"The Miracle of Childbirth"... We have all heard it. When you're pregnant, you're showered with words of encouragement ranging from "you won't even remember any of the pain" to "I delivered all 6 kids the natural way, no drugs needed"..
Well, while that's really awesome for those moms, that is NOT necessarily always the case..
When my little one was brought into the world, it was far from the fairytale delivery you see on the big screen.
I spent my entire pregnancy determined that I was going to give birth before my due date arrived. I had my hospital bag packed and in my car a month ahead, all the baby gear was put together and placed throughout the house, and I was fully prepared to use my stroller everyday to work off that baby belly!
Well... my due date came and went and I still was not dilated AT ALL. Finally at 42 weeks, my doctor scheduled to induce me on Tuesday at 6pm. I was thrilled! I wanted that baby OUT! Conveniently, I started labor 16 hours prior to my scheduled induction. I thought for sure I'd get to the hospital and they'd say I was at least 6cm dilated and would have a baby by midnight... WRONG.
After 16 hours of contractions, I had made it to a whopping 1cm! I was devastated, but feeling hopeful that once the induction medicine was placed I would make great progress. The nurses told me they had a medicine available that would help with the pain and most likely knock me out so I'd get a good nights sleep and probably not even know I was having contractions. I was pumped! It sounded like a dream come true. Get the medicine placed, get a shot, sleep for 12 hours and wake up ready to push- perfect... WRONG AGAIN.
The nurses did mention briefly that a very small percentage of people are not affected by the shot... Lucky me for being one of them! The good news, the induction medicine was SUPER effective- crazy strong contractions hit me for 12 hours straight and left me exhausted from the previous 16 hours of contractions and incapable of sleep.. The bright side, after I survived the night and the medicine was removed, I was 6cm dilated! Again, I was hit with a pang of hopefulness. The doctors decided not to begin Pitocin right away because I was making such great progress. So we waited until 11am.. Contractions continued, but no further dilation was achieved.
About this time, I decided to throw my hopes of a natural, epidural free delivery right out the window. I have never been so eager to be stuck with a needle in my life! Luckily, I had a WONDERFUL anesthesiologist and felt virtually no pain while they were placing the epidural. It took about 10 minutes but the relief was amazing! At the same time that they started the epidural, they started Pitocin in hopes to get me dilated the rest of the way. Contractions continued and became stronger and stronger (making the relief from the epidural less and less effective).
At 3:00 I was almost managing to catch a snooze when a team of nurses came rushing into the room and began rolling me over and moving heart monitors and contraction sensors around. I was terrified, what in the world were they doing?!?
Once the panic passed, one of the nurses explained that the baby's heart rate had dropped from 145 to 60bpm. I spent 2 hours laying on my left side having contractions, when I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore and asked a nurse to help me roll over. She reluctantly agreed and helped me get situated. Sure enough, within 10 minutes my room was being flooded with nurses again and the babys heart beat had dropped again. I rolled back onto my left side, despite the pain and prayed for a miracle.
An hour later, my doctor came back to check for any further dilation. No progress had been made, and in the time I was on my back for him to check, the baby's heart rate dipped 3 times, back to back. It wasn't 15 minutes later, the doctor came back in and told me they would have to take me in for an emergency Cesarean.
It was not the ideal method of delivery, but I was so scared that I would lose the baby that I didn't even consider objecting. Meds were administered and I was transferred to the OR. Things felt a bit panicky in the room, but I knew there was no other option and the best I could do was stay calm. My husband, who had been by my side since labor had begun almost 2 full days ago, sat by my head holding my hands and talking to me about silly nonsense, just to keep my mind off of what was occurring. The anesthesiologist that had given me my epidural sat with my husband and kept us posted on progress.
The umbilical cord had wrapped around the baby's neck and was causing her heart rate to drop when I had strong contractions. The doctor credited this with my trouble dilating and the baby not dropping.
It felt like only a matter of minutes went by and he was telling us to listen for a minute- we both silenced immediately, unsure of what we would hear and then there it was.. this tiny, squeaky cry. That was our baby! Our baby was here! She was alive and here and crying! It was amazing. The nurse cleaned her up slightly and clamped the cord, then gave her to my husband so we could see her.
Everything felt perfect. I was there with my husband and my baby and we were all ok- I thought.
It felt like only seconds we sat there together, before the nurses told Nick he would have to leave, he could go with the baby, but I was having some excessive bleeding and my uterus wouldn't contract and would need to stay in the OR. I have no idea what happened the rest of the time I was in there. That same wonderful anesthesiologist sat where Nick had been sitting and brought me warm blankets for my shoulders and held my hands (in between giving me shots of who knows what!). My world went blank. All I wanted was to hold my baby girl.
Finally- the curtain came down. I was glued back together and moved to a fresh bed to be transferred back to my room. It felt like an eternity going through the halls of that hospital, but when I got into that room and the nurse put my baby on my chest, it was all worth it.
I'd be lying to tell you that getting her here was a journey I'd like to take again, but in the end, having her here and becoming a Mom has been the best adventure of my life, and it has only just begun.
Now, 6 weeks later, we are both doing great and getting to know each other more everyday. I can't imagine my life without her. I had my doctor follow up and all is healing well! The doctor even said he sees no reason that I won't be able to attempt a VBAC delivery with our next child (he then promptly wrote me a prescription for birth control)!
Here's to the future, and enjoying today with my little miracle.
