Birth Story Carnival

Once again the WONDERFUL Lotus is hosting, another joinable meme, known as the Birth Story Carnival. So in honor of my wonderful midget, and the awesome Lotus I decided to join in and share my short, and eventful story.

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For most of my pregnancy I had been pretty lucky not a lot of discomfort, or braxton hicks until I hit 37 weeks-ish. I'd had 2 UTI's/Kidney infections about 27 weeks and been into Labor and delivery(if you are more than 20 weeks' and in 'pain' my OB would send you to L&D to be safe.) so I was pre-registered(which is NICE). So when I hit 37 weeks, and she dropped, and I started having Braxton-Hick's a lot I started spending a lot of time in bed just chilling as Kenzies' SD, was out of town on the other side of the state and despite being insanely ticked at him(we weren't getting along then) I knew I wanted him to be there when she was born.

I had my OB appointment on the 1st of March and was 75% effaced, but only 1-2 Cm Dialated. The OB and I discussed his upcoming vacation that was scheduled about 4 days after my due date. We tenatively scheduled a induction for Monday the 13th. I went home and spent the afternoon resting for my 'big day' the next afternoon.

The next day I went out and got a manicure, and pedicure, while getting hourly updates on J's progress over the mountains towards home. We planeed to meet up the next afternoon so that I could get out and walk for a while(I was tired of being stuck at home). Again I went home, took it easy, and slept.

Friday March 3rd, J and T drove down and the 3 of us went out to the mall and spent a few hours wandering around. Than we drove to GI Joes' (a sporting goods store) and wandered around there for a while until I got tired and decided I was done and wanted to head home. We were on our way out to the car, when I suddenly felt a little wet. I mentioned it to J and T, and so we headed back to the house to call my OB's office. We got to the house and I got out of the car and went inside where I realized I wasn't a 'little wet' I was SOAKED, so I quickly called the OB's office and was told to head down to L&D to get checked out. So we loaded up and drove the 40 minutes to the hospital, and went up to triage, me getting 'damper' the whole ride down there.

J & T loaded me into the wheelchair and we caught a elevator upstairs, to triage. We got up there and went to the desk where I informed them that I 'thought my water had broken' the nurse glanced over the desk at me(in my soaked pants) and with the MOST serious tone while regarding my belly asked, "Are you SURE you're far enough along to be delivering?" I was in the middle of a contraction, so J told her that yes I was, being approximately 38 weeks along. They wheeled me into triage hooked me up checked me found me at 2 cm's, and let the L&D floor know that I was there(Triage was 4, L&D on 3). I was in Triage for a bit then next thing I know I was being wheeled downstairs to a room. They got us set up hooked me up to the moniters and explained that my doctor wasn't on call so I would be seeing the on-call OB. It was at this point I realized that I'd forgotten the 'extra' copy of my birth plan at home *sighs*

After about an hour on the moniters with no real 'action' they decided that I could get up and freely wander the hall. So J, T and I made quite the little parade wandering through the halls stopping every so often so that I could breathe through a contraction. After a few hours of wandering the halls we went back so they could re-tether me to the machine, and check how much I had progressed. So they monitored my contractions and the doctor came in and checked me and found me to be sitting at 2 Cm's, at that point he informed me that if by 10:30 PM, I hadn't progressed anymore, that they would have to start pitocin since my water had broken before I arrived.

He left and the nurse unhooked me from the machines, and let us do another lap around the floor, then we came back and I spent some time in the shower to work through the contractions until shortly before the doctor returned, to check me again. I was hooked back up to the machines, and monitored until he arrived to check me. He checked found me still 'stuck' at 2 Cm's, so they set me up with a pitocin drip. This is where it starts getting interesting.

The doctor left to check some other patients, and the nurse returned to her station, after I moved from the bed to the labor ball. The contractions, started coming fast and furious but weren't registering on my monitor, though it WAS registering that Kenzie's heart rate was dropping into 'dangerous' territory, which brought the nurse running, she spent the next two hours sitting there hand monitoring my contractions. I spent that time rocking back and forth on the labor ball, until the point that I felt like I was dying. The nurse decided to check me again, since Kenzie's heart rate kept dropping into the 90's. She was shocked, to find that I had gone from 2 Cm's to 7 Cm's in just over an hour.

This was about 11:50 Pm on the 3rd, the nurse called the doctor to let him know what was going on, then I went back to the labor ball, because it was more comfortable then being on the bed. I spent about a half hour, on the ball before I suddenly started shaking, and could not stop, the nurse had been offering me pain meds, the whole time but it was at this point that I decided that it might be nice to have SOMETHING on board just in case, though I didn't want anything to heavy. So in order to stop the shaking she gave me some fentanyl. It was shortly after she gave that to me I had the urge to push. I told the nurse that I felt like pushing, NOW. She tried to reassure me that, 'no, no, no, its only been a half hour since we checked you, NO WAY could you be ready to push.' At my insistance she re-checked me and found me a hair under 10 Cm's.

Suddenly my room was filled with nurses, and they were frantically trying to reach the doctor, all whilst telling me NOT to push until he arrived. He arrived about 12:30, and they let me start pushing, T on one side, J on the other the nurse telling me what a good job I was doing. I was apparently made for delivery. I pushed 3 times and she was born, as before the doctor had arrived she had crowned and was hanging out in the birth canal already.

They rushed her off to the giant Big Mac, baby warmer to check her over, and weigh her. I was left on the other side of the room, alone to deliver the placenta, while the nurses swarmed over her. The biggest thing I remember from this time is the nurses looking at her and one of them piping up "she sure has funny looking ankles", I replied from the other side of the room describing the dimples on either side when she replied in the affirmative, I wearily raised my hand, replying that 'THOSE! are mine!'. They got her cleaned up handed her off to me and left us alone to figure out the whole mommy/baby thing. Though before they left the nurse told me that NEXT time I decided to have a baby, that maybe I should just considering moving into Labour and Delivery at 37 weeks.

Her birth left me feeling quite empowered and amazed by the human body. Don't forget to check out the other participant's stories over at Lotus' blog!