Birth-day

A friend of mine gave birth to two beautiful baby girls yesterday (see Lindsay) and upon hearing her story and seeing the pics it brings back memories of my own experience having Allyson. Steve and I took a natural birthing class - I wanted to try to do this without drugs. We set up an email chain with the rest of our class and everyone shared their stories. This is ours. (Sorry for the length but it wasn't a short process.)

My due date was January 2nd. At our appointment on Friday the 28th of December I was 30-50% effaced and not even remotely on my way to dilation or any form of labor. I knew from the very beginning of this pregnancy that I was going to be late. I knew that she’d like to stay in there as long as she possibly could. No chance of the tax deduction my husband was so rooting for – we should continue with our New Year’s plans as if nothing was changing. Well…I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Sunday December 30th started like any other day. Steve and I went out to breakfast, ran to Home Depot and Best Buy, went grocery shopping and headed home to relax for the evening. My brother called to have us over for dinner – enchiladas YUM! We packed up the dogs and headed over to their house. We got there, got the dogs inside and I went to fill up the dogs water dish. I squatted down to put the dish back on the floor and felt a pop. Didn’t really think much of it. When I stood up however – things changed. WHOOSH! Now that sure is a weird feeling. I looked at Steve, my brother and his fiancée and said “I think my water just broke.”

Well…my water did break. And kept breaking. But I was not having any contractions. At least none I could feel. We called the hospital, they advised us to come in, but we sure took our time. Me the procrastinator – so set on having a “late” baby – hadn’t even begun to pack the bag. So we showered, dressed, packed and headed to Sutter Roseville. When we got there I had dilated only a fingertip and was still 50% effaced. The consensus of the nurse and the doctor was that I was going to have a “long and difficult” labor. Nice words to first time parents, huh? We got checked into the room and were told that because my water had broken we were on a time limit for delivery. We had to get Allyson out within 18-24 hours or the risk of infection would go way up and we’d end in C-Section. So we looked up our positive positions. I stayed out of the bed as much as possible to keep pressure on my cervix and try to speed up the labor.

I was hooked up to the external fetal monitor from the start and was allowed 30 minutes on and 30-60 minutes off. While hooked up, however, any position other than lying in that bed was not conducive to good monitoring of the baby. This gets real annoying later on.

When we checked in the nurse wanted to place an IV in and start fluids. I resisted. The nurse’s comment was “well, you’re going to need it for fluids now and for your epidural later.” I advised her to go read my birth plan. After some conversation with the doctor we settled on the heparin lock.

Settled into the room and still not feeling contractions (although I was having them, just not feeling them,) we continued our positioning. At around 10 pm the staff started mentioning pitocin. I rejected the idea knowing that that stuff was going to make my “long and difficult” delivery even harder, but after a discussion with the doc I knew that because of our timeline I was going to have to make the labor progress or be left with no other choice. At 3 am, we had not made enough progress (still 1 fingertip dilated and 50% effaced) and had to start the pitocin. Once on the pitocin, however, fluids were introduced and I had to be hooked up to the fetal monitor at all times. Thankfully I was still allowed to use the restroom on my own, but when done, it was back on the monitor.

At 8am I started to feel the contractions. I was checked and was dilated to 3-4 centimeters. Not a lot of progress. The pitocin was increased every half hour in an effort to speed things along. But I was starting to have to focus through the contractions. Hallelujah! This felt like progress. I was disappointed at the fact that I was only 3-4 centimeters, but encouraged knowing that we still had about 8 hours until the deadline ended. Between 8 and 11 things started speeding up. I struggled to find positions that made getting through the contractions better. That darn fetal monitor was going to be the death of me. I couldn’t be in any position where I was hunched over because we would lose Ally’s heart rate. We’d be in the chair or on the birthing ball and the nurse would come in and have to reposition the monitor. A few times I was asked to get back in bed because they weren’t getting Ally’s readings.

Being in bed was awful. I was in the most pain when I was there, unable to handle the contractions. I was positive she was doing just fine – I was focused on getting through increasingly stronger contractions and doing so without the benefit of anesthesia. This was a battle with the nursing staff. It got to a point where I was so terribly frustrated – the pitocin kept getting increased – the contractions continued to get stronger, longer and more intense – and that darn fetal monitor was the most annoying contraption.

Around 10:30 am I started giving up. I couldn’t get comfortable – or at least in a tolerable position – without having a nurse come in to scold me. The pain was becoming increasingly unbearable and I started begging for drugs. I knew that the pitocin was to blame. Steve and my mom kept distracting me and telling me I could get through it. Every time the nurse came in I was going through a contraction or I’m sure I would have asked for something to help with the pain. Because my water had broken so much earlier, they kept the exams to a minimum in an effort to keep the risk of infection down. So we were a bit unsure of my progress. Having only gone 3-4 centimeters earlier I felt that the labor was going to go on forever and I knew I couldn’t make it much longer without some sort of pain relief.

At 11:00, I sat on the floor. I know…weird. The nurses had not been thrilled with the idea, but I knew I had to try one more position. The ball, bed and chair were not working and I needed to try one more thing before I gave up and got the pain relief. I sat cross legged on the floor with my head on the couch. Steve lay next to me, holding the fetal monitor in place (he ended up staying in the same spot for two hours), and I just started breathing. The contractions really started to hit me. I stopped looking at the monitor. I think part of the issue was that I could watch their intensity, watch how long they were taking and watch how fast they were coming on.

Before I knew it, I started to feel the urge to push. It was only 1pm but I had this weird feeling and asked for a nurse. Having only been 4 centimeters 3 hours earlier I resisted the urge to push because I knew that it couldn’t be time yet. I got into bed and the nurse checked – 10 centimeters! Unbelievable! It’s amazing how fast everything goes once they discover you’re at 10 centimeters. They turned off the pitocin and we started to push. The contractions were different at this point. Coming every 5-6 minutes. There was so much time that I was actually falling asleep between them – I was so thoroughly exhausted. This didn’t work for the docs so they turned the pitocin back on and in about 45 minutes Allyson Jae Carroll was here.

Monday December 31st, 2007 Allyson Jae Carroll was born at 1:47pm. She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.

Having one of the last babies born in 2007 Steve, Allyson and I were on the news the next morning. I’ve attached the link to our short interview.
Warning – I’m a total cheese ball and we’re beyond exhausted.
http://cbs13.com/video/?id=28726@kovr.dayport.com

I'm not one to toot my own horn about alot of things. But the fact that I had Allyson completely drug-free is something that I'm VERY proud of. There's nothing wrong with having a little help from some pain killers but this is my claim to fame and I'll take it!

~Becky