Before heading onto part 2, catch up on part 1 of Hunter’s birth story.
At 1am we arrived at the family birth center. I got hooked up to two monitors – one for my contractions, one for Hunter’s heart rate.
A nurse checked and indeed my water had broken — we were there to stay. When my midwife arrived she checked to see how much I’d progressed — 3 cm, almost 100% effaced and he was at zero station, meaning very low, locked and ready to go!
After 30 minutes on the monitors I was free to move as I pleased. I walked around the room a lot, spent some time in the tub and did some hands and knees rocking. I was feeling pretty drained from the lack of sleep that I began to drift off into sleep in between contractions.
The switch
Typically things start to progress along in labor — longer and stronger contractions that get closer and closer together. Well the opposite began happening for me. They kept getting further apart, leaving me with 5-6 minutes of breaks in between each (where before they were 1-2 minutes apart). I was even able to get an hour long nap in, and apparently I had a 24 minute break from contractions at that time.
Although the relief was nice, I knew it wasn’t a good sign.
By noon on Monday my midwife decided to check me again, only because my labor didn’t seem to be going the right way. At that time I was 5-6 cm dilated. I had made progress, just slowly. We decided to give it a couple more hours to see if things picked up before talking about other options.
The nurse did some acupressure on my feet/ankles and we tried hot wash cloth nipple stimulation. Both things that can help pick up contractions. I moved around the room, did lunges, got on my hands and knees. I wanted my body to do this on its own without help.
4pm rolled around and I was check again — only 6cm dilated. Barely a change. Since my water had broken at 8pm the night before the 24 hour time clock was counting down.
I knew what my options were going to be, and I knew I didn’t really have a choice with them, but when my midwife suggested a little pitocin I broke down and cried. It’s not what we wanted or planned for. The lack of sleep was making me pretty emotional, and at the time I felt like a failure. Why couldn’t my body do this? Did I do something wrong? This is not what we had planned.
We said okay to the pitocin. Our midwife knew what we wanted, but sometimes things change with unexpected situations. I started off with the smallest dose of pitocin, which we hoped would kick start my body back to where it needed to be. For the next hour I got 2 tiny increments.
Things were starting to pick up. By 6pm the contractions were much much stronger. I could no longer walk them off. I’d instantly have to get on my knees, arms on tub and Jacob putting hot compression on my back. It was the only way I could deal with them. There wasn’t talking, just walking then onto my knees during the pain.
I wanted to be checked again, hoping I’d be at the point of pushing. Pushing meant the contractions would soon end and Hunter would be here.
Only at a 9. Keep moving as much as I can. Keep things moving and getting to that 10.
Just about every 20-30 minutes I asked to be checked again and I was stuck at 9-9.5 cm. It seemed like I was stuck there forever.
Contractions were back to back and I could barely deal with them. I kept saying that I wanted to push, but they knew I wasn’t ready. I wishfully wanted to push. That would mean it was over.
Stuck at that 9.5 I began to feel defeated. I kept telling them I couldn’t doing it any more. Jacob and my midwife would encourage me and get me through that contraction, one at a time. My breathing would start to get our of hand, then Jacob would just start doing the slow deep breathing and I’d begin to mimic him.
In my head each time I said I couldn’t do it anymore, to me that meant I needed drugs. That’s the thing about transition, you begin to say things you don’t really mean…
9 comments
You are definitely a very strong lady!!! I’m guessing that even if you wanted drugs at that point, it was too late – can’t wait to hear the rest of the birth story!
Oh man….i cant wait for the rest!!
Haha love leaving you in suspense!
I was BEGGING for a c-section, for drugs, for anything!! My midwife was great – she kept reminding me of what I wanted and we did it together.
I can only imagine the frustration of the plan having to be reformatted while in labor. Can’t wait to hear the rest!!
This brought me right back to my labor. Oh, honey, I could feel your pain through the words! I can’t wait to read the rest! I know it’s a happy ending, so whatever happened in between was worth it. 🙂
It was a very happy ending 🙂
Yup, I think we all at least say we want drugs even if we really don’t! I was so mad they made me get an IV with my third when I was pushing, she was stuck so they had to be ready just incase! Thankfully they were able to vacuum her out and I avoided the csection, that was a close one! Can’t wait for part three!
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