A birth story

Around 6:00pm on Wednesday, January 7th I started to have contractions 5 minutes apart. And by contractions I mean, they were wussy period cramps that didn't hurt at all. But after and hour of them coming like clock work, we threw all the last minute things in to the labor bag and headed to the hospital. i was pretty sure that we would be sent back seeing earlier that day I was only dilated to a 3 and my doctor had refused to strip my membranes thinking that i would go in to labor on my own. Plus, I was only 38 weeks and 4 days and she wanted the little bun to bake even longer.

So we arrive at L&D around 8:30 and they check things out. Still dilated to a 3. "why don't you guys go walk around the hospital for a couple of hours. if they are braxton hicks contractions, they will go away. If you are in labor, then they will get stronger and closer apart."

So we hoofed it around the hospital for 2 hours. It was weird that the only people in the hospital halls were the cleaning people and the occasional nurse. The halls that my husband and I know so well were nearly abandoned and the darkness of night and the impending delivery really charged me up. Overlooking the city lights we walked steadily from University Hospital, to Primary Children's Hospital, to Huntsman Cancer Hospital, over and over again. My contractions started to come at 3 minutes apart and started to hurt. Not really though. mainly, it still felt like cramping. I was convinced they would send me home.

At 10:30pm we went back and they rechecked me. Wow! I dilated to a 5! (well not really but we didn't know that then) We were quickly admitted to L&D. Baby Pita Pocket was coming after all!

We got all settled in and after an hour or so of monitoring, contractions started to slow down. They checked my cervix. Actually, the gal earlier had made a mistake when she checked me. I was only at a 3! and they were going to send me home! I convinced them to let me walk a little more and go back on the monitors.

So there Pocket and I are, walking along the School of Medicine corridor over and over again. back and forth. I guess we weren't really 'walking' though. I was near sprinting in the hopes that they wouldn't send me home. When the OB resident saw me flying down the hall she just shook her head and said she never saw a pregnant woman move that fast. When they rechecked me, contractions came back and I had dilated to a 4! This baby was totally coming and it was a matter of time.


Around 6am Pocket went home to check on Luna and the resident came in and said that my labor was failing to progress. We decided to break my water in the hopes that it would kickstart contractions. still, I was in no pain and was glued to my hospital room television where Cops was being broadcasted from Miami, Florida. I started having weird bouts of nausea that would leave me dry heaving but all in all felt fine.

Pocket hurried back to my side and at 8am, they came in again. This time to start pitocin b/c the contractions were still not regular and I wasn't dilating. Everyone told me that I would want an epidural immediately because pitocin has a way of making the contractions stronger and more rapid. "nah! not me! I'm going to wait until I dilate to a 7 or 8 before needing an epidural" i thought. I held out without meds for about 2 hours. The contractions were unbearable at one point. i couldn't even focus. I couldn't talk. I couldn't see! I was completely in another world when I would have one but when the contractions stopped, I felt lovely! fresh as a spring posy! The pain got bad enough though that I asked for an epidural and threw out my theory of being tough enough to make it through being a 7.

When anesthesia placed the epidural around 11:00am, I could still feel the contractions but they assured me that it takes about 20 minutes for it to totally kick in. At 11:05, the doctor came in and checked me again. He looked at me. Looked at the nurse. Looked at me. Looked at the nurse and finally said,

"Well. I would say that she is dilated to a 10 and ready to push."

my nurse, Janet spun around, "WHAT?". I got this deer-in-the-headlights look, "WHAT?!"

HOLY CRAP!

Apparently I am pretty tough seeing that i went from a 4 to a 10 without pain meds. I wonder now if I could have gone through the entire delivery without the epidural. My doctor was called and she ordered me to do a few practice pushes before she came up. I did one practice push and the residents and nurse started yelling, "NO MORE PUSHING! GET HER DOCTOR HERE NOW! THIS BABY IS COMING NOW!"

At 11:35 am, after 20 minutes of pushing, my doctor delivered our adorable baby girl. She came out screaming before she even was fully out. Everything went perfectly and baby was fine. I was fine. I could not have asked for a better delivery.