Birth Story II

Part the Second: Active Labor

I had thought the that the instructions to eat a good meal and take a shower the night before the induction were because it was going to be my last opportunity to do so for a while. But with the morning came a shift change, and my new nurse made it her mission to see me freshly bathed and fed. The shower was no problem but, man, I did not want to eat. My stomach was already upset by the long night of contractions and by the time my scrambled eggs arrived, it was all I could do to choke down a few bites.

They started the Pitocin drip around 8:30 AM. The dosage started low and slow and gradually ramped up, and the nurse said that her goal was to get me contracting regularly every 2-3 minutes. That sounded pretty quick to me and she confirmed that in a naturally occurring labor it would take much longer to get to the 2-3 minute mark, but in an induction, they usually only saw significant dilation with the quicker contractions. Great.

At this point, I got a chance to play the role of “laboring woman,” just like you see on TV. First, I walked the halls (wearing two hospital gowns, one covering my back and one covering my front like a kid in art class) pushing my IV along with me. Then I lay around on the bed in different positions, trying to sleep between contractions. Then I got in the rocking chair and rocked my way through them. I asked for ice chips and breathed the way I had been taught in childbirth class. The only thing I didn’t do was get into the Captain Morgan position – everyone deals with pain differently, but for me, just getting through the contraction took all of my energy and I had to stay as still as possible to concentrate on breathing. I even commented between contractions that I had no idea how I would possibly get into any of the positions on the poster in class!

Around noon, two things happened simultaneously: the OB on call decided he wanted to break my water, and I decided it was past due time for an epidural. And this is the only part of the story where my fears about needless pain and lack of control in labor nearly came true: I told the doctor that I wanted an epidural prior to my water being broken since the contractions were likely to get a lot stronger after the membranes were ruptured, and the OB said back – I swear – “We’ll see. You know, we do this a lot. You need to trust us.”

My husband, my mom, the nurse (who knew my concerns), and I all exchanged glances. Or so I’m told, because I actually had my eyes closed as the next contraction started. I squeaked out something about being afraid that a painful and traumatic labor would affect my ability to bond with my son, and mentally began preparing to actually have the argument I had been dreading since my IVF days. But the compromise we struck was that he would check my dilation before we did anything else, so I staggered back to the bed and lay down just as another contraction began…

Pop! went something inside me, and I felt a warm gush between my legs. I knew instantly that the amniotomy would be unnecessary and managed to say “water – gone – ruptured” or something like that. The OB was there to see the fluid come pouring out just as he established that I was 5 centimeters dilated, and confirmed that it was clear (that is, free of signs of meconium or infection, though evidently pretty bloody.) And, blessedly, the next step was to call anesthesia.

What was it like getting the epidural? Painful in a new and exciting way, I suppose, but not terrible. It was actually kind of fascinating to feel sensations and nerves in my back that I had never known existed. The worst part was actually that as the anesthesiologist began her work, I was hit with a serious wave of nausea and puked up my breakfast from earlier that morning (um, I told you eating a big meal was a mistake!)

Once the epidural kicked in, I felt much better… on about 75% of my belly. The lower left quadrant wasn’t covered at first, but a few tweaks of the catheter and a bolus of Fentanyl later, I was really quite comfortable. I was talking and joking with everyone until – it’s hard to describe, but something changed. The epidural had gotten rid of the belly pain but not the pressure of the contractions, and that was manageable, but all of a sudden it moved lower and got very intense.

I went through maybe three contractions like this, but before anyone could come see how dilated I was, I discovered what pushing felt like. Why? Because I started to do it involuntarily. It was the craziest feeling and I was worried that I was doing something wrong, but within minutes, my OB showed up and checked my cervix. I’d never been so happy to see her in my life, especially when she said excitedly that I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing!