the details of labor and delivery

This post is going to contain losts of details. I will try to stay away from anything too gross, but if you don't want all the details, don't read any further. :) You've been warned.

Tuesday morning about 2:00 am I woke up having contractions. They were mildly painful and seemed to be about 10 minutes apart. I went ahead and got up because I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep between wondering if this was "it" and having pain every 10 minutes. So...I went to the living room intending to entertain myself and monitor contractions. The contractions moved closer...more like 5 minutes apart pretty quickly. They were still just mildly painful, though. So, I read stuff online and watched random news on tv. This whole time I was also leaking a little every once in a while so I figured that my water must have broken. Maybe that's what woke me up. I still wasn't entirely convinced that I was in labor, though.

About 5:00 I decided to go ahead and take a shower. I was beginning to be pretty sure that this was actually "it" so I wanted to make sure I got to clean up before I couldn't handle the contractions and take a shower at the same time. In addition, I had read several places that, if you are having false labor, taking a shower can cause the contractions to spread out or go away. I figured that I would have a better idea of what was going on by the time I got out and could let Matt know what he needed to do. That would also give me time to catch my mom before she headed to work. She was the scheduled keeper of Nathan. While I was in the shower, the contractions got closer together and were a little more painful. I found that doing a squat (plié style) during the contractions helped them to be a little less painful. At some point, Matt came in and asked if I was in labor (I'm not normally in the shower at 5-something in the morning) and I told him "probably."

After I got out of the shower, the contractions spread out a little, but still stayed pretty regular and mildly painful. They were manageable, though. Occasionally some of them hurt more than the others, but most of them weren't too bad. My mom came to pick up Nathan around 8:00 (I think). He probably could have stayed a little longer, but I didn't want to have to worry about him as labor got worse. Plus, I didn't want him to worry about me being in pain. So, as the morning progressed, I continued to try to keep myself occupied. I straightened up a few things around the house and packed up the rest of my hospital bag. I watched tv and sat on an exercise ball. I found the ball (like a birthing ball) to be a comfortable place to sit. I could also find positions that were a little less painful while I was having contractions. In theory, the ball also helps the baby to move into position.

So, that's pretty much how the morning went. As it got close to lunchtime, I decided to call the doctor's office. I didn't want to go to the hospital too early, so I wanted to see if they could check me to see how much I had progressed. I talked to the main nurse and she told me that Dr. Shirley was at the hospital because she had three people in labor. She suggested that I go ahead and go the hospital to get checked. She said I could always go home if I wasn't too far along. I asked her if they would keep me if my water had broke. (I didn't previously tell her that I thought it had.) She said that they would and strongly advised that I go ahead and go. Basically, she fussed at me for not just going since my water had been broken for probably 10 hours at that point. When I got off the phone, Matt and I discussed whether to go ahead and go or not. I really didn't want to go, but I also didn't want to put the baby in danger by not going. We finally decided to go ahead and go. Before leaving, we both grabbed a little to eat and then headed out.

I think it was just before 1:00 when we got checked in at the hospital. They put me on the monitors (one to monitor contractions and one to monitor the baby's heart rate) as soon as we got there. The contractions were actually pretty spread out...on the side closer to 10 minutes...at the time, but I told them that they had been much closer at times during the morning. After a little while, they checked to see if my water had actually broke. They were doing a swab test to confirm if it was amniotic fluid or not. However, when she took the sample, she could tell that it was broke by the amount of leaking that was happening. They also checked me at that point (at my request) and I was at 5 cm. That made me happy. I would have loved to be a little further, but my fear was that they would tell me I was only 2 or 3.

When we first got to the hospital, we were in an outpatient room. They told me that all the labor and delivery rooms were full (not normal for this hospital). I had to be on the monitors for a little while and then they would let me get up and walk around. By the time I could get off the monitors, they had a L&D room ready for me so we went ahead and moved. After we got settled, Matt and I went to walk the halls. They aren't too long in that area, so it didn't take too long to make a loop. However, I did have to stop every once in a while to have a contraction. Each time, I would grab the rail on the wall and assume the squat-like position. It made me feel a little self-conscious, but I figure you can do what you want when you're a woman in labor. As we walked, the contractions got closer together. Most of them were pretty painful at this point. They still were only lasting probably 30 seconds or so, though. As we started the second lap, I had a pretty strong contraction and decided that we should probably go back in the room for me to go to the bathroom (I had been going a lot).

