Having a baby (part 2)

It was now 6 am in the morning on Saturday and I had just had 2 beautiful hours of rest thanks to the wonderful Epidural.

The doctors/midwife kept me on Pitocin and attached to the monitors. Ever few hours they would come and re-check me for any signs of progress. It seemed like such a slow battle. I'd either be a little more dilated or a little more thinned at each check up, so they would add on another 2 hours of monitoring.

Despite a constant epidural medication, the "pressure" they kept describing that was "normal" was anything from and I was in pain. I get pressure, I know what that feels like, but this was horrible. I cried a little bit and they gave me a booster for the epidural. Once that hit, I was in bliss for another hour, which told me that I was right and it was pain and not the expected "pressure" they told me to expect.

The monitors they were using were unable to gauge how strong my contractions were, so they put the internal one back in. Around 11 am a nurse told me the baby's heart rate wasn't looking so good and just put me on oxygen without really explaining anything to me...

So of course I panicked. A couple of friends were in the room with us at the time dropping off food for my husband and I tried not to cry too much in front of them, but once they were gone I called for the midwife. She kindly explained what the nurse had not. Apparently hard contractions sometimes deprive the baby of oxygen so periodically putting me on it gives him a boost. If my baby were in danger, 8 people would be in the room, not a nurse hooking me up and leaving me alone. She took me off the oxygen at that point and I calmed down and my husband played some music for me to breathe to...

Around 2 in the afternoon they put me back on oxygen... and kept it on...

a little later I then developed a fever... because there was an infection...

I got another boost of the epidural to help with the pain...

and while the midwife thought my pelvis was a good round size to deliver a 7-8 lb baby, my body wasn't progressing anymore. At 6pm I had dilated to a 9 but my cervix wouldn't thin anymore so she called for a doctors opinion and I told her before she left I wouldn't fight a C-Section, I just wanted a healthy baby.

The doctor came in and offered me the C-Section. I was prepped and ready to go in 30 minutes. SCB got his scrubs on and since the epidural was well placed he would get to hold my hand through the procedure once things were ready.

Thankfully I was with a room full of happy women who were playing upbeat music in the operating room -- which really calmed me down because I'm a happy bubbly person and it made the cold operating room easier to manage on my own because they wouldn't let me husband in until they were just about ready to begin. 

The medication numbed more than it should and the ceiling tiles buzzed, I had double vision, and my lips tingled so they were simultaneously waking and numbing my body.

King of the Selfie :)

I didn't shake on the table and I held my husband's hand. He got to see our little boy when he was cleaned up and they placed him on me briefly afterward to show him to me while they finished stitching me up.

I lost a lot of blood...

Too much in fact. Any more and I would have needed a blood transfusion.      

Our baby had also pooped inside me and had that in his amniotic fluid which was the likely cause of my earlier infection and fever.

But he was here, he looked healthy and he was mine...

My birth went nothing like planned. I wanted freedom of movement, my husband coaching me through everything and instead I got bed confinement, 28 hours of labor and a C-section...

But I got my baby... and that's what's important. My husband and I had discussed what we wanted to have happen if our "plan" didn't work and I'm so glad we did. We took classes and paid attention to both natural and C-section delivery. I had talked to friends who did both and I think it made it easier for me to accept.