Every labor is different and I remembered to take notes or have my husband take notes during this one, which makes it easier to write up this birth story. Here we go!
This was officially my longest pregnancy ever, at 12 days overdue. My husband Jason and I headed to the hospital at 5am for my induction.
Fun Fact: I have needed Pitocin in every labor because my body doesn't sustain contractions. So this was my 9th time with Pitocin, I didn't have any with my planned C-section for Mason.
We got checked in at 6am and started answering the one hundred questions they ask before they really do anything. At 7:15am my IV was ready and they started Pitocin. I started labor dilated to 4cm. Contractions were every 5 minutes pretty quickly but if I got up and walked around they were irregular. It was the first sign something was off.
We got checked in at 6am and started answering the one hundred questions they ask before they really do anything. At 7:15am my IV was ready and they started Pitocin. I started labor dilated to 4cm. Contractions were every 5 minutes pretty quickly but if I got up and walked around they were irregular. It was the first sign something was off.
By 9:30am my contractions were still irregular and my tailbone hurt with every one. This was not a good thing. At 10:35am I was still having tailbone pain with each contraction and we realized baby Rebekah was posterior (back of skull pushing on my tailbone). The nurse had me lay on my side with a peanut ball between my knees, switching sides every 30 minutes to encourage Rebekah to turn.
By 12:00pm my contractions were coming every 3 minutes and the pain was radiating down my sit bones and thighs, as well as my lower abdomen. Things were shifting. At 12:30pm I had a cervical check and was still 4cm dilated. Rebekah was just not in a great position. I moved to sitting up to see if we could get some pressure on my cervix to help with dilation.
At 2:10pm my notes say this: "Contractions every 1 1/2 minutes. Hurting more." Ahh, the joys of labor with Pitocin. Contractions don't stay at a normal pace.
My next cervical check was at 3:25pm. I was dilated 5-6 cm, 70% effaced. However my doctor realized that Rebekah was presenting ear first. Her head was tilted. Not good! Back trying different positions to get her to move. I got on the birthing ball for a while. Things were really painful at this point and I wasn't getting much break between contractions. We discussed a lot of options. I knew that if things didn't change soon I was going to need some help. Coming into the induction I had been praying that I would know what decisions to make in labor. For the first time in my life I seriously considered getting an epidural. After 8 vaginal births with Pitocin and without an epidural, and one planned C-section.
At 5:20pm it was decision time. I told my nurse that I needed checked and if things had not started progressing I needed an epidural. I needed a break. Things were still the same. No progress and no breaks between contractions. One would stop and within 30 seconds the next would start. I got an epidural. It was uncomfortable and weird, but started to be effective within about 15 minutes. I took a nap. My contractions spaced out to about a minute apart. Thankfully during all of this labor Rebekah was handling contractions well.
At 6:30pm I was 8cm dilated and 100% effaced. My water still had not broke and baby simply wasn't decending lower in the pelvis. We gave her more time as she was showing no signs of distress.
At 8:40pm I was 9cm dilated and we finally decided to break my water. My doctor said he would be back to check on me within the hour.
At 9:30pm I was 10cm dilated. It was time to have this baby! My doctor decided to see how well I could push with the epidural, so he didn't have the nurse break the bed down completely, he just lowered the foot of the bed and sat on it. The rest of labor went basically like this:
"Let's try a push with this contraction."
"Oh, good job! Her head's out. When you are ready push again and let's deliver."
At which point I pushed and she came out. It was the easiest pushing phase I've ever had.
They put her up on my chest and we snuggled and laughed at her chubby squishiness, cooed over her full head of hair, and started getting to know one another.
Eventually we got around to weighing and measuring her. 9 lbs 8.4 oz of sweetness. She was my biggest baby by a couple of ounces.
If you want to see a couple more pictures of Rebekah, including meeting her siblings, check out this blog post.
Medical details (possible TMI):
1. Uterine Prolapse - While pushing was easy and I didn't tear, that doesn't mean things were perfect. We were expecting what happened. My uterus prolapsed. This had happened with my last two deliveries as well. The only real question was if it would be worse. A prolapse varies in degree. Normally your uterus is held up by pelvic floor muscles inside your body. When those muscles no longer support your uterus in the appropriate position it descends, or lowers, into the vagina, and can even come out of the body. Right now I have somewhere between a 1st and 2nd degree prolapse. My uterus is still in my body, but pretty much has fallen as far into the vagina as possible. We will wait to see how things heal up as my uterus returns to prepregnancy size to make the final decision on what degree of prolapse I have. It may go back up to a more normal position, it may not. This can cause problems in a couple areas (I won't go into those right now) and I may need medical interventions or even surgery.
2. Diastasis Recti - split abdominal muscles. I've had this for a long time, it's a common side effect of pregnancy or weight gain and I've just finished my 14th pregnancy. Until my uterus returns to it's prepregnancy size I won't really know just how large my split is. I had been working to close it before this pregnancy with some exercises and gone from a 4 finger split to a 1-2 finger split. I fully expect my split to be as bad or worse than 4 fingers. To help that I did get a set of abdominal splints. As of day 4 postpartum I was able to get into the first two parts of the splint. I've not used one before but I'm hoping it will help support things as I work on healing. I'll share an update of what I think as things go!
3. Spinal Headache - around 48 hours postpartum I developed a really bad headache. When laying down it would go away completely, to return within a minute or two of sitting up. This happens sometimes with a spinal epidural due to leaking fluid and pressure issues in the brain. Today, day 4 postpartum, it has mostly resolved itself. Thank goodness.
Medical details (possible TMI):
1. Uterine Prolapse - While pushing was easy and I didn't tear, that doesn't mean things were perfect. We were expecting what happened. My uterus prolapsed. This had happened with my last two deliveries as well. The only real question was if it would be worse. A prolapse varies in degree. Normally your uterus is held up by pelvic floor muscles inside your body. When those muscles no longer support your uterus in the appropriate position it descends, or lowers, into the vagina, and can even come out of the body. Right now I have somewhere between a 1st and 2nd degree prolapse. My uterus is still in my body, but pretty much has fallen as far into the vagina as possible. We will wait to see how things heal up as my uterus returns to prepregnancy size to make the final decision on what degree of prolapse I have. It may go back up to a more normal position, it may not. This can cause problems in a couple areas (I won't go into those right now) and I may need medical interventions or even surgery.
2. Diastasis Recti - split abdominal muscles. I've had this for a long time, it's a common side effect of pregnancy or weight gain and I've just finished my 14th pregnancy. Until my uterus returns to it's prepregnancy size I won't really know just how large my split is. I had been working to close it before this pregnancy with some exercises and gone from a 4 finger split to a 1-2 finger split. I fully expect my split to be as bad or worse than 4 fingers. To help that I did get a set of abdominal splints. As of day 4 postpartum I was able to get into the first two parts of the splint. I've not used one before but I'm hoping it will help support things as I work on healing. I'll share an update of what I think as things go!
3. Spinal Headache - around 48 hours postpartum I developed a really bad headache. When laying down it would go away completely, to return within a minute or two of sitting up. This happens sometimes with a spinal epidural due to leaking fluid and pressure issues in the brain. Today, day 4 postpartum, it has mostly resolved itself. Thank goodness.
She IS chubby and squishy and wonderful! I'm so glad she's safely here, and you are ever in my prayers for good healing. I'm also glad you didn't have a 37 hour labor at the hospital. :)
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