may 14, 2010

Table of Contents

“I’ll see you at your induction next week, unless he decides to come before then, but I don’t think so.” Yeah, I didn’t think so either. My doctor had just told me that I was only about half a centimeter dilated and 70% effaced. I’d be 38 weeks pregnant the next day with my first baby and I had heard from pretty much everyone that first babies always seem to come late.

So you can imagine my surprise when less that 12 hours later I woke up around 1:30 in the morning and had the thought, “I can’t believe I just wet the bed”… and then it slowly dawned on me… I hadn’t… my water had broken. And in case you’re wondering, the quickest way to get your husband out of bed is by making the following statement: “Honey, stay calm but I need you to get up so I can
take the sheets off the bed, I think my water just broke.”We made it to the hospital around 2:30 am and when the nurse checked me I was at 2 cm and still 70% effaced, but I still wasn’t really feeling contractions. I had some back pain which I realized later was probably the beginning of back labor, but that’s about it. The nurse and I discussed my plans for labor, including my desire to avoid an epidural if possible, and as I got settled into my room I naively had the thought that I would probably have a baby by lunchtime.
Ha!

Quite honestly, that whole long day is a big blur, I don’t remember a lot of details, and maybe that’s a good thing. See, I never really started having contractions on my own, or at least not fast enough. You might not realize this if your water hasn’t ever broken on its own, but once that happens, your clock is ticking. Doctors will usually give you 24 hours before they start worrying about infection and start pushing C-sections…
Which means I got hooked up to Pitocin, which caused me to have contractions, and STRONG ones, but they weren’t really doing much to help my body progress as needed. I feel like the reason that labor is so painful is because it’s so unrelenting. There might be worse pain, but labor is just pain, after pain, and followed by more pain, you don’t get a break from it, and I was in so much pain that I couldn’t relax enough to let my body do what it need to do. And I felt really confined to my bed, which does not help the pain. Anytime I tried to shift and get more comfortable the monitor strapped to my belly would shift and a nurse (usually one who seemed really exasperated) would come in, fix it, and ask me not to move so much.
Oh, sorry, I’m just trying to push a watermelon out of a keyhole here, no big deal. I’ll lay more still for you. Silly me.

At some point they offered me the option of having Nubain dripped through my IV and I took it. Once again, I don’t remember details so I can’t remember if this was early in the day, or not till much later, my husband and I can never seem to agree on the timeline of that. What I do know is that Nubain probably saved me from having a C-section that day, because finally, after nearly 19 hours of painful, Pitocon-filled labor I was ready to push. I had written down in my journal that I went from about 7 cm to 10 cm in what seemed like 15 minutes, but again, I was pretty out of it. I do know that Mike barely made it back in time for me to push (he had left to go get food).

I only pushed for about 30 minutes, although I did end up needing an episiotomy, and our beautiful son cried right away. 

We ended up having to stay in the hospital a few more days because my son’s bilirubin levels were so high. Have any of you had a child under the bilirubin lights? I kept telling myself that as far as problems go, this was a small one, but it is still so heartbreaking to see you tiny, helpless child laying under those lights when all you want to do is cradle them in your arms.

I look at pictures of myself from labor, and the recovery afterwards in the hospital, and I barely recognize myself. I look so mentally and physically exhausted, so “puffy” from being pumped full of saline… but in the end it didn’t matter. I still ended up with a healthy baby, and we were a family of three.

18 Responses to may 14, 2010

  1. Lelani September 14, 2015 at 9:32 pm #

    I had to be induced at 38 weeks for health reasons, but it still took me those long 19 hours as well to have my beautiful baby girl 🙂 Such a trooper for not having the epidural… I had to have two! Hope everything is going well with your new addition. Love your blog!!!

  2. Justine Y @ Little Dove Creations September 15, 2015 at 12:30 am #

    Some of the best things in life are worth waiting for, huh? 🙂 Thank you so much for your comment Lelani!

  3. Tinseltown Mom September 15, 2015 at 2:12 am #

    What a great birth story. I remember when my kids were born and those were the best moments and memories in my life.

  4. Domicile 37 September 15, 2015 at 1:46 pm #

    What a great story…One for the books. With my first, my water broke and I told my husband he went and showered, changed his clothes, fixed himself up…As I stood there rushing him, he responded, "I want to make sure I look good for my daughter"…I think he thought labor would be a walk in the park, boy was he wrong! During the labor process my baby went into distress and I had a hard time breathing…then the doctors had a hard time getting the baby out–I had a hard time delivering 2 out of 3 of my kids. My second child was placed under the bilirubin lights and it was horrifying for us because I went home sick (I was sick for 5 months after the delivery of my 2nd child) and the hospital sent my baby home with jaundice and they had to bring the lights to the house and her jaundice levels were REALLY high…she was 2 points away from it affecting her brain (according to her docs)…It was scary and I just feel so blessed that she is a healthy girl. BTW…all my kids had jaundice, but with my middle that was the most stressful thing, because I felt helpless.

  5. Jessy F September 15, 2015 at 4:46 pm #

    Congrats! I love reading different birth stories- each is so beautiful. I'm glad the Nubain worked out for you- I have a lot of friends that loved it. I personally hated it (I felt like I had the drunk spins) but I think I'm just a pain in the butt haha.

  6. Sandra Litcher September 15, 2015 at 5:02 pm #

    This is so similar to my first birth story. Water breaking, pitocin after hours of doing nothing, then I ended up getting an epidural. It was a full 24 hours before I met my baby girl almost exactly and I was about 10 minutes from having a c-section because they weren't sure she was coming out! With my son, it was almost identical, but then ended in a c-section. I laughed when you said, I thought I would have a baby by lunch" because I had said well July 6th sounds like a great bday when the doctor was in the room with my first and he kind of laughed and said likely it will be tomorrow (it was only like 6am) and I was like, say what?? 🙂

  7. Robin Follette September 15, 2015 at 5:02 pm #

    He's beautiful! Congratulations! Whatever it takes, it's worth it. Nothing is more loving, challenging, exhausting and reward than motherhood.

    I had one of "those" nurses. It makes you wonder why they chose this field.

  8. Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, and Dylan Too! September 15, 2015 at 9:29 pm #

    So sweet! Love those sweet little details in that collage!
    My first baby arrived almost a month earlier. Thankfully, it was much later than anticipated, thanks to bed rest!

  9. Justine Y @ Little Dove Creations September 16, 2015 at 1:59 am #

    Oh my goodness Jess! You are an incredible woman! What blessings all your children are!

  10. Justine Y @ Little Dove Creations September 16, 2015 at 2:00 am #

    I definitely hope to never need it again, but I still think I would take it over an epidural (I have heard so many scary horror stories about them!).

  11. Justine Y @ Little Dove Creations September 16, 2015 at 2:01 am #

    I'm hoping they were just having a hard day… all my other nurses with my other kids have been great. 🙂

  12. Justine Y @ Little Dove Creations September 16, 2015 at 2:01 am #

    I know, there's just no rushing babies, huh? They come whenever the heck they want. 🙂

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