Shane's Birth Story II

When we walked into the L&D room, I fully expected we'd be dropping off our bags and jackets and then be heading off to walk the halls some more.  But the nurse told me she wanted to get me completely admitted and to do that she had to monitor me and the baby for about 30 minutes and ask me a bunch of questions.

I didn't want to get in bed at all, so she hooked the monitors up to my belly while I swayed back and forth as I bent over on the bed and while Sarah applied counter pressure to my back.  The nurse was very patient and waited until I was done with each contraction to continue to ask me questions, which I really appreciated because when I was in labor with Abby people kept asking me things while I was actively contracting and they'd get a little huffy and puffy if I didn't answer them immediately (...maybe that was just because we were in the North).  She also was an awesome support person telling me that I was doing so well managing the pain of the contractions and that she was impressed with my relaxation techniques.  Again this made me feel good because I felt like I was handling them well, too, with a combination of confidence and experience from Abby's birth, as well as education from my reading from books like Ina May's Guide to Childbirth.  This feeling would change slightly in a few hours, but I am getting ahead of myself.

About this time I realized that we probably wouldn't be going back into the hall to walk because the contractions kept coming harder and harder.  When the nurse was finally done with the questions, my doula and I tried using a rebozo around my hips and belly to alleviate some pressure during a contraction and we also tried having me get on all fours to see if that helped, but neither were as comforting as having Sarah or Rock apply direct pressure to my lower back while I bent over during a contraction. I'd say I probably had about four more contractions in the room before I wanted to get into the shower (because there were no birthing tubs available).

Once we got to the open shower, I had Sarah blast the water as hot as it would go and I labored under the flow of the water.  The contractions picked up a ton and got to be extremely painful--to the point where I was having a hard time breathing through them, let alone relaxing.  I labored like this for about 1.5 hours until I started feeling tons of pressure in between my legs, as if Shane was being pushed down through the birth canal with each contraction.

Sarah said she would support whatever I wanted to do, but suggested that it may be a good idea to get into the room and maybe have the midwife check me since the sensation I was describing sounded a lot like the sensation a woman gets when it is time to push.

I VERY reluctantly made my way out of the shower between contractions.  And headed back into the room where the midwife was waiting for me.  I really did not want to be checked because having a contraction while on your back compounds the pain at least two fold.  But I did want to know where I was dilation-wise because if I was fully dilated I definitely wanted to start pushing so the pain could be over.

The midwife checked me and said I was only 7 cm dilated!  I about cried.  I had come into the hospital at a 5 cm and had been laboring through some extremely intense contractions for hours and I had only dilated 2 cm!  The good news was that he had dropped a ton and she said that it had been such a good idea for us to walk because it had really helped him get into position.

I spoke to the midwife between contractions and I decided that I wanted to have my water broken to try and help speed up labor.  Unfortunately, this came with the caveat that it could make contractions more painful.  I was definitely willing to take that risk so the midwife broke my water and guess what?  She was right, the contractions not only got more painful (!) but they lasted for up to 3 to 4 minutes at a time!  During a particularly long and painful contraction I yelled for my mommy, begged for Rock to make it stop and kept saying "Sarah, Sarah, Sarah...it hurts so much!  OW!"  See?  Nearly two hours of transition labor-type contractions definitely took any prematurely smug thoughts of managing my pain well and turned them on their head.

I went into both Abby and Shane's labors with the idea that I would labor naturally for as long as possible and if I got to the point where I felt like pain relief would help me, I'd take it.  Well, I went through about 5 more of these absolutely horrendous contractions and then I yelled "EPIDURAL!" at my nurse.  Sarah, just doing her job, started to ask me if I was sure if that is what I wanted to do and I cut her off with a, "YES!  NOW!"  So my nurse started an IV of saline and called the anesthesiologist.

It took about 20 minutes from when the anesthesiologist started the procedure until when I was feeling the effects of the medicine.  It was not as strong as the epidural I got with Abby because I was still able to feel the contractions (especially right after it was placed) with this one and my body started to involuntarily curl up (like I was doing a sit-up) and I said I think it was time to push because I could feel a lot of pressure between my legs.

Sarah and Rock picked up my legs and got me on my left side and Sarah asked me to do a couple practice pushes with my contractions.  Then her eyes got really wide and she calmly asked Rock to go get the midwife.  Later I learned that during my practice pushes Sarah was actually seeing Shane's head starting to come out, so she knew it was definitely time to push for real.

When the midwife got there, she took one look and said, "It's time to have a baby!"

---End Part II---