Birth Story: Emma LeAnn

*Warning: This post is very long as my labor was very long. Pictures are at the end.

(Monday, July 27th)

After I left my 40 week appointment I was really upset. I knew going to the hospital for yet another observation and being full term more than likely meant that they were going to want to induce us. I did not want to be induced as the risk for a c-section increases a lot with an induction. It was 4:30 in the afternoon on our due date, July 27th and I called Bobby. He left work and we met at home and quickly packed things and left for the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 6:00 and they took my blood pressure, which was fine, and did another NST. I was actually having some contractions during the NST. They drew blood and took the urine to the lab to be tested. The we just sat around and waited, and waited and waited some more. We didn't get the results until around 9 or so. The urine came back with protein over 400 mg, and anything over 300 is bad and meant I had mild preeclampsia, which meant induction since I was full term.

We waited for about another hour for the midwife, Hope, to get there and talk to us. She got there around 10:30 or so and told us that they wanted to start with a balloon pump to manually dilate me to a 4, and then start pitocin at 6 am. We asked if we could go home and come back in the morning because wanted a chance to turn her from the posterior position. We even asked if they could put the balloon in and go home and then come back in the morning. I knew I would sleep better at home and I had been up since 6:30 am so I was already exhausted. They weren't to keen on that idea and we would have had to sign an AMA if we left. They also checked me and I was 0 dilated and 0% effaced.

Because we were getting induced they went a head started the IV so I could get my antibiotics for being GBS +. It took a really long time and so many sticks to get it in. The nurse finally got it in my right hand. My hand was so sore by the time it came out. It was really hard to bed my wrist which meant doing things like turning over in bed was hard. Also, people kept sitting on the tubes, or pulling on them. IVs are the worst and so annoying.

At 11:56 pm they started to put in the balloon pump. This was so painful and they couldn't get it stay in because I couldn't relax. After three tries the nurse suggested that we try what was basically laughing gas, and that stuff was great! They were finally able to get it in and keep it there. We attempted to sleep, but my contractions got worse pretty quickly so every 15 minutes or so I would wake up and have a contraction. The nurse also had to come in and check my blood pressure every hour, so sleep was pretty non-existent.

(Tuesday, July 28th)

They started pitocin around 6 am. They started it at 2 milliunits and upped it by 2 every 30 min to an hour. Pitocin contractions are no joke. If I had gone into labor naturally, my contractions would have got stronger as I progressed. With Pitocin they start super strong and then get even stronger each time they upped the dose. By 8 am they were 2-3 min apart and really strong. I was not doing well at this point because all of a sudden I was in a lot of pain, instead of gradually getting there. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't breath through them and I was already asking for an epidural because I couldn't get control of them and I knew I couldn't make it through labor like that. 

I was not the nicest person to Bobby. I never actually yelled or anything like that at him, I was just super frustrated with him because he wouldn't give me what I wanted, pain relief, and he had pretty much forgotten how to do counter pressure the correct way so that wasn't helping either. 

He finally got me in the shower around 9 am and that helped a little but it still wasn't very bearable and I still wasn't doing well. The nurse, Jenny, was really sweet and tried to help as well, like rubbing my back and such, but all that did was annoy me, but I didn't want to be rude and tell her to stop. Bobby told our doula "Got in the shower and it did help a lot. Right now I have her thinking about making it to when you get here." Such a staler, but I'm glad he did. 

10:30 am - Our doula, Lindsay, got there. She heated her rice sock and immediately started to help me breath through the contractions. Breathing through them correctly really took some practice, but I finally got it and it helped a lot, but it took me several more hours to get to that point. I labored on the toilet for a while and we are guessed the balloon had dilated me to about 3 cm. I was still asking for an epidural at this point.

11:45 am - I accused everyone of stalling me from getting the epidural. They assured me they weren't. 

12:00 pm - I got back into the shower and this is where I really got the breathing down. I was able to smile, talk and even laugh some between contractions. I finally got in a groove. Bobby and Lindsay would alternated spraying me with water and doing counter pressure. Once Lindsay reminded Bobby of the correct way his counter pressure was great! They were still upping the pitocin every 30 min and we were at about 12 milliunits at this point. The water was so hot and it felt so good! The water was on the hottest it would go and it was glorious. I had bloody show twice which showed that the balloon was doing its job.

1:30 pm - The balloon came out. Which meant I was dilated to 4 cm, although it is considered a fake 4 since the balloon did the work instead of my body. 

2:00 pm - I had to get out of the shower because the nurse had to take my blood pressure. I did not want to get out of that shower. We did some hands and knees on the bed and I was still able to stay in my groove, but the contractions were definitely worse without all the hot water. 

