Carol's Birth Story

On Thursday, February 4, I had my weekly appointment with my OB/GYN for my regular, weekly visit. She performed an internal exam on me, and I was surprised to find that I was slightly dilated and 50% effaced! This was good news. The baby was coming. It could be weeks yet, but he was on his way. Dr Palermo told me that she was concerned that I might have a very large baby, and that she would induce labor if things continued to progress. While inducing would be very scary, at least my difficult labor would be over.

I went home and called my mother, who was planning to come down to NC for the first couple of weeks of the baby's life. We agreed that if there was an Esaver on Wednesday, she should take it and fly down here, and then my father could pick her up in three weeks on his way to Nag's head. When Wednesday came, there was an Esaver, so we booked it, and my mother would be in town on Saturday, 2/13.

I had a doctor appointment Feb 11th at 3:30pm at which I was certain the doctor was going to schedule an induction. At our previous weeks appointment Dr Palermo had said she was concerned about the size of the baby and would check me on the 11th in order to set a date for an induction. I was concerned about this because I've heard nothing but horror stories about women being induced with the drug Pitocin and their hard labors. When we went to see Dr Palermo the afternoon of the 11th she said there had been no more progress from the week before. I was still one-centimeter dilated and 80% effaced. She explained that if she tried inducing a body that wasn't progressing even a little naturally there could be problems that potentially could lead to a C Section. We didn't want that!!! We went home deflated. We were sure she would have induced this weekend, and we would be parents in days. I was worried we would be wasting the time my mom had planned to spend with us waiting around for labor to occur.

Since my mother was going to be in town, and because I was so sick, I asked Dr Palermo to write me an excuse taking me out of work for the rest of my pregnancy. She had been trying to get me to do this for several weeks, so she gladly did so and home we went.

Later that evening as we sat around watching television I began having cramps. I thought I was having constipation cramps and kept going to the bathroom trying to relieve myself. Again, as most of you know, I had morning sickness the entire length of my pregnancy and was having a particularly rough time with it this day. I had spent most of my day at work in the bathroom throwing up.

By 9:00pm I had enough. I had been throwing up all day and now I was having abdominal cramps and was thoroughly fed up with the whole thing so I announced to Len that I was heading off to bed. Better to put an end to this crappy day I was having. I went upstairs, took out my contacts, put on my PJ's, slide into bed..... Ahhhhhhhhh. POP!! Very strange sensation! As if I had a balloon in my belly and I had felt it pop. Weird. I jumped up out of bed because I didn't want to get anything on the bed. As if standing there on the white carpet was much better! GUSH!! Out came clear fluid in a gush! I yelled "Oh my god, I think my water just broke!" When Len looked over and saw the water running out of me onto the floor he jumped up: "I've got to get my contacts in!" "I've got to get things packed!" "I'd better not forget...." this and that and the other! Meanwhile I'm still standing there on the white carpet spilling out everywhere. I yelled for him to get me something to stand on. A bath towel came flying my direction.

So there I stood wondering what to do next with amniotic fluid running down my legs. I asked Len if he knew if we were supposed to call someone or just show up at the labor and delivery unit at the hospital. He thought we should call my doctor. So of course, whom do I call, but my mom? "Mom, I think my water just broke" She advised us to call the doctor. I gave Dr Palermo's office a call and was advised that Dr Yavorski was the doctor on call and they would page her and have her call us back. Meanwhile, I made it into the bathroom and was sitting on the toilet because with every contraction there was a new gush of fluid. Not to mention that my (sorry to gross everyone out) mucus plug was everywhere all over me so I was trying to clean that up before we left.

Dr Yavorski called back within five minutes, I told her what was going on, and she told us she would notify the hospital we were on our way. I called my mom back and told her we were on our way to the hospital. I just continued sitting on the toilet trying to use my Lamaze breathing through the now very strong contractions while Len scurried around packing. If you haven't figured it out by now, the cramps I thought were constipation had been labor cramps and I didn't know it. Dufus!! So technically I had probably been in labor for a couple hours and didn't realize it. When my water broke the contractions became significantly stronger, which, I'm told, is typical.

So picture us: Len running around panicked like a chicken with it's head cut off and me sitting naked (sorry) on the toilet breathing: Phew, Phew, Phew. By the time we were packed and ready to go I didn't think I could get up off the toilet. For some reason or another it was more comfortable to sit there. I've heard this is typical also. My nausea was beginning to come back so I threw on some sweats and grabbed a trash bag and out the door we went.

The hospital is in Charlotte, about 25 miles away from our home. Len flew down I- 77 at about 90 mph. Phew, Phew, Phew. Ow, Ow OWWWWWW!! Before we even got to the hospital, I knew that I was going to want the epidural. I had hoped to avoid it, but the pain was fairly strong. Amazingly, we got to the hospital without wrecking or getting a speeding ticket, and Len dropped me at the ER door and went to park the car.

