THE BIG BIRTH STORY! - Part 2: Labor and Delivery!

Alternate Title: D-Day (Delivery Day), it really was a surprise attack!

We got in the car and realized we had no idea what we were doing! We were signed up for all of our classes in the next couple of weeks -- the carseat class, the childbirth class, the breastfeeding class, the tour, the paperwork, etc! We had no idea where we were going and I had the brilliant idea to think about where we had our ultrasound. Nope, not the right place. Then I remembered visiting a friend when she had her baby, and we headed for the right door. JJ dropped me off and I went to this area that said to check in. The lady was a little confused and then I realized I was trying to check into the heart and lung part of the hospital. At that time JJ had come in from parking the car and we found our way to the right area. BUT, then because of security stuff with the nursery, we didn't know how to get into the OB area. A lady was visiting her daughter and helped us get in. We started wandering around and a nurse said, "EJ? You're in here. Is that your chart?" They were expecting us.

I got into my gown... backwards first... oops... so much for privacy for the rest of my stay! heehee The nurse (K) got my vitals -- blood pressure looked good, good pulse, good temp. Then she tried to start the IV line. My left arm had just been poked at the clinic, and the rest of my veins were just shot. She tried my left hand. Then she called in another nurse (J). She tried to warm up my arm with a heated blanket. Then she tried kind of wrist area on my left hand. Nope. They called in another nurse. This gal brought in wet heat and tried my right arm and hand. Nothing. The next gal didn't like wet heat, so they dried me off and brought in a heat pack. This lady got me in the right wrist. Phew!! Now I was already starting to get black and blue on my left side. They started a saline drip right away and started talking about tests that needed to be done and the prep for a c-section. One asked me if I had been checked at the clinic for dilation. I said no. They couldn't believe it and said that should happen before anything. Then the doctors started coming.

First, the doctor I had been seeing all along, Dr. L came in. She was quite concerned and introduced me to the family practice doc for the night, Dr. G. Dr. L checked me and surprise of surprise! I was dilated and effaced! Woah! I had started labor on my own! The c-section idea went out the window quickly. I was 80% dilated and effaced 3 cm. They couldn't believe I hadn't felt contractions. I just really maintained that I may have I just didn't know what they were to know if I was having them or not! I had definitely had Braxton-Hicks, but maybe they were the real deal after all. A ultrasound tech. came in and checked out the baby. Baby Girl J was head down and ready to go. Every part of her looked great and then they moved to mommy. My liver was enlarged, but within normal limits (although the ultrasound guy said in every other place he had worked, it would've been considered big especially considering my size). He also noted some "stuff" in my gall bladder.

I asked the nurse for some pain meds because I just did NOT feel good. She said she would go check on that. I said I had some tylenol in my purse if I could just take them. She said she'd get me some water. Foreshadowing: This was the first of my many requests that seemed like I'd be able to have, but that were shot down. She came back and said I couldn't have water right now. She said she'd check on pain meds via my IV. She came back saying they would be giving me morphine. And then came back again saying, no I guess that won't be happening either. One thing JJ remembers is that after every request I kept saying, "Thank you." I can't have water? Ok, thanks anyways. No, no morphine? Thanks for checking. People kept saying I was the most polite patient.

They hooked me and baby's heartbeat up to the monitor. They could see contractions and I was like, oh, so those pains? They are contractions? Got it... I loved being able to see them come and go. The nurses had to give me a crash course in labor because of the whole no classes thing again. Nurse R's shift came on, poor thing, because she had to deal with me the rest of the labor. She taught me how to breathe through them and I found that counting through them was fabulous. When I got to usually around 7, I knew they were coming back down and the pain would end soon. When they started coming with fervor, I would raise my hand and grunt. JJ would be at my side, holding my hand, and breathing with me. He was just amazing. I can't begin to describe how awesome he did and how he worked right there with me.

