Labor Story Part II

I continued to have contractions through the first part of the morning and I thought, rather smugly I might add, these contractions  aren’t that bad…what were all my friends talking about when they said contractions during an induction were unbearable?  Here I am with pitocin coursing through my veins and I am still able to watch AMC’s “Walking Dead” after each contraction.  This is going to be as bad as I thought… Fast forward two hours and after a failed attempt at relief via sitting on a toilet seat (it is supposed to take the pressure off your pelvis), I was walking out of the bathroom bent over with my hands on my knees and telling Rock that I didn’t think I could do this whole labor thing, to which he responded with a pretty concerned look on his face, “Uhhh, I am not sure you have a choice!” 

After that, it was like the pain levees broke and the pain started to become unbearable!  I did my laboring out of bed and tried to use the birthing ball, but it really didn’t help ameliorate any pain at this point.  Standing in a bent over position with my arms on the bed and swaying side to side was the only thing that helped.  The fact that Mary didn’t question my desire to labor OUT of bed (which is how God intended women to labor IMHO) is another reason why she was such a great & caring nurse.  Mary watched me labor for a little bit more and then told me that I was displaying all the signs of back labor (this happens when the back of the babies skull is pressing up against the mother’s spine making each contraction that much more painful) and then showed Rock how to push my hips together during a contraction to help take the pressure off my spine.  Rock faithfully stood behind me for hours and pushed my hips together during my contractions.  I have to add, for sake of your visual, that I was wearing nothing but a hospital gown which conveniently has an open back.  Since I found myself in a bent over position for hours, I asked several times for a second gown to wrap around my exposed rear, but it never came.  So, Rock got a show, to say the least.  After Abby’s birth, while we were in the recovery room, Rock told me, “I could probably go my whole life without ever having to smell your butthole again!”  Terrified, I asked him if it really smelled that bad.  He reassured me it wasn’t anything in horrible, just “butthole smell,” which isn’t his particular favorite.  I laughed for like 10 minutes and even now, as I type this, the whole exchange makes me laugh.

OK, so back to the labor…so after going through an hour or so of contractions standing up, they started to get so bad that my legs were shaking uncontrollably.  My kneecaps kept jumping and my legs subsequently started to get weak.  This is where it began getting “real” and when Mary went to check on my IV fluids I thought she was going to up the pitocin and I kindly told her at the beginning of a contraction “DON’T YOU TOUCH THAT PITOCIN!!!” She smiled and assured me she wasn’t and wouldn’t because I was clearly progressing nicely on my own without any need to increase the pitocin.  She did tell me that she had to check my cervix to see where I was since I had been laboring for a few hours at that point.  I immediately started to try and convince her otherwise because I did NOT want to be on my back.  When you have back labor, laying down makes each contraction infinitesimally worse, which was something I definitely did not want to experience.  But, I was coaxed in the bed by promises of a speedy check.  Just after she checked me I had a contraction and that, coupled with the fact that I was on my back, was enough to send me into a vomiting fit that lasted for about five minutes.  Yes, that’s right, vomiting into a plastic toilet bowl that my husband held for me.  As I was emptying my stomach contents, Mary very calmly rubbed my back and reassured me that what was happening was completely normal and all a part of the labor process.  Although that did help to relieve some of my anxiety, it also made me kind of scared because if this was all “normal,” I was in for a LONG day! 

Mary told me that she thought I was about 5 cm dilated and while that meant I was progressing, it still meant that I had 5 cm to go and I was in so much pain that I was throwing up, so I had some decisions to make.  This brings me to my second piece of advice: don’t be afraid to ask for pain medication if you need it! 

I was up out of bed again and leaning on my forearms when my doctor came in for first time that day.  As she started to ask me how I was, I began to have a horrible contraction, and I moaned my way through it and then desperately looked up at her, “When should I get pain medication?”  Let me add here that for SOME reason, doctors want to try and have conversations with a laboring woman.  Why they do is beyond me because when you are in labor, nothing else exists except the experience you are going through and there is no communication save a few primal grunts and groans, moaning and short and concise sentences.  Anyway, my doctor told me “Well, that is really up to you.  You are the only one who knows when you are ready.”  Hmmm…really?  Because I was pretty sure that was my first time going through labor and at only 5 cm, I was in agonizing pain and ready to just about anything to stop the pain, so, Dr, would I really know??  

When she left after trying to talk to me during a contraction and getting no response, I asked Mary what she personally thought about pain medications.  I want to add that when I came in, I had said I wanted to labor as long as possible sans medication because I wanted to progress as naturally as possible (pain medications can slow down labor in some cases), but that in the event that I was in a lot of pain, I was open to receiving it.  Mary told me, “It is up to you.  When you came in here you had said you wanted to labor without pain medication for as long as possible.”  I responded with a very desperate, “OK, but what should I do?  What would YOU do if you were me?”  And Mary said, “I’ve already had my children, this is up to you.”  To which an increasingly perturbed, laboring version of myself answered in a growl, “I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE!!!  PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE!!!” I think Mary got the drift and told me that if I didn’t want to go balls-to-the-wall and get an epidural there were always IV drugs I could take.  Between contractions we discussed the pros and cons of the drug, Demerol, and my main concern was that it would cross the placenta and affect Abby.  Mary told me that whatever I took, anything from a Tylenol to an epidural, would cross the placenta, so I needed to decide how much I needed the pain relief.  One more  contraction later and I made the decision…YUP, it’s pain medication time!