We had attended a tour of the maternity/birthing unit during our pregnancy and knew about what to expect. We were to enter through the emergency room entrance, follow the stork signs to an elevator, take the elevator to the sixth floor, and then follow the stork signs again to the maternity ward. I found a quiet corner to wait for Len and paced, Phew, Phew, Phew. He came back toting our bags, and we heading off following the stork signs.

As we were on the elevator I thought "I'm not going to make it to the Labor and Delivery Unit, I'm going to throw up right here". We got off the elevator, and started down the hall. I had a strong contraction and had to stop to deal with it. Phew, Phew, Phew. Then I lost it.... My dinner that is. I tried to get my trash bag open but didn't have time, so I ended up puking down the front of my pants, onto my shoes and the carpet. I kept puking but couldn't get the bag open. Len had taken off down the hall to get help. I got down on my hands and knees, got the bag open and just shoved my head in it. A nurse from a neighboring unit had seen me fall to my knees and came out inquiring: "Are you alright?" All I could do was shake my head NO. "Are you on your way to Labor and Delivery" Again, a shake, Yes. Just then Len shows up with a nurse from L & D, with a wheelchair. They let me finish puking. I kept apologizing for puking on the carpet and they told me not to worry. They had called housekeeping. Poor housekeeping.

I was wheeled down to the labor room they had waiting for me and I continued to puke in the toilet for about half an hour. In between wretches I managed to get out of my filthy clothes and into the gown they provided. Then I sat on the toilet. Ahhhhhh. I forgot how much this helped. My attending nurse came in and wanted me to get into bed. No way, this felt too good. But she insisted that I had to be hooked to a monitor to check my uterine contractions and baby heartbeat. I was given a plastic pitcher type thing to continue puking into. Good thing, it really came in handy.

The monitor confirmed I was in labor, as if there was any doubt at this point! They checked my cervix and I was only two centimeters dilated but 100% effaced. Sheesh, all that and I only progressed one centimeter!!! How disappointing! Well, since this much pain had only gotten me one centimeter I knew there was no way I was making it to ten centimeters and I wanted to know when I could have the epidural. The bad news was that I had to be at least 4 centimeters dilated before I could have the epidural. Grrrr. Dr Yavorski finally made a showing and said she wanted to put in an IV because of all the puking, she didn't want me to get dehydrated. Along with the regular IV they gave me a dose of Demerol (spelling). Whew, talk about lightheaded. The television and everything else in the room became fuzzy. All I could say to Len was "whoa!" The Demerol took the edge off the contractions for a while.

So there we sat, it was about 11:30 at this point. The contractions began to get stronger, the Demerol no longer helping. My attending nurse checked me again about 1:00am and said I was 6 centimeters dilated and could have the epidural. FINALLY!!! At this point I was telling Len I was going to die because I couldn't stand the pain. All my breathing techniques went out the window and I was resorting to teeth clenching and Ow, Ow, owing. I didn't do any screaming but I know the look in my eyes was telling Len that I was panicked.

The anesthesiologist showed up with his little cart. He tells me to lay on my left side, draw my knees up, put my chin on my chest and don't move an inch!! Yeah right!!!!! I'm racked with the worst pain of my life and you are telling me to lay like this and not move!!?? He had a little trouble getting the epidural into place. He would begin inserting and I would get this terrible pain down my right leg. "Ow Ow Ow, my leg" I yelled. He tried a second time, same thing, a third time, same thing again. Only the third time he must have thought I was faking and continued pushing because it made my leg involuntarily shoot out! Ouch!!! I guess he finally got it right after that because shortly there after I was feeling no pain. Ahhhhhhhh. I've heard those epidurals were wonderful but didn't know just HOW wonderful. I was exhausted at this point and almost immediately dozed off. I was awakened by pain. At first I thought to myself "The epidural must have worn off" I told my attending nurse that I was having pain but that it wasn't contraction pain it was "external pain". I didn't know how else to describe it. She came over to check and said what I felt was Adam's head pushing out!!! She dashed out to get Dr Yavorski. At this point I noticed it had only been about 20 minutes since the anesthesiologist had left! Had I known I would progress so quickly I would have gone without the epidural. Oh well. The nurse later told me that I might not have progressed so quickly had I not had the epidural, because the epidural helps you to relax promoting dilation.

