Megan's Birth Story

Today is Megan's 1 week birthday. Thought I'd take the occasion to recount her birth for the blog...

We were an hour late getting to the hospital for the induction, we were tired and a little weirded out and excited about it. We entered the big, fancy lobby that makes Prentice look like a fancy hotel, and went on up to the 8th floor to L&D. Dr. Arof met us in the waiting room and talked about what to expect. Tanya our doula was finishing up with another birth and would join us in a bit.

Things went pretty leisurely at first. I put on the gown and we scouted out our fancy L&D room. The view was all city, no lake, but still nice. The bathroom was huge. We were visited by two nurses who introduced themselves and a couple of anesthesiologists. One took a drug history and another signed me up for an epidural study, which was a mistake. More on that later.

They got the I.V. in my left hand and started w/ 2mm (or is that ml?) pitosin, then broke the waters. Once they broke the bag of waters things went quickly and picked up pace. Tanya arrived just after that just in time for the contractions to hit. She talked me thru them, holding one hand while I squeezed the heck out of Ben's hand. I paced the room with my IV pole, visited the bathroom, sat on the birth ball, and stood and swayed. I never wanted to lie or sit. If allowed to I likely would have stood for the entire thing!

Tanya had to ask repeatedly to reduce the pitosin b/c she was worried about hyper stimulation, and my contractions which were suddenly and consistently less than 2 minutes apart, about 1 and a half or so. We finally got them to reduce to 1mm of pit. I was trying to clear my head and think was it time for the epidural when Ben started to say, if Val can't think, then she needs the epidural now. I really wasn't getting breaks between contractions all the sudden. Dr. Arof checked me and I was 4cm dilated and he also agreed on the epidural, and turned off the pitosin. So from here on out, it was just me. He said he was going to be in a C-section for the next hour but he didn't think I'd be having the baby before he got back. Famous last words!

This is when it got bad. The gal doing the epidural study came in with her kit and kicked out Ben and Tanya, said it would be just 20 minutes. West Sub had let Ben stay, so this was a surprise. If I had known what would happen I might have skipped the epidural. To get my spine straight they laid me on my side and she jabbed around a bit, which hurt. The study was to give a little medicine and take pressure readings, give more, take another reading. I did not realize that is what it would be. They tried to get me to lie still. I seemed to lose all control of my body at this point, and the pressure to push, or what feels like you desperately need to poop, was immense. I started yelling things, like first I begged for Ben back. Then I was yelling that the contractions still hurt and why wasn't the epidural working. Then when they kept telling me to lie still I was trying to say I couldn't help it and a lot of "oh god" and "help me" and stuff like that. Finally I yelled somebody hold my legs still. And I told this young nurse trying to hold the monitor on my abdomen to stop it because it hurt. They called more and more people in, and there were all these voices and no single person helping me. They couldn't get the heart rate, the baby's heart rate had slowed and they couldn't find it anymore, so without asking, they put in the internal monitor. They kept lifting my leg to check me, to put the monitor in, then to check me again, and it seemed no time had gone by and it was "she's 6 centimeters" "she's 8" "she's dilated to 9" Then they were telling me to stop pushing. Well, I wasn't doing any pushing on purpose. My body was doing whatever it wanted. They flipped me onto my other side for some reason to do with the epidural. A nurse finally came and peered down into my face and took off her face mask and told me to breathe and did some coaching, blowing in my face. I have no idea who she was, but I swear she was the only one in the room over 25 (maybe 40ish) and I just remember her brown eyes. Thank you, whoever you are.

This little crisis was of their own making. Why they would kick out labor support during the epidural for a second pregnancy, which notoriously go faster, when I'm alredy 4cm and no breaks between contractions which is transitional labor (the last stage before pushing), is beyond me. It is not wise. But I got through it, because what else do you do?

Finally Tanya was there, and suddenly Ben, and the back-up doctor, Dr. Katz, appeared at the base of the bed, and they were telling me to push. It was like they were speaking a foreign language, I was very confused. I could move my legs and feel beyond some surface numbness on my legs, and the anesthesiologist put an alcohol swab on my belly asking if it felt cold, which it did, then on my leg, where it did not, altho I could still feel it. I could feel that "ring of fire" when the perenium is stretched. The doc said "just one more push" and I must say I just didn't believe her. I managed a couple of pushes at most, and suddenly the baby was out!!!

(Ben's side of the story is also interesting, and he was feeling insane being locked out. He recalls it as nearly an hour while he repeatedly sought permission to return. Then when he got in it was chaos around me and he was very upset. I focused on him and gripped his hand while I tried to push.)

So I was already in the mode where I announced some insane request to the room repeatedly until I got help, so I switched to "I want her" as my mantra--the baby, which was a girl. She was red and her fingers were purple, and the cord was blue and she was doing that newborn cry. I got her, and she was amazing. This little thing! They switched out towels around her to dry her and prevent cooling of and Ben and I just focused on her.

Tanya had to repeatedly tell the nursing staff to hold off while we had bonding time. They asked maybe 6 times, and the doctor backed us up, which really helped. They just wanted to weigh her, do the apgar, and admit her to the system. But those first 45 minutes of alert time are key. We got a good latch and she drank, with Tanya's help. It was wonderful.

Meanwhile the doc was in and out of the uterus because the placenta would not disengage. They found it had fused membranes. I pushed most of it out with her help, then Dr. Arof joined Dr. Katz and she did a cuterage (like a d&c)--I could feel pressure and hear the snick-snack like scissors! Creepy, but apparently taking care of it then prevented hemoraging and hospitalization later. Also I was already dilated (tho they said I was already contracting). Excellent news was that I had no stitches!!! Just a scrape. They say the placenta did not look 100% healthy, and it was good that they induced when they did.

I know the whole thing sounds crazy, but I'm glad it's over and I'm so glad to have this beautiful girl in my arms. Coming down so fast did give her a cephalo hematoma, however, which is a giant bruise like a pocket of blood on her head. It will resolve in a few weeks. They x-rayed her and there was no skull fracture. She's fine. Breaking down the old red blood cells does create billirubins (sp) as a byproduct, however, so there is jaundice. That and some latch difficulties added to jaundice, but it is already going down and she's eating, pooping, and gaining weight like a trooper!