Zoey Anne's Birth Story

Monday morning (Jan 23), my mom, Ava and I went in to the doctor for my 41 week appointment. I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions off and on for weeks. Some days I would feel like, “today will be the day.” And then everything would stop. I had been losing bits of mucous plug for a few days. When the OB checked me and I hadn’t changed from being 3 cm and 50% effaced (baby still at -3 station) since the last Monday, I couldn’t help but feel totally discouraged. After lots of walking and doing what I thought I should be to move things along, even the slightest change would have been enough to keep me going. But at that point I lost my forward momentum and felt like we needed some help. I talked to Michele (my OB) about induction by Pitocin and, trusting her opinion, I called Mike and together he backed me up and we decided that we would try it. I was really nervous making that decision, because if anything went wrong it was all on me. I tried to get my mom to put on her medical hat and tell me what she would do but she said she needed to be “mom” now and just support whatever decision I needed to make. I realized, ultimately, it was my choice to make and I couldn’t push that onto anyone else.

Michele said we could start right away and we went over to the labor room to get started. Six hours later with the pit up to 30 mL/hr, smiling and laughing through near painless contractions that were coming every 2-3 mins and lasting for about a minute, Michele decided to let us go home since I still hadn’t changed. She thought it would be cruel to make me go for 6 more hours just to send us home at 1am or do a C-section after all that. Mike and my stepdad had come by then so we were all there just waiting. With my water still intact, though bulging, we hadn’t passed the point of no return, so she suggested I walk a bit, get a huge dinner, and get a good night’s sleep and we’d start fresh in the morning. She thought I might even go into spontaneous labor that night. We had dinner at Pizza Hut and then went home for an early night.

That night I slept great and had no noticeable contractions. After some very serious prayer I felt that getting some help from pitocin would be the right choice no matter what happened. However my baby came to me would be the right way. We got to the hospital a little after 7 am and I was ready for whatever came, peaceful and calm, ready to do my part.

At 8:43 am the nurses had me all hooked up and started the pit at 6 mL/hr. By 11:15 they had the pit up to 24 mL/hr. I was dilated to 4 cm and 75% effaced, baby still high. Contractions were still somewhat mild and coming every 3 mins and lasting for about a minute. I was getting nervous and even told my mom I was hoping for the pain to start since pain would mean progress. I started leaking a tiny bit of fluid. At noon Michelle broke my water. It was crazy! With Ava I had a high break and my water trickled out each time I went to the bathroom. I didn’t even notice. This time it was huge! I had no idea there was that much fluid! The following contractions were totally different. The pain had started. I had cramping down low in my tummy, and no back pain, thankfully. The only way to work through them was to close my eyes, grab the bedrail and moan and breathe through the pain. At 2:10, I was 5 cm. They turned the pit off.

The next few hours are a blur. I tried to labor on my hands and knees and the pain felt worse. I tried lying on my sides and it became really pinchy. The only position I felt comfortable in was on my back so I stayed there. I remember focusing on resting between contractions, going limp. I had my eyes shut for most of this time, either concentrating through contractions or resting between them. At one point I felt I didn’t have the energy to continue and asked for the epidural. The nurse went to tell the anesthesiologist and luckily he took too long getting to me and I found more strength and told the nurse to cancel it. One nurse was making us all mad and kept telling me I could still get the epidural. Mike told her to stop asking a few times. A little while later I asked for something for the pain so I could rest a little. They said Stadol would help with the pain for about an hour and I agreed to get it. They stuck it in my thigh, and I was looking forward to some relief but it did absolutely nothing!

I somehow found more strength and made it those last couple of hours. I was so HOT. I asked for a fan and that helped a lot. My mom kept wiping my forehead with a cold washcloth and that was heaven. The nurse told me to tell her when I felt like I needed to start pushing. At some point the contractions got so bad I had to clench my stomach to make them feel better and I figured that was it so I told her to go get Michele, I was ready to push. It seemed like it took forever for her to get there. She was doing a circumcision, I think. When she came and checked me I was at a 10 cm but still had an anterior lip so, still told not to push. That was excruciating and my moaning got louder. I started feeling a little panicky then. When I saw her scrubbing up and getting ready to catch the baby I found a little more strength. At one point my mom asked me if I needed anything and I said, “I need someone else to do this.” Later we all thought that was funny. Michele got settled in and said I could push at 5:30 pm. Michele insisted that the fan be turned off then so that it wouldn’t chill the baby later but I was still SO hot. So Michele got a nurse to give my mom a clipboard to fan me. I really needed that. I know she was so sore later from fanning for that long, but it really helped.

