So there I was Wednesday night - writing my ranty 40 week blog post. Complaining about the lack of baby, symptoms and signs. I posted my blog at 11:30pm - waddled to the bathroom, crawled into bed, and shut off my light at midnight for what I assumed would be another restless sleep.
At 1am, Emmy crawled into bed with me, demanding cuddles and love, and waking me from my sleep. As I shifted to make room for my fat black cat, I felt a gush. What the HELL was that?!? I pulled back the covers and felt around, and sure enough there was a wet spot. My water broke!
Within seconds I forgot my single hour of sleep, and I was running on full adrenaline, as I shook Ben awake "Ben - Hunny, wake up - my water broke, we have to go to the hospital!!" He jumped to his feet before he was even awake, and our very long night began!
I asked for a towel, and waddled to the bathroom - funny thing about amniotic fluid - there is no keeping it in, so you end up with the sensation of peeing yourself with no way to stop it - but you still try anyway. Ben followed behind me with paper towels... true story... I left a path like a slug. Child birth is just that glamorous!
Then I jumped in the shower, because when you wake up in a puddle, you kinda want to clean yourself up a bit before venturing out in public. While I was showering Ben called the parents. My mom's reaction was probably the best one:
Ben: "Hey mom, just wanted you to know that Heather's water just broke..."
Mom: "Now, don't take anything she says to you personally..."
hahaha - Really Mom? Your little girl is about to have a baby and your first thought is that I'm going to verbally abuse my husband in the process!? Awesome.
After Ben had a quick shave and a shower we headed to the hospital. Truth be told I'm so glad this all went down in the middle of the night, considering the snow storm we had earlier that day, there wasn't a soul on the roads, which allowed us to drive 15 km/h on the skating rink that we call Edmonton the 6 blocks to the hospital.
By about 1:30am we were finding parking, and my contractions started approximately 6 minutes apart. Right off the bat they just felt like bad menstrual cramps (you were warned boys). They were there, and annoying, but nothing I hadn't dealt with in the past, and I actually had to stop and pay attention to them in order to acknowledge they were happening. By 2am I was settled in my room and the doctor on call confirmed that my water did in fact break, but that my body was only progressed to 1.5cm dilated, and 25% effaced. Basically meaning "you got some time - try to get some sleep". Unfortunately - WHO CAN SLEEP AT A TIME LIKE THIS!?! It took Ben and I until about 4am to finally nod off for about an hour, before the contractions started coming faster and more intense, and our sleeping time was over. Also, here's a little known fact - once your water breaks, it's not just like a water balloon burst and it's over and done with - No no, your body continues to replenish all lost fluid continuously up until you deliver - which means it continues to leak out of you. It's... pleasant. after one particularly big contraction, I said to Ben "I either just peed myself, or my contractions are starting to gush the fluid out of me... " That might have been to worst sensation of this whole ordeal. I don't like feeling like I peed myself - and especially not every 4 minutes...
By 7am I was having contractions every 3.5-4 minutes, and they were getting more painful by the minute. At 9am my OB came in to make her rounds and after witnessing me go through a very painful contraction, she checked me again and confirmed I was 3cm, and we could start induction.
By Noon I was completely out of it with every contraction - I went to another place. I had been sitting on a birthing ball (read yoga ball, when it comes to pregnancy, everything gets a special "baby-type" name... it's a yoga ball) hanging on to the bed with Ben sitting behind me giving me a back rub pushing during contractions for counter pressure. And with each contraction, my vision would tunnel, the room got far away, my whole body would shake and tears streamed from my eyes. My body was giving out with each blip on the monitor. Finally I asked for an epidural. It's not that I couldn't tough through the pain, but I could tell my body was about to shut down to cope, and the last thing I wanted was for Ben to have to catch and hold up a very pregnant dead weight while he screamed for the nurses. Thank God my body managed to progress to a 3 earlier, because they will not give an epidural for less than a 3 because it can impede progress.
Once I got my epidural, the following hour was a blur - I was numb, and I felt as though I was drifting in and out of consciousness - even though I was listening to everything around me - I couldn't keep my eyes open, and my body went limp. Thankfully this made my contractions completely painless - although, they started making me nauseous, causing me to frantically grab for the vomit basin at every one (although I still maintain my record of not throwing up even ONCE this entire pregnancy! I just grabbed for the basin because I was really close!).
During this hour, I was aware of a LOT of people in the room with me, and a lot of wires, tubes and machines all over me. Working head to toe, I had an oxygen mask on, then I had my epidural tube up over my left shoulder, then in my left hand I had my IV, with a heart rate monitor clamped to my index finger. Then in my right arm I had a blood pressure cuff inflating every 3 minutes, and a nurse taking 4 vials of blood out of my inner elbow. Then I had two monitors strapped to my belly - one monitoring the baby's heart rate, and the other monitoring my contractions, and then last but not least, I had a catheter put in - because being numb from boob down doesn't really help you hold your bladder. Once again - Child Birth is Glamorous!
