Labor- Estelle's Birth

This is the full story for my record and anyone interested in knowing how it went. I plan on blogging about the books and preparation later on.

Tuesday morning (7/3) at 1AM my contractions came on strong enough to wake me up. I timed them, they were 60 sec long and 5 minutes apart. At 1:30, I woke up Trace. I called into work to take the day off. I couldn't stay in bed, I felt antsy and needed to be up doing something. So we got up and piddled around the front room. At 3AM I gave in and we both went back to bed. Trace was able to sleep while I laid awake thinking and having a contraction every 5 minutes. At 6:30AM I couldn't take it anymore. I woke Trace up and told him I couldn't do it. We needed to go to the hospital and get an epidural. So funny to me now! 

I was also starving. Trace made breakfast while I took a shower. The day was overcast with a nice breeze and opening the windows created a really peaceful environment. Not being in bed made the contractions much more manageable. I sat on the couch with my feet on the coffee table and listened to music. Both Trace and I fell asleep. I'd wake up for contraction and fall back to sleep after it passed. I got in the shower a few times, attempted taking a bath, and went to the bathroom frequently. Trace made sure I had lots of water, he gave me watermelon as a snack (watermelon is a great snack during labor). For lunch he gave me strawberries, blueberries, and half of a bagel topped with tomato and avocado. In the afternoon he gave me cherries. These were absolutely the perfect foods for me. At 3PM we went to the pool. The water took the weight off and it was very relaxing. Around 4:30 the contractions started getting stronger lasting 60-90 seconds and varied from 2-10 minutes apart. Trace started taking stuff to the car so we could leave for the hospital. I tried laboring on the birthing ball in different positions or I would stand and sway during a contraction. Somehow Trace was able to delay our leaving the apartment. At 6:30PM is when the contractions changed and became painful. I told Trace I was in pain and needed an epidural. Poor guy was able to appease me but delay our arrival.

At 8:00 pm we started to go upstairs to the hospital. He called the Labor and Delivery floor to let them know of our arrival and gathered our belongings from the car. I had a strong urge to go to the bathroom and hurried to the bathroom. Nothing. This was my indicator that I was very close to the end. Trace got a wheelchair at my request but when I thought about sitting down I couldn't do it. So Trace pushed the wheelchair and I walked. We would stop every 30 seconds or so while I rocked through a contraction. The elevator was slammed and we stopped on almost every floor until we finally go to 10th floor.

At 8:30pm Tuesday I walked onto Queens Labor and Delivery department. They led us into room 1026 and handed me gown. I changed into the gown and Trace told the nurse we were ready. There were two straps lying across the bed. The Nurse told me to lie down so I could get strapped up to the monitor. I was having a contraction every 30 seconds and couldn't bear the thought of lying down. I told her, "I'm sorry, I can't lie down." She urged me to lie down but eventually gave up and put the straps on me while I sat on the edge of the bed. Why couldn't she have done that from the start? I don't think she thought I was very far along as this was my first baby. After a contraction ended I was able to put my feet up on the bed. She checked me, I was 9.5 cm dilated. The nurse was a bit shocked and ran out into the hall for help and to call the doctor.

My doctor was up on North shore for the holiday so he was on his way. The staff seemed very concerned to let me know that the doctor was on his way. Honestly, I never cared if my doctor was there for the delivery or not. Doctor's don't do much during a natural childbirth. I continued dealing with each contraction. A female resident came in and introduced herself. She did a quick vaginal exam finding I was completely dilated with a small cervical lip. Trace told me to get into the position we learned to help retract the lip. Soon after my body felt ready and I started pushing with the contractions. The nurse says to me, "If you push before you're completely dilated your gonna be swollen hun." I couldn't not push with the contractions, so regardless of the nurse's advice I kept pushing. I was on my hands and knees during the breaks and would sit up on my knees during a contraction to assist with pushing.

At 9:25pm my water broke. Trace was sitting behind me and said he saw the water bag come out and pop. I asked Trace to go into the hall and let the nurse know the water bag had broken. The nurse asked Trace to watch for the head as he was sitting on a chair where he could see my perineum and she was at the computer. I stayed on my knees for pushing and could feel the head emerging but I wasn't able to tell anyone. Trace noticed the head a little late in the game and let the nurse know. She came around the bed to check and says, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" I guess the head was almost to a full crown. Then she ran out to tell the doctor.

The on-call physician walked in and asked me to change positions. Honestly, I couldn't have changed positions if I wanted to so replied, "No I can't." He responded, "Well, this is going to be interesting." I continued in hands and knees during the breaks with my head facing the end of the bed. Shortly thereafter I experienced the 'Ring of Fire.' Someone started lathering me in mineral oil and it really did hurt. I asked, "Please stop touching me." I guess they took their hands off but it felt like something was still moving. So I asked again. The nurse responded courtly, "No one's touching you." I felt with my hand and it was the baby's head moving. Weird. Less than a minute later at 9:50PM she completely emerged.

As I was on my knees for her birth I was able to sit back in a squatting position and the baby was right below me on the bed. The baby had the cord around her neck tight 3 times and was completely purple. The nurse unwrapped the cord quickly and Trace cut it. Then they took her to the infant recovery bed just a few feet away to resuscitate her. They suctioned her and gave her supplemental oxygen. Her first APGAR was 3 and her second was either 8 or 9. I wasn't worried at first I just asked general status questions as they worked with her. After 5 minutes I started to get a little nervous because she wasn't crying, only to find out that just the disposition of this baby. She doesn't cry much. She started breastfeeding in the delivery room after the placenta was delivered.  

My doctor arrived 20 minutes after the delivery and stopped by the room for less than 20 seconds. I did not have any medications, an episiotomy or tears! I am so lucky and blessed for the way the delivery went and how quickly I healed. Looking back, I am extremely grateful for Trace and his effort to support me, for all the preparation and research that we put into childbirth, and for medical staff that revived Estelle so quickly. If I had been given an epidural the labor with a tight triple nuchal, the epidural would have been slowed the pushing process leading to distress for the baby and would have resulted in a Cesarean delivery. As it was, she was only in the birth canal for 25 minutes with water bag broken and never showed any signs of distress on the monitor.

I did bleed quite a bit after the delivery. My hemoglobin dropped from 12.9 to 9.0. In the Mother/Baby unit they started me on a bag of pitocin to stop the bleeding and help the uterus contract. It did slow dramatically with fundal massage and pitocin. I started walking that night. The baby latched very easily and started eating really well and sleeping lots. We came home the morning of July 5th.