Quite some time ago, I promised to post Levi's birth story at his next birthday. That was at least 2 years ago, maybe 3, and I never did it. So tonight, in honor of my firstborn's fifth birthday tomorrow, I will at last revisit my first-ever childbirth! (Re-posted and edited from the original Facebook "note.")
For those of you who want the gory details (and I know some of you will), I was quite the miracle patient at Good Sam hospital on Wednesday night (or so they say).
On Monday morning at my midwife appointment, I was maybe 50% effaced and considerably less than 1 centimeter dilated. "Keep your appointment for next week," I was told. Tuesday night at 11pm, I experienced one gush of fluid that I suspected was either my water breaking, or sudden overwhelming urinary incontinence. We called the midwives, who told me to wait 3 hours and if it continued, I would need to go in [being group B strep positive, there was more concern of infection should my water break before starting labor]. Well, it didn't continue, so -- PRAISE GOD -- I slept the longest and hardest I had in days, until 9:30 Wednesday morning!
Wednesday afternoon I went to a church staff function, and after having sat in a restaurant booth for some time, I stood up and took a few steps -- and lost quite a bit of fluid! This happened a second time an hour later, after driving back to the church office. Isaac, by this time, was in the church pool with several of his junior high kids. I called the midwives again, who said I definitely needed to come to the hospital at least to find out for sure if this was, indeed, my water breaking. So, I retrieved Isaac from the pool, we stopped at home to pack our bags and throw the car seat in the car [we were NOT READY for this!], and drove through thunderstorms to the hospital.
We arrived at roughly 4pm, went through triage, and were greeted by our midwife-on-call, Stacy. She quickly affirmed that my membranes were ruptured, but I was still only 75% effaced and 1cm dilated. She explained our 3 options: go home for 12 hours and hope labor starts (and, probably, be put on Pitocin when it didn't), stay there for 12 hours and try a cervical ripening agent called Cervidil (and, probably, be put on Pitocin when I still wasn't in labor, but in this case, hope for a smaller dose of Pitocin), or just go straight to Pitocin and deal with the full induction of labor. We really really did not want to use pain medication if at all possible, so we'd been hoping and praying from the beginning that I wouldn't have to be induced.
At that point she stepped out of the room for a few minutes, during which time I shifted positions and baby's heartbeat dropped considerably for too long of a time. When she saw that, Stacy immediately took away the "go home for 12 hours and see what happens" option, because she wanted to be able to keep an eye on his heartbeat. Isaac and I were in agony -- there we were, faced with 2 induction options just because we called to tell them my water broke, not at ALL in any sort of birthing situation we wanted, and feeling very much out of control of it all!
Since there was a small chance, however, that Cervidil could get labor started, though not an actual labor-inducer, we decided to go that option. At the very least, it bought us 12 hours of cervical softening before they'd induce. Of course, that also meant we expected to be there for a good 12 hours before labor even started, which was going to prove to be a very long night!
Or so we thought. The Cervidil was placed [it's a small device that gets puts as close to the cervix as possible] at about 7:30pm, after we'd been moved to the beautiful Good Sam labor/delivery suites. We took care of some necessary things -- dinner, a quick visit from Isaac's dad, etc. -- and proceeded to play a card game, waiting for my parents to arrive. I had 2 contractions in the next 2 hours -- not much to get excited about, but we figured at least *something* was happening. At about 9:45pm, though, I very very quickly lost interest in the card game as I suddenly began to experience very intense contractions, surprisingly close together. When my parents arrived just before 10pm, the contractions were 60 seconds or less apart, and I was stunned by their severity.
Maybe an hour or so later, my nurse [a fantastic woman named Donna] came in, watched me get through a contraction, and said, "you know, maybe I ought to have Stacy come and check you." That wasn't supposed to happen until 3 or 4am, based on how quickly Cervidil usually works! Stacy was busy delivering another baby, though, so Donna checked me herself, and looked up at me in astonishment to announce that I was at 6cm! My mom told me later that she ran out into the hall and called Stacy, saying things like, "you'll never believe this -- this girl who was only at 1cm at 8pm and only had Cervidil is at 6 now and totally in labor!" They got those group B strep antibiotics in pretty quickly then, realizing that they probably didn't have 4 hours left before birth.