3:00 pm - One of the midwives, Lissa, came and did a cervical check. Cervical checks hurt! I was still the 4 cm from the balloon but was 80% effaced and the baby had dropped to -2 station. I could still talk between contractions, but not through them. Lissa informed us that I would have to be put on magnesium due to my blood pressure issues when I got into active labor. This meant I could no longer have the water birth that I wanted. Lissa did say that the baby is no longer in the posterior position, and that she had begun to turn. I was really disappointed at this point, because I couldn't have my water birth. Lissa left and Lindsay did the rebbozzo and we kept changing positions trying to get further along.

3:30 pm - We spent about an hour switching from left to right side and then I got back in the shower. I remember the second shower didn't help as much as the first time, but it was still good. 

5:30 pm - I got out of the shower and got on my right side again. Lindsay put the TENS unit (shock therapy) on my back and used her rice sock again. I would not be surprised if Lindsay and Bobby were a little sore after delivery because they spent almost two days doing counter pressure all day on me. 

6:00 pm - They did another cervical check. I was 5 1/2 cm, 80% effaced and -1 station. They considered this as no progress. We continued to do positional changes, so I got on my hands and knees. They turned pitocin off for the night. We prayed and said some scriptures. 

6:30 pm - I got onto my right side. Since the pitocin was turned off my contractions were still 3 to 4 minutes apart. We got a new nurse, Violet, she was amazing! She is a strong christian, has been married for 30 years, lives on a farm, was really funny and a great patient advocate, she was just our kind of lady!

7:00 pm - I labored on the toilet again, but only for about 10 min then I sat on the birthing ball next to the bed for a while.

9:00 pm - I was still on the ball and able to handle the contractions. The contractions were spacing out a little more now that the pitocin had been off for about an hour. Even though they were starting to space out the contractions were still the same intensity.

10:00 pm - Violet did a cervical check (she is the only one who gave a cervical check that barely hurt). Still no change. At this point I was exhausted.  In the past 28 hours I had had only 3 or 4 hours of sleep and I was having contractions during that time so it wasn't a very restful sleep. At this point my mind is all over the place. I realize that I have been in labor for about 19 hours now and I am not progressing. I am beyond exhausted with my 4 hours of sleep in a 28 hour period. I know that they will be starting pitocin again at 6 am. I am still contracting which means I will not get a restful nights sleep and I will be even more exhausted tomorrow than I am right now. I knew I would want an epidural before they started pitocin again, because if I didn't get some rest I would not have the energy to push if we ever got there. Because of this I decided to ask for the epidural at this point so I could get a really good nights sleep.

Violet called Lissa, and Lissa said no because I'm not in active labor, but that I can have an Ambien. I knew an Ambien was not going to do much for me. I might sleep some, but it wouldn't be a restful sleep since I'm still having some intense contractions. According to Lindsay, the nurses were talking about Lissa's decision to not let me have the epidural. This is when all the nurses really start cheering me on. Violet called Lissa back around 11 to ask again. At this point contractions were about 8 minutes apart but were still very intense.

(Wednesday, July 29th)

12:00 am - Lissa calls back and still says no to the epidural. I actually talked to her this time. She kept saying that I only wanted it so I could sleep and that they don't give epidurals for that. I kept trying to explain to her that I had been up for 30 hours with 4 hours of sleep at this point, that my contractions were still really intense and that Ambien was not going to give me the rest I needed to finish out this labor. I knew that I still had another full day of labor tomorrow with pitocin. She said no again. I took the Ambien and had a very un-restful nights sleep just like I knew I would. 

6:00 am - I got up and took a shower and ate some oatmeal. The oatmeal was they only thing I had eaten so far besides a few crackers and a nutrigrain bar. At this point Lissa called to check in and Violet informed her that I took the Ambien, but didn't sleep very well and that I would like the epidural before they start the pitocin again. 

8:00 am - We have a new nurse (I can't remember her name), I got the epidural and they started pitocin again. 

9:00 am - The epidural kicked in and I could finally get some rest. Lindsay and Bobby went and got breakfast and I passed out. 

10:30 am Lindsay and Bobby got back from breakfast and we started to flip sides over the next few hours and I continued to sleep and rest between flips and getting my blood pressure taken. 

1:00 pm - Now that I had gotten some rest and was feeling better, I asked to get the epidural turned down so we could try some other positions, such as sitting up with the squat bar. We did more swapping sides and sitting up for the next several hours. I could feel the contractions again, but the epidural had taken the edge off and I was able to handle them. 

4:30 pm - Lindsay went home for a little while to see her family and to get some rest. Soon after she left I started to feel a lot of pain again. So much so that I started throwing up a lot, which prevented me from being able to breath through the contractions. We got the epidural turned up again and I stopped throwing up. Soon after that Hope came and broke my water hoping that would help things along.

7:00 pm - We requested Violet as our nurse again and we got her. She said she was disappointed because I didn't have the baby during the day like I was supposed to ;). Hope did a cervical check and I was still 5 1/2 cm but she stretched me to a 6. I continued to turn side to side every 15 minutes or so. They stopped pitocin for 30 minutes so they could start the magnesium for my blood pressure. 

