Let me preface this by saying that I wanted to have a
different kind of birth. Call me
crazy, but I was hoping to have a natural, med-free birth. Connor and I had taken
HypnoBirthing
classes to prepare, and we had prepared a birth plan for how we
hoped things would go, and I really felt
confident that barring any complications, I could have the birth experience
that I hoped for.
With that said…
On Friday, September 28th I had a doctors
appointment at 10:30 am. My ‘due
date’ was 9/27 and since I had passed it my doctor wanted to do an ultrasound
to make sure everything was okay with the baby. My plan was to go into labor naturally, and if I didn’t then
I would be induced at 42 weeks.
During the ultrasound, the doctor noticed that the amniotic
fluid was grainy. Dr Farley told
me that this can be a sign that the baby has passed meconium, which can be a
sign that the baby is/was in distress.
Dr. Farley recommended that we induce, but he ultimately left it up to
me.
Since Connor wasn’t able to come with me to the appointment,
I called him from the doctor’s office to ask his opinion. I called 3 times, no answer. So I tried him at work. Finally, I got a hold of him and we
talked about what the doctor had said, and what we should do. Ultimately, we decided to play it safe
and to get induced.
I was really bummed because already a good portion of my
birth plan had been thrown out the window. I still wanted to have as natural a birth as possible, but I
was unsure of how it would go. I
decided that I wanted to be able to enjoy the birth, and if I felt like I was
suffering then I would have to reevaluate my plan.
I met Connor at home and we threw everything in the car
(thank goodness I had packed everything weeks ago), and went to the
hospital. We were admitted at
about 12:30 and at 1pm they broke my water. The amniotic fluid was really cloudy, but it didn’t have
meconium in it, thank goodness.
They said that the cloudiness of the fluid could be from vernix, or an
infection in my uterus. However,
the fluid didn’t smell bad so they didn’t think it was an infection.
Before arriving at the hospital I was already dilated to a 4
and 60% effaced. My contractions
were coming, but not regularly.
They wanted them to be coming every 2 minutes, and they were coming
every 2 to 4 minutes once they broke my water. So, they started me on the lowest dose of pitocin. My contractions were still coming every
2 to 4 minutes, so after a while they turned the dose up.
Let me add here that for the most part my nurses were very
kind and mostly supportive. I had
3 nurses throughout the labor and delivery. My first nurse was very nice, however she told me that they
legally have to ask how much pain I was in every 2 hours. Since I wanted to do this naturally, I
didn’t want to focus on the pain so I asked her if they could just use
different wording and instead ask if I was uncomfortable? She didn’t respond to that, but she
didn’t ask me about pain either.
My second nurse kind of got moody with me when I asked her why the pitocin
was getting turned up again. As if
I don’t have a right to know what’s being done to my body? However, besides that she was really
kind, friendly, and helpful. The
third nurse was great and I didn’t have any issues with her.
I had Connor grab my iPod and headphones out of my bag, and
I started to listen to the some of the HypnoBirthing tracks that I had been
practicing with. This really
worked great and I was able to stay relaxed and focused.
After a while, however, the surges started to get more
intense, and I started to have back labor. I was not prepared for back labor. I asked Connor to rub my back and to do light touch massage,
but it wasn’t helping. I felt
better when I would change position, but that would only last a few
minutes. Ultimately, I started to
suffer through the labor, which is exactly what I said I did not want to
do. So, I asked for the
epidural. I was really
disappointed that another part of my birth plan had been lost, but I felt like
that’s what I had to do.
I did not like the epidural. I had always heard people talk about how much of a relief it
was to get the epidural, and I did not feel that way at all. I wasn’t experiencing back labor
anymore, for which I was grateful, but I felt disconnected from my body. That’s not something I enjoyed, and
hopefully not something I’ll have to experience again.
When Dr Farley came to check me again, he noticed that the
baby was not positioned correctly.
He was facing my side instead of my back (this explains the back labor). They positioned me a really weird way
on the bed to try to get him to turn.
I was lying on my right side, with my left leg in the right leg stirrup. (Can you picture it?) Like I said, weird position. However, I did start to feel more
pressure, which they said was a good sign that the baby was turning, and I was
dilating more.
During this time, I was trying to relax as much as
possible. I was very sleepy. Connor and I watched some TV, and Jim
Gaffigan on Netflix. As 9pm rolled
around my doctor came in again and checked me. I was at a 9+ and he asked if I was ready to push. I was surprised because I wasn’t at a
solid 10, but I was ready to deliver my baby.
I started pushing.
In HypnoBirthing they teach you a different way to “push”, and I had been
practicing that for months.
However, the nurse and doctor were instructing me to breathe/push their
way. Eventually, I started to do
it their way. I pushed for about
an hour, and Matthew was born at 10:03pm, after only 9 hours of labor. Not bad for my first baby! The cord stopped pulsing and Connor cut
the cord. (One thing in my birth
plan that stuck!)
Dr Farley did tell me that my pelvis is more flat than
“normal” so that made it a little harder for Matthew to maneuver around. The dr also said that if I hadn’t had
an epidural I probably would have been very uncomfortable with the way the baby
was positioned and the prolonged pushing.
Poor little Matthew’s head was a little swollen from all the pushing,
but regardless he was just perfect.
He weighed in at 7 lbs 13 oz, and 20.5 inches long. He is absolutely adorable and we are so
in love with him.
I am disappointed that the birth didn’t go as I had
hoped. So many things in my birth
plan had to change all at the last minute, but I am truly happy with how things
turned out. I have a happy,
beautiful baby boy. I was
concerned that with the pitocin his heart rate might drop if the contractions
got too intense for him, but he did great the whole time. I feel like with the circumstances, I made
the best decisions I could.
I do wonder how different things may have been had I had a
midwife, as they are usually more hands off and willing to let things happen. However, I really appreciate that Dr
Farley was concerned about the baby and just wanted him to be born healthy.
So, to sum it all up, nothing went as
planned. I could literally go through
my birth plan and there are probably 2 or 3 items that actually were carried through. Everything else had to change at the
last minute. However, that’s how
life goes. I am glad that we had
our ideal birth plan, and I’m glad that Connor and I were both open-minded
enough to know that sometimes life doesn’t go as planned. We have a healthy baby, and that’s what
matters most.
