My baby story- the arrival of Charlotte Jane

Warning: this post contains information that may be more than you wanted to know.

Okay, I've got lots to take care of and do (especially sleep) but I wanted to get this down before I forget the details.

First, Charlotte was about a week earlier than I thought she'd be, and about two weeks earlier than my doctor thought. So I planned to take care of all kinds of details on Sunday and just relax this week and prepare for the baby. Stuff I had to do included: Pack hosptial bag, get changing table and diaper pails set up, buy stuff at target/babies r us, clean the house, buy thank you notes, etc.

Instead, I chose to use my last free day at "teach a friend to homebrew day", which was nice and fun. It was a long day, we were at Hoffmaster State park about 11 am and ended in a parking lot a few miles away about 6 or 7 pm (long story for another day there). I had chili and brats. That part is important later.

That night, I thought a bath would be nice, but when I got in to soak, my giant belly just stuck right out of the water so it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I did take the chipped nail polish off my toes and repainted them (as well as I could reach) and I managed to shave my legs, which I was happy about later.

Dave and I started a movie and at 9:30, which is pretty lame, decided we were both exhausted and to just go to bed. I thought about how Jen told me, "any night you don't get sleep and feel crummy, you could go into labor the next day so pamper yourself and don't get too tired". But I thought I was safe for about a week.

At about 11 pm I started my usual waking up alot routine of discomfort, but it was different. I felt sort of sick. No contraction, not really nauseous, just not right. ANd I was waking up 20 to 35 minutes or so. I had crazy dreams that someone was in labor (yeah, I didn't think it was me) and then I felt like I wet the bed, but not becuase it wasn't a trickle and it wasn't under my control, it was a whoosh. so I staggered/dripped to the bathroom and it just kept coming. It was 3 am. I went downstairs and called Dr. Murphy and I was on the phone when Dave actually woke up (he sleeps like the dead) and he figured out what was happening. The doctor told me to go to the hospital and I asked if it was alright if it took a little while since I wasn't even packed yet. He said it sounded like I wasn't having real contractions so it was okay. Dave got in the shower and I packed (thought I forgot all kinds of stuff) and we got to the hospital about 4 am. We checked in and they put us in triage to make sure I was in labor or needed to be there (water breaking was a good reason, even if it is premature). I was feeling mild contractions that were about 5 minutes apart, but very tolerable. I breathed throught them alright and thought I was doing great. I was not dilated at all :-( but about 90% effaced.

I was transferred to a labor and delivery room at about 5 am and contractions continued and got stronger. Dave rested on the couch and I on the bed and I listened to my relaxation tapes and relaxed (or tried to) until about 6:20. The contractions were different than I thought they'd feel. I felt alot like I was taking a tough poop, there was loads of pressure on my butt and back. The abdomen wasn't doing much, except down really low. I was sure I was making tons of progress since the contractions were getting really strong. I begged them to check me. 1 cm. "that's it?!" I said. A little frustrating.

This basic pattern continued, gradually getting stronger. The new nurse came on at 7 am and I got in the tub at about 7:20. Pretty much the same experience as before with my tummy being out and cold. When I was on my side it was much more painful, so I didn't do that. David helped me as much as he could, but there was little he could do. After that for a while, they checked my dilation again. No progress. a cm, maybe plus a little, but not really. The nurse said that she noticed I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible (avoing pain killers) and I said that I was starting to change my mind, maybe if I was just at 1 cm. and it was already this bad.

It was weird because I knew I was having these really hard contractions and I think they were 2 to 4 minutes apart, which is pretty close and steady for no progress to happen. But my back was getting worse and worse. The pain was getting really tough to deal with. My body was having a hard time with it. Before the contractions, I'd start just shaking, pretty hard, then it'd go into the contraction. The shaking was scary becasue I knew it was coming! I'd wave Dave over and then when he tried to take my hand I'd push him away (I didn't want to crush his hand). Dave was calling folks to say what was going on and Andy called and suggested he rub my back. That helped. The nurse had me get into hands and knees position, but that was like being on my side- more painful!

This whole time, every contraction, more water is letting loose. I didn't know that the placenta continued making amniotic fluid. I felt like I was in a swamp! The nurse kept changing the pad and blankets and eventually had to get another linen bin because we went through so many!

I asked for an epidural at about 8:30 or 9 am and they called Dr. Murphy and he said he'd get there about 10:15 to check me. He wanted to make sure I was making progress so they put my on pitocin. THat was tough because I was already feeling at my limit for contractions and pitocin makes them harder, more powerful.So I dealt with that for while :-(

Dr. Murphy got there right when he said. He checked me and I was still pretty much at 1 cm!! He watched the pattern of contractions and since they were coming in doubles and triples and still 2-4 minutes apart, he told me was back labor, which I hadn't even thought of, I thought it was totally normal. But it made sense since my back was being severed (it felt like). I felt like such a baby since I was only at 1 cm and begging for epidural, but the nurse said she's seen women who've had a few natural births have back labor and get an epidural fast. The reason I had back labor was that she was turned facing up instead of down. The back of her head was pressing on my spine. Ouch!

