A Second Birth Story

I wanted to write down the Jonas' birth story before I forget the details.

I had been having "real" contractions for weeks, but they were never regular and would never get stronger. November is a busy month for us, especially Clark, and I was worried about going into the labor during one of the times he would be away at the National Guard or in Des Moines for his new job training. I asked my doctor about *maybe* inducing me once I was 39 weeks. I was concerned about this baby being big, as I was measuring big, and I knew I didn't want to do labor without Clark there. 

But, I was still on the fence with induction. My last labor started naturally and I just wasn't sure I was ready to commit to doing it. But, Monday, Nov 2, my doctor called me and said the only day he could do it would be that day, starting in the afternoon. So I had to make a decision quickly. I had already been having contractions Sunday night and Monday morning, so I though, meh, it probably won't take much to get things going.

So I checked into the hospital at 4 PM Monday afternoon. They placed the prostaglandin to help my cervix along (I was already dilated to a 2), and left me there. Clark was still at work and would be until about 1 AM Tuesday morning, so I was there by myself. Tennyson stayed with Clark's mom. 

My friend Carie, who goes to my church, lives just down the street from the hospital, so she came to spend time with me while we waited for Clark to get there. We mostly just talked, hoping for the contractions to get stronger, and we watched an episode of Chuck. I watched some gilmore girls too. Around midnight things were stronger and Carie helped put pressure on my back during contractions. Clark brought me a muffin when he got there, and he slept for a couple hours while I kept on keeping on. 

My contractions from earlier that day got progressively stronger throughout the night, but they were nothing I couldn't handle, easy to breathe through, but strong enough that I didn't sleep at all. I was getting really sleepy by the next morning.

The nurse came at five AM to check to see how I was doing. They removed the prostaglandin, she spent some time monitoring my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. She checked me and said I hadn't really progressed much last night, which was fine. However, right after she checked me, my water broke on its own, so she started me on a low dose of pitocin to hopefully help things progress more quickly-- it was about 6 by this time. 

The contractions were immediately more painful, especially now that my water had broken. After only about thirty minutes, I told Clark I would need pain medicine because I knew they were going to get worse and I thought the dilation process would take hours and I wanted to sleep. However, the nurse checked me again at 7:20 ish and told me I had gotten to a 3, but she couldn't order anesthesia until I was a five. It's a small hospital and they offer single dose spinal anesthesia that lasts 5-6 hours, so they wait to administer it because it takes most moms a long time to progress to a ten, and they like the moms to have the pain meds for the most painful part of the labor. If they give it too early, it wears off before delivery.

So I kept pushing through. Things were getting bad, so they gave me a numbing medicine in my IV that helped my body to relax a little bit more. That helped me for a little while, but by 8:20 it was wearing off/contractions were getting stronger and it wasn't enough for the pain level. She checked me again and I was a four. I begged for anesthesia at that point, because I literally thought I was going to die. I kept asking Clark and the nurse for help, and I was yelling through each contraction because they were HORRIBLE. Clark kept trying to be supportive and telling me to breathe, but I eventually was so overcome that I told him that breathing wasn't helping anymore and he needed to stop telling me to breathe. I kept thinking I couldn't do this and that I needed help. In an attempt to calm me down, the nurse put me in the shower and that did help a little bit-- enough to get my panic under control. But, I was also scared because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle four or five more hours like this hour. 

The nurse checked me again around 9:05, and I was like, "Please tell me I am a five."

"Um, you're an eight..."

Then I panicked. "Wait, I can still get the spinal right?"

She nodded and called the anesthesiologist, who got there maybe five minutes later. I was on my hand on knees on the bed, and I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I kept saying to everyone there, "I told you I needed this earlier. Why didn't anyone believe me." I was kind of angry they made me wait so long when I was probably ready 10 mins after they checked me the last time. 

The nurse wanted to check me again before they placed the needle, so she did, and told the anesthesiologist to go away, because I was a ten. They called my doctor, who was working in the clinic, because I was saying I felt like I needed to push. They helped me to get into position, my doctor got there, and then all of a sudden everybody was like okay, don't push, but I needed to, and I was confused by how quickly everything was happening and kind of in shock/denial still that this was happening, so I just did what i felt like doing at that point. 

Then, I pushed three or so times, and his head came out, but I had to push harder the next time because his shoulders were wide-- he had his arms crossed in front of himself, making him wider. Then after like two more pushes, he was out. 

He came at 9:20, just one hour after I had only been progressed to a four. Clark was happy-- he cried, and he never cries-- I was mostly in shock. They put him up on my tummy. He had a knot in his cord, like a pretzel-- not tight, but they said it was cool to see. Then came they after birth. Jonas was 10 lbs 7 ounces, just like his older brother, and I didn't tear at all during the delivery, which was awesome. 

As a caveat, I am not sure what natural birth is like without pitocin, and I do think that some (lucky, well prepared) women can experience some relatively low levels of pain during childbirth, but I have done the breathing and visualizing-- those help some. But, if anybody says childbirth isn't supposed to be painful or doesn't really hurt, they are lying. However, the benefits are there-- the recovery was lot easier with this delivery, and pushing was lot easier-- if more painful-- too. It's still too fresh in my mind to know thought if I will ever do it again.