Hellobee

This post is an edited version of something originally written in August 2014.

After having a partial placental abruption at 32 weeks, staying in the hospital for several days, being put on bed rest for several weeks, and having three doctors appointments a week for more than four weeks, I finally hit 37 weeks and was cleared for normal activity (minus any exercise).

T H U R S D A Y  –  3 7  W E E K S 

At my 37-week appointment on Thursday, my OB and I celebrated making it to the magical week where little Lion would no longer be considered premature. We chatted a bit more about options going forward and confirmed an induction date for 39.5 weeks. Although I did not want to be induced for a variety of reasons, my OB and MFM convinced me that it was the safest option having had the placental abruption. Still, I hoped I would go into labor prior to the induction date.

S A T U R D A Y  –  1 : 3 0  A M

At around 1:30 a.m. on Friday evening/Saturday morning, I awoke feeling a gush of liquid. I went to the bathroom and when I turned on the light, I saw bright red blood. I opened the door, flooding the bedroom with light and waking Mr. Dolphin. “I have to call the doctor,” I explained. “I’m bleeding again.” I crossed my fingers that my OB was on-call that weekend (he is a solo practitioner and switches coverage of weekends with another practitioner) and breathed a sigh of relief when he answered the phone. After explaining what had happened, he directed me to go to the hospital.

Once there, the nurses hooked me up to the monitors, the nurse examined me (I was only 1 centimeter dilated) and told me that the OB would be there in the morning, assuming no changes in my situation. I was contracting every seven minutes or so at this point, but I honestly had no idea that I was having contractions. Having never been in labor before, I had no idea what a contraction felt like and had mistaken this feeling for the past 15 weeks for baby movement (I thought the baby was pressing his entire body up against the front of my stomach). It sounds ridiculous now, being on this side of childbirth, but I didn’t know how to recognize a contraction.

I should have taken the opportunity to sleep, but I was so wired. I think I played on my computer after failed attempts at sleep.

In the morning, our OB came in with a labor and delivery nurse who had just come on shift. He told us that our MFM would probably want us to deliver the baby that day, but we didn’t have to do with the MFM said. He indicated that we might be able to go home because Lion’s heart rate looked good and the contractions weren’t strong. He wanted to do one more cervical exam before releasing me and when he did the examination, we found out that I was now 3.5 centimeters dilated. Our OB no longer felt comfortable sending me home.

Our OB recommended inducing labor at this point. I felt disappointed because I wanted an unmedicated childbirth and was worried about the cascade of interventions. I had read that women who were induced with Pitocin were less successful in attempts at a natural birth. Our OB could sense our disappointment and suggested we try rupturing the membranes to jumpstart childbirth first, but cautioned that I would probably still need Pitocin at some point. I asked for a few hours to see if labor would progress naturally and he agreed, but warned us that it was unlikely to happen given that I couldn’t feel the contractions. Before he left, he did teach me what a contraction felt like, instructing me to place my hand on my stomach and informing me when he saw a contraction on the monitor.

In the next two hours, I mostly stood or walked to try to start labor. I also tried to finish an article for work since it was clear we’d be having a new baby very soon. Yes, during labor, I put the finishing touch on an article I’d been working on. Again, one of those things that seems ridiculous in retrospect, but made perfect sense to me at the time.

1 : 3 0  P M

Our OB returned at 1:30p.m. and I was still only 3.5 centimeters dilated, so I agreed to try rupturing the membranes first. After he performed the procedure, he said that everything looked favorable and I might not need Pitocin after all. He told me he would check back in with me around 7pm and that we could expect to give birth around midnight.

The first hour, nothing seemed to be happening, but then the contractions really kicked in. I had serious back labor and could barely stand. Mr. Dolphin did everything he could to relieve the pain by applying counterpressure (and, as he told me later, he felt exhausted when I kept telling him to pull or push harder, but didn’t want to say anything at the time . . . smart man). I told Mr. Dolphin several times, “I can’t believe people go through this more than once voluntarily! Why do people ever decide to have more than one child?”

