Friday 0ctober 16th I had an over all tired and achy feeling. I have metal in my back and so my lower back has been sore my whole pregnancy but on this day it was truly killing me. It just burned so bad. I had this overwhelming need to get all my homework done for the next two weeks, and I did it. I am glad I did now looking back!
I spent most of friday relaxing, doing homework and picking up the messes in my house. About noon I went to pee and when I wiped I noticed a glob of mucous with a bright red center. I had been passing my mucous plug for the last few weeks but this was the first time it had bright red blood. I was hopeful that labor was imminent, but considering I had been in prodromal labor for over a week I wasn't going to count my chickens too soon!
That night my husband came home from work and suggested we get some spicy chinese food for dinner and walk around walmart just to get out of the house. (this was his way of making me walk through my back pain, it helps sometimes). My contractions started up about 9pm and were 10 minutes apart. They had been coming on and off like this for the last week so I took no real notice. We went to bed at 11.
I could not sleep at all. I kept being woken up by my stomach tightening and my back pain. I tossed and turned. Finally at 3:30 am on Saturday Oct 17th I told my husband "screw this im going to watch tv!" and went to the couch. I watched an episode of Law and Order SUV and noticed that the contractions seemed really close. I got up to pee and noticed a bit more bloody mucous. I decided it might be smart to time my contractions. I started when the next L&O SUV show started and for an hour they were consistently between 3.5 - 4.5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute in length. I decided to call my doctor. He told me to go ahead and come to the hospital since they had been that close for awhile now.
I went into the bedroom and woke my husband. "ummm I know you have to be to work in like an hour...but I think im going to have our baby today so could you take me to the hospital first?" He jumped out of bed and started grabbing our hospital bag, video camera, car seat etc. I tried to help but had to stop and grab a wall or the couch every time I had a contraction. We drove the 3 minutes to the hospital. They made me check in and sign paperwork...which is more difficult that it seems when your having contractions.
We were taken to our room and I had a monitor placed on my belly to check the little one's heart rate.... a steady 143 her favorite number! They checked me and I was 4 cm. This was at 6:30 am. The contractions were very bearable. I slept on and off and my husband snoozed in his chair. We watched some tv.
It was at about 10 that I realized DAMN I AM HUNGRY and had an argument with the nurse on the fact that me eating a cup of ice chips is truly no different then slowly sipping water since the ice will melt into water anyways. I lost that battle. I told my husband the contractions were getting stronger and if he wanted to eat to go eat now so that he would have some energy.
At 10:30 my doctor came and checked me. I was 5.5cm and 85% effaced. He broke my water. Then the horrific contractions started. I tried to sleep through them but my husband said I was moaning in my sleep and finally at 12pm I couldnt sleep anymore. They offered me an epidural. I reminded them that I had metal in my back and was told I couldnt have one if I wanted one. They had the anesthesiologist come down and check. He said he was willing to try going up above the metal but couldnt guarantee it would work. I consented to try it. The epidural did not work at all. The numbing meds they gave me before the epidural was more effective (haha!).
My contractions were literally one on top of another. My back was on fire. They said she was pushing on the nerves in my back and since my lower spine cannot bend there was no way to get her off until she was born. My husband was so upset seeing me in pain, I felt so bad for him.
at 1 I told my nurse I wanted to get up and pee before I progressed further. She said ok and didnt come back for almost an hour despite my husband trying to track her down. I had to pee so damn bad (stupid ice chips!) she finally came back in and said she needed to check my progression first, well damn I was almost 10cm and she said "oh honey you dont have to pee you just feel the pressure cause the babies head is right there" I said "UMMMM NO! I had to pee an hour ago. Just let me pee I wont push just let me pee!" She cathed me...without warning. That was more painful that then contractions! lol. She actually cut my urethra with the damn cath tube!
about 2:15 I told her I needed to push and I was going to regardless. They insisted I wait for the doctor....I told her to call him now because this was happening. I started to push. Since I have never had a baby before I wasnt to efficient at pushing at first, I was pushing more with my legs/arms and not with my nether regions. The doctor showed up 10 minutes later and said her head was decending. I finally got pushing for real and I could feel her decending. It was very painful. I kept telling my husband "I think Im going to die! I can't do this, I dont want to do this anymore" He held one of my legs and kept his head down by me and kept telling me how good I was doing.
That damn nurse kept yelling at me that I should not make noise, dont yell, dont grunt, moan etc because its a waste of energy. I yelled anyways. My poor sweet husband said "baby dont yell its ok just focus they said not to yell" and I responded " Devar shut the fuck up ill fucking yell if I want to!" and 2 pushes later out came a baby!
Chloe was born at 2:50 after 20 minutes of real pushing. She weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and 19 inches long
My husband didnt get to cut the cord (which he is sad about) because once she came out, she was followed by a massive amount of blood. The doctor literally handed off Chloe to the infant nurse and shoved his hand up me. He said "Your bleeding and I dont know why, so dont push if you feel like you need to" This whole time my husband watched me give birth and was fine, he heard those words and said "Im going to pass out" and the doctor told him to sit down that he didnt have time to stitch up his head right now (LOL). They originally worried that my there was a tear in my cervix causing the bleeding, but there was not. So they started to massage my stomach to get the placenta to detach (that was more painful than labor and delivery!). I finally delivered the placenta and started passing massive blood clots. They gave me a shot of something and got the bleeding to stop.
I did not tear. The only tear was from that nurse and her cath of doom! lol. I stayed in the hospital for 2 more days and received extra iron and more shots to help with the blood clots I was passing.
Overall I am kinda glad the epidural didnt work. The pain was horrible, but once her head/shoulders were out it was instant relief. I can now say that I experienced the whole thing. I am thankful I had minor complications. Overall my birth experience was good, there were some comical moments, some frustrations but mostly a lot of support and love from my husband.
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