My Labor Story

As most of you know, my pregnancy with Leo was definitely on the easy side. I didn't get sick and it just seemed like all that changed was the size of my belly. Everything was pretty much a walk in the park until about Christmas Eve. I started to notice some swelling in my ankles, they now looked more like kankles! I didn't think anything of it really, I just assumed it was just a symptom of labor getting closer. Everyone I talked to said that it was normal, so I just tried to stay off my feet to see if it would go down. Christmas Day came and it was really hard to stay off my feet because we just had so much planned that day so when my feet started to hurt I didn't give it a second thought. The next day I went to my nannying job and luckily the kids had all their new toys from Christmas and I was able to sit and watch them play ( for the most part). That night I went to a baby shower for one of my beautiful prego friends and that's when I started to get pretty uncomfortable. I kept having these pains in my uterus, not really pain, but just A LOT of pressure. I just assumed that Baby Leo was trying to get in position for Labor and that this was normal too. The next day, December 27, I had a doctor's appointment at 9:45am. I was really excited about it because they were going to tell me if I was dilated and/or effaced. When the doctor came into the room she looked a little concerned and almost immediately noticed the swelling in my feet. She asked me how long it had been like that and I told her, just a few days. She checked me to see how my labor was progressing and I was dilated to a 1 and 80% effaced. This was when the fun started. She told me that she was sending me to the hospital to rule out preeclampsia. I couldn't help but get tears in my eyes. She told me that there was +3 protein in my urine and that my blood pressure was higher than usual but that the hospital would probably just send me home with a 24 hour urine test since this was the first time I had any of these symptoms. I asked her if I should go home and pack a bag just in case they did decide to keep me, and she said that I didn't need to because it wasn't very likely that would happen.  As I left the office, I called Jake to tell him what happened and told him that he needed to meet me at home so we could go to the hospital. On my drive from the doctor's office to our house, I couldn't control my tears. All I could think about was that my mom had preeclampsia with my older brother, and that she had to have an emergency C-section with him, and that was the one thing I wasn't prepared for. I said a prayer to my Heavenly Father and pleaded with him to help me calm down, and asked that no matter what happened, that my baby would be healthy. This instantly helped put me at ease, and I was able to start to prepare myself to do anything I needed to in order to have a healthy baby.

Jake and I got home at the same time (luckily) and I felt that we needed to pack our bags and bring all the things we planned on just in case this was the big day. We got to Mercy San Juan at about 11:10am and they started to monitor the baby, my contractions and my blood pressure. Then I had to do another urine sample. The nurse left to check my urine and when she came back I knew the protein hadn't gone down. She also said that my blood pressure was still really high and that my swelling definitely wasn't normal, but the baby was doing just perfect. Even though it was starting to look like I did have preeclampsia, all I cared about was that my baby was doing great and he wasn't effected by my symptoms. The nurse then told me that they were going to monitor the baby and I for the next few hours just to make sure that everything was okay. A few hours turned out to be till around 4pm and that's when a doctor showed up to talk things over with us. He told us that I definitely did have preeclampsia and that I would not be leaving the hospital without having the baby. He also told us that the baby wasn't being effected by any of my symptoms, but I was just getting worse, so the best thing to do would be to induce me. He checked me to see if my labor had progressed anymore since that morning, but sadly it hadn't. He then said that they were going to start me on Pitocin to see if that would help my body get more ready for labor. I had been having contractions on my own since I had been hooked up on the monitors but they just weren't doing anything really, honestly, I could barely feel them. The nurse started me on an IV, which was so not fun, and then we got to play the waiting game. The nurses would come in about every 2 hours or so to check and see how I was doing. They also told me that I should try to rest as much as I could.

 One thing about being in the hospital as a laboring mother, they don't let you eat, so I had not eaten anything since about 9am that morning. I actually had to have my little brother go and sneak me up some crackers from the cafeteria so that I could just eat something because the nurse that was on wouldn't let me have anything. Around 7pm the nurses switched and I asked the new nurse if I could eat something, and she was nice and let me have some applesauce and graham crackers (and I ate it like it was the most delicious thing I ever had). After that I was able to sleep for a little while. Around 2am the next morning I was having this really intense pain in my left side that I just could not handle. I tried to stick it out on my own for a little while, but it was just way too  intense. I called the nurses station and my nurse came in and told me that it was probably a muscle spasm because of laying in the bed all day long. She asked me what I wanted to do about the pain, knowing that I wanted to try and go without an epidural. Seeing how much pain I was in, she offered this thing called a Bulsa (I think). She said that it would help with the pain for a few hours and that it could just be put into my IV. I agreed to get it, and I am so glad that I did. It started to kick in instantly and I felt amazing. Before that drug, I had never had that "Loopy" feeling, but WOW, I was in heaven after I got it. Then I went to sleep again and didn't wake up probably until around 7:30-8am. Then it was more waiting. I was starting to be able to feel my contractions a lot more now, but they were still manageable. Around 11am the nurse decided to check me to see how my labor was progressing again. I was still at the same measurements. How could that be? I had been on Pitocin all night long, I was feeling my contractions, I was sure I had progressed more! This was pretty devastating to hear, but at least the baby was still doing fine. The nurse then told me that there was a new doctor on shift and that she wanted to come in a talk to me. She came in and basically told me that since nothing was really progressing, that I should be prepared to have a C-section, if things keep going how they are going. She left to go do something else and I just broke down. I had tried to prepare myself for that but it still scared me for some reason. The nurse noticed me crying and then tried to explain what the doctor had tried to tell me. She said that I probably would not need a C-section, but that the doctor was just trying to prepare me just in case. She also told me that this doctor was extremely patient and that she would make sure that there was nothing else to try before preforming a C-section. This made me feel a lot better and helped me calm down.