At 7:00 pm they broke my water. That was a weird deal. My doctor tried and said she couldn't get it. But I felt trickles, so I thought she had gotten it. Dr. G came in next and broke it. Yup, definitely could feel the difference! A GUSH came forth and with that, we were off! They kept checking me and gradually it was going up, but I felt disappointment with every number. I just felt like I was progressing quicker than they kept saying. 3 cm - 3 1/2 cm - 3 1/2 cm - 4 cm

So then they started me on magnesium because of the HELLP syndrome. OMW. Magnesium is like the worst ever. The nurses were like yeah, this stuff sucks. Sorry. I tried to talk them out of giving it to me (without success). heehee So, immediately when it went in I felt hot all over and dizzy and yucky. Oh, and I was in active labor. Yay! They gave me pitocin next (at about 8pm) to keep things going. I continued to progress steadily and the contractions became pretty intense. I asked for drugs I don't know how often. Can I have an epidural? Did you know I did in fact want an epidural? I just wanted to make sure you knew that I am on board for an epidural. Nope. Nothing. They decided to give me stadol. It did NOTHING. I just continued to feel the effects of the magnesium and my intense contractions.

They checked me and were amazed to find out I was progressing quite quickly. I think my next check was like 7cm. It starts getting fuzzy here because I was in such pain. I basically had my eyes closed from 8:30pm until it was over. I didn't know about the rush around me or who was where. Dr. A, the OB, seemed to get cranky that the stadol wasn't given to me again. Dr. L said something like, Oh, it can be given more than once? Dr. A said this should be an every hour thing! (or something like that...)

The second shot of stadol was apparently all I needed. Phew! If you went to the link above, (this one), you saw that stadol is an opioid. Yes, yes it is. Just believe me on that one. I was scared at the affects. Basically, I was at a carnival-type place. Sometimes I was on rides, zipping around at dizzying speeds with weird patterns of black checks as the walls of the rides that made me so lightheaded. Sometimes I was walking around to different booths. I clearly remember a few of the booths were "contractions". I decided to bypass them. JJ says that there were definitely times that contractions were on the monitor, but I didn't even breathe heavily through them. Then it came to the point that I HAD to stop at the contractions ride. I got on and got lightheaded and started not being able to breathe through the contractions (in real life). I was slightly hyperventalating at the end. Then I became aware that there was lots of commotion. Someone said something like, it's ok, you keep going, we'll catch up to you! One nurse said there wasn't time to get a tech. to set things up. All of a sudden, the stirrups were out and my bed was dropping below my legs. At one point my parents and brother got there. I heard my mom introduce herself at the door and someone asked if they could come in. I was so confused and couldn't focus, so they went next door to wait.

Again. No idea what to do. Nurse R told me about feeling the need to "bear down". I totally felt it and Dr. A said, "She's going!" R told me about holding my breath like I was going underwater. It took a contraction or two to figure out what the heck she was talking about. It seems so clear and easy now, but it was all confusing then!! They said to push through the contractions and someone said, doesn't that feel good? I said, "Yes!" Being able to DO something with the contractions actually did feel very good. JJ said that with my first or second big push he could see the head. It was incredible! I pushed through maybe 5 contractions and, tada!! Baby Girl J was there!! I got her head out and forgot what else to do. I felt pain and couldn't figure out what was going on until someone said, we have the shoulder! Oh yeah! Rest of baby! Oops! I think I basically pushed out her head and her big toe and the rest she was just dragged out.

MVJ was born at 10:55 pm. She was 5 lbs. 15 1/2 oz and 19 inches long. She was PERFECT. They put her on my tummy and I just didn't even know what to do! I saw a big head of hair and perfect body and then they took her away.

Then a doctor said to push out the placenta. I was waiting for a contraction, and asked, "Oh. Now? I should just push?" It came out (JJ said it just looked like a big red jellyfish) and they took it away for lab testing. I couldn't understand why the doctors weren't backing away. Turns out I tore, so they were stitching me up. It took a while. I asked what was going on and Dr. A. said something like, "Sweetie, we're not happy with the amount of blood we have." I just layed there staring at my beautiful baby across the room. JJ was at my side, then at M's side, then across the hall telling my parents. They came in at about midnight, after I was all cleaned up and were just way too excited! My Mom said I looked as white as a sheet. She told me that the only thing she could see was my lips. Everything else blended into the sheets.