to my oxygen mask in an attempt to wave to my mom and sister who were not allowed in the OR. They looked just as scared as I felt and I knew they would be praying for me the entire time.

On the way down the hall my doctor squeezed my hand and reassured me that everything would be fine. As much as I trusted my doctor I was still more terrified than I had ever been in my life. I needed more than trust in a capable doctor, I needed God. I was praying silently and then not so silently for my babies to be delivered safely. Then I couldn’t even pray in full sentences so all I could do was keep repeating  “Oh God, Oh Lord, Oh Lord Jesus.”

The rest of the story takes place in the OR. I’ll post about Delivering Twins soon! I’m slowly typing out my story during 15 min. breast pumping sessions (the only time I can find to blog these days) which is why this has taken me so long to post! Thanks for your patience!