Getting registered and settled in our room was actually very nice at that time of the evening. Everything is quiet and peaceful. I changed into my gown, and two nurses set to work drawing blood vials, prepping my hand for the IV, and getting all of the monitors around my belly. At 9:00pm I took a half pill of Cytotec, we turned on the tube and watched the next episode of 24, and the waiting began. The plan was I would take the second half of the pill around 3:00am.
At 12:00am, the nurse had me lay down on one side with a wedge behind me so that I could get some rest. However, it wasn't long before Ken and I noticed that Faith's heart rate plummeted. The nurse quickly came through the room as we were both looking at the monitor, and she turned me over on the other side, thinking that baby Faith maybe was unhappy with the side I was laying on. After 5 minutes, the same problem...Faith again was having trouble. The nurse again burst through the door showing more concern and rolled me back over. By this point I had noticed that Faith was somehow doing this to herself. I would roll, she would be fine, and then I'd feel her move, and her heart rate would crash.
The nurse tried one last fourth time, and we had the same, now very scary results. The nurse was thinking that Faith was laying on her cord. I told Ken, all I wanted to do was to sit up, as I knew that would be best for Faith. I could sleep sitting up. All the while in the back of my mind I was wondering if this had been going on for days to little Faith while I was at home. The nurse placed a call into the doctor, who had decided to immediately give me a shot of Brethin to stop the contractions and calm Faith down. By 3:00am I was sitting upright and her heart rate became steady at 120-130 beats/minute. The nurse did an internal check, and we all rejoiced to hear that while I was still thick I had dialated to about 3cm. There would be no second pill of Cytotek.
Ken and I both fell asleep around 4:30am watching an episode of Leno. I was able to sleep until 6:00am. Ken snoozed for an hour longer, when the night shift nurse came in one last time to begin my Oxytocin/Pitocin drip on 6 ml/hr. By 11:00am I was beginning to really feel the contractions and I rated then a 7 on the 1-10 pain scale. For some bizarre reason, these contractions were much more tolerable than my other two labors. I could feel it all in the hips, as if someone was trying to pry them apart. I joked with Ken that I was getting "a good burn going". It was a good pain. One that I could embrace at this point, but I didn't give myself much more than an hour before I would elect an epidural.
By 12:30pm on the 31st I was dialated to 3cms, 70% effaced, and at -2 stage. At this time I had on my game face. The i-Pod was first buzzing the light happy music of Harry Connick Jr., and then I progressed deeper into ColdPlay and Audio Adrenaline as the contractions grew much stronger and were two minutes apart. There was no walking around with Faith like my other two. All I wanted to do was sit upright, and let the contractions burn in my hip bones. One of the nicest nurses came in and said, "I need to ask you the million dollar question. Why are you waiting to get the epidural?".
I was rating my pain at an 8 at that point. I have a strategy with my epidurals. I always need a fair trade. The pain has to be great enough that I welcome the idea of a large needle being pushed into my spine. Faith's labor was just much more tolerable to me than my other two. But by 2:30pm the pain had migrated from my hip bones into the soft belly tissue. That was when I called it. And like with Jack, the timing was just right. The anesthesiologist was awesome, and did the quickest epidural I've ever had. By 3:00pm, the Pitocin drip was at 46ml/hr, I was 3-4cm and 70-80% effaced.
I love epidurals. I had my strongest sense of euphoria from this one (probably a combination of my pain endorphins from earlier and then the epidural). And my body loves them too. By 5:00pm I had relaxed to 7cms. And then I started to feel it. A pain began building on my left side around the vaginal wall area. It seemed to get stronger with each contraction, and I mentioned it to Ken. After awhile it was clear that for whatever reason, the left side of my body did not numb up quite like the right.
The hospital had a "self administered" type of epidural set up. This meant that I could safely control my own pain medication with the press of a button. For the next 40 minutes Ken worked with me on trying to up the medication enough to the point where it was working for the left side. The nurse offered to have the epidural redone, but I decided not to - we were close enough. Things did improve, but then I started feeling a cramp in my left calf with every contraction. That was difficult. Without the epidural, I'm sure it would have been excruciating. Ken worked and kneaded into my calf each time a contraction hit.
By 6:00pm it was time to push. As the nurses and doctor prepared, Ken prayed openly over me and the birth of our little girl Faith. It was the perfect way to welcome our Faith into this world and ask for God's blessing over her birth.
The doctor walked in at the end of Ken's prayer and joked that he may get a call in the middle of our pushing as his wife was expecting him for dinner. My bag of waters (Uterus of Steel) was still intact. From what I hear it was bulging out of the cervix, and the nurses were all pointing and wide eyed. We all laughed as we watched the doctor and nurses fret around looking for a way to break the bag of waters without getting soaked.
Once my waters were broken, that was it. I could see my reflection in the black TV screen across the room. One 10 second push and little Faith's head was out. The doctor unwrapped a loose cord from around her neck and sucked out her nose and mouth. The doctor announced that Faith had a good sucking reflex. Then he asked for a half push for the remainder of her tiny frame. Out she came, with a cry that was already familiar...I knew she would be the one child of mine who cried when she came out, and she did. She was born at 6:20pm.
After clean up, I shook my doctor's hand, thanked him for his assistance and joked back with him that with two pushes, his dinner should still be warm. When the room cleared out, Faith and I had a chance to get accquainted with where her mealtimes would be spent. She took to latching on and nursing very naturally, with no problems. Once Faith had filled her belly with a little colostrum, it was necessary for Ken and I to fill our bellies with Steak 'n Shake (a tradition started with Jack). The worst part about my labor is that I was so hungry. I had so little before coming in, and by the time Faith was born I hadn't eaten anything in 24 hours. All I could think about was food. I craved potatoes (odd, I know) something awful, and it was a huge motivator to wrapping up my labor.
The end of the night was filled with a gorging of chili, burger, fries, and a vanilla shake while we watch President Bush's State of the Union speech. Followed by food and labor coma for all of us. A great ending to a spectacular day.
The bottom line: Faith Alexa was born on January 31st, 2006 at 6:20pm. She weighed in at a solid 7 lbs. 8 oz., and measured 19 1/2 inches. On February 1st we returned home.
1 comment:
S. said...
Congratulations again! It was a looooooong labor, but she was well worth it.
(Comment moved by MKH during the In This Corner blog merge.)
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