Montgomerie's Birth Story (Part 3)

In case you missed them...
[Intro]
[Part 1]
[Part 2]

Even though I was already feeling pressure, the doctor checked me right after I got the epidural and said I was still only about 5cm dilated. I was clueless as to why this labor was so incredibly painful, but would soon find out...

Meanwhile, Gummie got a fun case of the hiccups. I could feel them even with the epidural and Mike and the nurse could hear them on the fetal monitor. It was uncomfortable, but pretty cute, and helped me to relax as I took it to mean that she was going about her business just fine, despite the awkward adventure down the birth canal.

About two hours after receiving the epidural (5:45pm), I was feeling constant pressure and decided to page the nurse. Ten minutes later, it was still just Mike and me in the room and I was feeling LOTS of pressure. We were both getting a teensy bit nervous. So I paged again.

At 6:00pm, the doctor showed up, checked my progress, and said, "time to have a baby!" She asked me if I could wait 10 minutes, which I said I could, and then she disappeared. 15 minutes later, we were still alone and I was dying to push. We were both getting a bit nervous again. Thankfully, the doctor and nurse returned then and we were able to get things started.

Well, I started pushing, and nothing really seemed to happen. After a couple of rounds of pushing, I got the vibe that something wasn't quite right. The doctor kept digging around inside of me (not fun, in case you were wondering) and finally let me know what was up: the baby's face.

I had recently had a talk with one of my good friends about this phenomenon, so I wasn't completely in the dark. The conversation replayed in my mind as I waited for the next contraction...

There in that hospital bed, I vowed to take any/all advice from my hippie friends seriously from that moment forward. If you've been wondering why my family suddenly only eats organic food or why we have decided to go no 'poo, there is your answer.

I can now vouch that labor is really painful when a baby goes through the birth canal face up. And I was finally beginning to understand why I was feeling so much pain/pressure so early on in this whole process.

Anyway, I continued to push during each contraction and my nurse continued to express more and more urgency in her voice and face each time we started a new round. She was definitely making me nervous. Despite paging an unusual number of people, my doctor stayed calm and smiley and encouraged me to keep pushing. I tried to focus on her demeanor, which was much more relaxing and positive than the nurse's.

Meanwhile, Mike was pulling a Casper on me. Apparently he had also picked up on the nurse's concern and the unusual amount of people now in our room. "I need to sit down," he says. One lady took a look at his colorless face and said, "you better lie down, because I am not taking care of you if you pass out!" Poor guy.

After a bit more pushing, I felt like some progress was actually being made. But, the intensity of the nurse and the random lady who yelled at Mike heightened, so I guessed the progress was putting even more stress on the baby. I was worried, but my doctor still seemed confident. She gave me an episiotomy (I won't explain this word... if you don't already know what it means, you don't want to know) and the baby was out of there after a couple more rounds of pushing, at 6:36pm. Whew!

I heard Montgomerie's sweet cry and breathed a sigh of relief as a couple of the people standing by (I'm assuming the others were in case I needed an emergency C-section) took her to the baby tanning bed to assess her. Aside from a bit of bruising on the forehead, she was healthy as could be! I was exhausted, but I was also elated. My first three thoughts were:

1. Holy hair!
2. Look at those chubby cheeks!!
3. I need a nap.

It took me awhile to actually hold her because I was feeling weak and kind of shaky, but I didn't want to let go once I did (metaphorically speaking, that is - I gave her right back to Mike for fear my arms would give out or I would fall asleep and drop her).

After all of the immediate postpartum stuff was taken care of (I don't think anybody wants to read about that, right?), we were transferred to our postpartum room, where I would recover for five freaking days. That's another story though.

All in all, I'd say our plan of having no plan went according to plan: we gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl! And here are her sweet hospital photos to prove it:

Montgomerie's Birth Story (Part 2: Stick to the Plan)

[Intro]
[Part 1]

My doctor told us that, since I was kind of on the cusp of active labor, we had three options:

1. Go home, eat lunch, then come back to the hospital and check in to triage.
2. Walk around the hospital for a bit until my labor progressed more, then check in to triage.
3. Have her call for a room and, if one was available, we could skip triage altogether.

If we had stuck with our birth plan, we would have obviously gone straight for the room. If there wasn't one available, we would have definitely gone for option number two, and headed to triage as soon as we thought they might grant us a room.

