There is no better place to start our blog than with the birth of our beautiful little girl. With a due date of Sept 3, 2011 and the date quickly approaching the 12th, we were starting to get a little worried that she was just too cozy in there and she would never come! For almost 2 weeks I had been walking laps around the neighborhood and our house trying to get something started. We tried almost every old wives tale to speed things up, from homeopatic remedies to herbs, to red raspberry leaf tea and we almost made it to castor oil. I had contractions ranging from 10 - 15 minutes apart for almost a week, nothing seemed to change that. For several mornings I woke up around 2:30am with strong contractions that were closer together for about 2 hours and then died back down, so when I got up early on Tuesday the 14th, I didn't even get excited. I walked a couple laps around the living room and kitchen, then sat on the exercise ball for a while, got a drink, got a snack and waited for them to slow back down like they had before. About 5 am I decided maybe I should time them, mostly because I was awake and didn't have anything else to do. After another 30 minutes of staring at my watch, it finally clicked... this could be the real thing! I decided it was probably time to wake up Doug. (he slept through the entire thing so far) I crawled into bed next to him and said "Baby, it's time to have a baby" I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me, in fact he asked if I had talked to the midwife before waking him up. At that, we called Lynette, who by happy coincidence was already awake because she had a "feeling". We went in to see her at 8am that morning to find out we were definitely in labor but not far enough along to need to stay at the birthing center. So she sent us home to labor in peace and quiet, try and get some rest and hydrate up for the long haul. Now before I go into more details about the rest of our adventure, I must preface it with a little backgroung information. We found out at 20 weeks that my placenta had implanted anterior, which is not extremely rare but not common. This means our little girl was "sunny side up" or facing forward, which is a complication although not a serious one. We knew ahead of time that I was going to have back labor and that it was going to take a little longer because the baby needed to make a 1/4 turn to come through the birth canal. Ok, so back to the story for the next 11 hours we did more walking, more sitting on the ball and eventually a really nice long bath. Around 9pm Lynette called to check on us again, and we packed up to go back into the birthing center to see her again. Both of us were pretty convinced we were getting sent home again because the contractions were a very regular 5-7 minutes apart and not getting any stronger. Much to our surprise, we were dilated to 4cm and we were good to go. So Doug unpacked the car and I answered at least 300 questions, got my blood pressure taken and all the other good "check in" stuff. Lynette has this great theory about not laboring for too long in one place or one position, so all night long we rotated from the sling to the birthing chair to the tub, we even walked around outside for awhile. I may be an unusual case, but I felt most of my labor pain in my sacrum and tailbone. It felt like someone stabbing me with a hot poker right in the tailbone! I got adjusted through the entire process and can't being to describe how much it helped! I am completely convinced that those adjustments were the reason my back labor wasn't so bad. My fantastic husband/coach/chiropractor not only adjusted me, but massaged, pushed on my sacrum, and squeezed my hips over and over again for hours. He was a stud!Around 6:30am my water broke, the first time. I say that because later in the morning we had another "break" when she shifted positions and all the fluid trapped behind her was freed. After my water broke that morning, we were far enough long to start pushing, so we filled the tub up and got to work. At this time I began throwing up, which they told me was a really good sign, however it didn't feel so good at the time. Doug got halfway in the tub with me so he could catch the baby and coached me through about an hour of pushing. At that time, we decided to change positions and I laid on my side on the bed. We pushed in this position again for another hour, and then changed positions again. This went on 2 more times, until I was completely exhausted and I couldn't keep any water or food down. I had no concept at all what time it was, as it turns out it was 3pm on Wednesday. Needless to say I was not the only one who was worn out. I was actually falling asleep in the 5 minutes between contractions. Lynette and us decided that the best thing would be to drink some Ensure (it's nasty I don't care what flavor you get) and try to rest. I took a Benadryl and laid down. Doug was asleep in the chair before I was. I managed to rest for about an hour, with contractions slowing down to once every 15-20min. After about an hour, I barely made it to the bathroom to throw up again, yep Ensure tasted just as bad coming back up. By this time it was 5:30pm and we were almost past our 12 hour window. Twelve hours after your water breaks, you become at higher risk for getting an infection. Lynette had to sit us down and have a dissapointing talk. She was worried that I was so dehydrated and exhausted that I wasn't going to be strong enough to push, so she suggested that we transfer to the hospital for IV fluids. We were all convinced that as soon as I got a little water and sugar in me, we'd have a baby in no time. So at 6:30pm Doug got to make the phone calls to the families that we were headed to Lafayette General Hospital. As soon as we got in the room we were bombarded with nurses and Dr. Robinson and then family. Getting the IV was TERRIBLE! I don't do so well with needles, partly because I have tiny veins and when my blood pressure drops they are almost impossible to find. So after 3 tries in my right hand and 2 in my left they decided to try my left forearm. By far this was the most painful part of her entire birth, and the only time I actually cried and screamed. The nurse managed to push through the vein completely so when they tried to put fluid in my arm got huge and hurt so bad. So of course another nurse has to come in and take that IV out and put another one in my right hand. Once that ordeal was over and I had a few minutes of fliud I felt like a whole new person and was ready to push again. This time we got to try the squat bar, which was surprisingly effective, but still no baby after another hour of pushing. Dr Robinson pulled Doug aside and he and Lynette discussed giving me just a tiny dose of Pitocin to get us past this last little hurdle, as I was getting tired again. So after much discussion, we were given a very small dose. I couldn't have told you what time of night this was, although I am told later it was about 10pm. The pitocin made the contractions feel VERY different, and much closer together. I couldn't honestly say how long we labored like that, the contractions were so strong and close that I didn't hardly open my eyes. I also have to say I was a bit embarassed by the room full of people. At the birthing center for most