Caroline's birth story

Being due tomorrow with baby number 2 Caroline's birth is on my mind so I decided to post her birth story on here that I originally shared on her facebook page. Lord willing, I'll soon have another birth story to share!

For those of you who want my birth story; here it is to the best of my memory. John will have to read through this and may need to correct some facts and times, but this is how I remember it.

To begin with I was 10 days late, and very uncomfortable and wanting this baby out - we tried castor oil on Wednesday which produced contractions and bloody show that night, but nothing 'real'. The next day I had a non stress test, and while happy to see baby was doing great, was discouraged to see I was still only at one centimeter. My midwife gave me the option of coming in the next morning and getting a dose of cydotec to hopefully nudge things along. She told me 80% of the time it took two doses, so to expect to come in, take it, be monitored for two hours, then go home, and come back later in the day for a second dose. John and I discussed it and decided to go ahead and do it. I had contractions all night, strong enough I was needing to breathe through them, but this had happened so many times I refused to time them, or even really think about, just dozed as best as I could between them. To the best of my knowledge they were about 10 minutes apart.

I got up at 6, ate a piece of toast (my last meal for a long time, if had known that I would have gone for a higher energy meal!), put a roast in the crock pot, and drove to the hospital fully intending to come home, vacuum, do laundry, cook dinner, etc, etc. Two contractions while driving which was - interesting.... When I arrived I was monitored for an hour before before being given the pill. By that point my contractions were 4 minutes apart. I think I was in denial, here I was having regular contractions for hours, that weren't stopping no matter how I changed my activity, and were getting stronger.....but I still didn't think I was in labor. By the end of the two hours my contractions were two minutes apart and painful enough that I was closing my eyes and working to breathe through them, But I was ready to get dressed and drive myself home! I have no idea what I was thinking! The nurse Ellie, I think was humoring me, she convinced me to try walking for an hour, then we would check to see how dilated I was, and then decide if I could go home. I was fine with that, and John thought it was a good idea when I asked him. So I started trying to make my way down the hall, stopping and hanging onto something every time a contraction came. About 15 minutes later walked back to my room, grabbed the table when a contraction hit me, felt a pop, and was standing in a puddle. My water had broken. I made it to the bed, hit the call light, texted John, and the nurse came, probably feeling relieved that I was finally going to stop talking about going home , and helped me clean up, and checked me. I was at 2 centimeters, and got me in the tub. John was there within 45 minutes or less. I was so glad to see him! I stayed in the tub, which was wonderful, until 1:30 when the nurse checked me again and I was at 5 centimeters. That was encouraging, this was hard, but I was making progress, and able to handle the contractions in the tub. John sat next to me, held my hand, helped me breathe, gave my sips of water, and spoonfuls of ice chips, updated the birth fb page, changed the water, to keep it hot......we worked well together and the nurse told him she wanted to hire him as a coach .

Around 4 my midwife Deb arrived, having cleared the rest of the day for me. At that point I was at 6 and this was getting harder. Through the afternoon and evening I spent time in the tub, then occasionally Deb would make me get out, walk a bit, move my hips, etc, etc. Before I went into labor I thought an active labor with lots of position changes sounded great (and it is in theory I know), but it was very hard to obey and move around, I just wanted to stay in one spot in the tub! But, the activity got me to 8 centimeters at 6:00, and by then all I could do was focus on trying as hard as I could to relax through each contraction. The back pain was awful. I threw up, and later found out that everyone thought I was going to give birth by 9, and had everything ready. I labored for a couple more hours in the tub thinking at any point soon I was going to be at 10, could start pushing and this would be over. So when I was still at 8 a couple hours later it was very discouraging and I was starting to question whether I could do this. John kept telling me, "You are doing it."

It's hard to remember much but the pain of the next couple hours, we walked more (or stumbled hanging onto John!), they tried to get me to empty my bladder, and ended up having to put in a catheter, gave me fluids through an iv, and finally had my lie down on my side in bed and rest for a bit. The only way I could handle that was to have someone rubbing my back non stop. We decided to try a dose of Numorphan to try to relax me so that the baby would hopefully move, and I could rest between contractions. It helped me relax a little, but nothing was working to get the baby to move, and I couldn't deliver it the way it was. Deb came to us and told us she hated to do it because she knew really didn't want it, but she felt the only thing left to try before a c section was an epidural. She hoped that would relax things enough to move the baby's head. At that point we said yes, the thought of some relief was wonderful, and I really didn't want a c section! So the anesthesiologist was called out and at 4:00 put in an epidural. Sadly it didn't work very well, it relaxed me a little, but didn't numb me, or take away the pain. I was relaxed enough though to let John go out to the car to get a charger to keep updating this page, and I think I told him to get coffee.

Some time around 8 or 9 they had me start pushing. Though it was easier to push through a contraction than try to relax, I never felt the urge to push that I've heard people talk about. We did three different positions, my favorite was using the squatting bar. When a contraction came on John would tell me to take a deep breath, then count to 10 while I pushed, and we would do that 3 or 4 times every contraction. This went on for hours. Finally Deb told me that we needed to try some pitocin, that we had to speed up the contractions, and get this baby moved and out. She said once they were two to three minutes apart she would give it half an hour, and then we were going to have to do a c section. I was in tears. I was barely managing, and didn't know I was going to handle the pain of pitocin contractions, plus scared, but agreed. She had been amazingly patient, and I knew she wouldn't do it unless if it was necessary. Somehow, well by the grace of God, made it through the painful contractions, either Deb, or my backup Dr Jennifer feeling to tell me that yes, the head was starting to turn. I don't know how long that went on, but suddenly tables were being set up, the room was filled with people, they were taking the end of the bed off, Deb was talking to John and me about kiwi suction.....They had me sit back and grab my legs, put the kiwi suction inside of me, and I was told to push. The orders were getting more and more frantic, then Deb told me she was going to have to do an episiotimy, something we had talked about before that would only be done in an emergency so I didn't argue. I suspect the whole hospital heard me pushing her out - it was the worst pain I've ever experienced. I found out afterwards we were in such a rush because she was completely gray, and that she came out with her arm under her chin. Since her head was already 14 3/4" that didn't help! Deb cut the cord, John told me she was a girl, and a team of people started giving her oxygen, and whatever else she needed. Thankfully I was kind out of it and didn't realize enough of what was going on to get scared. She responded pretty quickly I think. I delivered the placenta, and was told I had torn pretty bad inside and had to go the OR to get stitched up. At that point all I could think about was water, because of the likelihood of a c section I hadn't been allowed to drink in hours, then because of drugs in the OR I couldn't. So after a little time with Caroline they wheeled me off. I asked not to be give general anesthesia, so they gave me some stuff to relax me, and the Lord was very merciful and I slept through the whole thing.

Around 5:00 they got me settled in my room, I had the most wonderful glass of ice water ever, and ordered probably the best chicken sandwich, peaches, and orange juice I'd ever had. Caroline nursed. The family came to see her, all was good. So our birth really didn't turn out anything like we planned - it could be called a nightmare birth, and the thought of going through that again scares me, but I'm so thankful for Caroline, for the Lord giving me strength to get through it. I have no idea how I kept on that long - it was definitely the Lord!, I'm also so thankful for the wonderful team of people He gave to help us. My midwife and the nurses were amazing and I'm so grateful we had them. I was told if I had been in any other hospital I would have ended up with a c section and I think that is true. While the natural birth I wanted would have been nice, I'm thankful that we had the medical technology and help we did, it's a huge blessing when you need it!
"The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad."
Psalm 126:3