In the weeks leading up to delivery, I found a lot of comfort in reading about other people's experiences with labor. While my pregnancy was mostly easy, I was terrified of the part where I would actually give birth. So I sought out the stories of others in the hopes that I would feel better if I knew what to expect. I still had nightmares the night before I went to the hospital, mostly centered on getting separated from Kevin or having procedures that no one would explain. But by the time I got to the hospital, I did end up feeling a bit better.
We knew Gavin was going to be big, so I scheduled an induction for the day after my due date. The doctor had initially suggested I try to induce early, but that seemed to come with the same risk of c-section as a vaginal birth of a large baby, so we decided to wait until he was full term. I was hoping he would decide to come early, but it didn't happen.
That said, I was 4 cm dilated by the time I got to the hospital, and the machine said I was already having contractions, even though I couldn't feel them. We got to the hospital at 6:30 and set off a flurry of activity. One nurse got me hooked up to an IV, the other started getting all my vitals. My OB came in and broke my water. I had my blood drawn and went through an extensive check-in process where they took my entire medical history. Officially they broke my water and started the pitocin at about 7 in the morning. By 7:30 or so, Kevin and I were left alone in the room, with a nurse coming in to check on us every so often.
The machine they had me hooked up to said that my contractions were coming every 4 minutes almost immediately, but I couldn't feel them at all. Before too long, they were happening every 2 minutes and lasting for 1 minute, and I still couldn't feel anything. Until I could. It took about an hour for me to go from not being able to feel anything to desperately wanting an epidural.
I said I wanted the epidural around 11, and it took about twenty minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there. It's a little hard, because you have to sit perfectly still for 5 minutes, while getting contractions every two minutes, while someone sticks a needle in your spine. It briefly felt like my back was on fire, but a second later everything started to feel a lot better. With the epidural, I couldn't get out of bed anymore, so they also put a catheter in. Then they gave me a peanut-shaped thing to hold between my legs, which was supposed to help me dilate more. Once everything was in place, Kevin and I put on Zoolander, and I slept through the entire movie.
With the epidural in, I went back to not being able to feel my contractions at all. The machine was still saying they were coming every 2 minutes, and the doctor kept reporting progress on my cervix dilation. But I was content to just lie in bed with my completely numb legs while the doctor said that everything was coming along nicely.
Kevin and I were in the middle of a crossword puzzle when the doctor came back and said it was time to start pushing. This coincided with a shift change for the nurses, so I also got to meet new people, just in time to start the hardest part of labor. They taught me how to push, and we were off. For a while it was just Kevin and the nurse, holding my legs and counting while I pushed.
Before I knew it, the doctor was back. When I'd been pushing for about an hour, the room suddenly exploded with a bunch more people. It went from 3 to 10 very quickly, all while I was being told to keep pushing. Then the doctor pulled Gavin out, which was traumatic, but thankfully brief. The pediatrician and some nurses took the baby to weigh him and clean him and suction his lungs, while my doctor got to work stitching me up.
About twenty minutes later I was able to hold Gavin and relax for the next few hours before they moved me to the recovery room. I was also able to eat my first tuna melt in months while Kevin took a turn holding his son. The whole thing ended up being a lot quicker and less terrifying than I'd been expecting. As scared as I was at the prospect of pushing a baby out of my vagina, I'm really glad I didn't end up needing a c-section. My OB said she might push me a bit harder to induce early next time, because Gavin was so big (10 lb, 3 oz and 22 inches long). I guess we'll have to wait and see how big the next baby is. In the meantime, I'm thankful that everything went so smoothly.
No comments:
Post a Comment