Birth Story I

For several days after arriving home from the hospital, during the rare occasions that I found myself drifting off to sleep, the events of O's birth kept replaying themselves in my head. I was tired beyond all recognition, but I couldn't drift off without trying to process everything that happened to bring him into our lives.

My entire labor and delivery took place in one room over a single 24-hour period, but in my head, there were three distinct phases and they might have taken place on three different continents for all I know. This is going to be long - of course - so I'll split it up into three separate posts.

Part the First: Early Labor
There was a fair amount of drama about when I would be induced. We were given a window of five possible days that we might receive a phone call in the afternoon that would ask us to come in to the hospital that evening. Mentally, we prepared for a long wait, which is why I was shocked to look down at my phone at 11:00 am on the very first day and see a missed call from the hospital. Harry and I stared at each other as I listened in disbelief to the message. It was happening. I needed to check in to labor and delivery by 8:00 pm that night. The heparin shot I had taken that morning was to be my last. I should shower before coming in and eat a substantial dinner, and prepare to stay in the hospital for a few days.

Naturally, with all of this advance notice, Harry and I arrived at the hospital right on time. Ha! Of course we were running late, enough that we got a little bit of side-eye from the receptionist. Still, they let us in, and Harry and I started exploring my new digs - there was already a bassinet in the room with two tiny hats, one blue and one pink (just in case)!

I was scheduled to be induced using a Foley catheter, though if the catheter didn’t work we would use misoprostol as a backup. The trick with the Foley was getting the balloon inserted into my cervix, which was still only a little over a centimeter dilated. It was, frankly, not the best experience. The doctor who placed it seemed surprised at how difficult and bloody it was to get the balloon in, and apologized at how painful it had been for me. He said that I would have some cramps from the initial placement, but – famous last words – “don’t worry, they will stop after a few minutes!”

I didn’t feel anything until the door shut behind the doctor and nurse, and then almost immediately I had – oh wow, I had forgotten all about this – a menstrual cramp! No kidding, it was so instantly familiar that I almost wanted to laugh. Nine months without them (longer, really) and all of a sudden the endometriosis memories came rushing back. It was painful, sure, but nothing out of the ordinary… with one exception. The cramps didn’t stop after a few minutes. They didn’t stop after three consecutive late-night episodes of “Friends.” They didn’t stop, in fact, all night long. And I couldn’t take my usual handful of Advil to help numb them. According to the monitors and the pain in my uterus, the contractions continued at irregular intervals ranging from 6-9 minutes apart. Not enough to count as active labor, said the nurse. I could really go for some Advil right now, I said, only half-joking. How about some Benadryl instead, she offered. I accepted and got about 4 hours of not-great sleep.

At 6:45 AM, I gave up on the pretense of trying to rest and got up to use the bathroom. Sploosh went the catheter, and the little swollen bulb fell into the toilet along with a surprisng amount of blood. I expected to feel some relief, but my sore belly kept on contracting every few minutes and an exam revealed that my cervix was dilated to approximately 3 cm. It still wasn’t active labor, said the nurse, but the good news was that I was officially no longer being induced: I was being “augmented!”