Evan is my second son. I have a history of difficult pregnancy's due to insulin dependent gestational diabetes and preterm labour. While this PG was smoother I ended up spending more time in the hospital before he was born. The 5 weeks leading up to his birth included me being admitted to the hospital 4 times for various reasons. But here are the hours before his birth.....
On Saturday December 19th, 1998 my OB was on call, he had seen me the
day before but
he wanted to see my at L&D for a check up on Saturday. I arrived for my
NST and
appointment and he examined me to see if I had dilated anymore (I was
3cms with a
history of fairly quick labours). I felt him being kind of rough as he
examined me and
knew he was stripping my membranes...I was 36 weeks 6 day pregnant. He
really didn't
want me to leave the hospital he was beginning to get nervous about my
PTL and GD.
He let me go because we were going to visit my husbands Uncles a GP and
a nurse! He
gave strict orders to come back right away if my contractions began to
hurt (he never
mentioned frequency because since 29 weeks daily they would get to 2-5
minutes apart),
then he confessed he striped my membranes (I knew this), he also said if
I had any more
low blood glucose levels I was to come back. He also told me to get our
babysitter over
to spend the night he thought we would need her! We had the feeling he
really wanted to
induce. I had mixed feelings about it...I was ready to be done this
difficult pregnancy and
was almost to term and he was going away December 21st but I wanted my
child born
after Christmas and wanted to go into labour on my own! We actually
were hoping for
my water to break so we knew when to go in....my PTL made it very
difficult to decide
when we needed to go in and when we didn't!
As it turns out when I checked my BGL's before dinner I was low. I
called L&D and
talked to the nurse who had heard his orders to come back. I asked if I
couldn't I keep an
eye on them and come in tomorrow. I already knew he would induce me
over this. She
agreed to call him. Not 5 minutes later my OB himself called me back
and said to go in.
We had a great rapport he is truly wonderful, but I tried to talk him
into letting me check
my BGL's every 2 hrs through the night and come in in the AM. I wanted
to feel rested
and knew I wouldn't if I had to sleep in L&D. He wouldn't go for it,
and he said he
couldn't live with himself if we got this far and something happened to
the baby.
I went to the hospital and he checked me I was 3 1/2 CMS ...I could feel
strip my
membranes and the him poking around and thought "he's trying to break
my water". It
never broke. I was glad for that as my husband had to go to work! I
ended up contracting
until 4 am from him stripping my membranes that second time and then
they stopped.
At 6:30am I was hooked up to oxytocin...and me PTL Queen wouldn't
contract! Every
once in awhile I would get a short contraction. When shift change came
I reminded the
nurse I was not in a birthing bed and she decided to move my into a
different room, we
were in the smallest one. She moved me and kept good tabs on me, we
discussed how
the drip wasn't working and how strange it was because we had no trouble
with induction
with #1.
At 9:10 AM my OB came in. He wanted to check me. I wanted to pee 1st.
At 9:20 or so
he was checking me and I could again feel him being rough....and again
thought "he's
trying to break my water". The nurse was glaring at him as there was no
pad under me!
LOL He said "whoop's: and gush.....I said " there was no oop's about
that! Now Francine
has to change my bed" She laughed and said : "I knew he was doing it
too" My OB
laughed with us....
The laughter didn't last long! Dr J asked me if I wanted the internal
monitor on now or later after he had done his rounds on the ante-partum
ward. (We have trouble tracking the HB since I am overweight hence the
internal monitor).
I opted for later. I decided to waddle over to the bathroom now, since
I figured contractions would start soon.
And soon they did! Once I hit the bathroom I was getting contraction
after contraction without pause. I was sitting on the commode leaning
on my husband bewildered I was in labour so hard and so fast.
Francine heard me moaning came in and turned off the oxytocin drip when
she saw how hard I was labouring within 5 minutes of my water being
broken. After awhile she wanted me back in bed so she could check the
baby's heart rate. I did not want to leave the relative comfort of
leaning on Stacy!
When she said the hard labour may be having an impact on baby I went
back to the bed. She got the internal monitor on as I writhed on the bed
in agony! The heart rate was below 100. I knew this was not good.
