May 1st was a normal work day and I felt the same as usual -- tired, big, uncomfortable, but I still didn't have any contractions or any indication that the baby would be coming any day soon. We were having a potluck the next day to celebrate a co-worker's birthday and me going on maternity leave. I assured everyone that I would be there the next day and that Oliver wasn't ready yet.
That night, I was coughing like crazy and couldn't fall asleep. Derek gave me a nasty cold and I had gone from the stuffed-up nose to the uncontrollable coughing stage. I worried that I was keeping Derek awake, so I took my pillows and headed to the guest bedroom. It was around 1:30am at this point and I had just gotten comfortable in bed when I felt a gush of liquid down below. My first thought was that I coughed so much I peed myself. haha! But then I realized it was probably my water breaking so I yelled for Derek and even banged on the wall to wake him up, but he was in a nyquil-induced coma. I had read that if you ever think your water broke, go to the bathroom to empty your bladder and see if you continue to leak liquid. It was still coming out pretty steadily, so I knew it was the real deal. I went to wake Derek up to tell him what was going on and he was so out of it he just stared at me for a little while trying to figure out what I was saying. I think it finally clicked because he jumped out of bed and started getting things together to bring with us.
At this point, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. So I called the hospital, they routed me to Kaiser Permanente's advice nurse who asked me a bunch of questions and determined it was time to head to the hospital. We had just loaded our overnight bags into Derek's car the day before, so we had all the main stuff ready to go. We got dressed,
packed a few last-minute things and headed to the hospital. It finally dawned on me that I was having a baby THAT day, May 2nd, and I started shaking like crazy I was so scared. I mentally wasn't ready as I still assumed I had another week to go, and I hadn't gotten to that point where I just wanted the baby out already. I was totally blindsided.
We got to the hospital around 3am and had to go through the ER entrance as the birthing center doors aren't open that late. We got checked in downstairs and had to sign a few papers. I had already pre-registered a few months back, which I'd highly recommend since you don't want to bother with all the paperwork when you're in labor. Someone brought down a wheelchair and I got a free ride to the birthing center. lol. By this time, I was starting to feel really minor contractions, but they weren't painful at all and they were very brief.
We were taken to the Triage room where they hooked me up to a few machines to check Oliver's heart rate and to see how close/intense my contractions were. They also had to verify that my water did break by taking a sample to the lab to analyze it. That wasn't necessary though as the tech could clearly see the amount of liquid that was still coming out, so she said they were going to admit me and get me set up in a Labor & Delivery room.
Just as a side-note... I am so thankful that my water broke first instead of me going through hours of painful contractions and not knowing when to come into the hospital. A girl was in triage with me that was in tears because her contractions hurt so bad and they sent her home because they weren't close enough or consistent enough. I was scared enough for labor, but having to deal with that on top of it would have really sucked. So I'm happy things played out the way they did :)
We were taken to the room I would give birth in and I was hooked up to some machines and had an IV put in. This was around 4am. I was asked some standard questions by the nurse and then the doctor came in around 4:30am to examine me and see how things were progressing. At this point, I was having light contractions that weren't regular or lasting long, so I knew it was going to be a long day. As expected, I was only dilated 1cm.
Nothing much happened the next several hours. I played games on my ipod as the contractions got closer and more intense. I wasn't allowed to eat anything except clear liquids, which would have been ok if I wasn't diabetic. I was given a sugar-free jello which I promptly threw back up shortly after eating it. Sugar free stuff is gross! I was also getting my finger poked every 2 hours to test my blood sugar level, which was spaced out to every 4 hours around 10am.
Around 10:30am, I was checked again and was only 2cm dilated. I wasn't surprised, but was a little freaked out since the contractions were already pretty painful and I knew I had several more hours to go. The nurse kept saying how awesome and calm I was for someone in labor and that she could only tell I was going through a contraction by looking at the monitor. I had forgotten all about the different labor positions and all the fun things I learned in our childbirth class and stayed in bed to breathe through each contraction. Looking back, I wish I would have moved around more in the early stages.
A little after 12pm, I was ready for an epidural. The contractions were getting really painful and I was over it. I had been in the hospital for almost 9 hours at this point and was getting exhausted. Before going into labor, I was positive I wanted an epidural, but the thought of it terrified me. I'd look at the pictures of the big needle going into the spine and feel sick to my stomach. But after suffering through contractions, the epidural was easy! The anesthesiologist was super friendly and funny and explained everything that was going to happen. He did his thing and within minutes, I could no longer feel my contractions AT ALL. Woohoo! It was amazing.
