I had an idea of how I wanted our delivery to go, and induction was certainly not a part of it. However, our son's "due" date of January 19th came and went, and the doctor strongly suggested waiting no longer than a week before induction. The date was set then for Tuesday, January 25th. I felt really good, and worked through Friday. The weekend was spent relaxing (we had already gotten everything done on our "list" weeks before!) and on Monday I napped and re-cleaned an already clean house. Monday night brought NO sleep. I was wide awake when the alarm went off at 4 a.m. We were to be at the hospital in Hastings by 6.
In the weeks prior to our due date, I had done a self-study for natural birth. Included were several CDs, of which I listened to every day. The CDs were designed to relax me, and to help me feel good about the upcoming birth... basically to get rid of fear. While I was definitely a little scared and nervous on the way there, the CDs helped a ton to relax me.
We checked in and got to our room where they took my vitals, etc. I was super nervous about them putting in the IV to get the pitocin started. I HATE needles! They put it in around 7:45, and it wasn't even that bad. Within fifteen minutes, the numbers on the monitor said I was having contractions. I thought it was pretty cool I couldn't feel them. However, the dr. came in twenty minutes later and broke my water. Oh, that's what a contraction feels like... yikes! They were already three minutes apart.
They turned up the pitocin every fifteen minutes until my contractions were lasting longer and were two minutes apart. Soon I was dilated to a four. During this time, I moved around to try to find a position more comfortable than lying in the bed. I also wanted to try different positions to help turn our baby. I had known for a couple of weeks that he was posterior (head down, but back towards my back, rather than baby's back towards my stomach). I had read that a posterior birth could be quite painful since baby's skull would be against my pelvic bone. It would make for a long and painful delivery. The doctor said posterior babies usually turn during the actual labor (the contractions help to get them turned around), but I was nervous this would not happen. I tried two different positions I had read about that were to help turn the baby: on the birthing ball and on hands and knees. The birthing ball worked for a bit, but wasn't my favorite because it was hard to relax on.
The morning flew by. Each time they checked me I was dilated more. I found that being on my hands and knees felt the best, and Tyson was AMAZING help. He applied pressure on my back in certain spots that instantly helped to relieve the pain. It's amazing the poor guy's thumbs didn't fall off (I still have marks on my back from the exact spots that I was telling him to rub - haha). He was so encouraging and I don't know what I would have done without him!
Around 11:00 I was dilated to a 6 or 7. I asked about pain meds, and they offered to give me something through the I.V. that I already had in my hand. I liked the idea of this because that meant I could get a bit of relief without getting stuck with another needle. I didn't want an epidural because I was more afraid of the big needle than the pain of natural childbirth. The medication they could give me through my already existing IV, however, would only take the edge off for about half an hour, and the next dosage would not be as effective they said. I decided I could wait and when I was dilated to an 8, they put it in the I.V. This was perfect timing. I don't believe it lessened the pain, but kept it from getting worse as I went from an 8 to a 10. During this time I felt pushy and it was incredibly frustrating and painful to not be able to "get on with it."
They checked me again, told me baby was anterior now (Praise the Lord!), and told Tyson to quickly change into scrubs. They took me to the delivery room, and I was finally able to push which was a huge relief. The doctor was not there yet, and the nurses thought they were going to have to do it without him but he did get there in time. The pushing was less painful than the last stages of dilation and it really only took about a half hour-forty minutes of pushing to get him out. However, he was on the verge of coming out for quite a while and was somewhat stuck (hmm... maybe a 9.5# baby was the cause of that?!) The nurse had to get a little rude with me so I would push harder and I was so glad she did because it was just what I needed.
Finally his head was out! I was expecting him to fall out after that, but I still had a bit of work to do. I hope I never forget the excitement in Tyson's voice when he was telling me the baby was coming out. Finally I could feel him "falling out" and they set a rather huge, slimy, slightly purple, but beautiful boy on my stomach. They told Tyson to quickly cut the cord, and then they took him off of me. Tyson went with the nurse who took our baby to the other side of the room where they cleaned him up, weighed him, and gave him some extra oxygen.
It was all so incredible. Could any moment be any more crazy? I mean, my body had just experienced the most exhausting and painful day it ever had, my mind and emotions were spent from hours of intense concentration and willing my body to endure, and then my child (a combination of myself and the love of my life) is placed on my stomach. Wow.
Looking back now I am able to awe at the moment but I must say my attention was divided then between all that and what was still happening at the end of the delivery bed. The placenta was delivered easily enough, but then I had to be stitched up from tearing (they really should improve local anesthesia!).
Tyson went with the baby and nurses to get him hooked up on oxygen right away. I was told this was not anything to be too concerned about, and they took me back to the room to get cleaned up. After about an hour, I slowly made my way to the nursery where I sat with Tyson staring at our son who was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and things. When I came in, his eyes were open and he was just looking around, not crying. Tyson made a comment about how alert he was, and the nurse said that babies often wait until they see their mothers for the first time before they go to sleep. Sure enough, soon after I started talking to him, he was out. I just cried some from exhaustion and an overwhelming awe of "WOW. We made that?!"
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