Birth story (LONG)

Sorry this is so long but I want to try and remember as much as I can.
My water broke in the shower on Monday night 5/3/10 at 9:00pm. Tommy and I spent most of that day walking in hopes that it would get something going. When my water broke I just turned off the water in the shower and told Tommy that I thought my water had broken. We were both so excited that this was actually going to happen soon. We stood around for a while just giggling and staring at each other and wondering what to do next. We took Bradley classes for 12 weeks and I read every pregnancy book I could get my hands on but it seemed like at that moment we didn’t have a clue what to do. I got back in the shower and finished cleaning up. Then Tommy took a quick shower. I had just eaten a big dinner (enchiladas! Yum) so I knew my stomach was full. I wasn’t feeling any contractions so we walked around for a while. We walked down the street from one street light to the next and still no contractions. I did squats in the house and in the driveway. If my neighbors would have been outside they would have thought I was crazy. I still wasn’t having any contractions. We tried to lie down and take a little nap but after about 45 minutes I go up. There was no way I could sleep. So we decided to go to the hospital. I think I may have had a few contractions in the car on the way to the hospital but nothing that really hurt. We arrived at the hospital, they verified that my water had in fact broken and they admitted me at about 2:00 am on 5/4/10 (my due date!). I was maybe 2 cm dilated and -3 station. The baby was still really high!

Once they got me into a room they hooked up the monitors to watch the baby’s heartbeat and to see how often I was having contractions. The heartbeat was fine, and I wasn’t having any hard contractions. I think I had a few very minor ones that were 8-10 minutes apart. They wanted to hook me up to an IV. I requested a heplock and the nurse looked at me like I was crazy and said, “I don’t know we can do that.” I thought that was crazy. So we explained to her that we had a birth plan that was reviewed and signed off by my doctor and he was ok with it. So finally we started walking the halls of the hospital. The nurses and doctors that we passed kind of looked at us like we were crazy. I was shocked by how many women go in, get pitocin, get an epidural, have a c-section, and then leave 3 days later. So we walked and walked and my contractions were still not coming strong or regular. We tried squats, we tried the birth ball. Tommy was helping me every step of the way and suggesting things we learned in class. But nothing was working. I was only 3 cm dilated and still -3 station after being in labor for 17 hours. So around 2pm the nurses finally convinced me and Tommy to try pitocin. At first it wasn’t bad at all. I was noticing the contractions more and more but they were manageable. I was still able to get on the birth ball and rock but I had to be monitored constantly. They checked me again I think around 5 and I was still only 3 cm and -3 station. The baby’s head wasn’t even touching my cervix to make it dilate. So I got extremely upset and questioned the nurses that we tried pitocin and it wasn’t doing anything. The contractions by this point were beginning to become unbearable and they wanted to increase the pitocin because they weren’t seeing any progress. So after and long discussion between me and Tommy we decided to try the epidural and see if it would relax me enough and allow my pelvic bones to relax and make the baby come down. We got the epidural and by 6:00 pm when my doctor came in to check me I was 6 cm (according to the doctor) and 7 cm (according to the nurse) and -2 or -1 station. So the epidural worked to relax me and allow the baby’s head to come down. Around 9:00 I began to notice pressure, the doctor checked me and said I could begin pushing, 10 cm and 0 station. So she was still a little high but we could start trying to push her down. I started pushing at 9:30pm. The nurse helping me push was great and Tommy was amazing! The baby’s head was stuck behind my pelvic bone so it took LOTS of pushing to get it past the bone. They turned off my epidural when I began pushing so I could feel the pressure and contraction and knew when to push. By 11:30 my back was killing me and I had to get the epidural back on. Abigail’s head was sideways so the back labor was extremely painful. At 12:15 am (2 hours and 45 minutes of pushing) I almost gave up. Her head was still behind the pelvic bone and I didn’t think we were making much progress. I told the nurse and Tommy that I couldn’t do it anymore and I wanted a C-section. They convinced me to try to push through one more contraction. That did the trick. Her head passed through the bone and then I was told to stop. Stop??? How are you supposed to stop pushing? We had to wait for the doctor. Well I wasn’t stopping, not after 3 hours of pushing. He hurried in and right when he got in position her head started to come. A few more pushes later and her head was out. One more push for the shoulders and then the rest of her just came out. Tommy was practically skipping around the room in joy. They placed her on my chest and Tommy cut the cord and we had a perfect little girl that was all our own. I was experiencing so many different emotions at that one time. I was so relieved that the labor and pushing was over and that I didn’t have to experience a C-section. I was beyond excited to have a little girl in my arms. I was so in love with my husband. I think I feel in love with him all over again when I saw the excitement on his face as she was coming into the world. Abigail was 7 lbs, 10oz and 20 inches long. She’s a perfectly healthy baby girl and we just can’t stop staring at her and taking in every little feature.