The downside was that I could no longer get out of bed since I was numb from the waist down, so I had to get a catheter put in. I did enjoy not having to take a trip to the bathroom every 30 minutes though. lol. Since it was lunch time and I was starving, I was able to "eat" some chicken broth. It actually tasted really good, but I ended up throwing it up soon after. Awesome.
Around 1pm, I was at 3cm. The nurse said it generally takes a long time to get up to 5cm, but once that happens, you can expect 1cm per hour. This was good news to me as I had only went from 1 to 3cm in 9 hours and was ready for things to start speeding up!
Around 3:40pm, the nurse decided to check me again. She was pretty certain I hadn't progressed much as my contractions were all over the place and weren't long, consistent or very strong. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was at 6cm! Since I had been laying on my right side since my epidural before 1pm, the nurse turned me on my left side. Right after she did that, she was checking my readings and made a phone call to another nurse that she "needed an extra set of hands in here" which I think is code for "Holy crap, something is wrong but I don't want to scare the patient!"
Within a minute, there were 5 nurses and a doctor in my room going over my printouts, putting an oxygen mask on my face and talking a little frantically about the baby's vitals taking a nosedive. They flipped me back to my right side and told me that the baby's heart rate went from 140 something to 70 something when I was moved to the left side. Once they moved me back, it started picking up again. To better monitor baby, they put in an internal fetal monitor (a little electrode that was attached to his scalp) that was left for the duration of labor. They also checked me again and found I was at 8cm! So in 15 minutes, I went from 6 to 8cm. I think that may be why the baby's heart rate and oxygen dropped so suddenly because there was such a big change all at once.
Around this time, my blood sugar was a little low (not eating for 16+ hours will do that to you), so they brought me some juice (with sugar even!) to drink. That was nice, until I threw that up shortly after. If you're keeping track, I threw up everything I ate/drank throughout the day, 4 different times. It was terrible.
I was checked again around 5:30pm and was fully dilated at 10cm. For the past hour, I was feeling a ton of pressure, so I knew things were moving along. The pressure was so intense that I don't even want to think what it would have felt like without an epidural! The nurse was sure that I wouldn't have to push much since baby was super low and seemed to be pretty small. They got everything set up for delivery and had me start pushing shortly before 6pm. I was instructed to push when a contraction came on, which was easy to tell because I would feel a lot of pressure during each one. Pushing was exhausting and frustrating and I think it was my least favorite part of labor.
Around 7:30 or so, I was still pushing and making a tiny bit of progress, but not enough to satisfy the doctor. He gave me my options: I could continue pushing a little while longer or they could get out the vacuum/forceps to try to get him out. If that didn't work, I would probably need a c-section. I opted to continue pushing, even though I was exhausted and really didn't think I had the energy to do it. The pressure continued to get worse with every contraction to the point where I was almost crying, but I kept pushing and progress was being made. I think the baby starting crowning around 8pm and sweet little Oliver made his debut at 8:16pm!
He had his cord wrapped around his neck, so that's why I had to push for so long. He kept getting caught up when he was trying to come out. What should have been an easy last bit of labor turned into almost 2.5 hours of pushing. Derek got to cut the cord, they wiped him off a bit and put him on my chest. I just kept staring at him, like I couldn't believe what just happened! haha. (I later found out that he pooped all over my chest during this time; no wonder he was so content) The doctor did his thing down below (I needed stitches) while I held Oliver and marveled at how perfect he was.
A little while later, they got him measured (6 lb. 14 oz, 20 inches long) and all that fun stuff, then we were able to bring in visitors to meet the little guy. Everyone loved him, of course. Since it was so late, everyone went home and we got ready to move upstairs to the room we'd stay in the next 2 days. I don't have time to write about that, but I'll just say I was in a huge amount of pain and it was really hard getting out of bed for the frequent bathroom trips. But I did love the room service and was really impressed by the hospital food! My first meal after giving birth was an omelet with hash browns and juice. Best meal of my life!
I'm sure I left out a lot of things and may have gotten a few details mixed up, but I at least wanted to get this down before I totally forgot the day of Oliver's birth :) I would like to point out that not once did I get angry or yell at anyone (none of that "you did this to me!" screaming that I was kinda hoping I would do. lol) and I only cried for a second at the very end when the pain was unbearable. No kidding, a baby had just come out.
People ask me if this experience scared me from having children again and the answer is no. It was painful and recovery was long and difficult, but at least I'll know what to expect for the next time.
