Labor Story

The short story is labor was relatively smooth and mom and baby are both healthy and doing well! Now for the longer version...

I was having "contractions" all week and asked many of my friends who had been through labor to help me understand the difference between Braxton Hicks and "real" contractions. So many had told me that Braxton Hicks didn't hurt at all; they were just a tightening of the stomach in isolated areas. Well, whatever was going on for me were uncomfortable (not necessarily painful), but didn't seem as isolated as "Braxton Hicks." But they came and went and didn't continue for more than a few hours (usually).

On Thursday I had an appt with my OB, and I was thrilled to learn that I was 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. I know many women remained at 2cm for weeks, and I didn't think that it meant by any means that labor was immanent. Although I was only 36 weeks my doctor said that he wouldn't try to stop labor after 35 weeks; I took that as the green light.

That evening we went for a walk with the PC family - a short walk, just down the street. I didn't have any contractions at the time, but that night when I woke up to go to the bathroom I had a great deal of pain in my lower abdomen. No "contractions" per say, just pain. I knew, however, that the baby was low and I blamed it on that.

The next day (Friday) I was feeling the contractions in my lower back, and I knew that was generally associated with labor. Still, contractions were not clear waves, but very gradual increases and decreases. I was pretty sure these were real contractions, and I told Mike so, but went to work anyway, since they were not very painful. I figured I would know when I needed to leave, and I expected that the first stage of labor would take a while for a first child, so no use in me sitting at home. (Plus, in my pride, I think I didn't want to "cry wolf" and be wrong!)

At work the contractions continued pretty consistently. I felt mounting pressure really low with each, but they were not necessarily painful, just painful enough that I couldn't stand or walk comfortably when they were going on. I took the day to finish up some processes for my replacement, and finalize a few remaining projects. I didn't tell anyone I thought I was in labor, I just quietly finished up some things and packed up many of my belongings from my desk.

When I got home from work - they stopped! Ugh. I knew I would not be able to sleep that night if they continued at the moderate intensity that they had been, so I asked Mike if we could go for a walk. Since it was raining, this meant going out to run errands (Home Depot and Target). By the time we finished up the errands at Target the contractions were back and now they were quite close and quite painful - usually about 4 minutes apart.

I told Mike we needed to go to the hospital RIGHT AWAY. I was worried that, since I had been having contractions all day, I might have been quite far along. He convinced me to time them for 30 minutes, however. We confirmed that they were very close; they were strong but not unbearably painful. We called the hospital at 11pm and told them we were coming in.

When we arrived my labor was assessed and I was only 2 cm - unchanged from my doctor's appt. By this point the contractions were quite painful and I was very discouraged that I was not any further along! Since I was technically "pre-term" (36 weeks and 5 days as of Friday) they would not let me walk, but monitored me for an hour while I laid in bed. By God's grace, in that hour I progressed from 2cm to 5cm. I was shaking and quite uncomfortable - I think I forgot all the "pain management" techniques I had been told.

They transferred me to labor and delivery and started to hook up my IV. By then it was about 1:30am. I told them I wanted to labor in the Jacuzzi tub and might want an epidural later; they started giving me the IV, and said I could get in the jacuzzi once that was done. The IV took much longer than I expected and half way through I announced that I wanted to go straight to the epidural and skip the tub!

By 3am I had the epidural - which was very scary to me! I am grateful that they anesthesiologist talked me through it very well; that made it much easier, and once it was done I was so glad I chose to do it. Initially (after the epidural) I still had a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, and I even decided to click the epidural button to administer a stronger dose to myself; upon doing so the pain went away, but I was sorry I had to go for the higher dose of the epidural. I was 6cm dilated by the time I had the epidural.

A couple hours later an alarm went off that my epidural had run out (oh no!) and the nurse was quite surprised. Turns out my epidural was leaking somewhere and I wasn't getting the whole dosage! When they replaced the medicine cartridge with a new one (this time one that wasn't leaking) suddenly my legs went from "numb" to "dead and worthless"! Wow. I would have been content with the lower dose - it was doing the trick - but the nurse told me this was what it should have been like!

It was such a blessing to watch my contractions on the monitor but not feel them. I thanked God for the epidural many times that evening. If it wasn't for my blood pressure being taken automatically every 10 minutes I probably could have slept. Around 6:30 they checked me again and it seemed my progress had slowed, so the doctor broke my water. By 7:15am I was fully dilated and the head was "right there." So the nurse helped Mike and me learn how to push. Mike was in charge of checking the monitor to tell us when contractions were coming, and he held one of my legs. He was a champ - fully engaged, eager to help, and not afraid of any of it. I pushed for 45 minutes. When the head finally came out Mike exclaimed "I can see the whole head!" Blake was born at 8:20am, weighing 6 lbs 3 oz, and 19 inches.

We had called my mom and Mike's parents shortly after I got the epidural, and Mike's parents were already in the waiting room (we had actually forgotten our camera, and they kindly stopped by our house on the way to the hospital to pick it up). Mike's mom was eager to see the little one and was even caught hovering in the hallway outside our delivery room before Mike had a chance to get out there to announce that Blake had arrived. My mom left PA in the morning and arrived around noon.

Overall, a relatively fast and easy delivery, and we thank God that our little one is healthy!