I really wanted to record this so that I have it for the future - the details are fading really fast. Hopefully, this is not too graphic - but stop reading now if birth stories freak you out, because mine is not glamorous by any means.
If I really think back, I believe I was in the early stages of labor on Friday, Nov 17. I decided at work that I wanted to surprise Karl with tickets to Skyfall. I knew it would be our last chance for a date in a while, and I wanted to do something fun for him before he was taken over by all things girly. When we got to the movies, I was so uncomfortable. I could not sit still, and every position seemed to hurt. I had to leave the movie several times just to walk around because I was so uncomfortable.
Around 3 pm on Saturday, I started getting really strong contractions. I had braxton hicks pretty regularly since about 26 weeks, but these contractions were painful and were close enough together than I decided I should start timing them. Within 45 minutes, the contractions were getting more painful and were less than two minutes apart, so we called the doctor and headed to the hospital.
When we got to the hospital and got checked in, they started monitoring the contractions and checked my dilation, but I was barely dilated to a 1. They had me start walking around the halls for over an hour, and then checked me again. I was still at a 1. They decided to send me home - despite the fact that my contractions were so regular.
By the time we got back down to the car, I knew I had made a mistake by letting them send me home. I decided to wait at home as long as they could, I didn't want the embarrassment of them sending me home again. 3 hours later, I could not take it anymore. Contractions were about 45 seconds apart and I thought I was going to die, so we headed back to the hospital. As soon as we got there, they checked my dilation again and I was at a 4. Thank goodness they decided not to send me home!
They moved me to the delivery room, and I waited about a half hour for the epidural. I really wanted to try and get as far as I could without pain meds, but I had already been in labor for about 8 hours at that point, and I knew it was going to be a long labor and I would be crazy to try and do it without any pain relief. At 4 centimeters dilated, not many people were having contractions as frequent as I was. My contractions were actually lasting longer than I had time between each contraction.
By about 10 am the next day, I was fully dilated. Brianne was still sitting really high, so they started me on pitocin to try and get her to drop a little so I could start pushing. As this point, I had been through a crazy amount of pain meds - 2 epidurals and 3 bolus doses. Around noon, the nurse came in and said it was time to start pushing.
This is where is got rough. I pushed and pushed. For over 2 hours and very little progress was being made. Brianne had wedged herself and was not centered, so it was taking way too much strength and I was making very little progress. Finally, the nurse could tell that I was beyond exhausted and I was not even close to delivering. I had been in labor for 23 hours and pushing for a little over 2, so she called the doctor.
The doctor came in, and brought up using the vacuum. Before I went into labor, I told Karl that I wanted to avoid using the vacuum if at all possible, but I very quickly agreed. The doctor told me that if he could not deliver her after 3 tries on the vacuum, he would take me straight to c-section, which I really wanted to avoid. Let's just say I have never prayed so hard in my life.
Brianne was born on the third try, just shortly after the vacuum slipped off her head RIGHT before the contraction started. I almost had a panic attack! And it hurt SO bad. I didn't know it at the time, but all of my pain medications had worn off at that point, and I had not had any epidural meds for 45 minutes. But Brianne was beautiful! They put her on my chest for about 30 seconds, and then the nurse said that Brianne was grunting rather than breathing and they needed to take her.
I was so out of it, I didn't really understand what the nurse was saying. I had almost passed out because of blood loss, and the doctor started trying to stitch me up before I lost too much blood. And it killed! I had no pain meds at all, and had third degree tears. The doctor failed to tell me how much blood I was losing, and I was pretty frustrated that he was working on me before calling someone to give me meds. A while later ( it felt like an eternity but was prob only 15 minutes) I was given more pain meds and the doctor finished the repairs. On a side note - the doctor figured out while he was stitching me up that we are LDS and started talking to us about the temple. Karl thought it was a great missionary experience, I thought it was the most awkward conversation we could be having at that moment.
While the doctor was working on repairs, the nurse brought Brianne back to me for some skin to skin - she was still not breathing well and they wanted to try that before taking her to NICU. Within minutes, she was breathing fine, and had stopped the grunting that they were so concerned about. I am so grateful for answers to prayers, because I was scared out of my mind and I felt like all I could do was pray.
Although the whole experience was traumatic for me, it was also beautiful and Brianne handled its well. Her heart rate was stable the whole labor and delivery, which was such a blessing. We are so blessed to have such a beautiful and healthy baby girl.
