Birth Story - Part 2

TMI Warning: I'm writing my birth story with very little censoring. I'm going to try and be as honest as possible, so it may not always be pretty! If you have zero interest in learning anything about my lady parts, I would recommend skipping this blog!


December 7, 2010:  Overnight, I spent most of my time in the bathtub.  The bouancy of the water seemed to be the only thing that provided me any relief during the contractions.  They were definitely getting stronger and I found that in between  the contractions I was able to sleep a little bit while I was in the tub.

Contractions and more contractions, we just never hit that magic formula that we were waiting for.  2-3 minutes apart, lasting at least 60 seconds, and staying that way for at least 2 hours. 

Finally, by around 8am, we had had enough of this laboring at home business, I had reached my mental, emotional and physical limit, and I wanted to go back to the hospital.  We did a repeat of the previous morning. Called the hospital, called our parents, loaded the car, and kissed Thor goodbye.  We went back in on Tuesday morning around 9am.

Luckily, we did not have to do the whole triage monitoring process again, and were immediately admited to L&D.  Once we settled in a nurse checked me for progress.  I had dilated from 3 centimeters to 5, and was now 100% effaced, and baby was at -1 position.  We were staying at the hospital this time, and we were not going to be leaving without our baby.  This thought went through my head quite a few times during the worst contractions, it was a motivator.

Both of us still smiling.

Several thoughts would run through my head throughout my entire labor, 1) I can do this, 2) we will have our little girl at the end of all of this, 3) this is one thing in life that I can't quit, no matter how much I want to, 4) millions and millions of women have done this before me. 

All the parents were informed that we were at the hospital and in full on active labor.  Annette arrived early in the morning and stayed with us a bit.  My family got to the hospital around 2pm in the afternoon.  Everyone took turns walking the halls with me as I worked through contractions so that Dave could get some sleep. 

The day went by in such a blur as I continued to labor all day long.  I was finally checked by a nurse at 5pm, and it was discovered that my body had made zero progress from when we had first arrived.  I was so discouraged.  Luckily, my doctor was around and I was able to discuss with her what we could do to nudge things along a little bit.  She suggested breaking my waterbag, which I agreed to as I felt it was the least intrusive intervention at this point. 

Leaning over the bed, as well as the yoga ball was one of my favorite positions. 

At times a contraction would hit and it would feel best to stay in whatever position I was in, with someone there to physically support me. 

To this day, whenever I think about the two and a half hours after my waterbag was broken, I still shudder.  The contractions got so much more intense and closer together.  They were also still all over the place and ranging anywhere from 2-6 minutes apart.   My mom, sister, and my dad did a lot of walking with me during this time.  I remember being incredibly cranky and short-tempered and I snapped at my dad, for which I apologized for later.  We all laugh about it now, but at the time I felt like I was in a full blown crisis mode and could not stay in control of managing the pain. 

At 7pm, the nurse checked me again and I was still only 5 cen., 100% effaced and the baby had only moved down a little bit.    After much deliberation, discussion with Dave and encouragement from my parents, I asked (begged) for the epidural.  It was such a hard decision for me at the time, I worked so hard to prepare for a natural childbirth, and we had made it so far, but I just could not do it anymore.  I felt like I was beyond the point of being able to relax and allow my body to relax to help facilitate any progress. In between contractions Dave told me a great/silly story and his theory on how women's bodies have evolved.  I remember thinking that I was glad to be able to still laugh and joke with him at this point. 

After I asked for the epidural, I could not get it administered quick enough!  It was not as bad as I had envisioned it would be.  The most difficult part was sitting still through contractions, and the muscle tremors that I was having at this point.  Holy. Moly.  What a world of difference. I was shocked at first that I really was not able to move the lower half of my body, but got used to it after awhile.  The worst side effect that I got was the nausea; I threw up quite a bit.  

A couple of hours later after there still being no diliation progress I agreed to a low dose of Pitocin to strengthen the contractions.  I had started to run a slight fever and Olivia's heartrate was a tad high, so it was now important that things progress at a quicker speed if I had any hopes of having a vaginal delivery.  I was put on oxygen for her heart rate and given cold washcloths to help keep my temp down.

Look how pretty I looked!  And this was after I had received the epidural. 

From 11pm until 5am I finally dilated to 10 centimeters, was 100% effaced, and baby's head was engaged and ready to go.  I did not want to push until I felt the urge to push, and the nurses were completely supportive of that.  So I was able to "labor down," as they kept calling it, for another 2 hours.

I never felt that urge to push that many women say they do.  I felt the urgency to push when I realized that the epidural was beginning to wear off and I began feeling the contractions again.  At 7am, Dave called the nurse in, Tammie, who was absolutely wonderful, and told her that I was ready to go ahead and push.  Tammie quickly broke down the bed and got the room arranged for me to push.  I elevated the bed to an almost completely upright position and got ready. 

Dave was holding one leg and Tammie was on the other and the pushing began.  Then we hit another small roadblock.  Tammie discovered that there was meconium present in the fluids surrounding Olivia, which is very common in overdue babies.  She had to make sure that the pediatrician would be present when Olivia was born so that they could immediately expel any meconium from her nose, throat and lungs.  Learning this broke my heart because I knew that this meant that I would not be allowed the immediate skin to skin contact I wanted so much.  Tammie reassured me that as soon as the pediatrician looked Olivia over she would be given to me.

I continued to push, and once I was very close to pushing Olivia out my doctor was called in and was there for the final pushes as our baby was born.  Finally, after what felt like a very long journey, our baby, Olivia Marie Copeland, was born on Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 7:50a.m., 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 19 inches long. 

Olivia started crying immediately after she was born, which is not the preferable thing when meconium is present.  It's prefered that the baby be stimulated as little as possible until they have a chance to aspirate the meconium.  For this reason, Olivia was held upside down for a minute, and then the doctor placed her on me long enough for Dave to cut her umbilical cord.  She was then passed off to the pediatrician who took her to the warmer. She was not very far from my bed so I was able to see everything that was happening. 

While Olivia was being tended to, I delivered the placenta and received several stiches for some minor tears.  Olivia's head was slightly turned one direction when she came out that had caused the tearing. 

I was able to hold her about 10 minutes after she arrived and she latched about half an hour after that. 



We stayed with Olivia for about 2 hours, just the three of us, while they did a couple of the newborn tests on her.  Tammie also showed Dave how to give her a sponge bath and they washed her hair.  Then the fun of introducing her to our folks & family began!

A month has passed since the birth of our baby girl.  We could not be anymore in love with her!  As she becomes more and more alert we love seeing the different things that she has started to do.  We know this is just the beginning of the fun, and are looking forward to all that is to come.

Prior to having Olivia, I had always thought that if I was not able to have the med-free birth that I had so wanted that I would be very dissappointed.  Having now gone through having a baby, I know that there was no way I could have prepared for the labor experience that I had.  My birth plan was how I would have liked everything to go according to the textbook average birth. 

Unfortunately, my experience was very far from the average first time birth.  I'm so proud of us and how we handled my labor and delivery experience.  If I had not been so stubborn, we could have had our baby a lot sooner, but I would not change what I went through one bit.