erika_sue: Alyson's Long Delivery

Posted Wednesday, July 01, 2009 3:25 PM

 "I was told that it would not have mattered how long I labored or pushed, Alyson was not going anywhere on her own..."

The waiting game 

Alyson took her sweet time coming. After going into labor at 10pm on Thursday night, we went into the hospital at 6pm Friday night and were admitted at 9pm. We spent Friday night trying to walk through contractions and doing some other excercises to increase dilation and change the position of the baby, who was head down, but facing posterior.

Nothing seemed to work, and after being told I had no more progress around midnight, I was given a shot of Phenergan to help me sleep so that I would be able to get back to work the next day. Neither DH or I slept well, and we were up by 7am with painful of contractions that were so bad again I could hardly stand it. The Phenergan was wonderful and really did help take the pain away, but the effects lingered all day, and at some points I was falling asleep on my feet between contractions...kind of scary!

Off to Labor & Delivery

I labored all day at the Birth Center, in every way imaginable, only to be told every time that I had no more progress, and Alyson's head was not completely on my cervix, which was why I wasn't making any progress. The midwife said I could either continue to labor indefinitely in Family Beginnings or I could be moved over to labor and delivery and given Pitocin to help increase the strength and intensity of the contractions so I could finish dilating. After already being in labor for 44 hours, I decided to go to labor and delivery for the Pitocin and an epidural.

At first it was great. The epi took all my pain away, and Pitocin was at first very effective. I had increased by 2 cm within just an hour of being over there. Then progress stalled again. I was stuck at 7 cm for a long time, and the midwife could not break my water due to a space between Alyson's head and the wall of my uterus. If my water was broken manually, there was a very good chance that her cord would prolapse and we'd have to go right away for an emergency C-section. My water finally broke on it's own, causing some more progress, thankfully.

Unplanned c-section

By 10pm on Saturday night I was finally given permission to push and was told I was doing very well...until about midnight. They realized that although Alyson had turned her position from face up, she was now sideways and her head was stuck under my pelvic bone. The nurses and midwife told me to push through it and she would pass it any minute. However, after another hour they realized that Alyson was not going anywhere without some additional help and all the pushing was causing her heartrate to drop. I was told to stop pushing (much easier said than done!) and they would call one of the doctors to assist with the vacuum. As much as I did not want my baby to be vacuumed, I was so anxious to have everything over with and to see my baby, especially after the already long labor and 3 hours of pushing. I had to wait about 15 minutes for the doctor to get there. When he came with the vacuum, he tried two times and the doctors decided I would need an emergency C-section in order to see this birth to completion.

I was wheeled into the OR while given a lot more medicine in my epidural on the way there. DH went to change into scrubs and my mom went into the rotundra to follow the baby to the nursery after she was born. They were able to start the surgery immediately after getting me into the OR and settled onto the table. They even started before DH was back in the room, which I was NOT happy about. From the time they started until Aly was born at 1:40 AM Sunday morning, was only about 5 minutes. The longest part was being cleaned up and being stitched and stapled back together at the end. I was told that it would not have mattered how long I labored or pushed, Alyson was not going anywhere on her own because her entire body was sideways.

Here's Alyson...finally! 

Aly weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz at 20.5 inches long. She scored 5-8-9 on her Apgars and the only reason the first was so low, was because of the trauma we had been through. She is doing remarkably well. I am feeling ok now, but the medicine from the surgery still has not worn off completely. I am starting to feel the effects of it more and more every hour.

Even though this was certainly not the labor and delivery I had imagined or wanted at all, the 52.5 hours were worth it to see my beautiful daughter. DH and I are so thankful to God for giving us this special gift, made even more special by all the effort it took to get her here.