I am going to type up everything to the best of my ability. Some things are a little foggy at the three week mark. I can say with certainty that I am sitting here at the lap top with my boppy around my waist and my beautiful daughter curled up to me milk drunk!
Sydney was due on September 14, 2010. All the doctors appointments resulted in me being told that she was high, no effacement, and no dilation. The week before her due date, I had contractions that would start as soon as I would get home from work and then would stop as soon as I was getting ready for work the next day. I had told everyone that my last day of work would most likely be Friday the 17th. I just couldn't take the comments at work anymore. There were random people that would tell me that she would be here really soon. And then there were the...you haven't had that baby yet comments too!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 ended up being my last day of work. That night my contractions became so strong I couldn't do much of anything. They were not consistent though. They were anywhere from 1-45 minutes apart and 30-90 seconds long. My next appointment with my OBGYN was on Thursday morning. I went in expecting to have made all kinds of progress. As it turns out I was just 1 cm dilated at my Thursday morning appointment.
All day Thursday and Friday I continued to have very intense contractions. They were 1-15 minutes apart and at least 45 seconds long. The majority were closer to 2 minutes long. There was some bloody show and I was loosing my plug. I tried to do a few last minute things to get ready for her to come. Most of Wednesday night and all of Thursday night I had to sleep alone in the baby room. It was just too hard to crawl out of bed between my son and husband. I called my doula to let her know where things stood. She told me that she had another client that was at the same point as me and that she did have a back up. I told her that it was fine.
From 10:30 PM until 12 AM my contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart. So I went up to bed in hopes that I could get a little rest before needing to go to the hospital. It was so hard to get around on my own. I just wanted to stay on the toilet. So that is where I went as soon as I got upstairs. And that is when the contractions picked up. They were a minute or less apart. It was to the point where I couldn't tell where one ended and the next began. So I was trapped in the bathroom for at least 30 minutes before I could make it to the phone to call mt husband. Yelling for him was not an option since he was in the basement.
Just before 1 AM we got the call back from my OB. He told us to head to head to the hospital. I didn't even think to call my doula. Plus, if it was a back-up, I didn't want someone new in addition to the nurses. I also thought things were going to go really fast. So it seemed pointless and I didn't give it a second thought.
We got to the hospital some time after 1 AM. I thought I was going to throw up. I hated the car ride. The main road was under construction. So it was a bumpy ride! They got me in a wheel chair and up to the fourth floor so fast. I felt like it was a race. They checked me when I got up there and I was in the 2-3 cm range. When Dr. W got there he checked me and he talked to me about breaking my water. It was so nice to be able to talk about it and be ASKED if that was what I wanted. Since the contractions were still intense and had slowed down, we went ahead and broke my water to try to keep things going in the right direction. They also started the IV at this point since I was a VBAC hopeful.
I had intended to go through this birth with no drugs. Around 5 AM I asked for pain meds. I took 3 doses and they didn't work for me at that point. I was in the 5 cm dilated range at that point. The nurse worked with me all morning on the ball and in different positions. I did not want to bounce on the ball at all. That created killer contractions for me.
I lasted until about 11 AM before I asked for the epidural. I wasn't relaxing and I needed something to help me relax or I wouldn't make anymore progress. It wasn't as bad as I thought to get the epidural. There was one small area on my right where it didn't work. And my left side was totally numb. My arms were just fine though. I was in such a good mood at that point and was able to relax and get some sleep. When I woke up I was in the 8-9 cm dilated range. She made it to -1. I believe I was close to 100% effaced. This was around 1 PM. He talked to me about starting pitocin. My contractions were not as strong and consistent as they needed to be for me to get a baby out. She was doing great her stats were beautiful. So there were still things we could try. They started the pitocin soon after 1 PM. They kept increasing it since both Sydney and I were fine.
I was still at 9 cm around 4 PM. Dr. W said that I could try pushing and see if I make any progress since she didn't want to drop lower than -1. She would while I push. He said that the last little bit was floppy and not in the way. He would let me try to push for 2 hours. The nurse, my husband and I worked on pushing during ever contraction for a little over 2 hours. We tried as many different positions as I could with the pitocin. I made it to 10 cm except for one small lip on the right side. But she still would not drop past -1.
We tried everything that we could. I was running a fever and Sydney's stats we not as perfect as they could be. She wouldn't drop and so a section was the only option. I felt good about it this time. All I wanted was a positive birth experience where I was asked what to do next and given time to talk things over before they were done. So around 6 PM I told Dr. W lets do a section. They gave me more meds and made sure I was numb again.
Saturday, September 18, 2010, Sydney Michelle was born at 6:31 PM via cesarean section. She was 7 lbs. 8.5 ozs. and 21 inches long. We found out why she wouldn't drop anymore. The cord was around her neck THREE times! She was just fine as soon as they took it off her. She was perfect and didn't have any issues in the hospital. I on the other hand had to go through all kinds of tests. I will save that part of the story for later.
We have been exclusively breastfeeding on demand for 3 weeks now!