of the time, it was just us as a team and it was quiet and dark and I felt like I could really concentrate. Once we got to the hospital there are people walking in and out all the time. Doctors, nurses, family, midwives it was a madhouse and a bit distracting. Now as we were laboring between pushing I had a new challenge arise..HEARTBURN. Like you would not believe! I'm not sure if it was from vomitting so much or what, but it was almost worse than the contractions, so I sent my wonderful husband running out into the waiting room to send my Father in Law to find me some Tums. Of course it was like 1am and the store in the hospital wasn't open anymore. To this day I have no idea where he found them, but I am so thankful! After the heartburn was tamed, the contractions pretty much never stopped. They came one on top of the other. I was allowed to do some pushing, and some pushing I couldn't control. I was again getting very tired and was experiencing a lot of pain that never let up, as it turns out the nurse had been turning up the pitocin without us knowing. We were almost at the max dose, and now we were having the opposite problem. My muscles would not relax enough to let her come down the brith canal any further. By this time I was more than exhausted and now really angry. The pitocin was only supposed to be a 10 -15 minute thing, and here we had been hooked to it for hours and they had been changing the dose without telling us! So now we had to turn the pitocin back down and give me a relaxant. For a couple who was very against using any medications, it was so frustrating. I remember very clearly the nurse telling me it was going to feel like I'd had 2 margaritas, she ws swrong it felt more like 5. I could barely keep my eyes open, but it did make the next 2 rounds of pushing much easier. About 2:30am Doug walked in the room with his eyes filled with tears and I just knew they weren't going to let us continue. After 48 hours of labor and pushing and pushing and pushing, something was preventing her from descending the final 2 inches. That's how close we were, you could see her head, I could reach down and feel her hair, she was that close. But something was stopping her. Dr. Robinson gave us the choice to keep going and they would use the forcepts, vacuum and possibly break her collar bones or have a c-section. It was heartbreaking. We had planned and planned and literally gone through all of our options. Everyone was very upset that we were so close and this was the decision we were faced with. For me, there was no thinking about it. I know we did everything and tried everything, but there was no way I was going to let them break her bones just so I could have the birth that I wanted. Lynette came in and talked with us too. She had never left us, tried everything under the sun. I believe with all my heart she would never have recommended this unless she felt it was the best option. Of course we cried, but at that time nothing was more important than having a healthy baby. So with not much discussion but a lot of dissapointment we signed the consent form and got ready for surgery. I have to add at this point they had still never turned off the pitocin and we were trying to make this huge decision in the middle of contractions, slightly distracting to say the least. So they wheeled me through the big Surgery doors and then he had to go into another room and get changed while I continued on to the OR. For me this was the worst part. He was my partner and my rock through all of this and suddenly I'm in a cold OR all by myself getting needles put into my spine while going through contractions. The spinal was a very wierd feeling, within moments my legs got really heavy and they had to lay me down on the table. My right arm was strapped down to the table, since it had all the IV's in it. On tv that blue screen they use so the mom can't see the surgery is much farther down than it actually is. I could only see if I turned my head to the left. Lynette came into the OR with us carrying my camera and smiling. She was a never ending source of enthusiasm and support. She kept telling me over and over "she'll be here in a few minutes". Doug held my hand and talked with me, well he talked in between staring over the cover to see the surgery. He has always loved anatomy and the disection lab was by far his favorite thing, so he was so excited by watching everything. At one point in time Dr. Robinson and him were actually joking around! At that time we found out that I had torn my abdominal muscles and he offered to stitch them back up for $3 million dollars, ha ha. I was surprised to hear that I had pushed so hard I actually tore the muscles, however it did explain some of the burning pain in my side. After what seemed like forever we finally heard her cry! All 3 of us were tearing up and Lynette was snapping pictures as fast as she could. They were both really great about describing everything that was happening and what she looked like, but it felt like FOREVER before I got to see her. She surprised us all at 8lbs 11oz and 22 inches long, even Dr. Robinson was shocked! Sadly she wasn't allowed to be laid on my chest and I couldn't hold her because of the IVs so D held her and I just stared and touched her face. Lynette says she was so pretty when she came out she was ready for a prom dress. I have to agree! Her skin was just perfect and her eyes were open wide, and she was very proudly showing off the capacity of her lungs. I got to see her for about 5 minutes before Daddy and the nurse took her down the hall to do all the tests. I had to lay there for the next 10 -15 minutes while they stiched everything up and turned down the anesthesia, then I got wheeled down the hall to finally get to hold her for the first time. On the way down the hall you could hear her sucking on Daddy's fingers because she was so hungry. Well after 50 hours I was pretty hungry too! She latched right on and we spent the best 45 minutes just staring at her and trying to take in every little detail.
Of course I wish we could've had the peacefull birthing center nautral birth that we had planned and worked so hard for. But there are things that are completely out of our control. As it turns out our anterior placenta was large and because she was so long she couldn't turn her body all the way like was needed. We also found out that the umbilical cord was not attached at the center like it usually is, so there is a possibility her being born naturally would have torn the placenta off the uterine wall and caused me to hemorrhage. Lynnette is famous for saying that babies know what they need to be born. Maybe she knew, who knows. What I do know is, she's one very tough little girl. Through this entire ordeal she never not once went into distress. Her heart rate never waivered and she stuck through it with me just like I stuck through it all with her. My biggest regret about having to resort to plan D in the birthing process is I feel like we missed some of those special bonding moments that come with natural birth. I really wanted for him to get to catch her and cut the cord. I really wanted to have her on my chest skin to skin for those first few moments. But the joy of simply holding her and having her be healthy and happy far outweighs those little things.
