August's Birth Story: Part II

When we arrived at the hospital Sunday evening it was pretty quiet in the delivery wing. We got settled into a room and talked with the nurse and a midwife about how we hoped things would go. Everyone was really kind and positive. The midwife on duty that night was fantastic and really supported me in wanting to do things as naturally as possible. Part of me hoped she'd be there for the birth if it didn't happen until the next evening. Eventually my mom got there (after 11 hours of driving up from NC) and the three of us (John Paul, mom, and I) chatted and prepared for the next day. The midwife prepped me and then told us all to get some sleep. My mom went back to our apartment, John Paul stretched out in the oh-so-comfortable chair next to my bed and I adjusted my hospital bed as best I could.

I didn't sleep hardly at all that night. They offered to give me something to help me sleep but I didn't want any medication if I didn't have to have it. If you know me, you know I'm a light sleeper normally so I knew I wasn't going to get a lot of sleep that night. I was uncomfortable. I already had an IV in giving me fluids. My nine month pregnant self couldn't stay in any position too long without back pain so I was constantly adjusting. And I was already having some contractions on my own (though not painful ones).

Monday morning after breakfast, the nurse came in to check me (I was dialated maybe a cm or two at this point) to talk to me and we started the pitocin. The plan was to start slow and bump it up throughout the day. We were trying to kick start my body into labor not force it into labor.

As a side note I'd like to mention that all of my nurses and midwives were excellent. All my fears felt unwarranted. The hospital was very big on doing what the moms wanted and making everything as stress free and low pressure. I felt like they were on my side. Every time a shift change happened I was always afraid the new nurse wouldn't be as good but for each stage I was in, the nurse seemed to be just what I needed then. I wish I remembered their names, but they are long gone now.

I was hooked up to a fetal monitor and an IV which made it more difficult to move around but the nurses hooked me up to a portable monitor so that I could go to the bathroom and walk the halls. The contractions started and were about 3 to 4 minutes apart most of the day. John Paul and I walked the halls pushing my IV around, looked in the nursery window, talked, watched tv...just passed time really. The contractions weren't that painful yet but we figured we'd have a baby sometime that evening.

Around 5pm my water broke. It broke on its own and that seemed like a good sign. It also meant there was no going back. The baby has to be born within 24-48 hours of your water breaking or you risk infection. It wasn't as dramatic as I expected. I wasn't even sure it had broken at first. It was more like slow leaking. My water breaking put me back in bed because it kept leaking for several hours and I got tired of creating puddles all over the room.

As soon as my water broke the contractions became painful. For the next 5 hours I was in pretty intense labor. I walked, sat up, buried my head in John Pauls chest and breathed. I thought I was handling them pretty well and John Paul was a great support person. It was exhausting but I was managing the pain. Unfortunately, as painful as they were, my contractions were a little irregular. They would be 2 minutes apart for 2 or 3 contractions and then there'd suddenly be a 4-5 minute gap before the next one came. After a full day of labor, I was getting frustrated. I hadn't seen a nurse in awhile and when I asked them to check me they said because my water broke they didn't want to check me until they really needed to to avoid infection risk.

It was 11pm before the midwife came in to see where things were. I was still only 2-3 cm dilated. I was heartbroken. I'd labored the whole day and my water was broken but I just wasn't progressing. After talking with my doctor and the nurses the decision was made to turn off the pitocin and try again the next day. The consensus was that I wasn't far enough along to keep going that night. I'd be exhausted and unable to push when the time came if I didn't try and get some sleep. So they gave me something to help me sleep and that was the end of day one of labor...