The next 2 hours or so were pretty rough, but not all that painful. The hardest part was how badly I wanted to push by the time I was at like 7 or 8cm -- way too soon! Stacy, Donna, and Isaac spent the better part of each contraction trying to slow me down. Through most of the 1am hour, I asked after every 2nd or 3rd contraction, "how many times do I have to do this before we can move on?" And then, seemingly without warning, Stacy said, "okay, your cervix is gone -- it's time!" Despite all my best intentions of moving around during labor and squatting for delivery, it had happened so fast that I was laboring on my side in bed, gripping the handles or Isaac's hand for support. (He didn't tell me until later that he had to remove his wedding ring so I didn't cut him.) While they prepared the room for delivery (mainly just bringing some stuff they'd need for the baby), I was "given permission" to bear down when I felt like it -- which was odd, after trying so hard not to for 2 hours! I more or less crowned while still on my side, because even when I was told to roll to my back, it was so hard to do with a baby in my pelvis.
Like I said, I'd been absolutely gung-ho about how women shouldn't deliver babies on their backs with their legs in the air, but there just wasn't time to even THINK about trying to get up. I only pushed for about 10 minutes -- Isaac estimates 10-12 pushes -- and there he was, our baby boy! The cord was so short that he barely reached my chest, and he had a bit of trouble breathing at first so they took him to the warmer pretty quickly, but we still got our good few first minutes together. He came out headfirst but also with a fist in his face, without which I probably wouldn't have torn . . . but I did, just a little. I've never had stitches before, and I would be totally okay with never getting them again!!! It's the only thing that hurts, even now. [Who knew I'd go on to have another baby born with a fist at his face, and stitches two more times.]
We still can't quite believe this is really happening -- I really had a baby, and he's really OURS -- but we're most definitely falling in love moment by moment.
Five years later, I still sometimes can't believe this -- parenting, watching my firstborn son grow up -- is really happening! He is a challenge and a joy, brilliant and stubborn, cautious and presumptuous, bossy and silly and cuddly and giggly. He has his mama's face and his daddy's mannerisms, and we are still completely in love.
For those of you who want the gory details (and I know some of you will), I was quite the miracle patient at Good Sam hospital on Wednesday night (or so they say).
On Monday morning at my midwife appointment, I was maybe 50% effaced and considerably less than 1 centimeter dilated. "Keep your appointment for next week," I was told. Tuesday night at 11pm, I experienced one gush of fluid that I suspected was either my water breaking, or sudden overwhelming urinary incontinence. We called the midwives, who told me to wait 3 hours and if it continued, I would need to go in [being group B strep positive, there was more concern of infection should my water break before starting labor]. Well, it didn't continue, so -- PRAISE GOD -- I slept the longest and hardest I had in days, until 9:30 Wednesday morning!
Wednesday afternoon I went to a church staff function, and after having sat in a restaurant booth for some time, I stood up and took a few steps -- and lost quite a bit of fluid! This happened a second time an hour later, after driving back to the church office. Isaac, by this time, was in the church pool with several of his junior high kids. I called the midwives again, who said I definitely needed to come to the hospital at least to find out for sure if this was, indeed, my water breaking. So, I retrieved Isaac from the pool, we stopped at home to pack our bags and throw the car seat in the car [we were NOT READY for this!], and drove through thunderstorms to the hospital.
We arrived at roughly 4pm, went through triage, and were greeted by our midwife-on-call, Stacy. She quickly affirmed that my membranes were ruptured, but I was still only 75% effaced and 1cm dilated. She explained our 3 options: go home for 12 hours and hope labor starts (and, probably, be put on Pitocin when it didn't), stay there for 12 hours and try a cervical ripening agent called Cervidil (and, probably, be put on Pitocin when I still wasn't in labor, but in this case, hope for a smaller dose of Pitocin), or just go straight to Pitocin and deal with the full induction of labor. We really really did not want to use pain medication if at all possible, so we'd been hoping and praying from the beginning that I wouldn't have to be induced.
