Littles' birth story

A couple of notes about the birth stories:

1. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in. They are long.
2. They contain stuff that some people may consider TMI. Mucus plugs, bloody show, tearing "down there," etc. You have been warned.
3. They were all written within days of the respective births. That means that they are a good indication of my perspective and mindset at the time of the birth. In some cases (especially regarding Littles' birth), my perspective/mindset has changed with time.
4. Hypnobabies users: You may want to use your BOP. All birth stories contain standard terminology (no "birthing time" or "pressure waves" here...) Littles' mentions p**n a few times; Noob's and Q's do not.

Still want to read? OK. Here goes...

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Background: I had an easy, healthy, normal pregnancy, aside from testing positive for Group B strep at 36 weeks. We planned a natural birth and took Bradley method classes. Unfortunately, the baby wouldn't cooperate, and at 41 weeks, I got scheduled for an induction starting at 41 weeks 5 days (June 17). I was rather upset, as this put a major kink in my natural birth plans and there didn't seem to be any reason to rush the baby out, but I decided to make the best of it and try to make it through with as few interventions as possible.

Afternoon of 6/17/2007 - I stood up and noticed a tiny gush of fluid. I thought it was probably my imagination, or if not, most likely urine -- but that itself was odd, as I had no problems with urine leakage at all during pregnancy.

6/17 7:30 pm - We were getting ready to leave for the hospital when I noticed a more noticeable gush of fluid. Still nothing huge. I had a gut feeling that it was amniotic fluid.

8:15 pm - We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. I mentioned the fluid leakage to the nurse. She said if my water really did break, it would keep on leaking, and to let her know if that was the case. I got hooked up to the external fetal monitor, which showed I was contracting about every 5 mins, but I couldn't feel them at all.

10:30 pm - The on-call OB examined me. I was 1cm dilated, very soft cervix -- basically no change from my appointment the previous Friday 6/15, so my contractions weren't really doing anything. I had had no more fluid leakage, so she went ahead and inserted the Cervidil and kept me on the fetal monitor. Pretty soon, I started feeling more contractions. They either felt like a painless tightening of my stomach or like mild menstrual cramps. I turned down an Ambien (I didn't want the baby or me to be sedated, in case things got moving before the drug wore off) and tried to get some sleep.

6/18 12:00 am - I had just drifted off to sleep when I felt something leaking. We called the nurse, who confirmed that my water had broken. She consulted with the on-call OB and decided to leave the Cervidil in, but put in a hep lock and start IV penicillin due to my GBS status.

(In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that my water would've broken on its own on Monday or Tuesday had I not been induced. Getting induced when I did was something of a blessing, as it allowed me to labor some on Cervidil rather than going straight to Pitocin.)

6 am - The contractions had gotten strong enough that I could no longer sleep through them, so I was waking up about every 5 minutes. I tried to relax through them and hoped they were doing something.

6:30 am - Round 2 of penicillin.

7:30 am - My OB, Dr. K, came in to examine me. Good news, I had dilated to 4cm and 90% effaced on the Cervidil alone! She decided to let me labor for a bit on my own to see if we could avoid Pitocin. We called our doula E, and I took a shower and ate breakfast. I did some walking to try and get things moving -- it just felt good to be off the monitors and the IV. (I still had a hep lock for antibiotics and for Pitocin if needed.)

10 am - Yep, I needed the Pitocin :( Back on the fetal monitors and the IV. No more walking.

11 am - I posted a labor update to my blog. By this point, the contractions were strong enough that I could not type during them, but I still had a good break in between them. They quickly got so intense that I couldn't do anything but focus on them.

1:30 pm - I'd been laboring hard for 2.5 hours. My bloody show had turned from pink to bright red, and I was feeling some pressure in my bottom. So the nurse came in to check on me. I had moved to 100% effaced, but I was still 4cm dilated, just as I had been six hours earlier :( Thank goodness for Bradley classes, where we talked about the NAP (natural alignment plateau) -- my husband, E, and I all knew I could be minutes away from transition even at 4cm. Transition turned out to be a little longer in coming :), but I didn't get too discouraged. I told E, "I don't care that I'm still 4cm. I know I'm making progress. This hurts too much to NOT be making progress."