Dr. Murphy thought maybe epidural was a good idea; if I got relaxed enough, maybe she'd turn over. You can have a baby in a posterior position, but it isn't easy and not everyone can do it. So great, get that guy in here with the drugs!! But he was having a busy morning and he didn't get there until 11:20. In the mean time I was really losing it. I asked for Jesus more than once and told Dave to just get away and I was in hands and knees to give her room to flip, but that didn't really help. They also put a monitor on her head (I guess it gets screwed into the scalp) for her heartbeat since she was under different pressure than usual and we wanted to make sure we knew what was going on with her).

At 11:15 or so, he finally got there and started the preparations for the epidural, which unfortunately took long than I thought it would. Having 3 or 4 contractions while having the drugs right there but not in my was hard. It was harder still that I was having to sit up without any thing to really lean on or grap on when they hit. After he got it in (and I was careful to do everything he asked since an epidural can possibly result in paralysis or be just on one side, or go into the wrong space and cause bad headaches if it isn't applied correctly) I felt better. I asked if it was psychosomatic, and they said, no, it was just starting to work.

I nearly cried with relief. I love epidural man! I actually slept a little and rested alot and just couldn't beleive that I felt so good. I'd watch the monitor show my contractions and marvel. So at 12:30 or so I was at about 4 cm. That's 3 cm in one hour, yea! AN hour later, at 1:30 I was at 7, half an hour later at 2 I was at 8, and at 2:30 had just a little left to go.

Here is a gross part: since I couldn't feel much and the contractions pushed against my rectum, I was farting quite a bit. Plus, I had a suspicion there was more than just gas there. Sure enough, the nurse cleared away a poopy sheet more than once). Remember those brats and chili? ew. But I know it is normal, I just don't think the smell level was normal.

By this time, she'd turned over :-) but then it was scary because her heart tones would drop every now and again. Not a big deal if it is a little bit, but her's were really tanking. This meant that the cord was likely wrapped around something.

This is scary because every contraction to move her down puts her at a risk of oxygen loss (read: brain damage when I heard it). The doctor said we might need a cesarean, and if so, it would be emergency and we'd have to use general anesthetic (not time to make sure the epidural was right). But he said we might be able to still do it vaginally. For that to happen, it was a race against getting her through the birth canal fast enough. That meant probably help (forceps) and hard pushing work. I asked about the vacuum, but her head was a little crooked still and he needed to turn her as she came out and the vacuum wouldn't be able to do that as well as forceps.

So we went for it; I pushed about every other or every two contractions to give her heartones a chance to normalize. For pushing contractions I pushed ten seconds three times in a row. Sometime in there I guess the doctor had to cut me (episiotomy) in order to get the forceps in. They look like shoe-horns. I didn't notice but I'm impressed Dave didn't pass out watching that!

THe nurse had one leg and Dave had the other and I grabbed the instep of each foot. I was glad we practiced this in yoga. I could see on the doctors gloves lots of blood and also some poo...it must have been a mess down there. It was hard to know where to push since (blessedly) I couldn't really feel it. But the doctor said I'm a champ because I only pushed for about 20 minutes, and I think a total of 6 or so contractions. When she came out, it sort of felt like a poop, but that makes sense since I had a third degree tear which goes from vagina into rectal muscles. It isn't the worst, though, a fourth degree goes into the rectum, ouch!

When she came out, at 4:04 pm, she wasn't at all cone-headed, and her color was good. She gave a good cry as the cord was cut. I guess they pulled the placenta out, but I didn't pay attention because they cleaned her off and I got to hold her. It was so beautiful! I think she's the thing I'm proudest of in my whole life- she is so perfect! A great mop of dark hair that was curly, and now seems straight.

It took about 30-40 minutes to make "repairs" to me. Again, SO SO SO glad for epidural man! They were done by about 5 pm and cleaned me up. I still smelled poopy when I shifted and let the nurse know...sure enough, alot of poopy mess underneath me. That was getting cleaned up as the first visitors arrived: daddy, my sister, then mom and Jim.

At 7 pm I was transferred to my recovery room. I had to be on a gurney since I kept almost passing out. I guess I lost alot of blood, plus I pass out sort of easily. I was pretty tired.

That is the story, though there is more to tell. Hard to explain to non-parents exactly how much time a little one takes. I had no idea, I thought people exaggerated it. Nope. Full time just recovering and feeding! But that is a whole other story.