Labor Story

Sometimes I use this blog as a personal journal and I have always enjoyed when others shared their labor stories so I thought I would write down what happened. A family member also recommended that during the labor/hospital stay to document what was going on so we could always have the little details. I am so grateful we did this. So here is my perspective on bringing out sweet baby into this world.

Saturday May 28th I woke up and noticed some leaking. Since Adam is a microbiologist he was able to bring home so lythmus paper so I could check to see if it was amniotic fluid. I did and it came back negative so I didn't think anything of it. Adam's sister Jenny and her family were in town so we met up with them and continued on with our day. I was still leaking and it was starting to concern me. I kept telling myself not to over react (which I think is easy to do when your pregnant). I called the hospital to get their thoughts and they told me to hurry to labor and delivery so they could check. We headed to the hospital and they did two tests. The first one was the lythmus paper and it came back negative again for amniotic fluid. She ran the second test and we would have to wait one hour before it was processed. While waiting she checked my dilation and I was still at a one. She said it probably wasn't amniotic fluid but, it was good we came in just to be safe. After the hour had passed the nurse came in and said "good thing we ran that second test, it came back positive for amniotic fluid, we are getting your room ready now". What!?!? I was in complete shock. I wasn't due for another 5 days and I was sure it wasn't my water breaking. Just goes to show you have NO say in anything when your pregnant :)

They took me back to my room and started my IV with pitocin. I heard horrible things about pitocin so I was mentally preparing for something awful. The contractions started to come on fairly strong. My sister in law said to "not be a hero and get the epidural when I needed it". I was so grateful for this advice. I have a hard time admitting I need help and if I hadn't heard this I know I would've had a much harder time. A few hours later I decided I should get the epidural.

I was SO nervous (even saying that feels like an understatement). I literally could not stop shaking. They started the epidrual and it wasn't that bad....I kept waiting for the excruciating pain but, it never came. Don't get me wrong it was uncomfortable but, nothing compared to what I had worked up in my head. While he was doing the epidural I coughed and this caused some problems. I had no idea he was still doing the epidrual since I was numb and I guess I coughed at the worst time. It pushed the epidural farther than it was intended and it turned my epidural into a spinal catheter. The pro's to a spinal catheter is that it was more of a direct line to my lower body so when I needed the medication I would literally start feeling it immediately whereas the epidural they told me can take up to 10-15 minutes. The con's to a spinal catheter is that I couldn't control when the pain meds would be administered like you do when you have an epidural. If I needed more pain meds the anesthesiologist had to be paged and he himself would have to administer it. This caused problems when it was wearing off and he couldn't get to me until he was finished with other things. The other con is that with a spinal catheter the anesthesiologist warned me that it was very likely I would get the worst headache of my life following labor and the best way to fix it was to get another epidural where they would inject drawn blood into my spine....awesome! :( The anesthesiologist was so paranoid about everyone knowing it was a spinal catheter that he posted signs on my fluid drips and outside of my door.
This was the most frustrating night of my life. The nurses kept coming in to check my dilation and nothing....I remained at 1cm ALL NIGHT LONG!!. Why wasn't my body doing what it was suppose to. I was having intense contractions but I wouldn't dilate because my water hadn't "fully" broken it was only leaking. Come 7am Sunday morning the Doctor came in and broke my water hoping that would speed things along. The Doctor was also concerned because the babies heart rate kept dropping after every contraction. She told me if I hadn't progressed in my dilation within the hour we would need to seriously consider a C-Section. I was crushed. I hadn't mentally or emotionally prepared for a C-Section and I was a wreck. Luckily an hour later I had dilated to 3 cm and since there was some progress the Doctor felt comfortable proceeding with a vaginal birth. Throughout the day I continued to progress and by 2pm I had dilated to a 5. By 4pm I had dilated to 10cm and was ready to push!! The nurse said that the baby was fully down and that I shouldn't be pushing for more than an hour or two. I started pushing and baby started to come sooner than even the nurse thought. The Doctor wasn't even there yet and Adam was saying "I can see his head". I am thinking....where is this Doctor?!?!? So for the next few contractions the nurse told me not to push...that wasn't easy. My body was ready to get this baby out :) The Doctor arrived and I could start pushing again. The first push she said the babies head was out and that I could not push until she told me. The cord was wrapped around his neck so she had to make sure she took care of that. She then looked at the nurse and said we would need one more nurse to help push his body out since he was "turtling" which I guess means he was going to be a big baby and it would be hard to get him out.....great! Guess baby was smaller than everyone anticipated because the next push with no help from the nurses he was here!!

No one can explain fully the relief you feel when that baby comes out! It is the greatest feeling!! That night sure enough the worst headache of my life came. The anesthesiologist came and started my second epidural while the nurse drew 15 cc of blood from my arm. Once the blood was drawn the anesthesiologists injected it into my spine. Relief!! Unfortunately the anesthesiologist told me that the chance of the headache coming back was high and that I should just drink caffeine and take my meds...something to look forward to :)

We love our baby Carson and could not be happier!! Even though there were some minor hiccups in the labor process I am so grateful for how everything went. I know things could of been a lot of worse and I would do it all over again for out little baby!!

Meeting Aunt Kendra!

Meeting Aunt Jenny!

Meeting his cousins Maya and Luke.

One happy Grandpa!