Around 2:30 pm - Dr. K came back (she'd been at the office) and asked if I'd had a shower. Of course I hadn't; I was still hooked up to the IV and fetal monitors. Bless her, she told the nurses to take me off all that and let me get in the shower. I don't know if it was the shower that helped or just being off the Pitocin, but my pain got better. It was a very welcome break for maybe 20-30 mins, giving me a bit of a second wind.

4:30 pm - Dr. K checked me again. "Floppy" 6cm dilated. OK, better than 4cm. At least I was making progress. I was still nervous that my progress might just stall at some point.
By this time, the contractions were incredibly intense. I was chanting "Open" through them and trying to visualize my cervix opening up. I was switching positions as much as I could, from sitting on the edge of the bed to sitting in a chair to sitting on E's birth ball. I was also able to stand up, but I felt very tense in that position, so I figured it was counter-productive. Lying on my back or side (which I had to do momentarily when they checked me) was absolutely miserable.

The wonderful thing about having E there through all this, besides the obvious support that she gave me, was that she was able to give my husband a break. He actually took a hard 20 minute nap during this period, and he was also able to get lunch and dinner throughout the day. Without E there, I think he would have been too exhausted by the end of the day to really support me when I needed it desperately. Doulas are worth their weight in gold!

6:00 pm - Another check. 8cm, stretch to 9cm. Still making progress. Referring to my Ironman experience, I made a crack about how I'd finished the swim and the bike, and now just had a marathon to run :)

6:30 pm - Round 3 of antibiotics.

Around this time, things got really bad. I had been able to relax through my contractions for most of the day, but now it was all I could do to hang on and stay on top of them. I couldn't even chant "Open" or hum anymore; I just tried to breath. I was incredibly tired and just wanted to get off the Pitocin, fall asleep, and continue laboring later. I actually did sleep in between quite a few contractions.

In addition to the three positions we'd been using all day, E also had me try all-fours and squatting. All-fours felt pretty good. Squatting was REALLY intense. I tried it two or three times and I just couldn't handle it.

My memories of the next few hours are a little fuzzy as far as time goes...

Contractions started to get all over the place. Some were so intense and painful that I couldn't do anything but cry out "Ow! Ow! Ow!," and I even kicked my husband once. Others were quite manageable and gave me a nice break. I also started feeling more contractions in my back. I must've hit transition somewhere in here, but it wasn't very different from what I'd been feeling all along. I did get some shakes, maybe around 7:30 or 8 pm?

Everyone kept asking me if I was feeling pressure, as this would indicate whether it was time to push. Well, I'd been feeling pressure all day, so how was I supposed to know when it was "real?"

The L&D nurse (Melissa) and Dr. K checked me a couple of times. I was fully dilated but still had an anterior lip of cervix that neither of them could push back. I was incredibly discouraged and convinced that the lip would never go away.

Finally, Dr. K said to go ahead and push as she held the lip back. This worked out fine -- the lip moved, and I was finally able to push freely!

Pushing was hard work, but an incredible relief. I was on top of the contractions again. I was DOING something! And it was fun 'cause everyone was cheering me on. I have no idea how long I pushed. My husband says 20 minutes. I think it was closer to 30-45 minutes. I pushed mostly on all fours, then switched to my left side for the last few contractions.

And then, at 9:26 pm, out came Littles! 13 days past her due date, 23 hours after labor got started, 11.5 hours after the evil Pitocin went in -- and totally worth the wait.

She came right on my belly, and not knowing any better, I thought she looked like any other newborn. It was Dr. K, Melissa, and E (who have been around a lot more newborns) who immediately said, "Wow, that is a BIG baby!" Sure enough, she weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz. We had NO idea she was that big, as my OBs don't typically do late ultrasounds for weight estimates. I am glad they don't, because if I had suspected she was big, I might have doubted my ability to push her out. Ignorance is bliss :)

I am really glad we let her have those extra days in the womb. She has been doing so well -- very active right from the start, picked up breastfeeding right away, no jaundice issues, fantastic hearing (the hearing test lady was very excited, as she scored over a 300, which is apparently fairly uncommon) -- and I think part of the reason why is that she got those extra days for her brain to build some extra connections to help her out.

Anyway, whatever the reason, she is just wonderful and we love her so much already :)