8:00 pm - They started pitocin again, but from 14 milliunits instead of 2. This is an old nurses trick according to Violet and Hope was ready to try anything as the OB in charge and herself were talking a C-section if I hadn't progressed by the next check. At this point, Bobby and I were prepared for the c-section. 

9:25 pm - This was my favorite part of labor, if you can have a favorite part of being in pain. Bobby and I were praying, well Bobby was praying and I was breathing through contractions as the right side of my body was no longer numb from the epidural, and I could feel a lot. Anyways, Bobby was praying and all of a sudden I started to feel vaginal pressure. A few contractions later I started to feel pressure in my butt as well. This was all while Bobby was praying. It was so amazing that God answered our prayers in that same moment. 

9:45 pm - We called Lindsay and gave her an update. Violet thought they were going to check me again at 11 pm. Lindsay said she was going to go to bed and if I hadn't progressed when they checked ask for 2 more hours so we could do one last ditch effort before they did the c-section. We said ok. The whole labor the baby was fine, even when the pitocin was as high as it could go, which is rare for babies. The nurses kept saying how perfect our baby was because of how well she was tolerating the long labor. 

10:00 pm - Hope came in an hour earlier than expected to do the cervical check. Violet told Hope that if was complete she would buy her a steak dinner. I hope Hope got her steak dinner because I was complete!!! All four of us were so surprised. I was so relieved that we didn't have to have the c-section that I cried. I had dilated from a 6 to a 10 in about 3 hours, after not progressing for 30 hours! We called Lindsay back to tell her to come back to the hospital. It would take her about an hour so I sat back up to let the baby labor down.

11:20 pm - Hope came back in and Lindsay arrived and we started to do some practice pushes. They turned out not to be practice pushes because the baby moved down a lot. I pushed for a little under two hours, but it did not seem like two hours at all. 

(Thursday, July 30th)

12:00 am - I am so glad I got the epidural and was able to get some rest. I would not have been able to push if I hadn't. Pushing is one of the hardest things I have ever done and it was so exhausting. The epidural was still not active on my right side and I could feel all of the contractions. They were actually worse than the pressure and everything else that comes with pushing. 

12:52 am - Emma LeAnn popped out with her hand by her face, giving me a 2nd degree tear, but was absolutely perfect! She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20.4 inches long. We love that she was born on the 30th of the month, because Bobby and I were both born on the 30th of our birthday months. 

Hope, our midwife, delivering Emma

Hope handed her to Bobby who then put her on my chest. She had so much vernix on her and it surprised Bobby so much that his face in these pictures is just priceless!

That is Violet, our favorite nurse. 

We let the cord stop pulsing and then Bobby got to cut it.

My placenta pretty much fell out after about 5 minutes. Hope said it had a lot of calcifications on it like the sonogram had said; she wondered if my due date was wrong, even though all 4 of my sonograms had said the same due date. They had trouble getting my bleeding to stop so it took a little longer than normal to fix me up and they had to massage my abdomen a lot, which was just as painful as contractions. They did all this while Emma was on my chest, so I did have a little bit of a distraction. 

Holding Daddy's finger

After delivery I had to stay on magnesium for another 12 hours so I had to stay in bed. Bobby was great and changed all the diapers! Our hospital stay was rough after she was born, we were so tired and they don't allow you to co-sleep at the hospital and Emma just wanted to be held and I wanted to do a lot of skin to skin. This of course led to still not being able to sleep after being in labor for 36 hours. So we took turns sleeping 30 min to an hour stretches. 

Thursday morning she did go to sleep in her bassinet for a few hours which allowed us to both get some sleep. Then we continued the sleeping shifts throughout the day. The pediatrician came in and said she looked great and that he would discharge her Friday afternoon. 

I was taken off the magnesium around 1 pm and was allowed to eat solid food again, which was very exciting for me after not having a solid meal since 5 pm Monday evening. I also got to finally take a shower. 

(Friday, July 31st)

Thursday/Friday night was rough as she was constantly wanting to eat and breastfeeding was really hard at this point. Teaching a  baby, who is only a few hours old, how to latch is hard. She would eat and then pass out and want to eat again 30 min later. She would cry anytime we put her down. After doing our 30 min to an hour shifts again for several hours I finally just slept while holding her, the nurse was pretty much leaving us alone unless we called for her, so we both finally got some sleep.

They came and did her hearing test and she passed with flying colors. 

I was discharged around 11 am but Emma didn't get discharged until around 1:30. As soon as she was discharged we were ready to go. We left the hospital within 30 minutes of Emma getting discharged. 

Going home!

Even though we had such a long hard labor that didn't go how we planned at all, we got the most precious little girl out of it. We are so thankful for our doula, Lindsay, the midwife, Hope, and all the awesome nurses who took care of us! We are also so thankful that God allowed us to have a natural birth and kept Emma so healthy!