Through all the commotion I distinctly remember two conversations - one between the nurse, and Ben where he asked "is her reaction to the epidural typical?" and the nurse responded "oh yeah, she's so exhausted from tensing up through all those contractions that when she gets the epidural everything relaxes and sometimes woman fall asleep". The second conversation scared me. I had my eyes closed, so the nurses assumed I was asleep, but I caught one nurse quietly say to the other "The babies heart rate is distressed with every contraction, something is wrong". It turns out every time my belly monitor caught a contraction in which the little line on the monitor would draw a mountain peak, the other monitor was catching a fall in my babies heart rate with a matching valley. That's not something a drugged up woman in labour wants to hear.
Sometime during all the frenzy in my room, I was examined again, and they discovered that my body reverse progressed, and I was back to 1.5cm. I'm just glad I made it to 3 earlier to get the epidural, I couldn't imagine 12 hours without anything. A moment later a nurse came in and said Dr. Barns was on her way in and was suggesting an emergency C-section. Emergency anything in regards to your child is not a happy word, and after hearing that baby was distressed I started crying at the thought that there was something wrong, and that she wouldn't be okay. Ben was my rock and tried to calm me down, but I could tell he was a little worried too. Within minutes my already busy room was bustling with even more nurses dressed head to toe in scrubs, masks and hairnets, and got Ben dressed up too, and my bed was unhooked and rolling.
I honestly can't remember the trip to the OR, my mind was racing with what if's and I just kept crying. I just remember getting to the room, and one nurse pointed to a chair in the hallway and said "this is Daddy's seat until we get her prepped" - and just like that - the only familiar face to me was told to sit in the hall, and I was rolled into the sterile cold bright room alone.
Then they shifted me to the operating table from the bed, and tightly wrapped my legs with bands and blankets so I couldn't move - while they strapped my arms out on either side of me on padded planks that swing out from the table. I wasn't sure if I was shivering from fear or cold, but they got me a warm blanket to put across my arms and chest, and then began painting my belly and thighs with brown sticky antiseptic. Then they unfolded a large blue sheet with a clear plastic circle in the center and placed it over my belly and pressed it down so that the brown sticky substance was holding the plastic in place. Then finally they brought in Ben as they pinned one portion of the blue sheet up to prevent us from viewing my internal organs.
Once they checked again that I was indeed frozen, they started the C-section. Now something I didn't know about a C-Section, is that you can't feel pain, but you can feel everything else. I could feel them touching me, and pressing on me, I could pin point where the OB's hands were, and I could feel the pressure of them pushing the baby downward. Actually that's an understatement - it was more than pressure - I had one OB SITTING ON MY CHEST, as she pushed with both hands on my rib cage to push Lump toward the incision site. I stopped breathing at one point, only because there was so much weight on top of me that I could not inflate my lungs! I thought for certain I was going to end up with cracked ribs!! THIS was NOT what I was expecting when I pictured a C-Section... they don't tell you this part. (But I'm telling you - because if you ever find yourself in the same situation, then perhaps you won't have the same panic I went through because I wasn't expecting the ordeal to be so... violent). As it turns out, my umbilical cord was on the short side, and was wrapped around babies neck, so each time my uterus contracted and tried to push her downward, the cord would essentially strangle her - hence the drop in her heart rate. This was the definition of Emergency.
Within 3-5 minutes I heard her cry, and I have never heard a more beautiful sound in my life. Tears streamed down my face, and I sobbed - finally - she was here! My OB came around the curtain to show us the screaming purple baby for just a mere moment before taking her to get weighed and cleaned off. The nurses called Ben over to cut the umbilical cord, and I just reveled in the moment, listening to "she's so cute!" and "that's a big baby!" as I continued to cry. A moment later Ben returned showing me the pictures he took on the camera - and she was, indeed a BIG baby! 8 pounds, 7 ounces, bright pink, chubby cheeks, and screaming! She's perfect!
She was born at 1:59pm, November 8th, 2012 - 13 hours from my water breaking, and 2 days after my due date.
10 fingers
10 toes
Daddy's eyes
Mommy's nose
Inara Kalyna - Welcome to the world baby girl.
Despite your warning, I went for it and read this whole epic tale. (not sure if I should've done it at 7am before breakfast, but what the hell) Man you're a superhero, Heather. Way to go, both of you. :)
ReplyDelete~Erik