NillaWafers: Ethan's Birth Story
Posted
Thursday, March 03, 2011 6:38 PM
"It felt so much better to push. I would definitely rather be pushing than not pushing during the contraction."
Pregnant with anticipation
I was a week late and pregnant (haha) with anticipation. I really didn't want to be induced, but I was worried about the size of our baby. My husband, Austine and I decided we would go along with the doctors plan of induction. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into as it was my first child. Austine and I went to the hospital Sunday morning (10/10/10) at 6AM. We both got up at around 4:30, we really couldn't sleep anymore. Austine was really excited, and I was really really nervous. I just felt like an induction would 100% lead to a C-section, which is something I've been very fearful of the whole pregnancy. But, Ethan was a week overdue and needed to meet us already!
It took almost an hour to fill out paperwork, get into a gown, and get hooked up on the pitocin. They checked me and I was still at 2cm, what I was a week ago at the appointment. Dr. Sutton came in and broke my water, what a strange feeling that was! I really hoped that would get things moving, but alas it didn't. They turned on the pit, and the waiting began...at first the contractions were bearable. I would time them on Austine's iPod to give me something to do. I wanted to go as far as I could without any pain meds...knowing it would make my chance for a C-section smaller. Every contraction I would just repeat..."it's only pain". This continued on for a LONG time. I managed to bear out the contractions until about 2:30. They began to get really heavy around 1:30, but I decided to take a systemic narcotic to try and wait out the pain. While they were really nice and would let me sleep for about 30 minutes, it really didn't last long. It was at this point that I decided to get the epidural. I had previously wanted to wait until I was 5cm, but I had a feeling if I had the epidural I might make progress..being that I wouldn't be fighting each hugely painful contraction.
Side effects
The epidural was nothing compared to the contractions, it wasn't bliss but it wasn't non-functional either. I am glad I made the choice to get it. With the epidural I could feel each contraction, but it was only the pressure I was feeling. Unfortunately I got some of the horrible side effects...nausea, shaking, and itchiness. The itchiness was the worst! I was itching hours after they stopped the epidural.
In-between...
At 4PM, I was checked again. I was still 2cm! However, I went from 50% effacement to 80%, so the doctor agreed to let me labor until 9, if I hadn't made any progress by then, we would be doing a C-section. It was really after this that things started to get hectic and scary. At around 6, the heart rate started to drop with each contraction. Hearing this was super scary. They put me on oxygen and turned me from side to side to keep it up. It was becoming apparent that his cord was wrapped around him somewhere! Then, I got the news that I was running a fever, most likely from the sac being broken so long. So they added amoxicillin to the long list of IV meds I was on. At around 7 they did an amniotic tranfusion, they pumped saline solution into my uterus to give Ethan more room to "breathe". This didn't seem to help as much as laying on my right hand side did.
At 9, he checked me and I had gone from 2 to 6. He said he felt like I could do a vaginal delivery, but I would have to be prepped for a C-section and sign the consent form before I even started pushing. After nine, I started to feel a lot of pressure and pain in my bottom...the epidural wasn't working there. They really couldn't do much about it, so I started counting through the contractions. I labored for another four hours! Eventually they sat me up and Ethan's heartbeat started to return to normal. I officially started pushing at 1:00 AM. They turned off my epidural because they wanted me to be an efficient pusher, his heart rate was dropping with each push and the quicker he was out the better.
Finally... Welcome, Ethan!
It felt so much better to push. I would definitely rather be pushing than not pushing during the contraction. At about 1:40, the doc came in and we started pushing. After many pushes, the doctor cut me, and Ethan was born. The doctor suctioned him and he started screaming. I was really relieved to hear him, but I didn't get to see him immediately, because there had been meconium in the fluid around him. A lot of people said that as soon as their baby was born, all the pain was gone. That wasn't so for me. Even after he was out, I was still in a great deal of pain as I birthed the placenta, and Dr. Sutton stitched me up. It only really went away when they turned the epi back on. I was really out of it as they watched Ethan for signs that he was in respiratory distress. Fortunately, he was fine. It turned out in the end that his cord was in a perfect knot, which was what affected his heart rate.
> Want to share your birth story? Email it now to Bump Eileen at echu@theknot.com.