Colette’s Birth Story Part 1

I 100% thought that I would have the birth story post all typed up within a few days after her birth….then I didn’t LOL I started getting sick about 12 hours after she was born and it got worse and I’m pretty sure evolved into bronchitis that took me out for the next 8ish days. Add on the fact that I was anemic and needless to say I was wiped out…like could barely get out of bed and taking 3+ hour naps wiped out.

Luckily this isn’t my first rodeo and I remembered how quickly the details start to fade so I had the presence of mind to quickly type a short hand version of events so I could reference them later. I think I did that 2 days postpartum and it was already getting fuzzy.

So here’s how September 11th, 2018 went down for us (settle in this will be long):

I had my husband drop me off at the hospital at 7:15. I waddled in with my bag and yoga ball to check in. I sent my husband home to take our son to school before he headed to work. The plan was for me to call or text him when things were moving along and we were getting closer to pushing. Our daughter was spending the day hanging out with Nana (my mother in law who was sweet enough to come stay with us all week to help with the kids).

I got all checked in and they let me know that the dads were already there and waiting in the room for me. They sent me back to the room where there were hugs all around and a couple pictures. We all hung out for awhile waiting for the nurse to come in and get things started.

She came in and did a bunch on intake stuff which means lots of questions, signatures, and starting an IV line. My OB starts inductions with Pitocin (which causes contractions). The Pitocin was started in my IV about 9am and contractions began 45 minutes later.

My OB’s protocol (or maybe it’s the hospital’s) with Pitocin is to increase the dose every 1/2 hour until contractions are regular and strong. I think it’s started at something like 2 mL over 1 hour and is increased by 2 mL. The contractions started out easy enough and there was still lots of chatting going on. Eventually they increased enough to where I wasn’t talking through them. I was still sitting in the bed so it wasn’t to where I needed to change positions to get through them.

We watched some TV, Bizarre Foods, if I remember correctly. When we had gotten there the nurse had let me know that it was their new policy to let laboring women eat until they had an epidural so if I wanted to order some room service I could do that. I wasn’t super hungry, but decided to order a smoothie because I hadn’t been able to eat much breakfast before getting to the hospital. Around lunch time the dads headed off to grab a bite to eat. I felt bad with them just sitting in there because I’m sure it must have been boring as can be! I mean I know I was bored, but I could only walk circles in the birthing unit and that didn’t sound all that appealing.

At that point I got on my yoga ball next to the bed and did some bouncing and hip rolling. What I really wanted to do was rest my upper body on the bed, but every time I leaned forward the monitor would lose her heartbeat so I had to stay more or less straight up.

We got the Pitocin up to an 8 and my contractions seemed to be getting more consistent and stronger so the nurse said we could stay there for awhile. I don’t know how long we stayed at 8, but we eventually agreed that the contractions had backed off a bit and we should up the Pitocin again. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat after my epidural so even though I knew I would be throwing it up later (I puked while pushing with both my kids and was prepared for the same) so I ordered some soup and a roll.

After we upped the Pitcocin we talked about getting the epidural on board and breaking my water. I could have chosen to wait until I actually really needed the epidural, but I didn’t want things to move along too fast and not be able to get one. The nurse did a quick cervical check and I was only at 4 cm so I was glad that we were going to break my water and hopefully speed things up, but I was also preparing for the fact that this little girl might be making her entrance the next day. At 4:30pm I got my epidural. It took the anesthesiologist 3 tries to get it set up, but I’m going to go ahead and take the blame for that as I realized that I wasn’t as hunched over as I thought I was and once I gave him some more space between my vertebrae he was able to place it. *Side note…I always hear people say they’re terrified of getting the epidural because of the size on the needle. I promise you it is not that big of a deal! If you are really miserable and want an epidural, don’t let that be the reason you don’t get it because you will not even notice it 🙂

After my epidural was all set and working my OB came in to break my water around 5pm. I was at 5cm and 70% effaced. The way she was digging around up there I was so glad I decided to have my epidural already in place.

I texted my husband to let him know what was going on and we agreed that he would get home from work, shower, see the kids, eat some dinner, then head to the hospital after. We were preparing for a long night based on our previous experiences with our kids’ labor and deliveries. At 5:30pm we turned on a soccer game (fun fact..we have watched a soccer game during all of my labors) and just hung out. I got really chatty with the Fentanyl then really sleepy and had to close my eyes for a bit.

