Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Jeanette's Birth Story - Part 1

Everything started around 6:15am on Wednesday, January 22nd.  I had set my alarm for 6 and had planned on going into work.  I was two days overdue at this point and didn't see labor happening any time soon.  Andrew and I were laying in bed talking and I got up to head to the shower when a gush went down my legs, I was totally shocked considering I felt fine and ran to the bathroom.  As I sat down I realized that not only was there water, but blood as well and I got a little worried.  I called the on-call midwife and she told me to head to the hospital as soon as I could.  After we fed the animals, called Andrew's parents to get the dog and told our families we were headed to OSU, we got in the car and headed to the hospital.

We arrived around 7:35am and waited in line to be checked into triage.  After one false alarm, I knew something was different this time and that I was indeed going into labor.  We finally got back to the triage room and waited for the on call resident to come back and assess me while the nurse got my vitals and hooked me up to the fetal monitor.  It was around the time that we arrived at OSU that I started to have contractions.

When the resident came into the room, she explained the two exams she would perform, one to see if my water was broken and the other to see if I had dilated anymore (I had been at 1cm for almost three weeks and was 80% effaced).  My water had not broken, though I could have sworn that it did, and the blood was a symptom of my cervix changing.  I was 2, almost 3cm dilated at this point and starting to have contractions.  They told me I was in the early stages of labor and that it might be a while before things start happening.  I was also informed there were no rooms in labor and delivery and I might be waiting awhile to be moved out of the triage room.

The hours continued to tick by, at lunch time Andrew's sister stopped by for a visit and brought Andrew some food.  The nurse came in to check on me every now and then and finally let me put on some classy mesh undies and a pad so that I could walk around a little to speed up the labor.  I was super uncomfortable because the bed in the triage room was more of a transport cart and was as hard as a rock.  The on call resident would come in and check on me every now and then as well to see if my water broke or how much more I had progressed.  I went from 3cm to 4cm fairly quickly and my contractions were around 7 minutes apart.

I was so thankful that Andrew was being such an amazing support to me the whole time.  He was timing my contractions, holding my hand, running to the ice machine for more ice chips and trying to keep me entertained.  The room we were in had no TV, but thankfully we were able to access the hospital WiFi and get on our tablets.  I continued to text updates to my mom and inlaws as the day continued to tick on by.

Finally at 4:30pm (I wish I was kidding, but honestly that's how long it took), we were moved back to an actual labor and delivery room.  Once the nurse assessed me, hooked me up again to the monitors and checked me I was given my options.

Since I wasn't progressing enough on my own, they wanted to start the pitocin and break my water so that things would start moving along.  I was told this would make the contractions more painful and I was given the option of the epidural.  I was pretty sure this whole time that I didn't want one, but the pain was more than I could handle after almost 9 hours of labor behind me already.  My back was so sore from the other bed I was in and I decided to go ahead and get the epidural.  They called anesthesia and they came to the room very quickly to get things started.  I'm not sure I was so afraid of having the epidural, but it was a lifesaver I found as the night wore on.

It was around this same time that my mom and dad showed up for moral support.  My poor dad couldn't handle being in the room for extended periods of time and would come and go from the waiting room.  My mom was actually a really great support, of course along with Andrew, and I was really happy to have both of them by my side.

I was feeling fairly relaxed after the epidural so they started the pitocin and came in to break my water.

Part 2 coming soon!

3 comments:

Carol said...

Good for you for listening to your body and getting the epidural! Your family situation sounds just like mine lol. Nick and mom were great, don't know what I would have done without them but my stepdad couldn't be in the room longer than about 20 minutes lol. He was awesome though and ran and got me sushi as soon as I was cleared to eat! Can't wait to read part 2!!!!

Laura said...

wow what a long day!! I totally get how you feel about the epidural - i didn't know if I wanted it but when it came down to it, I'm so glad that I did. I can only imagine after so many hours that you would certainly want it! Can't wait to read more!

Erin said...

Yay! Loving reading this! So glad Part 2 is up already!! Congrats and I love Jeanette's name!