We never did make it back out to walk. I decided that I wanted to try sitting on the birthing ball (actually, I think it was another exercise ball officially). As a side note, they hadn't used the birthing ball in a long time so it needed some air. At some point, Matt went down to the car and added the air so I could use it...they didn't have a pump. Anyway, I did some sitting on the ball and some in the rocking chair. The contractions seemed to be more painful when I was using the chair, though. They continued to get stronger and stronger. It was probably around 3:00 or so when we stayed in the room...maybe a little later. Around 4:00 my doctor came in and checked me. I was at 7 cm. I was glad that I had made some progress but would have liked a little more. At any rate, over the next hour things moved along quickly. My contractions were particularly painful at that point. I did a pretty good job of keeping my head, though. Since I still had a minute or two between most contractions, I tried to "enjoy" that time and remain calm and focused on other things (we were watching Oprah...it was about working moms versus stay-at-hom moms and which was better). Then, when the contractions came, I could focus on getting through that particular one. Also during this time, I started to really have a lot of pressure in my pelvic area. The best way I can describe it is it just felt like the baby was really heavy and pushing down (of course, it was pushing down).

As 5:00 was approaching, the contractions really really hurt. My nurse was in the room for one of the first really bad ones and when I finished I told her that I was starting to feel like pushing. She said something to the effect of "I was going to ask how that one was. It looked different." So...she called the doctor in. I got in the bed and Dr. Shirley checked to see if I could push. (yes, there were a few more contractions in the meantime) When she checked, she said that I was at 9 cm and couldn't push yet. NOT WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR! She told my nurse that I needed a few more contractions first. They both headed out of the room to do whatever and wait a little bit. Well, the next contraction (according to Matt...I couldn't tell you which one this happened on myself), I REALLY had to push. I told Matt that I had to push. He said "you can't push yet." I said "I can't help it. My body is just doing it." So...he called the nurses station to tell them that I was pushing. The nurse came right back in and said that I could push little pushes but just not big "get the baby out" type pushes. My doctor was back after one or two more contractions and checked again and said that I could push. (Matt and I have different recollections on this. He thinks they came in at the same time and Dr. Shirley is the one that told me I could push little pushes.)

So...the end began. My doctor was great! She really worked on my cervix to make sure it didn't tear since it was still a smidge not ready. All she was doing wasn't comfortable, but I knew it was helping. After several contractions of pushing, we had some dialogue (between contractions) about me changing positions. This is one of the things that I had wanted to be able to do...and one of the reasons I chose the doctor I did. I ended up changing to "hands and knees." I didn't really know exactly what that meant, but once I tried it, I was glad that I had. Basically, I turned over on "hands and knees" and sat back on my feet. As soon as I changed to this position, the baby started moving MUCH better. I could tell a difference instantly. I was able to push in the right area much better. With every contraction she moved down. My doctor continued to work to make sure I didn't tear anywhere. When the head was visible, I remember somebody saying "there's the head...with lots of hair." My doctor kept referring to the baby as "she." I don't know why I particularly noticed, but I remember thinking "she doesn't know whether it's a girl or a boy." Anyway, a few contractions later, we had our little girl! For one contraction between her head and her body, I had to not push so that they could suction her out and get the umbilical cord out from around her neck. So...the whole pushing portion took around 30 minutes.

I am pleased with how everything went. Of course it could have been faster and less painful and such, but it really wasn't terrible considering. The contractions were spaced out further than they were with Nathan, so I got a lot more rest time. That really helped both for pain and for mental calmness. I got to stay home for a while so I didn't spend a ton of time laboring at the hospital (about 4.5 hours). I didn't have to have pitocin to move things along like I had the first time, so that helped matters as well. Caroline was never stressed during labor like Nathan was so everything was "safer." The pushing time was much shorter and much more productive. I didn't tear. Well, I had one teeny place...but nothing much to talk about. The end result of all of this for me is that I am in MUCH better shape at this point than I was after Nathan was born.

As expected, Matt was great the whole time! He stayed right with me and encouraged me as needed. He helped me when I wanted it and stayed away when I didn't (which was the more frequent request). He made requests to the nurses when I needed things and took care of getting what I wanted all along the way. He chatted with me between contractions and helped me not to obsess about being in labor. I am so blessed to have a supportive husband. It really makes a huge difference at a time like this!

Well, I think that this book is probably long enough. If by some strange chance there is something else you want to know or something you want more details on, let me know. I'm an open book. :)