The attending nurse broke down the bed. For those of you who don't know they have special beds in the L & D unit that the bottom breaks down or comes off. It kind of leaves you in a chair type thing. It's hard to describe. The back of the bed was put up and the bottom part taken off. Stirrups attached and we were ready. The attending nurse showed Len how to read the output of the uterine monitor so he could tell me to push when I had a contraction but I didn't need his guidance. I was able to feel the contractions. They weren't painful I could only feel pressure. Len's job was to count to ten. So with each contraction I took a deep breath and pushed as hard as I could to Len's count of ten. We did this three times for each contraction. 1-10, second quick breath, 1-10, third quick deep breath, 1-10 and rest until the next contraction. I pushed through only seven contractions, which I understand is very good. Some women push for hours, but I pushed for no longer than ten minutes. I had to fight myself to push hard because I had this fear I was going to tear and it would be unbearably painful.

During the second push of my seventh contraction, Adam's head popped out. I could feel the doctor help the head turn. A third push and whoosh, out came the rest of Adam! It was a very strange sensation. I could feel this "thing" shooting out of my body. All of a sudden I had room to breath and move! They put Adam on a sheet up on my chest as they wiped him down. All I could do was stare at him. I didn't cry, just stared. I didn't even touch him; I was just in awe. I saw immediately it was a boy. We hadn't found out the sex beforehand. He screamed out as they cleaned him off. No blood, just the white stuff I think they call vernix. It's a creamy covering that protects their skin while in the womb. Len didn't want to cut the cord so Dr Yavorsky cut it. They bundled Adam up and let me hold him while Dr Yavorsky coaxed the afterbirth out. I didn't need to push or anything, she just pushed gently on my abdomen and pulled on the cord and out it came. Not much sensation to it. They put it in a steel bowl to be taken for examination, a standard policy from what I'm told. Dr Yavorsky said I had torn just a little but enough that I needed a few stitches so she set to repairing things while Len and I just stared down at Adam who by this time was swaddled tightly and snoozing away with his little wooly cap on. By the time Dr Yavorsky was finished it was well past 3:00am but we called our parents anyway, who were all thrilled that we had a baby boy.

We had to wait for an hour in the labor room to be transferred to a regular hospital room where we could finally rest. On the way to the hospital room we stopped by the nursery with Adam where he was weighed, measured and otherwise checked. He was six pounds, 15 ounces, and 20.5 inches long, and he scored 9's on his apgar tests. He was alive, healthy, and sleepy. We left him there for the night and off to our room we went. There is a very small, uncomfortable, pull out bed in there for husbands. Len was able to catch some rest just because of shear exhaustion. It seemed that no sooner had we fallen asleep and they were getting us up for breakfast. Len called our works and told them we wouldn't be in then headed home to pick up some things we had forgotten. He also rented a "It's a boy" sign for the yard and came back to spend some time with Adam and me.

My mom's flight came in on Saturday afternoon and Len brought her immediately to the hospital for her to meet Adam. She couldn't get over how small he was. I guess it had been a while since she had done the baby thing. Friday and Saturday I had a splitting headache. When I mentioned it to my doctor Saturday morning on rounds she said it was probably a spinal headache from the epidural and that they could fix it. The anesthesiologist came to see me and didn't seem to think it was a spinal headache. Later that day when I was still complaining of the headache and it had become so severe I couldn't even deal with Adam when he was in the room the on duty nurse took things into her own hands and called the anesthesiologist back. He agreed to do the fix if I "thought I needed it". I consulted Len and told them that yes I wanted to try it. The fix is what is known as a blood patch. A blood patch is where they take blood from your arm and inject it into your back to clot the area that was damaged by the epidural needle. What had happened was the anesthesiologist who administered the epidural during labor had nicked my spinal column, which caused fluid to leak out and a headache to occur.

I was wheeled up to post op where they did what was essentially another epidural, putting another needle in my back. As I lay there with the needle in my back they drew a large amount of blood from my arm. They used one of those big syringes that is about six inches long and fat as a pepperoni. They filled the syringe from my arm and put it in my back. As they injected the blood into my back I experienced really bad cramping in my hips. They said that was normal. I was returned to my room to rest while the blood clotted. An hour or so later the headache was gone. Whew.

They discharged me on Sunday. I was concerned about being sent home because I was trying to breastfeed but was having a lot of problems and thought that I wouldn't be able to feed Adam once we got there. Things are working out. We frequently have small problems with the breastfeeding but they eventually work themselves out and Adam is now up to a whopping 8 lbs 15 oz! Sounds like he's getting enough to eat to me!! All in all the birth experience was so much easier than I had expected. I guess everyone tells you all the horror stories they have ever heard when they learn you are pregnant. A five hour labor is short for a first time mom, I'm told. I guess someone figured I had already paid my dues with all the puking for the past nine months.

I know I wished I had someone I knew who had been pregnant so I could ask them all the questions about things people never talk about. Someone who I could trust to really tell it like it is. So if anyone is curious about anything feel free to ask it no matter how gross or personal you may think it is. You know me, I tell it all! Just keep in mind that like they say, everyone is different. I guess that covers it. Hope you all find this interesting!

Carol