So after a rather sleepless night, my doctor arrived around 9am and said I was 6cm dilated, 70% effaced and baby at –1 station. I was hoping to be 8 or 9cm dilated when he checked me. He broke my water at 9:20am. We all figured he'd be born in just a few hours and I was expecting a very similar labor as I'd had with Asher. HA! That didn't turn out to be true.
For the first hour, my contractions were still irregular – probably about 10 to 12 minutes apart. Then my contractions were 5 minutes apart and starting to hurt my back a lot. They brought in a rocking chair for me and I sat in the chair for the next few hours. This was a pretty comfortable position for me. We would chat in between contractions. I was getting very sleepy though and was less and less alert between contractions. Sometimes I even fell asleep between the contractions. My back was really hurting and I was finding the contractions harder and harder to manage. They started to be 3 minutes apart and lasting longer in duration. I was no longer talking in between contractions either – I was much too weak and sleepy. I said that I felt like someone had slipped drugs into my ice chips because I couldn't shake off the weakness.
My labor nurse checked me a few times and each time I was still 7cm dilated but a little more effaced. They said that I would probably go from 7 to 10cm very quickly. I knew this could be true, so I held on to that hope. Eventually I did make it to 8cm. I think that was about 3 or so hours after my water had been broken. I went from 8 to 10cm in about 2 hours. I was startled by the strength of the contractions in my back and was frustrated by my lack of energy. I was so very hungry during my labor and must have said so a hundred times. I kept talking about the food I was going to eat after he was born and what foods sounded good to me. A hamburger and fries were sounding very good. Then we laughed because I realized that I was more excited about getting to have food than I was about holding the baby! (I really was excited to meet the baby, but this just shows how truly hungry I was).
During the last dozen or so contractions I had before it was time to push, things changed a little. I started to feel a lot more pressure during the contraction and could feel my body moving him lower. Relaxing seemed very difficult to do though I tried my best. Then I had one contraction that I said I felt like I could have pushed a little. I think my nurse must have called my doctor then. The nurse said I was 9cm dilated and baby was at +1 station. She wanted to check me again with the next contraction and have me push through it and so we did and that got me to 10cm. A few contractions later (I kept hoping each one was going to be the last and that I would get my energy back), I felt like I was going to pass out and said so out loud. I was so very weak and dizzy. Then my hands started to go numb and that scared me. They said I needed to slow down my breathing.
I think it was the next contraction that I truly felt the need to push. In fact, I couldn't have not pushed. My body was pushing automatically. That was a very strange feeling but exciting too! I was so weak still and my hands were going completely numb and that was driving me crazy. They had set up a mirror so I could watch my baby being born. With my first push, I blew my air out as I pushed. The nurse told me to hold my breath with my next push as it would make it much more effective. Very quickly I had another contraction and they were all telling me to take a breath and push. I took 2 breaths, as deep as I could, which didn't feel very deep at all because my knees were up, and pushed. It worked! That was so exciting and everyone seemed very happy and encouraged. There was very little time to rest between the contractions and I was so weak still. I wanted to snap out of the fog I was in and be more alert but just couldn't shake it off. The bottom of my feet started to feel like they were on fire and I mentioned this fact and my doctor said it was hyperventilation and it was why my hands were numb too. Everyone told me to take deep slow breaths and I tried to do this. My feet stopped burning. With my next 2 pushes, I didn't feel the baby move down any lower. His head was stuck. The baby's heart rate was falling and fell into the 50s and 60s. Everyone told me to push the baby OUT with this next push so I pushed as hard as I could and his head was out, I took a breath and pushed a little less hard and his shoulders and body followed. Everyone was cheering and I was so happy that he was born! It was 2:35pm in the afternoon on December 12, 2005 and our son had arrived! Our sweet baby boy was born!
Here is some of what I wrote in my journal about the moments and days following his birth:
They turned him over on the bed and started to dry him off and I realized immediately that he had Beals Syndrome. Everyone assured me that he was okay. I knew that he was, but I was so sad to see that he had Beals. I also immediately noticed that he was so tiny and said he was our smallest baby. My doctor said he was a pretty good size, but I knew that he was our smallest. They wrapped him in a blanket and quickly placed him on my chest and I held him while they dried him off a little more. His Apgar scores were 8 and 9. They weighed and measured him and he was 8 pounds 8 ounces and 20 inches long. I'm sure he is longer than that though.
When we got to my recovery room, I held Aaron again and finally got to get a good look at him. He definitely has Abe's nose, but I think he may have my eyes. Not sure about his mouth and chin yet.
Our PT came by the next day to look at his contractures. She confirmed what I thought – that his Beals seemed milder than Ada's and that he had greater range of motion in all his joints. She showed me the stretching exercises to do and took measurements of all his joints. The pediatrician thought she heard a heart murmur and thought it was a VSD and wanted to go ahead with the echocardiogram that day.
0 comments:
Post a Comment