The baby was still really high. I pushed for a while feeling like it wasn’t doing any good, and it wasn’t. I couldn’t get in a rhythm and I felt like my pushes were in the wrong place. My mom said later that Michele would check after each contraction and then look at her and shake her head. Baby wasn’t moving down. Mom said she was afraid then that c-section was next. Mike suggested that instead of me trying to hold my legs that they help me hold them so I could ball up better, and at the end of that contraction I felt something different in the push. It was like a reflex took over and I felt like it had done something. The next couple of contractions, I tried to find that again and had trouble. Then, the next one, I found it again. Everyone started telling me it was good and then I was able to stick with it. I’m not sure how long that went for but soon I felt the “ring of fire” everyone talks about and I couldn’t stop the pushing reflex anymore. Michele told me not to push until I had another contraction to help me but I couldn’t stop. I felt the waves of that “reflex-thing” just take me and I felt things give way and then the baby came gushing out. I learned later that that’s when I tore. It went right along the same place where I tore with Ava, and just as bad, another 2^nd-degree.

And suddenly, she was here!

Tues. Jan. 24, 6:32 pm: Michele put Zoey on my chest and they covered her with a warm blanket. I was crying, mom was crying. All I could think was, "She's here! She's so beautiful!"  She had her eyes wide open and was looking around. Michele went for the cord with a clamp and I said something like, “No, we’re waiting right?” She said, “Oh yeah, sorry.” Then she had a nurse start watching the clock. They ended up waiting about 5 minutes before clamping. When Mike cut it I watched to see if any blood spurted out and it didn’t. I didn’t see if the cord was pulsing anymore, I was too distracted! Zoey didn’t do a big cry at first until they started rubbing her to get her crying. I think it’s a lot due to her still being connected to the placenta and getting some oxygen through that. Because of her not crying right away, her first APGAR was 7. I asked for them to call Ava and my stepdad in from the waiting room. They came in before the placenta had come. Ava seemed a little nervous since I was still having some pretty intense contractions, so I was really glad she hadn’t been there for any of my loud moaning. Within a few moments Zoey  was licking and opening her mouth. I tried to latch her on to see if she would try and she opened her mouth really wide and latched on right away. It was amazing! It even surprised the Lactation Consultant nurse who had been standing there. She was on me for about an hour while Michele stitched me up. My tailbone hurt SO bad. I had been lying on it and rolling onto it with each contraction for hours now and having to lie still to be stitched up was terrible. Mike went with Zoey to the warmer after a while and then to the nursery to do their tests. I wanted to know how much she weighed and how long she was so we could start making phone calls. Then they moved me to the recovery room and we got all settled in. Mike came back with her and told me her stats. 8 lbs 5.4 oz. and 21 inches long (as long as Ava was but a full pound lighter!). 14 and 1/4 inch head. Then we settled down to nurse again with no trouble.

Everyone was invited in to welcome Zoey.

 

Stats; weight, length, head, chest.

First cries

I still can’t believe I did it. Looking back it’s like a dream. I was in another place, another plane of existence almost, nearly out-of-body. I could hear people talking, and later my mom was telling me things that people had been saying or what was going on around me and I had registered that those things were happening but they seemed unreal. It’s the worst pain I’ve ever experienced in my life, but I did it. It’s so cool how a different part of you takes over, the birth-warrior. If I can do that, I can do anything. I’m so glad it’s over though. Zoey is so good. She’s the most laid back and content baby I’ve ever seen. She sleeps and nurses like a champ. Mike keeps asking if she’s ok. She’s so peaceful and already seems to be an old soul. I’m handling recovery much better this time. My whole body hurts from pushing. I have bruises on my forearms from bracing against the bedrails. And my tailbone is really sore. I feel like some nerves were messed up a bit as every now and then when going from standing to sitting I have this pounding pain in my backbone, almost like a migraine in my spine, going with my heartbeat. Every day feels better though. I lost a lot of blood somewhere along the line. My RBC count was 12.1 before I gave birth and got down to 7.4 at the lowest. That’s half of normal and I look very pale and sometimes feel pretty anemic. I lost 14 lbs of baby, placenta, fluid, blood, and whatnot. Feeling really good, though, aside from all that.

Mommy snuggles with the most precious girls in the world.

 

Footprints on my heart!

I wrote this 3 days after. Now, here it is one month later. I feel great! My tear is nearly healed. I have little to no pain most days - aside from headaches caused by too little sleep! Zoey is still a wonderful baby. She's discovered her voice lately and will shout for me, once. That's all it takes and she knows it. She's only really cried a few times and two of those were in the car. Like her sister, she doesn't like being in there for long.

I'm so excited for every new day with her and each day we learn something new about eachother. That's the wonder about newborns. There's so much to learn!