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Elizabeth Marie's Birth Story By Bobbi F.
The long awaited day finally arrived on April 7, 1997. I had a rather
eventful pregnancy - contractions & a softening cervix at 25 weeks
forced me to curtail a 4 hour trip at Christmas time, then on February
19, I was put on bedrest & brethine due to preterm labor, including a
dilating cervix. After being taken off of bedrest & brethine, we had 2
false alarms, but no baby!
Monday, March 31 (my due date), my BP was up a little, on Thursday,
April 3 (my birthday) I thought I was going to be induced, but my
midwife wanted me to wait until Monday & rest over the weekend, so we
set up an appointment to induce me for Monday at 8 a.m.
Monday, April
7th
8:00 a.m.
We arrived at the hospital & checked in.
8:30 a.m.
Finally got finished with that darn paperwork (even though we were
pre-registered), the Labor & Delivery nurse gets me into a room & tries
to start my IV - no such luck, so we get the "head" nurse to start my
IV, I get my first cervical exam of the day.
9:30 a.m.
FINALLY get the
pitocin drip started, very low dose. The next 5 hours were pretty darn
BORING, contractions were not painful, even though they were 3 - 4
minutes apart. The L & D nurse increased the pitocin drip every 15 to
30 minutes the entire time I was on it.
3:00 p.m.
The contractions
finally start getting hard enough that I have to stop playing cards &
work some to get through them, but, still not too tough to handle.
3:30
p.m.
I do my best to take a short nap, figuring I’ll be at this for a
LONG time.
4:00 p.m.
Contractions TOO hard to sleep through, going to
the bathroom to pee every 15 - 20 minutes.
5:00 p.m.
Even though I
knew my midwife was going to get there to check me for dilation at 6:00
p.m., the contractions were really starting to hurt & I was having a
hard time relaxing through them.
5:15 p.m.
I tell Gus(DH) that I want
her to check me sooner than 6, because I NEED to know if I’m making any
progress! Contractions were really getting hard at this point & were
about 1 minute long & 2 minutes apart.
5:30 p.m.
I move to the bed
from the rocking chair & my midwife comes in & checks me, I’m dilated to
5 cm, with a BULGING bag of water. She sees that I am having to really
work through them & can’t talk much, so she decides to stay with me.
Contractions are climbing on top of each other to get at me at this
point! Between 5:30 & 6:00, it was a wild ride! I couldn’t think or
talk much.
5:50 p.m.
I told my midwife & Gus that I thought I needed
something to help with the pain, it was getting too damn intense! They
both encouraged me to wait just a few minutes because THEY thought I was
doing great. I couldn’t relax at all at this point. I thought I was
being a wimp or something. (I didn’t realize I was in transition).
6:00
p.m.
A MAJOR contraction hits & I put all my efforts into relaxing to
survive it, but my BODY wasn’t listening to my mind! My body was pushing
& POP! my bag of water exploded across the bed. Baby’s heartrate
disappeared off of the external monitor. Mary Alice (midwife), decided
to check to see how much progress I had made & put an internal monitor
on the baby’s scalp, just in case. HOLY SMOKES! She said I was at 10
cm & ZERO station! I push 3, 4 or 5 times with each contraction.
6:35
p.m.
Baby is crowning, but baby’s heartrate takes a serious DIVE
during a pushing contraction (it dropped to 40 beats per minute from
about 120). Mary Alice tells me we need to get this baby out quick &
does a small episiotomy (only 1 stitch into the muscle tissue). I push
one more time & out comes the head, complete with the cord around her
neck. (there’s where the problem was!) She clamps & cuts the cord to
relieve the pressure off of the neck & lets me push again - Uh-oh! The
shoulders get STUCK, big time! So, hubby & the L & D nurse each grab
one of my legs & help me to get them right up against my chest, so that
my pelvis will open as wide as possible & I PUSH & PUSH & PUSH!.
6:38
p.m.
My little (HA!) girl is born, but she’s not breathing well,
because of the cord having been around her neck. This team of nurses &
docs quickly suction & bag her (giving her oxygen). Her 1 minute APGAR
is only a 4, but her 5 minute APGAR is a 9!!! She just needed a jump
start for breathing to pink up & GET MAD! She weighed 8 pounds, 5
ounces and was 20 inches long. We named her Elizabeth Marie.
I tore a
little bit up by my urethra when her shoulders came out, but nothing
serious. I felt better 2 days after my "semi-natural" labor than I did
a month after my 5 year old was born!! My hubby gets a lot of the
credit for me feeling the way I do, he was SO supportive of me during
the entire time! I breastfed her for the first 2 months.
For those of you who are STILL reading this, yes, I DID do this without
any pain meds. It did hurt, but it was worth it!!!!
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