Alas, we did not stick to the plan.

Because my mom had left her phone in Delaware (c'mon, Mom! ) and we hadn't mentioned to her that we would be swinging by the hospital to deliver a baby, we decided it would be best to head home and let her know what's up. Plus, I hadn't eaten anything yet that day and the thought of enduring the rest of labor (which was looking like it would be several more hours) on an empty stomach wasn't very appealing.

Once we made it back to our house, I sat down with Addison to put together a puzzle and filled my mom in on all of the details. Meanwhile, my husband prepared a nice big Skyline chili 3-way for me (I'm sure my doctor was thanking him for that later) and I topped it off with a couple of York peppermint patties! Yum.

On the way back to the hospital, Mike suggested we stop at Great Clips so he could get his hair cut "real fast." It was looking a bit shaggy, but seriously? I'm in labor here! Stick to the plan!

My contractions were still about 5 minutes apart once we made it back to the hospital, so we decided to walk around for a little bit to help move things along. We found a cute little courtyard and took a final belly pic:

 

Walking around wore me out after approximately three seconds, so we went back inside and sat down to rest. We timed my contractions again and now they were about four minutes apart and getting longer and stronger. Time to head to triage!

I signed in with the receptionist, then plopped down in the chair next to my husband. The fact that we would be having another baby soon suddenly became real, so we mostly sat there in nervous silence, just holding hands and watching the clock to see if my contractions were getting any closer together.

There were two other couples in the waiting room with us that provided some brief entertainment. They were pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum of labor: one girl was sweating and vomiting and swearing at the daddy and the nurses, while the other girl had a scheduled induction so she was all chipper and anxiously excited and in zero pain. I kept looking at Mike with eager eyes, waiting for the angry girl to notice the chipper girl and ruin her perfectly perfect day. Sadly, I did not get the opportunity to pretend I was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy.

I was still feeling alright at this point and suspected it would be several more hours before I delivered a baby, but I was eventually called back to triage around 2pm. They sent me to the bathroom for a urine sample and - I could not have timed this better if I tried - my water broke and poured out right into the toilet. My contractions immediately picked up in frequency, pain, and duration. Um, I'll take an epidural now!

Unfortunately, triage took for-ev-er. It took a long time when I was there for Addison, but I assumed that was because I was hardly in labor and they weren't in any hurry to get me to a birthing suite. This time, I was in legit pain and desperate for an epidural, but they were seemingly in no greater hurry to get me a room. Here are a couple of photos that Mike took in an attempt to entertain/distract me while I patiently waited in triage:

Doctors and nurses kept coming in and saying things like, "Let's find out if you're really in labor!" I remember thinking it would be nice to punch each one of them in the face. First of all, I already checked with my doctor. Secondly, my bed is soaked with a disgusting liquid substance that continues to leak from my lady-parts so I know I'm not getting sent home. Thirdly, I am going to punch you in the face. Do they not usually deal with hormonal pregnant women? Choose your words wisely, people!

One doctor verified that I was 5cm dilated. Another tested the amniotic fluid to verify that my water broke (as if there was any doubt). Both just disappeared forever, leaving me no assurance that I would be getting a room anytime soon. I received a glimmer of hope when my nurse asked if I would like an epidural as soon as I got my room. I somehow managed a "yes, please!" despite wanting to die instead.

They finally wheeled me away from triage, bumping into things along the way, claiming I was in a different bed than they're used to, and into my birthing suite around 3:30pm.

I stopped watching the clock, but I think it took about an eternity for the anesthesia guy to get there. Mike was doing a great job helping me breathe through the contractions while we waited. I told him I was in a ton of pain and feeling lots of pressure so he became worried that I wasn't going to be able to get an epidural. I must have looked like I wanted to cry, because he told me it was okay to do so. I burst into tears.

The anesthesiologist finally arrived and the administration of the epidural actually went rather smoothly. It was a lot less terrifying the second time around than it was the first. And even though I had to endure a few more contractions before it kicked in, I was immediately relieved.

Step Two: Complete.

I suppose the last step of our birth plan should have been to give birth to a baby... Well, I'll talk about that next time anyway, in the final installment of this birth series (found here)!

Montgomerie's Birth Story (Part 1: Is this labor? Is THIS labor? IS THIS LABOR?!)

