Also during this time the lobby area seemed to be filling with people. I named it The Tourist's Trap, mentally choosing to not notice that there seemed to be 50 people I was parading past every little bit. I also had to stop at the one bathroom nearly every time we were at that end of our route. (Memorable, random note: the toilets are automatically flushing toilets. One of the toilets was "flushing" the ENTIRE time I was walking. I think their service men must have been hanging out with the security people who were supposed to unlock that supply closet in Part 1.) Amy later told me that not only were there a lot of people waiting for laboring mothers to deliver (I will never understand this), but also a lot of couples there for a L&D tour. I really was a spectacle! Haha! Tour exhibit 1: "Laboring Mother Walking Laps."
I really have no concept of time-line at this point, but before our allotted walking time was over the contractions were strong enough that I was starting to slow or stop walking each time I had one. We got to one set of stairs and Amy suggested I do stairs again. I said "I don't want to do any more stairs." I don't know if I did one last squat there or if I said I didn't want to do any more of those either. We walked back to the other end of our route and I said I wanted to go back to my room. (They were SUPPOSED to be getting my room ready while we walked, moving me out of the bathroom stall sized Triage room.) As we approached the lobby full of people, I had to stop for a contraction. I knew they were getting a lot closer and a lot more intense. I either thought or mentioned to Amy that my goal was to get through the lobby and through the door to L&D before the next contraction. That meant I had to move fast, but I didn't want to stop mid-crowd of people. I waddled as quickly as I could and made a bee-line for the door. I had a serious conversation with the door guard person in my head, saying, "I am going through THAT door and it had BETTER be open when I get there!" Sure enough, somehow either Amy or I communicated to the guard that we were going back into L&D because they swiped their badge and opened the door for me. As soon as I was through the door the next contraction hit and I had to stop, but I'd made it through the crowd of observers!
We still had to go to the Triage room, but once there I mentally refused to get on the bed or sit down. So I stood. In my mind if I got in the bed (1) they would take longer to move me, and (2) Triage rooms have gourneys instead of beds; gourneys are KILLERS to the read-end and tailbone!!! Plus they said they almost had a real room ready for me. During this time the room felt about 100° and I was roasting hot. Amy and Daniel took turns using the cafeteria tray from my lunch to fan me, which felt amazing. I was so hot that when they did come to take us to the real Labor and Delivery room (4pm), Amy took the tray along.
Either before or right after we got to the room I asked to sit on a birthing ball. I had not liked it very well with any previous labors, but for some reason I wanted to sit on one. I sat beside the bed and labored while Daniel and Amy continued to fan me with the tray. Eventually I cooled off enough to ask them to stop. Around this time I also really wished I had actually put a CD onto my phone that I wanted to listen to so I could have a focal point. Instead focused on the chorus to the one song (my favorite), singing in my head. It was a peaceful and comforting distraction. (You can listen to the song here.) I had a rhythm of a rocking/swaying going on, but would stop as each contraction started, then I would resume once it left. Amy clued in to this, and began putting counter-pressure on my low back during contractions. She showed Daniel how to do it and they took turns. She also had a rice sock for me, but all I wanted to do was smell it. Haha! She puts essential oils in the rice and it had a very calming, peaceful effect for me. At one point, after every contraction I yawned a huge yawn. That was somewhat comical! Rock/sway, stop for contraction, yawn, rock/sway...
Interestingly enough, with Silas' labor I was SO tired and felt like having lights on in the room would have helped. This time I had my eyes closed much of the time during active labor. Each labor is different!
Eventually Amy commented that I was too comfortable and she wanted me to get up and move around after a few more contractions. While the contractions were not so much "painful," they were getting increasingly uncomfortable and growing in intensity. I had a love/hate relationship with Amy at that point, saying in my head, "I am NOT too comfortable!!" I did NOT want to get up to do ANYthing. I was very much in a zone, handling each contraction well, and I didn't want that rhythm interrupted.
After several more contractions I decided to stall on Amy's suggestion and asked to go to the bathroom. (I guess I really didn't want to do whatever she maybe had planned!) I don't remember much of that at all except once I peed the contractions changed drastically. I don't remember how, but Amy and Daniel ended up in the bathroom with me while I was still on the commode. I was hanging onto Daniel's legs through the contractions that had grown in intensity about 3x what they had been before the bathroom trip. Not knowing that within what would seem mere minutes I would be having the baby, I said I thought I wanted an epidural. I was thinking I was probably at best around 8cm, and had probably another hour to go yet. I didn't want to labor for another hour+ with that level of intensity. Amy and the nurse both suggested that I should get in the tub. I adamantly declined. Partly because it didn't appeal to me at all in the moment (probably I would have liked it earlier), but the side of the tub looked about 4 feet high and I didn't want to have to climb in it.