I don’t remember what time exactly my husband showed up, maybe around 7pm when the nurses were doing their shift change. While the nurses were changing over the day nurse mentioned that I had pushed with my kids for hours so we were all prepared for that again. The new nurse jokingly said she’d make sure to get the baby out in 15 minutes of pushing and we all laughed 🙂

The new nurse did a cervical check at 7:30 just to see where we were at and I was 7-8cm. The nurse said she thought that at the rate I was progressing it wouldn’t be that much longer. I was skeptical to saw the least. She asked if in my previous labors where I had ended up pushing for hours if they had let me labor down first. I told her that no, they didn’t have me labor down until after I had been pushing for at least an hour and a half. We thought that maybe we’d try that first to see if it made for less pushing later. The contractions started to break through the epidural and I had to hit the magic button a to get more meds flowing. The nurse stepped out to do a few things and said she’d be back in about a half hour to see how things were going.

About 15min later as we were all chatting I starting feeling a lot more pressure and could feel her head moving lower. I could tell we’d start pushing very soon. I was comfortable with the contractions again which was great. Previously I had my epidurals in for so long that they were wearing off by the time I started pushing…not the case this time, I was NUMB! I was a little worried about not being able to feel anything when I pushed.

At 8pm the nurse came back in. I let her know that I was feeling A LOT of pressure and was sure I was completely dilated. She did a quick check and I was 10 cm. She started to get things set up then about 8:10pm had me try a practice push. I did 2 two pushes and apparently they were pretty efficient because she said something like “whoa, okay stop!” Baby was right there and she needed to get the doctor and some more nurses in the room. The baby wasn’t exactly a fan on the push and they gave me an oxygen mask to get her some more oxygen.

About 10 minutes later the OB was there and the nurses were getting the finishing touches set up. Our main nurse was standing next to me and I told her that even though I know they baby is right there that I still kid of didn’t believe her that it was going to be that fast. She laughed and told me to just wait a minute and I’d see that she was right.

I don’t have a lot of recollection about what the dads were doing during all this. I think they were trying to stay out of the way a bit and were probably getting even more and anxious and excited that they would be meeting their daughter within minutes.

About 8:25ish I was ready to get this baby out and to her dads! 3 pushes later and she was out and on my belly! She was born at 8:29pm. When they weighed her we were all surprised to find out that she was 8lbs! I did definitely not feel as big as I did with my kids (who were 8 1/2 and 8lbs). Plus she was so easy to get out that I thought for sure she’d be smaller, but nope! She was 19 1/2 inches long and as sweet as could be!

After letting the cord sit for a minute one of the dads cut the cord and she went straight to them for some skin to skin. I loved that the hospital had a nurse in there that was there just for them and the baby. Her only job was to help them get settled and make sure they had everything they needed.

While they were bonding with baby Colette my OB was trying to get the placenta out and my uterus to contract. She said that it could take up to 20min for it to come out, but she obviously didn’t want it to take that long. She started massaging my belly to get it to detach which made me nauseous. After what seemed like maybe 10ish (if that) minutes after the baby was born the placenta followed. Then I got the shakes…I didn’t get them with my kids so it was a new experience. I didn’t feel cold or anything, I just couldn’t stop shaking. My OB chatted a bit then congratulated everyone and went back to work. There was some more belly massage and my husband ran to the car to bring me back my Tums because I was having some massive heartburn. A few minutes later I started getting nauseous again. Lucky for me I had had my husband grab me one of the blue puke sacks before I started pushing because I figured I’d be puking like before. I did end up throwing up and that made me pass a larger clot. It was big enough that the nurses needed to weigh it. They gave me from Zofran in my IV for the nausea which definitely helped. My uterus was still not wanting to really contract so they gave me some more meds for that. After the clot though my bleeding quickly went back to normal.

I did keep glancing over to the corner where Colette and her dads were bonding. They got to feed her about 15 minutes after she was born and she gobbled it all up. It was so sweet to finally see them all together after all these months waiting for her arrival.

About 9:30 my husband headed home to sleep in a comfy bed. The baby and her dads were taken to their own room and I was left to relax a bit.

I’m going to end it here and do a part two later because this has taken me forever to type up. I know there are details that I’ve forgotten, but that’s bound to happen. It’s amazing how fast the details get fuzzy after labor and delivery.

To be continued….

Advertisement