Prodromal labor had started in earnest on Friday and continued through the weekend. No fun! On Monday bloody show began and at my scheduled OB appointment on Tuesday he informed me that I had dilated from 1-2cm to 2-2.5cm. That night, though they still felt irregular to me, my contractions got much stronger. I was up all night with them and was extremely frustrating because they were getting more and more painful but didn't seem (at least to me) to be regular at all! It was hard to tell though because I had constant back pain.
Finally at 3-something in the morning I had such a bad contraction that I was DONE! I told husband we were going to the hospital, 5-1-1 rule be damned! He was not happy because he was sure they were just going to scold us and send us home, but I didn't care!
We got there a little after four and nurse took one look at me and promised that we were going to have our baby that day. Sure enough when the hooked me up to the monitor I was having good contractions every two minutes and I was dilated to 4cm.
The rest of the morning I continued to progress steadily so at 12:30, at 6-6.5cm I got an epidural. He had to do it twice because he hit a capillary, but he eventually got it working. Unfortunately, it stalled my labor. My contractions spread out to more than 5 minutes apart and I completely stopped dilating. At the doctor's suggestion we started on the minimum dose of pitocin around 5. The nurse didn't seem optimistic but I felt the contractions really kick back into gear, and after just one hour I was fully dilated!
At that point the doctor came in and checked, and we found out that Remy was still at 0 station and his head was transverse. The doctor immediately started talking about a c-section! I asked if it was possible that pushing would help him move down and the doctor said it could, but he wanted me to understand that it might not. He said he would give me two hours to push and then we would talk again about our options.
I thought that sounded fair enough. Complicating things though the anesthesiologist came in at that point and even though my nurse told him I was fully dilated and about to start pushing he seriously over did it with the drugs. My legs went completely dead. I couldn't feel a thing! My nurse was pissed and I was scared because I couldn't imagine how I could push numb like that, but we got set up and started trying.
Amazingly, after only three or four pushes, his head was visible! They brought over the mirror so I could see, and I still didn't quite believe it! I totally credit visualization with helping me push, because I had no sensation down there at all to focus on. I managed to get him all the way down there, but then he didn't seem like his head was pretty much stuck, so the OB came back in, did a little snip, and I pushed him right out.
He was 7lbs, 15oz and 19.5 inches. He had some minor breathing issues the first night and had to spend a couple of hours in NICU, but has been great since then. He has a great latch but we supplemented with formula at first at the pediatrician's recommendation.
1 comment:
He is wonderful Kim!! You were a trooper! I think God was with you that you didn't have to have a c-section despite the complications and Doctors general desire to go there. Way to be!
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