DH and I decided to head down to my mom's house (much closer to the hospital than ours) just in case something was going on. I tried to contact the on-call doctor at the hospital to ask their opinion. They finally called me back and told me that they didn't think I was in labor, but that I could come in and get checked if I wanted to. I did. At 10:30 at night, we got checked in at the ER and sent up to triage. They checked me and I was at a centimeter and a half, and 80% effaced. But, my blood pressure was crazy high. They decided to do a blood draw and a cath urine test (ow) for pre-eclampsia. While I was sitting in the bed waiting for the results of my test, I started having some actual contractions, and then I felt a gush. I paged the nurse and they checked, and sure enough, my water had broken! I was so surprised. It was about 2:30 when contractions started, and I guess around 3:00 when my water ruptured.
They sent us to a real L&D room, and we hunkered down for the long haul. Little did we know HOW long it was going to be! They told me to hang out, and they'd check me again in 4 hours. So I labored, breathed through the increasingly painful contractions, and rejoiced over the fact that my little boy would be in my arms in a few hours. (Or so I thought.) After four hours, they checked my cervix. I was up to 3cm and still 80% effaced. So I labored some more. I was getting SO uncomfortable and was really having a lot of pain with each contraction. DH and I walked the halls, and my mom showed up and walked with me too. I had to stop and lean against the walls when each contraction hit. After another 4 hours, they checked again, and I was at...3 cm, 80% effaced. I was SO discouraged that I hadn't made any progress. They moved me to a room with a seat in the shower so that I could sit in the hot water. They thought that the hot water hitting my chest would stimulate contractions to become more regular and productive. I spent an hour in the shower, and then got out, labored more, and waited. And at the next check? Still 3cm, 80% effaced. I broke down and cried.
At this point, they introduced the idea of Pitocin to try and get my contractions to regulate and become more productive. I was so devastated, but I agreed to try it because I had been without sleep and food for a very long time at this point. The Pitocin made the contractions hit me like a sledgehammer, and I began to REALLY struggle to get through each one. They gradually increased the Pitocin from .5 to 2, and when we got to 2, they offered me Stadol. I was in so much pain that I agreed to try it. The nurse told me that it'd just make me too loopy to care that I was in pain. What she SHOULD have told me was that I was going to go on the craziest psychedelic trip in the world. There were so many colors and images flying around in my head that I don't think I really got much rest under the Stadol, but man, was it fun. While under the Stadol, they increased my Pitocin from a 2 to an 8. When the Stadol wore off, I was suddenly in more pain than I even knew it was possible to experience. I was almost screaming through contractions...I truly felt like I was going to die with each one. After trying my best to labor through them, they checked me again and I had only progressed to 4cm after HOURS of Pitocin. I knew at that point that I couldn't do it without pain meds anymore.
I won't lie...I cried when I finally admitted that I needed the epidural. I wanted a natural birth SO badly, and had mentally and physically prepared myself for it from before I had ever even conceived Rowan. I felt like a failure and a disappointment to myself and to everyone who had encouraged me to go med-free. My sweet nurse Patrice looked in my eyes and told me, "Honey, getting the epidural will not make your birth any less beautiful, I promise you." Getting the epi itself was incredibly painful, especially because it wasn't placed properly the first time and they had to go back and move the catheter to adjust the flow of the meds. Once the numbing spread properly, I crashed. I was so incredibly exhausted. Two hours after the epidural, I woke up and they checked me again. I had gone from 4cm, 80% effaced to complete in TWO HOURS. Wow. It was time to push!
I couldn't feel my legs because of the epi, so I felt like half of my effort on pushes was expended holding my legs. They turned the epi off and let me labor down for a little bit, and once I had a tiny bit of sensation back, I started pushing. They told me that I was doing a great job, which was nice to hear because I couldn't feel much except for some pressure when contractions would start. Rowan's heart rate started decelerating a little with contractions, so the doctor delivering him told me that I needed to push with all my might. After what I think was about 20 minutes of pushing, I felt him crowning (weird sensation!) and a couple pushes later, he was out. They pulled him up on my belly and I burst into tears. He was so beautiful, and had hair!
Rowan Bennett was born at 3:45 a.m. on September 14th. He was 6lbs, 10oz and 19 inches long, and so beautiful. He has his daddy's eyes and nose, but has mommy's lips and fingers. We are so in love.
