I woke up on the morning of February 23rd when my two-year-old twins wanted to get up for breakfast around 6:30am. We headed into the kitchen, where I made all three of breakfast. At 6:45, I sat down to eat and took about three bites when I felt a gush between my legs. I knew it was my water, so I headed to the bathroom. When I sat down on the toilet, more of the fluid came out. I looked and it was colored and there were dark specs in it, indicating the baby had passed meconium in the water. I immediately woke up Corey and he called his mom, then called the doctor who wanted me to come in right away.
While we were waiting for my mother-in-law to arrive, I took a shower and change into fresh clothes. I didn’t start having contractions until about 20 minutes after my water broke. At first they didn’t hurt very bad, but by the time my MIL arrived about ten to fifteen minutes later the contractions were becoming more frequent and painful. So off to the hospital we went. I contracted all the way to the hospital. I didn’t bother with timing them, since I knew I was in labor anyway.
When we arrived at the hospital, Corey pulled up at the front door and came around to get me. I was in the middle of another strong contraction and told him there was no way I could walk all the way up to labor and delivery. He headed into the hospital and found a random wheelchair lying around. He brought it out to the car and helped me into it, then wheeled me up to L&D himself. The nurses were waiting for me in the room when I arrived, helped me out of my clothing, had me use the bathroom and then helped me to the bed. I was already in a lot of pain and there was no position that seemed comfortable, especially having to position myself so they could get the contraction and heartbeat monitors on. The nurse also did my first cervical check and I was already at five centimeters. The nurses also kept asking if I wanted an epidural and I kept saying no. I really didn’t want one. My plan from the beginning was labor without the epidural, and if possible without IV meds.
I labored for awhile. The nurse kept wanting me to lay back so she could monitor the baby’s heartbeat better and I wanted to sit up because it hurt less. The doctor came in and did my second cervical check and I was still five centimeters. Then, during one of my contractions, the baby’s heartbeat dipped down into the high 80s, and didn’t return to normal after the contraction was finished. Everyone in the room started freaking out. The nurse put an oxygen mask on me to increase the oxygen in my system. Then they had me get up on my hands and knees and stick my head in the pillow while they all watched the heartbeat closely. The position was not comfortable for the contractions that followed, but eventually the baby’s heartbeat came back up into the normal range. The OB told us that if the heartbeat fell out again, that we’d have an emergency C-section. She told us the baby can only recover from that type of stress so many times and after two dips she was not going to take the risk of losing him. She did another cervix check and I was still only five centimeters.
Once the nurses got my IV in, I asked for the pain medications in the IV. The contractions were coming stronger and more painful and I was still only at five centimeters. I was really worried that the labor was going to take forever. I was starting to feel like I wasn’t even getting a break between contractions. The fear of delivering a large baby also started to set in (my previous deliveries were 6 lbs or less). I asked Corey if I should just cave and get the epidural. He told me to do whatever I wanted and so I finally just called myself a wuss and asked for it. The nurse said that as soon as my blood work came back I could have it. So I suffered through a few more contractions until everything was cleared and the anesthesiologist came in the room and began to set everything up. The nurse told me to lay on my side and move to the edge of the bed. I shimmied over and felt him swab my back, just as another contraction started. The anesthesiologist told me he’d insert the needle as soon the next contraction was over. Well, during that contraction, the baby’s heart rate dropped again, this time into the 60s. The OB immediately told the anesthesiologist to cancel the epidural and prep for an emergency C-section with general anesthesia. I was back on my hands and knees, oxygen mask on and face in the pillow mentally trying to prepare for the C-section I knew was about to happen. As much as I didn’t want a C-section, Corey and I were both really scared for our baby. I knew that meconium in the water was a sign of stress and so were the heart rate drops.