At that point she stepped out of the room for a few minutes, during which time I shifted positions and baby's heartbeat dropped considerably for too long of a time. When she saw that, Stacy immediately took away the "go home for 12 hours and see what happens" option, because she wanted to be able to keep an eye on his heartbeat. Isaac and I were in agony -- there we were, faced with 2 induction options just because we called to tell them my water broke, not at ALL in any sort of birthing situation we wanted, and feeling very much out of control of it all!
Since there was a small chance, however, that Cervidil could get labor started, though not an actual labor-inducer, we decided to go that option. At the very least, it bought us 12 hours of cervical softening before they'd induce. Of course, that also meant we expected to be there for a good 12 hours before labor even started, which was going to prove to be a very long night!
Or so we thought. The Cervidil was placed [it's a small device that gets puts as close to the cervix as possible] at about 7:30pm, after we'd been moved to the beautiful Good Sam labor/delivery suites. We took care of some necessary things -- dinner, a quick visit from Isaac's dad, etc. -- and proceeded to play a card game, waiting for my parents to arrive. I had 2 contractions in the next 2 hours -- not much to get excited about, but we figured at least *something* was happening. At about 9:45pm, though, I very very quickly lost interest in the card game as I suddenly began to experience very intense contractions, surprisingly close together. When my parents arrived just before 10pm, the contractions were 60 seconds or less apart, and I was stunned by their severity.
Maybe an hour or so later, my nurse [a fantastic woman named Donna] came in, watched me get through a contraction, and said, "you know, maybe I ought to have Stacy come and check you." That wasn't supposed to happen until 3 or 4am, based on how quickly Cervidil usually works! Stacy was busy delivering another baby, though, so Donna checked me herself, and looked up at me in astonishment to announce that I was at 6cm! My mom told me later that she ran out into the hall and called Stacy, saying things like, "you'll never believe this -- this girl who was only at 1cm at 8pm and only had Cervidil is at 6 now and totally in labor!" They got those group B strep antibiotics in pretty quickly then, realizing that they probably didn't have 4 hours left before birth.
The next 2 hours or so were pretty rough, but not all that painful. The hardest part was how badly I wanted to push by the time I was at like 7 or 8cm -- way too soon! Stacy, Donna, and Isaac spent the better part of each contraction trying to slow me down. Through most of the 1am hour, I asked after every 2nd or 3rd contraction, "how many times do I have to do this before we can move on?" And then, seemingly without warning, Stacy said, "okay, your cervix is gone -- it's time!" Despite all my best intentions of moving around during labor and squatting for delivery, it had happened so fast that I was laboring on my side in bed, gripping the handles or Isaac's hand for support. (He didn't tell me until later that he had to remove his wedding ring so I didn't cut him.) While they prepared the room for delivery (mainly just bringing some stuff they'd need for the baby), I was "given permission" to bear down when I felt like it -- which was odd, after trying so hard not to for 2 hours! I more or less crowned while still on my side, because even when I was told to roll to my back, it was so hard to do with a baby in my pelvis.
Like I said, I'd been absolutely gung-ho about how women shouldn't deliver babies on their backs with their legs in the air, but there just wasn't time to even THINK about trying to get up. I only pushed for about 10 minutes -- Isaac estimates 10-12 pushes -- and there he was, our baby boy! The cord was so short that he barely reached my chest, and he had a bit of trouble breathing at first so they took him to the warmer pretty quickly, but we still got our good few first minutes together. He came out headfirst but also with a fist in his face, without which I probably wouldn't have torn . . . but I did, just a little. I've never had stitches before, and I would be totally okay with never getting them again!!! It's the only thing that hurts, even now. [Who knew I'd go on to have another baby born with a fist at his face, and stitches two more times.]
We still can't quite believe this is really happening -- I really had a baby, and he's really OURS -- but we're most definitely falling in love moment by moment.
Levi Thomas
July 30, 2009, 2:33am
8lbs, 1oz -- 21"
Five years later, I still sometimes can't believe this -- parenting, watching my firstborn son grow up -- is really happening! He is a challenge and a joy, brilliant and stubborn, cautious and presumptuous, bossy and silly and cuddly and giggly. He has his mama's face and his daddy's mannerisms, and we are still completely in love.
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