Isaac's Birth Story
It started Wednesday, April 22nd. I had my doctors appointment that day around 1pm. Nothing exciting happened at that appointment.
Later on that night I started having a few contractions. Nothing that really hurt, and they weren’t very often. I didn’t think anything of it, and went to bed. I’m not sure if they continued through that night, but when I woke up they were gone. I woke up about 6am on Thursday, April 23rd. I got up and went to the bathroom, then got back in bed. Eventually the contractions started up again. I stayed in bed till about 8am. I was having those contractions about every 2-7 minutes. They didn’t hurt much, and were very irregular and not very long. Trent called into work and said he’d be in at 9am instead of 7am, to see if these contractions started to do anything.
Once I got up and out of bed, my contractions spaced out. So Trent went to work and he dropped us off at his parents house. I kept having contractions, but they were about 20 minutes apart….still very irregular.
I went for a walk with Zoey to see if that would do anything. It did, it made them about every 14 minutes apart. So I stayed outside and went to visit Trent’s aunt and cousins. I stood outside with them and talked for awhile. The contractions continued at 14 minutes apart. Still not hurting very much, and still irregular.
After getting back to the house, I laid down to rest. For an hour straight the contractions were 10 minutes apart and about 35-40 seconds long. They were very regular then, you could almost predict when I would have one next. Once I got up though, they spaced out again….but not very much.
By the time Trent got home from work, my contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart. So we decided to go into L&D. We got there about 7:30ish. The nurse checked me and there was no change at all since the last time I had been checked. I was very discouraged at that point. Contractions all day long and no change at all!!!
They had me hooked up to the monitors and the contractions were 7-8 minutes apart. Not very strong though. They were just going to send me home, but the contractions started to pick up a bit and were 4 minutes apart. They were definitely getting stronger and hurting more. Isaac’s heart rate was showing that he was under stress with these contractions. Every time that I had a contraction, his heart rate would drop, and then go back up once it was over.
At about 1:30am on Friday, April 24th, I decided to go back home to get some sleep. Nothing was really happening……so I figured we might as well go home. At home we got in bed and I tried to sleep. Trent had no trouble falling asleep. Me on the other hand could not sleep at all. The contractions hurt more while laying down, so it made it impossible to sleep.
So I got up and walked around the house. Did a few last minute things and made some calls to let people know that we were heading into the hospital soon for good. I kept having contractions and I was so paranoid that I would be one of those ladies that waited to long, or suddenly the baby was coming out and I would have him at home. So I decided to let Trent sleep until 3am and then we would head in once he was ready. We got back to the hospital and hooked up to the monitors again. I felt so much better once I was back at the hospital. I felt safer I guess……
They checked me again when I got back and I was at 3m dilated, and more then 50% effaced. I lost my plug too while they were checking me. That was nasty…..I started having bleeding and discharge after that. We discussed with my nurse everything we wanted and didn’t want. My nurse was amazingly sweet. I loved her. Her name was Shelly. I couldn’t have asked for a better nurse.
My contractions started to space out again by morning. So they broke my water sometime around 12pm-1pm…..ish. That got things going again. My contractions were definitely stronger after that. But once again they started slowing down, got further and further apart and weaker and weaker.
Alicia got there……not sure what time. We started to walk the halls with Trent’s cousin Joy. They did pick up again and were about 4-5 minutes apart when we walked. The weird thing though, they would only do it while walking around. When I sat down they would space out…..or stop. So we did a lot of walking for several hours. Around 9pm I was dilated 6-7cm.
After several hours of nothing happening, my doctor decided that it was time to try something different. Hours were passing and nothing was happening, no matter how much we walked. I tried my best but still ended up needing a little help to get things going. So my doctor gave me a small dose of Cytotech. I told her many times that I didn’t want to use that stuff, but there was no way that I would use Pitocin. So I gave in and let her put it in.
After she put it in, I felt like such a failure. Like my body had failed at doing what it was supposed to do on its own. I wanted this birth completely drug free, without any interference from the doctors. I just laid there after the doctor was done and wanted to cry so bad…..actually I think I did shed a few tears. I felt defeated, and didn’t want to do anything…..I didn’t want to walk anymore, or even sit up.