I made it back to the bed somehow, and no one made a move towards an epidural. I sat on the ball for another contraction or two before I leaned over and punched the call bell, asking for an epidural. I didn't know that both anesthesiologists were in emergency C-sections and wouldn't be available for a long time. Haha! They did send in someone from anesthesiology to put in an IV port, since 3 nurses hadn't been successful in their earlier attempts. Right before this, Amy had put a hair comb in each of my hands to grip; providing acupressure which both distracted and gave relief. The guy from anesthesiology thought it was a little quacky, I think. :P Anyway, with a lot of pain on my part, he got an IV port into the back of my hand, which hurt more than the contractions at that point! Ow!!! Next time I will decline it until I know for sure I need it!
Then Amy said I needed to get onto the bed so the nurse could check me. I was having tunnel vision at this point and I think I looked at the bed in some kind of stupor. It also looked about 4 feet high and I had no idea how I was going to get onto the bed. (Amy told me later that she could see what I was thinking, but the bed was already as low as it could go, which is actually pretty low. Haha!!!) Getting onto the bed and onto my back was THEE most painful and difficult part of the whole labor and delivery. I think I was the most vocal through that than I was at any other point the whole day as I talked to myself the whole time... but I don't remember if I said my thoughts out loud or just in my head. Life was in slow motion and some details just vanished from my memory.
I was finally on my back. Amy gave me her fingers to grip because being on my back was agony plus getting checked IS torture. The nurse started to check me and and instead found the baby's head at plus 2 station! (Which is pretty much ready to crown!) Amy asked if I felt like I needed to push and it was as if my brain only needed to hear the words. Immediately I nodded my head as I felt the baby being born. I don't remember really making any effort as my body was just pushing the baby out all on it's own, but I DO remember the nurse nearly yelling into her intercom "I need a table in here NOW! I NEED HELP! THE BABY'S CROWNING!" Amy said "oh yeah, there's the head!!", and then the baby slid out the rest of the way as the nurse yelled "I NEED HELP, THE BABY'S OUT!! Somebody call time!" (She was born at 5:42pm.)
Right then the room was flooded with nurses and our midwife, they placed Catherine on my stomach, someone announced that she was a girl, and I, pretty much in shock at what just happened, looked at Amy and said, "WOW!!!" and laughed. All that happened pretty much simultaneously and couldn't have been more than a minute (or two, max) from the time the nurse realized the baby was crowning until Catherine literally slid out.
Everything was a flurry after that. I got a glimpse of Catherine's face at one point and I thought that she looked like our baby. Not that she would not look like our baby, but her face was familiar, looking similar to our other babies when they were born. She looked like OUR baby.
She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20" long.
This was my record-breaking labor, being the shortest at somewhere under 4 hours of active labor. Most definitely the fastest delivery. 😂
As the nurses were entering all the information, I overheard them talking about the timing of everything. "It asks for time of last cervical check, time pushing began, and time of deliver. Um... I'm just putting down 5:42 for all three!!"
Aside from the un-fun fundal massages, everything after Catherine's birth went great. I felt great, she was so soft and warm and snuggly, and on the OUTSIDE. Since they were so busy that day, it was nearly 2 hours before we were moved up to the mother-baby unit. Catherine went through the motions of her first feeding while we waited, and did a great job for her first time nursing. I kept waiting to have the post-delivery shakes like I had with Charity and Silas (with them it happened within an hour of birth) but it never happened. {I did experience them a few days after coming home.}
The most painful part (and really the only pain) of my recovery time in the hospital was my tailbone. It hurt SO badly the first day after she was born that the nurse had me take a Motrin, but that only took the edge off the pain. I'm not sure if it hurt so much from the time spent on the Triage bed or if somehow labor and/or the incredibly fast delivery may have contributed in some way. Thankfully by the 2nd day the pain was just a major discomfort, and through the first week subsided.
That wraps up the story of Catherine's birth as well as I remember right now. She is a champion eater and sleeper, which has made our transition to having a new baby again be very easy in many ways.
Part 1 of Catherine's Birth Story
2 comments:
I have to ask, is throwing up not a typical part of your birthing experiences? Because I'm not sure I would have wanted to eat food and then have it all come back up. As it was, I only had breakfast, but threw up twice later in the afternoon and evening in my single experience.
@Lucy
I threw up when Susannah was born, in the middle of pushing. With the others I have had varying degrees of nausea for a minute or two at some point, but not thrown up. I did throw up AFTER somebody was born (I don't remember who). I was roaring hungry and nearly swallowed my food whole. I think it was Sylvia or Charity, maybe, because it was one of my induced labors and I wasn't allowed to eat. I'm really glad they have changed that rule!! I will say that being able to eat makes a HUGE difference in my physical and mental energy for getting through L&D. The labors I didn't eat that day I felt a lot worse.
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