Labor & Delivery.
We went in to Via Christi to be induced on Sunday, October 25th at 7 am. I didn’t want to go past one week of my due date and the schedule for inductions was crazy busy, but luckily my doctor was more than happy to induce on a Sunday, and so was the hospital staff.
That last night of sleep was a rough one. I couldn’t really sleep due to nerves and just being super pregnant in general. That means that Justin didn’t really get much sleep either so we were off to a great start!
Once we got up to my delivery room I took off my mask (pandemic, hello) and I never brought the subject up to a nurse. I have seen an article or two about women who gave birth to their child while wearing a mask but that was NOT going to be me. Hell. No. Not happening.
The one benefit of being induced was that I had to have a Covid test done earlier in the week which came back negative. That gave me a sense of relief knowing that I wasn’t putting anyone in danger.
Because the last trimester was so rough, it took 3 tries and 3 different people to get an IV in me and then we were off to the races.
The only ‘plan’ I had in place was the try and do it naturally. That’s it. I didn’t create an actual birth plan and that is because I didn’t want to be disappointed if I didn’t get that.
I knew that with being induced it was going to be a lot harder thanks to the Pitocin, but I still wanted to give it a shot. I think they broke my water around 9, maybe 10 am. Around 11 am, I asked for an alternative pain relief option which was administered via the IV and would last for about an hour. Justin informed me that I was pretty much high as a kite and would just ramble off random words…mostly food I guess.
Once that wore off the pain came back. Oh it came back. I have asked people to try to describe contractions, and I can now agree with them that it’s almost impossible to describe. The level of agony was….yeah….no. Not great. I tried to stay relaxed when each contraction came around and to breath through it. Eventually I tried sitting on the ball thing. I leaned over the bed with Justin massaging my back and hips.
However when 2 pm came around and my nurse told me that she wouldn’t be on shift to see him born…and her shift ended at 6 pm….I gave in. I got an epidural.
And I am so glad I did. I have ZERO regrets about that.
None.
I am very proud of myself for making it halfway though. My doctor and nurse kept asking me about pain management all morning and I kept saying no. I am very glad I truly got to feel actual excruciating contractions.
The woman who put in my epidural was amazing. Top notch. And then heaven, for the most part. I mean, I could still feel some stuff, like pressure from contractions and things like that, but it was much easier.
The entire time we had been there my baby’s heart rate was all over the place. It wasn’t ever a real concern until the contractions started getting worse, and then his heart rate got even more erratic. So they ended up using an internal fetal heart rate monitor thing and then things started looking better. (When we came out they said the umbilical cord had been cinked against his neck which is why it was all over the place, not wrapped around his neck though, thank god).
I had a conversation with one of my sisters a week or two before he was born during which she gave me solid advice when it came to pushing. I think this is one of the reasons that he came out in less than 30 minutes (which impressed some of the staff). What can I say, I have a powerhouse hoo-ha!
Once things start happening and you get an epidural, time just starts to become irrelevant. I had no idea what time it was until they said what time he was born, which was almost 12 hours on the dot from when the whole process began.
One thing that surprised me was as soon as he came out and I heard his very first cry, I started crying. No idea why. Not sure if it was hormones, relief, crying because he was crying, no freaking clue. I just cried. And then they placed that wriggling little creature on my chest and it was love…and more crying.
I had a second degree tear that was stitched up without me feeling a thing. I have no idea if I pooped or not, and I do not care if I did. Justin told me that after they removed the lower half of the bed, they placed a trash bag between my legs to catch everything. I didn’t think about this until later, but that made sense as to why there wasn’t a giant mess on the floor.
I got to see, and touch, the placenta and it was so cool!! I am so glad I did. And I am also really glad Justin got a picture of the table with everything on it.
WARNING: This next picture might be gross to some people!
All-in-all, it was actually a pretty great experience. The next few days were a lot harder, but getting him out wasn’t to bad. I’ll have another post coming soon regarding the rest of our hospital stay.
Time for me to eat…again. 🙂
Love, RR.
(This post may get updated occasionally as more memories come to me)
One Response to “Labor & Delivery.”
CongratZ!
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