The contractions did start up once the Cytotech was in. They were stronger and closer together. So we did start to walk the halls again just to try to get it over with. I think they were like every 2-4 minutes…. something like that. Still not much happening though. Not much dialating. Around this time I don’t remember much. So I’m trying to remember the best I can.
I know they put in the second dose of Cytotech around midnight. That was when things really started happening and the contractions got really intense. They hurt so bad I had to ask everyone to leave and go to the waiting room so that I could labor in privacy. Even with the Cytotech, I still had to walk to keep them going. Sitting made them space out. Even though it hurt real bad, I kept walking.
I think when I asked everyone to go to the waiting room, that was when everyone started heading home and to their hotel rooms. So around midnight everyone but Alicia and Joy had left. They stayed in the waiting room trying to sleep while I labored away.
The last 2 hours were the worst. I had to have a little bit of drugs to help with the pain. I did not want anything that would require an IV. So I was limited. They first tried Fentanyl. It was the one drug that didn’t last very long (which was what I wanted), and could be reversed if it needed to be. That did absolutely nothing for the pain.
After awhile they tried Demoral. I needed something for the pain so bad that I had to have it. Demoral did nothing for the pain either. It just made me so tired that I could care less about the pain. So while the Demoral was making me tired, all I could do was lay there. So Trent tried to sleep and so did I. I think I slept for a few minutes, but not much.
After the Demoral wore off I was back to being in terrible pain. This is when Trent and my nurse had to help me as much as they could. I tried every position I could think of to relieve the pain. Nothing worked. I tried the birthing ball, I tried squatting, I tried getting on my hands and knees……everything. Nothing made it better. We also tried heating pads, and cold wash clothes on my back and stomach. That didn’t work either.
Finally I remembered the lotion I had packed in my bag. I got that out and gave it to Trent to rub on my back every time I had a contraction. When I had a contraction, he would dig his knuckles into my lower back as hard as he could. That helped a little but not much.
Another thing that I remember helping A LOT was yelling!! LOL It didn’t stop the pain, but it did make me feel better. So thats what I would do, I would yell every time I had a contraction. Not really loud, but enough. I would yell Trent’s name, and he come over and say “Its okay”, or “What? There’s nothing I can do!!” Then I would tell him “I KNOW!!! Yelling just makes me feel better!!” Or I would repeat over and over…”Holy crap, holy crap”, or I would repeat the S word repeatedly until the contraction was done. LOL It wasn’t funny at the time, but when I think back on it now, I can’t help but laugh.
I think the last hour was excruciating!! That’s when I started having trouble remembering to breathe. Trent and my nurse had to tell me repeatedly to breathe. At one point my nurse asked me if my hands were starting to get tingly. I said yes and she says “Yeah that’s because you’re hyperventilating.” So I tried my hardest to breathe properly. Breathing through them did help.
Now the rest of this goes pretty fast and happened within about 10 minutes.
I started asking for more drugs. They tried to give it to me, but there wasn’t time. My nurse checked me and I was 9cm dilated. So she went and got the doctor, Joy and Alicia. They brought in the little cart with all of the medical tools and stuff they would need when I delivered. They started preparing everything. Alicia and Joy got their cameras out and got ready for the big moment.
At this point I feel like I’m going to die from the pain and Trent is sitting behind me on the bed with his legs around me hanging off the bed still grinding his knuckles into my lower back. I was having a hard time breathing through each contraction, barely breathing at all it seemed. I kept telling them that I was going to pass out every time I had a contraction. Then I started feeling nauseated, and like I was going to hurl any second. So the nurse got me a thing to puke in but I didn’t have time to puke.
While the doctor and my nurse were still trying to get things prepared, I had one contraction that I could feel Isaac starting to come out. This scared me, and I think I was crying at this point. I started telling them “OMG He’s coming out I can feel him!!!” I'm not sure if they believed me or not. They didn’t check or anything to see if he was, they just continued to get their stuff ready.
I could feel my body needing to push…..(I never had that with the girls). So I told them “I’ve gotta start pushing” and did as I said. So that’s when the doctor stuck her hand down there and checked. Sure enough his head was crowning. He started coming out quicker then I thought, they didn’t even have time to get the bottom part of the bed off like they always do. They didn’t have time to get the little pads out to put underneath me either.
So I started pushing and after a few moments Isaac was born into this world at 2:46am on April 25th, 2009!!
