With the craziness of the past week and high blood pressures, I really started to wonder if I would be induced as my doc was planning, or if I would go into labor on my own. The previous two pregnancies were completely different in how labor started. Lily was induced after finding her amniotic fluid has been reabsorbed. Max came after I started laboring on my own. But in all this thinking I began to have a burden to pray for the staff who would be with me on D-Day.
The rest of this will be pretty detailed...so if you don't want to know all the ins and outs of this delivery, you can move on to the next post.
Monday, February 3rd
2:45 am
After going to bed at 1am (dumb, I know) I woke up to potty and when I got out of bed my water broke. A first for me, but unmistakeable. I woke JD up to let him know what had happened, but wasn't having contractions, so I was going back to sleep.
3:00 am
Mild contractions started. I had the app open on the phone trying to record them, but I would hit start and fall asleep before they finished. I would then wake up 5-15 minutes later when the next one would start. Obviously, they weren't too bad and my body was not making a lot of progress on its own.
4:00 am
I decided to text my parents (who were buying tickets to fly out when I went into labor) to let them know today was the day!
5:45 am
I called RaRa to see if she was up and could come stay with the kiddos. She was already up and ready to drop everything to come.
7:30 am
Kids woke up and we told them the big news! They were super excited they would be meeting their brother today. And then we were off. Still not having big contractions, but they were consistently every 10 or so minutes and since my water had broken, I was ready to get this boy on the monitor.
7:45 am
We arrived at the hospital. Dr. C was scheduled to be on call on Tuesday (that is when he was wanting to induce), but when I arrived at L&D he was standing behind the desk. I was so glad to see him. He said he was not on call, but filling in for another doc for a couple of hours. BUT he said he still wanted to deliver. I told him that after all the talk last week that I assumed he wanted to, and I was glad for him to be able to do it. He has walked this journey with us this past year and what a joy to deliver a healthy baby after losing one a year ago.
8:00 am
The nurse came to see how much progress I had made at home and to also confirm that my water had broken. I was only at 3 cm. I was a bit disappointed, but I have the longest labors, so I wasn't shocked. Dr. D (on call) was ready to start me on Pitocin to get my contractions a bit stronger to get this boy here. But Dr. C and I had already talked about starting the epidural first.
11:00 am
Waiting on lab results so I can get the epidural and start the Pit. Dr. D came in a couple of times throughout the morning a bit upset that the Pit had not been started yet. First things first--I've been induced before and it's no picnic!
12:00 pm
Being hooked up to the baby monitor and the contraction monitor keeps us in the know. JD watches to see how big the contractions are and I keep an eye on the baby. I noticed that baby's heart rate had dropped to around 100 after the Pit was started after being around 125 all morning. When Dr. C came in during lunch, I asked him about it and he decided it was the Pit causing him stress. The Pit was stopped and I got some oxygen and his heart rate almost immediately came back up.
2:00 pm
At 6 cm and dropping, we were hoping to be holding a baby by dinner time. Contractions were getting stronger without the Pit which was great.
4:00 pm
At 8 cm. Adding a cm an hour, just like Dr. C said. And baby continues to drop. Dr. was even messing with his head which made his heart rate go up. We are excited that he is getting close to making his debut!
5:00 pm
Started having lots of pain in my tailbone. I haven't ever felt pain like this before and I ask them to check and see if his head is face down. He is turned a bit and Dr. C manipulates him a bit to get him in the right position, which in turn relieves that tail bone pressure. Still at 8 cm. But there is a portion of my cervix that is not completely thinned as it should be. I assume because his head wasn't in the right position, but that's just my thought.
8:00 pm
At 9.5 cm and my cervix still not thinned out as it needs to be. I am feeling the urge to push, but having to wait so I don't tear my cervix. The nurses put me in several crazy positions to try and get it to thin out.
9:10 pm
Finally, at the full 10 cm. And after some manipulation, baby's head it past the edge of my cervix where it wasn't thinned all the way out. Time to get the baby into the world! The nurse and I were doing our thing while Dr. C and JD chatted about Camp in the City. Then it was time for Dr. C to deliver this baby. Things were going as planned. Pushing and resting as the contractions came. Then Dr. C's tone got more forceful and he was telling me to push even between contractions. At first I thought he must be one push away from being here, but when one of the nurses climbed up on top of me, I knew something was wrong. JD said that my tone changed at that point. I remember trying to push, but having zero energy to push. There was no resting. But they were all yelling at me to push. I knew that I needed to give it my all, but I didn't know where to find it. JD was praying at this point. I was praying too. Praying that whatever was going on that I would find the energy to get him out. I knew his life depended on it.
And sure enough, it really was that serious. He had something called shoulder dystocia. After his head was delivered he showed the "turtle sign" where his head retracted back in a bit. JD said he also turned from face down to the left. His shoulders, instead of being in line with mine, became perpendicular to mine and therefore he was stuck. For about a minute, I was pushing while the staff was pushing on his shoulder trying to release it from the pubic bone. Finally, after several different failed techniques, Dr. C was able to find his lower arm and pulled it up to his head, which lowered his shoulder and allowed baby boy to come. There was zero damage done--to baby and to me.
Praise the Lord with us!! The right team was in the room with us. No one ever hesitated when they saw what was going on. They just acted together to get our baby here. Each time I think about delivery I tear up, knowing what could have been and being so thankful for the Lord protecting us.
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