The OB decided to do another cervix check, just to see how close I was. We were all expecting another five centimeter result, when she called out that the cervix was 9 centimeters and we were going to deliver the baby vaginally. A few contractions later and I told the nurse I felt like I needed to push. She checked, and I was already at 10. They turned me over and got me in position to push. The first contraction I pushed wrong. I knew I was pushing wrong, I just needed someone to tell me. The next two contractions, I pushed correctly and at the end of the second they told me the baby was already crowning.
At this news the delivery room went crazy. They weren’t prepped for him to be born as quickly as I’d pushed him out. The pediatrician had to be there for the birth due to the meconium and they needed to have equipment prepped for suctioning out the baby’s mouth and nose before he took his first breath. So they told me stop pushing. Not pushing was so painful, compared to pushing, which actually wasn’t painful this time at all. Sitting there contracting and trying to blow through and hold the baby in was probably the hardest part of the labor. Once they were ready, they told me to push again. On the next contraction, I pushed out his head, and then I was told ‘don’t push, don’t push!’ again. I laid there crying out, “I’m not pushing!” while I tried again to blow through and not push. Finally, when they were through with the suctioning, I gave one last push and he came tumbling out at 9:44 am, fourteen minutes after his heart rate had dropped. I heard “It’s a boy!” and then I just fell back and took a deep breath.
Due to the meconium, we’d already been told that we wouldn’t be able to hold him right away. The pediatrician was there to examine him (conveniently, the pedi was giving a class in the conference room two doors down – I don’t think he’d have arrived in time if he wasn’t so close). His first apgar score was a 6, followed by a 9 five minutes later. The warmer on his bed wasn’t working right either, so the staff decided to take him to the nursery. I finished pushing out the placenta, which was also taken for tests since I had become pregnant with an IUD inserted.
A short time later, Evan came back to our room and I was able to hold him for the first time. The nurse mentioned that he was having a few episodes of ‘panting’ or breathing too fast and that they were just going to watch that. She left, and we took a few pictures, then another nurse came to collect him for his hearing exam. I decided to jump in the Jacuzzi tub and get cleaned up. While I was in the bathroom, I heard the nurse bring back Evan. I figured I had all afternoon to visit with him, so I decided to stay in the bath and relax. About forty minutes later, I climbed out, got dressed and snuggled into bed with Evan. Of course, five minutes later, the nursery came to get Evan for his bath. Corey went with the nurse to take a few pictures, and returned a minute later saying they were going to hold off on the bath because Evan’s temperature was too low and they wanted to warm him first. Eventually, they came to get Corey to take some pictures of the bath. I assumed Evan would come back to our room shortly after that, but he didn’t. They needed to take some blood cultures because I had been GBS positive, but due to my fast labor, I’d only received one of the two required doses of antibiotics.
Around 5:00, Evan came back to our room so he could have his first meal (my previous couple of attempts to breastfeed him hadn’t been successful). He ate, then the nurses took him back to the nursery for observation. The episodes of rapid breathing were increasing, and they wanted him on monitors. A few hours later, the nurse came to tell me that Evan was running a fever of 101.5 and the pediatrician wanted to put him on antibiotics immediately instead of waiting for the cultures. In addition, his breathing rate was between 100 and 130 times a minute and his oxygen saturation was in the 80s, which could have been caused by meconium infecting the lungs. He was moved to the NICU and put under an oxygen hood to increase the O2 concentration in the air around him.I went to visit him in the NICU around 8:00pm and left in tears. He looked terrible; his color was poor and his breathing was crazy. I was really afraid something was wrong. It was also really strange to go to bed that night without him in my room.
When I woke up at 5am, I went to see him again. He was already off the oxygen hood and he looked so much better! He was still breathing at the high rate, but his color and appearance looked healthier. I felt relieved. The at seven am, the nurse called me back into the NICU and told me that Dr. Bellah was encouraging breastfeeding despite the fact that he was having respiratory issues. So I was able to give Evan his first really good breastfeeding this morning, and that was awesome! He's a great latcher and a really good breastfeeder already!
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