 At around noon I was really feeling my contractions, to the point where I had to breathe through them. I asked Jake if he would be disappointed in me if I got an epidural. He kind of laughed at me and said that I was the one who decided to go without one, and that he wanted me to be as comfortable as possible. We then called the nurse in to talk about getting an epidural. I wanted to ask her a few questions first because I had heard that they can negatively effect the baby. She came in and we asked her our questions. She told us that it only effects the mother's lower half of her body and doesn't effect the baby. This was a huge relief for me because I was ready to try and not get the epidural if it effected the baby. She also told us that it wouldn't slow my labor down because I was on the Pitocin, and that they would actually be able to up my dose if I was on the epidural. So we decided to get one and the anesthesiologist came in about 10 minutes later. Honestly, the worst  part about the whole thing was the numbing before the epidural is even put in! That part stung pretty dang bad, but I'll take that any day over feeling contractions that strong and still only being at about a 2. Within about 20 minutes it had completely kicked in and I couldn't feel my contractions anymore, or my legs. It was pretty entertaining to sit there and try to lift my legs up and have them just lay there. I probably tried that for about a half hour straight.

Around 2pm the doctor came in and told me that they were going to try and use this balloon type thing to help me dilate. I won't go into detail on this because it's probably TMI. Then it was more waiting, of course. They said that once I was dilated to about 5-6 the balloon would just fall out. Around 7pm they came in to check me and I told them that it hadn't fallen out yet. To my surprise, I was at a "good" 5, almost 6. We all got so excited! I remember thinking that this baby was coming soon and that it was almost over. The nurse even mentioned that the last 5 centimeters go way faster than the first 5. Luckily this was true for me! It only took me a few hours to get to an 8, but it was also a not very fun few hours. Around about 10pm I started to feel my contractions again. They started out bearable but that changed pretty fast. They got so intense that I had to have Jake rub my back and my mom rub my arm in rhythm with my breathing to try and distract me. We called the nurse and she called the anesthesiologist to figure out our options and if there was anything we could do about the pain. He had a few other patients to get to first so it took about an hour to get to me, and it was a very long hour! When he came in I was a hot mess, and the anesthesiologist told us that my options were to keep the epidural I had now and deal with the contractions (by the way I could only feel pain in my stomach, nothing below the waist) or I could have the epidural turned off and they could start a new one and hope that it kicked in by the time I started to push. This was a tough decision, but I decided to keep the same epidural and know that I would guaranteed some medication and not go completely drug free. After he left, the nurse checked me again to see if I had made any progress and I was at a 9! She said that she would come back in an hour and check me again.

It was no more than 30 minutes after the nurse left that I felt this very distinct urge to push. I told Jake to go and find the nurse because I was probably at a 10. Jake told me that I should just start pushing until she came but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to. I read somewhere that if you push before your body is ready, that your baby could get hurt. I decided to try and not push, and yes, I had to TRY and not push. If you have felt this feeling, you know what I'm talking about. It's a very intense feeling and your body is basically forcing you to push. Luckily, the nurse came in and I was at a 10 so I could actually push! She showed me how I was suppose to push and then we went from there. I was excited to be able to push and Jake even joked that maybe we would have our baby by midnight, this was at about 11pm. Oh how I wish that would have been true. The first hour wasn't too bad. I knew that first time moms usually take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours for the pushing stage, so I just assumed that he would come soon. Especially because after about a half hour, the nurse told me that she could see his head. After about an hour and a half of pushing, I was beyond exhausted. When you have been told for about an hour straight that, " we can see his head, just keep pushing," it starts becoming a little disappointing. After about 2 hours I was falling asleep in between pushing sessions. I don't remember much after this point. Once we hit around 3 hours of pushing I remember Jake asking the doctor, "At what point do you use a vacuum or forceps?" When I heard the doctors response I almost died. She said, " When the mother is exhausted and cannot push anymore." It was almost as if my body heard that and just gave up on being able to push. I remember not being able to catch my breath or really do anything except hyperventilate and cry. We decided that it was time to use the vacuum to help me out, so the doctor and nurses got everything ready. I apparently slept through this part but woke up to the doctor telling me that they would need to do an episiotomy to use the vacuum. At this point I didn't care what they did, as long as they got the baby out. After everything was ready and the episiotomy was done I had to push again. The way the vacuum works is that the doctor pulls the vacuum along with your pushing. With the first assisted pushing the baby moved! It was amazing to hear the doctor say something positive and that I was making progress! With the next push things got even more exciting, his head was almost out. The doctor told me to keep pushing, and I remember hearing the excitement in Jake's voice telling me that he was almost here and I just needed to push a couple more times. I remember pushing with everything I had left in me and then it was like the world went silent. All I could hear was my baby crying. I opened my eyes and they were handing me MY baby. I couldn't believe that he was actually here, and that I was done pushing. It had taken so long that I just couldn't really believe it. All I could think about was this perfect baby boy that  was on my chest and was staring at me and holding my finger. It was almost as if he was trying to tell me that everything was okay now. That moment was so perfect and I wish it could have lasted forever!

He was born at 2:20am on December 29, 2012. He weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 21.5in long. He is so worth everything I had to go through! We love him so much and are so blessed to have him in our lives!