I'll pick this up from "Blarg: No Baby Yet", since that was the beginning. I made it til 8 and called the doctor, and they told me to come right in. I got in my car and drove there (approximately 10 blocks), and they put me into a room.
The doc came in, took one look at me, and said, "Oh yeah, you're in labor." She pointed to a spot I had left on the floor and asked if that is what I had been seeing. I freaked: I hadn't realized I had left a spot between undressing and climbing on the table, but yes, that was what I had been seeing. She had me lay back, and without even touching me declared my water broken. Then when she did the exam I felt a huge gush. She pronounced me -2 station, 80% effaced, and 4 cm dilated. Then they had me dress and put me on a monitor and told me to call P to come pick me up. I called P, Mom, Patti the doula, my boss, my boss's boss, and my assistant manager. The contractions were only still 5-7 minutes apart, and honestly didn't feel any different from what I had felt before. Everyone I talked to remarked on how calm I sounded. How else was I supposed to be? I just kept thinking: holy crap, I'm having a baby today.
P arrived and a nurse took me to the front door with orders to go directly to the hospital. I had P take me back to my car so I could drive it back to work (where parking is free and I had arranged for a friend to take it to her home if my water ever broke at work - never of course expecting that it would actually happen!), then switched to P's car and started frantically chugging water and eating food, knowing that I wouldn't get the chance again once we got to the hospital.
Got there, were ushered straight to a room, where I stripped and was helped into a hospital gown. Mom and Patti arrived quickly. Patti helped me onto the birthing ball, put on a hypnobabies CD, and started massaging my back. The contractions quickly picked up and got much stronger from there. The nurse came in and checked me and declared me 5 cm. The exams during labor are so much more painful than any I had ever had before!! Then the doc came in and also declared me 5. I had never met her before as Dr. S was on vacation, and I took an unfortunate dislike to her immediately. She told me she wanted to put me on Pitocin because my water was broken and I "wasn't progressing" and there was a risk of infection. I was totally stunned. All the books I read said you had 24 hours to get the baby out after your water broke. Also that Pitocin would make the contractions way more painful. It had only been just over 4 hours since my water broke at that point!!
I told her no.
She went away and I kept laboring. The contractions got longer and harder. The doc came back and pushed Pitocin again around noon, as I was still at 5 cm. I said no, but I said if I hadn't made any progress in 2 more hours, I'd let her. I got off the monitor and got in the shower, which helped a little, but the contractions continued to increase in intensity/pain. Then I got in the bed into a sitting position with my legs almost indian style. I could feel the baby coming down and it hurt so very very badly. I worked through it for as long as I could, but finally I asked Mom and Patti to leave the room and told P I wanted to ask for the epidural. He said that was fine, and when everyone came back I asked. The doc was due in 20 minutes, so they talked me into waiting: what if I was in transition and this was the worst part - would I still want the epidural? No, so I waited.
Doc came back, checked me, I was still 5. I told her I wanted the epidural and she could start the Pitocin. The anesthesiologist showed up thankfully really quickly. I was really scared that I'd have a contraction while he was in there, since my contractions were coming in a pattern of 2 strong ones, with the 2nd followed immediately by a weaker (but still painful as hell) one. But he got it in me, and the relief was within 2 contractions. THANK GOODNESS. That was the BEST decision I ever made. Screw natural labor.
They had asked Preston, Mom, and Patti to step out during the procedure. They took the opportunity to grab some food, and by the time they got back I was smiling and happy and pain-free. Preston told me later that he couldn't believe the transformation.
After that, we all sat around and shot the shit for an hour or two. The only negative thing for me was that since I wasn't distracted by pain, I discovered I was hungry and thirsty. I requested and ate 3 or 4 popsicles while we waited, but they barely took the edge off. As for the baby, she started having little decelerations in her heart rate when I'd have a contraction. They decided that she was probably tangled in her cord, and so began irrigating my uterus with some liquid to cushion the cord from the baby. It was funny to me because they kept trying to tell me about the procedure like they were afraid I'd say no: once I had that epidural, I didn't care any longer what they wanted to do, short of a c-section!
When the nurse checked me again, I was 9 cm, and they called the doc to tell her to come my way. She actually took quite awhile to show up, but since I had the epidural, I had no urge to push, so we waited. Apparently they call this "laboring down", and it is supposed to make the pushing phase shorter.
Then they decided for me to try "practice pushes". This is bullshit. There was never any transition from practice to the real thing, except that the doc eventually showed up. They'd jack my legs up, I'd hold onto them, and push for all I was worth, all the time thinking of pooping the baby out. But I couldn't feel a thing. They got me a mirror and almost immediately you could see the top of her head coming out with the pushes, and going back in when I rested.
I never could understand before how labor could be hard if you had the epidural. I mean, if you weren't feeling the pain, what was so difficult about it? Let me tell you: it is absolutely exhausting. I pushed and pushed, and it seemed like she'd never come out of me!
At some point I tore a little, and the doc told me I'd need an episiotomy. I told her I'd rather tear, but she said that I really really needed it, that the tearing on me would be extreme and that the baby's head was just too big for me. I was really pissed off, but what was I going to do? I let her cut me, and the next push, the baby came out! Her cord was wrapped around her neck, but they slid it off as she came out.
I was watching the whole thing in the mirror like it was on television, and finally the doc called me name and said, "She's out, look over here now." Preston cut her cord and they put her on me, where she promptly shat out the biggest meconium poo in the history of the universe. All over me. Funny how after all they worrying about the grossness of changing diapers, she greeted me by shitting on me. And I didn't care at all. Instant transformation - crazy stuff! They cleaned us both up, all while I was petting her face and cooing at her to try to get her to calm down.
Then they took her away and cleaned her and weighed her and did all that stuff, all while the doc delivered the placenta and stitched me up.
Then they brought her back and we had our first try at breastfeeding, before they took her down to the nursery. At some point someone had brought me in some food and set it down at the foot of my bed, and when everyone went with the baby, I was left staring at the food but unable to reach it alone in L&D.
Will pick up the story with an "Aftermath" post later.
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