We decided to do a scheduled induction on Mon, May 7th. This wasn't what I was hoping for, having gone into labor on my own with my other 3 babies, but since I was 5 days past EDD (I was charting so confident of due date), had weeks of prodromal labor, dh only had a small window left to take time off work (since he's a teacher and needs to be there the last two weeks of school), and my bishops score was good we decided to do it.
When we got to the hospital I was 3 cm and 80% effaced (more progress since last weeks appt at 1.5 cm, 50%). It was baffling to me that I hadn't gone into active labor yet on my own as with all 3 of my other babies I never progressed past 1 cm without being in labor. Instead, with this pregnancy I would have periods of regular contractions that stopped after a few hours. It would become clear why I hadn't as this labor progressed. I had the standard blood work up before starting the pitocin and it was discovered that I had low platelets. I was told they were most likely too low to have an epidural. I had planned on an unmedicated birth, as my last two were natural, so it didn't phase me too much.
Pit was started at 10 am at a 4 and increased by 4 every 30 min. After about an hour the contractions were coming strong and regular, about every 3 min. Another hour later and I was stopping to breathe through contractions. I was checked and cervix had not changed despite these contrax. Around 1 pm my midwife broke my water, hoping to get the contractions to do something. I was nervous because after my water was broken with my other babies I went immediately into transition with super hard contractions. Maybe it was because I was only still at a 3, but breaking my water did not increase the intensity of contractions this time, but it did start progression. I started dilating about a centimeter an hour. I labored in the tub twice during this time. The last time I got out of the tub I whacked my leg on the edge and now have an ugly bruise the size of a golf ball on the back of my leg behind my knee. Funny thing though at the time it really hurt, it didn't register that I could have a bruise and it took me by surprise to see that huge thing a day or so later. I also labored on the birth ball, pacing the room and hanging onto my hubby. We loved listening to the labor music I had put together and am so glad I did that.
At about 3:30-4pm I was at a 6 and the pitocin was turned off to see if my body could keep going on it's own. Contractions were coming about every 2 min. and were becoming hard to cope with. By 4:30pm I was exhausted. I didn't have energy to walk around the room anymore and sitting on the birth ball hurt a ton. So I laid in bed on my side and the midwife and dh were taking turns pushing as hard as they could on my hips and tailbone for counter pressure. With my other kids, by the time contractions got this intense, I was clearly in transition and quickly went to pushing. This time it seemed that Isaac was not descending and causing my cervix to open very fast. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I felt that I was going to lose it with the constant back to back contractions. So I told dh that I thought I might want an epidural after all and hoped he wasn't disappointed in my asking for it. The midwife reminded me that my platelets were low and that I probably couldn't have one, but offered to call the anesthesiologist and ask him. He came into my room about 10-15 min. later and kindly explained that it was too dangerous for me to get one. He was compassionate and I appreciated him coming to tell me personally instead of just over the phone. He said that if I had needed a c-section it would be under general anesthesia. That put new drive in me to avoid a c-section.
My midwife said I was now too far along (7 cm) to have any IV drugs and said that she had one suggestion that I would probably hate but that she thought would be a good idea in order to quickly move this along, since the sooner baby came the sooner this intense pain would stop. She suggested turning the pitocin back on and getting back on the birth ball hoping to help baby get lower. I agreed since I didn't think the pain difference would be that great. It did increase a little bit, but once you're at a certain level it doesn't seem to make much difference. It also moved things along very fast. Probably 30 min. later (around 5:15pm) I suddenly started feeling pushy and my body just started pushing a bit with contractions. She checked me and I was at a 9-9.5. Nurses started coming in, preparing for the birth. The bed was put into a sitting position and I climbed up to be ready to start pushing. The pressure was intense. Midwife pushed the cervical lip out of the way as I pushed. I looked down at my midwife and she was telling the nurse to get a heart rate on the baby as it appeared the monitor had slipped out of place. They started scrambling when they couldn't get the heart rate (or at least they thought they weren't getting it because it seemed like it was mine--too low for baby's). They hurriedly got an internal monitor to put on his head and discovered that the heartrate they had found before was his-- it was in the 60s-90s. Suddenly the room was a whirlwind of activity and people. I heard her tell the nurse to get the respiratory team from NICU in here. There must have been 20 people in my room. I was surrounded by nurses holding up my legs and telling me to push as hard as I could. It was clear we needed to get Isaac born asap. As I was pushing with more intensity than I ever have before, I could hear my midwife talking to the OB on call on the phone and telling him to get here stat. She thought we might need forceps (I later found out that is considered surgical so she isn't allowed to use them). He told her that maybe they ought to wheel me down to the OR just in case we needed a c-section. She said that it would be faster to deliver him here since baby was very close. She reached her hand inside while I was pushing (OUCH) to try to turn him since he was posterior. He would not turn. Then she hung up and told me to push with all I had and said that she was going to have to give me an episiotomy. ( Later she told us that she hated having to do that and that she hadn't done one in about 75 births). She quickly numbed me with a huge shot (dh said it was the biggest needle he ever saw), cut, and Isaac was born at 6:02 pm. The OB walked in about a min. later. Isaac had the cord wrapped tightly around his neck twice and around his body. My midwife had to cut his cord immediately because it seemed to be holding him up and he needed to be whisked over to the respiratory team in the corner of the room. He wasn't breathing very well and then had two small seizures at 3 & 5 min. It didn't take him long to recover, but they wanted to observe him in the NICU for 2 hours so he was carried over to me where I spent a few min talking to him and kissing him, and then they took him away. This was heartwrenching, as I had really expected to do delayed cord clamping, skin to skin, and breastfeeding right away. But I was also very grateful that he seemed to be ok. We felt very blessed to have had a competent team there to ensure Isaac's safe arrival. It seemed pretty clear that most likely the reason my labor never progressed on my own was because of Isaac's major cord entanglement. It was hard for him to descend. It also turned out that he was posterior, which I hadn't known until pushing him out, and that was probably why the contractions were so intense but not moving along since he was hitting the wrong spot.
Dh went to check on Isaac in the NICU and got there in time to see his first bath. It hadn't been the full two hours yet, but he was doing so well they brought him back to me. He was able to room with me, just had more frequent checks in the night. We also stayed an extra day. He was 8 lbs 6 oz and 20 1/2". We are thoroughly enjoying our babymoon and loving on him all day long. :-)
Edited by shastalily - 5/14/12 at 9:54am
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