[You can read the intro to this birth story series here.]

My biggest fear in not being prepared to give birth without medicine, was that my labor would progress too quickly and I would miss the opportunity to get an epidural. I've heard it's pretty common for the birth of a second child to be faster and easier than the birth of a first child. But, since my water broke and I had to be induced with my first, I had no frame of reference for how fast labor naturally progresses in my particular womb. It could be days, it could be hours.

So, after hearing horror stories from my mom about how her neighbor was feeling fine one minute and calling an ambulance the next (because she was about to give birth to her second child), Mike and I made the following birth plan: 1. Get to the hospital as soon as possible. 2. Get an epidural as soon as possible. 3. Hope that my labor didn't progress so rapidly that neither of those things were possible.

I also wanted time to emotionally prepare. It's hard enough making the transition from being pregnant to being a parent over a few hours of labor, but making that transition in mere minutes is unfathomable. I needed time to rehearse my response to the miracle of birth so that the doctors and nurses didn't think I was a horrible human being. Aw, she's so beautiful. What a wonderful blessing! ... instead of ... Gross! That is disgusting! I can't believe that just came out of my vagina!

Anyway, let's begin with step one of our birth plan: getting to the hospital. Seems pretty straight-forward, right?

Well I didn't have any signs of labor up until I was 37.5 weeks pregnant. That was the night the baby "dropped." I went from feeling like I could easily carry her for a few more weeks to, Arrggh get this baby out of me right now!, in a matter of moments. Immediately after the drop (which literally felt like a door opened up under my belly and dropped the baby on to my bladder), I started having all kinds of pain. Some in my back, some in my belly, some in places that I don't even know names for... some of it was constant, some of it was rhythmic. I freaked out and yelled to Mike something like, "I think the baby just dropped! And I'm in all kinds of pain! And I don't know what's happening!" And he was all, "Should we go to the hospital?! Are you in labor?! What do we do?!"

I had no clue if I was in labor. After googling "how to tell you are in labor," I decided to lie in bed and breath steadily to relax myself. A lot of the pain decreased over the next few minues so I decided that I was not, in fact, in labor.

I was incredibly uncomfortable for the rest of my pregnancy, but a few days passed before I started having contractions again. Although they weren't very painful, they were pretty consistent at about 7 minutes apart. Naturally, I thought, I must be in labor now! After googling "how to tell you are in labor," I decided to take a shower to see if my contractions grew stronger or weaker. They disappeared. I was not in labor.

About a week later, I woke up with fairly painful contractions that were also pretty consistent. I took a shower and they persisted, so Mike called off work and proceeded to get our three year old ready for daycare. This is definitely labor! By the time we were ready to walk out the door, the contractions had ceased. I was not in labor. Mike went to work.

I had a couple more nights of painful contractions that never progressed. I'm not sure why I always got them in the middle of the night, but I didn't like it. It is hard enough to sleep when you're nine months pregnant without the discomfort and anxiety from false labor!

Anyway, finally, at 4am on the morning of November 20, 2012, I was stirred awake by fairly painful contractions. I timed them for about an hour and they were consistently seven minutes apart. I was pretty confident this was the real deal. I tried to sleep for the next couple of hours, but didn't really. I timed them again around 7am and they were about the same. Took a shower, about the same. I mentioned having contractions to Mike and my mom (who was there to help with Addison), but didn't let on that I thought this was for real. I was tired of looking stupid.

Mike and I needed to run some errands so I told him to grab the hospital bag "just in case" and we headed out the door around 9am.

The contractions kept coming and they were about six minutes apart now, so we decided to call my OB. She said it sounded like I was on the border so I could come in to her office to get checked out rather than go to triage if I wanted. Getting to the hospital was my first goal, but I knew I would have to wait forever if I opted for triage. And I knew waiting forever would not be worth it if I then got sent home because I was not actually in labor or because I wasn't far enough along in labor to warrant a room. Fortunately, my OB's office is in the hospital, so this was an easy decision. We headed to the fifth floor of Magee and Dr. Lareau verified that I was, in fact, 3cm dilated and in early labor!

Step One: Complete. 


The saga continues with part 2 of Gummie's birth story...


Meanwhile, here are some maternity photos that our friend Lissy took. Now, if I link to this blog post, I will have lots of images to choose from other than my profile picture up there on the right!

Gummie Bear!