Labour with my eldest built up to painful. This was almost unbearable. I
had gone from no labour to 90 second contractions with less than 30
seconds between them in less than 5 minutes. I was asking for an
epidural. I was told I had to be 4 centimetres. I kept insisting I
was. My GP came in during one of these exchanges and asked if I wanted
a shot of demerol. I didn't, I was screaming "NO" inside, but my head
nodded "yes" all on its own! I was told it would take awhile to take
effect. It made no difference to my pain level.
At 9:35 am Dr J came back as Francine had had him paged. He did not think she should have paged him until he saw me! I could no longer talk only grunt. I grunted "epidural". Again he said "Janice you have to be 4cms you know that, I left here 20 minutes ago!" I grunted "epidural". He decided to check me.......
He said I was 8 centimetres. I screamed in my head a terrible swear
word, I knew I would not get any relief from the pain. Dr J is a
fabulous doctor. When he saw the low heartbeat and how fast my labour
was going he did not leave the room again! The heart rate was getting
lower. I saw the monitor down to 64 bpm and I was grunting and pointing
at the monitor. Francine was a wonderful nurse and tried to tell me it
was ok, this happens and all the soothing stuff good nurses say. I knew
she was lying but it helped anyhow!
Time lost all meaning. Before I knew it I could not keep my eyes open.
Dr J was telling me it was time to push we HAD to get the baby out NOW.
He told me we were going to use stirrups and he and Francine set them
up. They were the kind one puts her calves in not the kind for feet
that I had with Aidan and found very effective for pushing. I saw the
monitor down to 46 bpm. I was getting very scared that I was going to
lose the baby.
Things in the room became very frantic, my husband had been squeezed
into a corner where I couldn't see him.
I heard Dr J request the ped. on call be paged.
A couple of extra nurses came in, my GP and a female resident. At some
point my endocrinologist came but he didn't stay long when he saw that
things were getting dire.
Dr J was telling me I had to push the baby out.
I was trying to push, despite having no urge to do so.
I found the position I was in very uncomfortable and ineffective for
pushing.
I tried to convey this and Dr J shouted at me that we don't have time,
this is very serious Janice you have to push this baby out now.
I pushed as hard as I could.
I could feel the baby move but not far enough.
The demerol was making me unable to open my eyes.
Dr J was shouting again telling me to look at him he needed to know I
was listening.
All I could do was nod yes I was.
He then was saying "Janice, you have to get this baby out on the next
push, I will be using forceps. You cannot yell, you cannot scream all
you can do it push, anything else takes away from the pushing".
I realized I could not hear the monitor anymore.
I thought I had to deliver a dead baby so it could be revived.
On the next contraction I was overwhelmed by more pain than I thought
one could endure. I screamed like I have never screamed before then I
pushed with everything in my being. I heard "baby's out".
I opened my eyes to see my baby being rushed to the corner to the
warming table by the ped. He was blue. I heard no cries. Suddenly my
husband was back beside me holding my hand. We waited. I could see the
baby was moving but he was blue. Finally I heard a cry and the foot I
could see went pink. Only then did I look up to my husband and say "what
is it?". A boy I was told. "welcome to the world Evan Matthew I
whispered".
Evan was rushed from the room. I made my husband follow. Francine was
by my side telling me he was just going to the nursery. She also told me
I did great. Then she said the resident would be doing my stitched and
that was good because she was the best. As I was being sewn up I looked
around the room. I could not believe the amount of blood. There were
puddles and tracks from it being walked through all over the floor!
My husband came back and told me Evan weighed 5lbs 5 1/2 oz and was 18"
long. He also told me he was fine.
The reason his heartbeat had gone so low was he had the cord wound very
tightly around his neck and face.
It was so tight it left bruises on both his neck and around his mouth.
Stacy then proceeded to tell me why his actual delivery hurt so much.
When Dr J was telling me about not screaming etc he had inserted the
forceps.
When it was time to push he also put his hand up and pulled the baby out
with his hand and the forceps.
All things told I would much rather have a longer labour. From no contractions to delivery in an hour and a half is too scary and not much fun!
Evan is however, worth every bit of pain I went through!