5 : 0 0  P M

At around 5:00, our nurse came back in and I asked how much longer it would be. Based on the readouts from the monitor, she guessed that I might be 5 centimeters dilated by then. “You’re probably halfway there,” she told me cheerily. I was not comforted and thought, I’m only 5 centimeters?! There’s no way I can get through this. I’m not even in transition yet?!

Despite strongly wanting an unmedicated childbirth, by 5:30 I wavered big time. I paged our nurse (again, thinking I was only 5 centimeters dilated) and asked, “If I were to request an epidural, how long would it take to get one?” I stopped short of actually asking for an epidural, but I was close. Our nurse hesitated because she knew my preference for wanting an unmedicated birth and wanted to help me achieve this goal. She explained that I would need to get a bag of IV fluids, then we’d have to wait for the anesthesiologist, then I’d have to be able to lay still long enough to get the epidural. She then asked if I wanted her to call our OB.

When she returned, she said the OB recommended that she do another exam to see how far I had progressed. When she did the cervical check, she smiled at me and said, “Oh, honey, you don’t need an epidural! You’re 9.5 centimeters dilated! You’re almost there!”

6 : 0 0  P M

Our OB came back by around 6pm and had me start the pushing phase almost as soon as he returned. He predicted that we would have the baby within an hour of that point. I complained that an hour was too long. At another point during this phase, completely exhausted after barely sleeping the night before and not having had anything to eat in almost 24 hours, I told him I wanted an epidural. He told me that it would take an hour for it to take effect so there was no point in getting one now. As it turns out, it did take about an hour and a half from this point, but I’m glad it worked out the way it did. I am so thankful to our OB and nurse for helping us achieve an unmedicated birth.

I repeatedly asked how much longer and he kept saying “thirty more minutes.” At one point, Lion’s heart rate dropped, so I was given oxygen. I kept wanting to roll to my left side during the contractions, until my OB finally told me to stop rolling and said that I needed to work with the contractions and push. Soon after, I told him that I was tired and couldn’t do it anymore, but he responded, “Well, I don’t think there’s another way to get the baby out at this point.”

7 : 2 5  P M

At around 7:25, I was completely exhausted and it felt like zero progress was being made; our OB then asked if he could do an episiotomy. I said that I didn’t know. He told me that he doesn’t like to do them, but he didn’t think I had another twenty minutes of pushing in me. I regretted immediately not saying no (but my response to almost everything in the last three hours of labor was “I don’t know.” Whenever a nurse or Mr. Dolphin asked if I wanted water, wanted a massage, wanted anything at all, I would simply say “I don’t know!”) The only thing I would have changed if I had to do it again would be to insist that I did have another twenty minutes in me and that I didn’t want the episiotomy. At the time, I felt exhausted and frustrated, but in retrospect I would have much rather pushed for those twenty minutes.

7 : 3 5  P M

The good news, though, was that not long after the episiotomy, at 7:35 p.m., we welcomed Lion into the world. Mr. Dolphin shed a few tears at that moment which surprised me! Our nurse placed him on my chest immediately and I turned to Mr. Dolphin and told him that our son was perfect. All the pain from childbirth was a completely distant memory and I told Mr. Dolphin, “I could totally do that again” while he just looked at me incredulously. I honestly think the whole process was more traumatizing for Mr. Dolphin than it was for me and to this day, he still doesn’t understand how I could go from being in a lot of pain to forgetting all about it in an instant. When we talked about having another baby, he joked that we could only do it if I agreed to have an epidural next time.

Ah, those peaceful baby coma newborn days!

Mr. Dolphin got to cut the cord and our OB showed Mr. Dolphin the placenta, confirming based on several blood clots that I had indeed had another placental abruption

We spent the next half hour mesmerized by this tiny little baby, before they took Lion away for a bath. “He looks like you,” Mr. Dolphin said almost immediately. When Lion started to cry, Mr. Dolphin placed his finger next to Lion’s face and Lion immediately grabbed it with his tiny fist and fell back asleep.

19.5 inches; 7 pounds, 10 ounces.

Lion was born at around the 50^th percentile, with a full head of hair that was at least an inch long. I was so happy to hold our healthy baby boy, thrilled that we had achieved our goal of an unmedicated birth, and so thankful for the team that helped us.