The Gory Details

I went in to my midwife's office on Tuesday, May 6 for my 39 week appointment. It was a pretty "vigorous" exam which probably had a lot to do with me going into labor six days early. I was 2 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced - the same as at my 38 week appointment. Well, Tuesday night I started to have what I thought was a contraction here and there. From 2:30-3:30am I awoke several times with pains but at 3:30am I started timing them and they were 3 minutes apart. I got up to do stuff around the house to see if they went away. At 4:15 I called OB and told them they weren't very painful and I wasn't even sure if they were contractions. They suggested lying down for an hour and then coming in if they were still there. At 5:30am they were still coming every 3 minutes or so. I debated waking Chris up because his alarm was set to go off at 6:15 and I wanted him to get his sleep. At the same time I wasn't sure he wouldn't be mad at me for not waking him up. So I woke him and told him I was going to the hospital and was pretty sure I'd be back in an hour since the contractions weren't that bad. He asked if I wanted him to come and I told him not to worry about it and just to go back to sleep. I was on my way to the hospital when he called and said "How am I supposed to sleep after that?" I told him I wasn't even sure they were contractions and I'd probably be sent home right away.

I got to the hospital and they hooked everything up and sure enough, I was having contractions every 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and about 60% effaced. They wanted to wait an hour and check me again to see if I was progressing and in active labor. The nurse said she'd call Laurie (my midwife) and they'd probably keep me if I was. I told her I'd rather go home and she said they'd ask. Chris goes to work at 7am so I called and told him he better wait to go to work and might as well come to the hospital. They checked me at 7:10am and I was at a 3+. They called Laurie and she said I could go home and to give me a shot of morphine so I could get some sleep. I didn't know they would do that - it was SO awesome!!! Chris had to drive me home after the shot so he had a friend come get him to pick up the other car at the hospital.

I came home and slept from 8-11:30am when I woke up with the same contractions as before. I got in the tub and then ate a plum. About 1pm or so I started to have stronger contractions and then I started throwing up. I threw up that same tiny plum no less than 10 times the rest of the day. That part was very miserable. I called OB and asked when I should come back in and they said whenever I wanted. Chris had stayed home with me and it was a good thing because I don't think I could have driven myself to the hospital this time and he works 45 minutes away. At 2:30pm I was admitted having dilated to a 4+. I asked for the epidural at that point and the nurse anesthetist was next door giving one so I didn't have to wait very long. It was SO nice. I dozed away the rest of the afternoon. Laurie was on her way to St. George when they called her and couldn't be back until 6pm. Without the epidural, I don't think Max would have waited for her to come back and I'm awfully glad she was there. She was amazing and Chris and I were both very impressed and very, very happy with the way she handled things.

Laurie finally got back at 6:30pm and my water hadn't broken yet. It was bulging so bad though that she couldn't feel the head to make sure the cord wasn't there so she didn't want to break it. She repositioned me to see if the water would move and came back at 8pm and broke it. A few minutes later the baby's heart rate dropped so they had me try several different positions to try to bring it back up. It finally came back above 100 when I was on my hands and knees. So I stayed like that for 30 minutes. For the rest of the time I was constantly moving positions so that his heart rate would stay up. The baby was also face up so they worked for quite awhile to get him to turn over. I leaned over at one point to throw up and when I was done they said, "He turned!"

At 9pm I started pushing and I told them it was hurting. They checked the epidural and discovered the catheter was completely out. Laurie said I could either just do it and get it over with, I could have a pudendal block (a local anesthetic), or they could put the epidural back in. You could tell the last option was not her choice because of the baby's heart rate and fear I would be so numb I wouldn't be able to push. So I said we should just get it over with. For some reason she decided to do the pudendal anyway and though it was a very miserable experience having her give me the shots because the baby's head was in the way, once it started working it was really, really great. She also was able to use it to repair me after it was over instead of giving me another shot or doing the stitches with no anesthetic. I pushed until he was born at 10:11pm. They took him over to clean him up and Laurie started repairing me. Then the next thing I know she just keeps saying, "She's still bleeding, she's still bleeding." So they start kneading my stomach like crazy which kills like crazy. Then Laurie pulled a piece of membrane out of my uterus that was stuck up in there and making it so it didn't contract. Once that was out the kneading made the bleeding stop. Laurie said I lost about 500 cc's of blood instead of the usual 300 so it wasn't too bad but it was more than usual. This all took until 11pm when they finally gave me Max and I nursed him until 11:30pm, during which time we both fell asleep. They took him to the nursery and I was out cold.

He slept for over 9 hours so his blood sugar level went down. We had to supplement him with formula a couple of times and they kept having to prick his heel to check the level. Then he got a little bit of jaundice so they had to prick his heels to check that. His poor little heels look absolutely beaten. He goes to the doctor at 4:30pm today and hopefully everything is just fine and they can quit making him bleed! We came home from the hospital around noon on Friday and he's been a pretty good baby but how would I know the difference? My mom is here and that is making a world of difference. She's helping out in so many different ways that life is feeling pretty easy right now. I think it's going to be quite a shock when she leaves June 1. :(