Momma2015
Mommax2
Member since 12/12 6656 total posts
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My Birth Story- Induction
I found it really helpful to read everyone's birth stories while pregnant to get ready for everything. Bonus points for an easy, positive birth story, which mine most certainly was! Double bonus points since this was my FIRST DC!
At 40 weeks, I began to have biophysical profiles done daily. I had borderline low fluid, but my hospital, NYU Langone, doesn't really like to intervene unless medically necessary. So everyday I'd kiss my pups goodbye, trek into the city with my hospital bag and DH in tow and fully expect to be admitted. I was thoroughly disappointed those first 3 times when I was sent home. 2 days past my due date, my OB told me to come in first thing in the AM because she thought this was it. And it was! At 40w3d, my OB felt my fluids had dipped too low and admitted me immediately. I was already 2 CM dilated and 100% effaced, baby was at station -2. She stripped my membranes before leaving the office and sent me on my way, not expecting to see me until late that night in L&D.
I got to NYU at about 9:30 and filled out paperwork until about 10:00 AM before getting settled into a room- HUGE and private BTW! I got hooked up to an IV, which was a bummer, since my OB and I had discussed NOT being hooked up to an IV/fetal monitor right away so I could labor in the shower, on the birthing ball, or take walks as the mood struck me. But since I was being induced, constant monitoring was a must.
At 11:00 AM, the doctor came in to insert a foley catheter into my cervix to jump start dilation. A foley catheter is basically a balloon which is inserted into the cervix and inflated so that the cervix dilates rapidly. I won't lie, it hurt! They had to do it twice since it wasn't inserted properly the first time. After a lot of grunting and maneuvering, it was inserted and inflated. The nurses told me I did a great job and that a lot of people get the epidural BEFORE the foley is inserted. That would've been valuable information to have beforehand, but whatever, it was done. It was slightly uncomfortable to have the balloon in- not painful, just pressure. Shortly after the foley was done, they started my pitocin drip. My DH and I settled in and watched Supernatural on the TV in the room. 
An hour later, about 12:15 PM, the nurses came back to remove the foley catheter. It just popped right out with a little tugging. The doctor came in to check me and I had progressed to 5 CM. At this point, the doctor broke my water- not painful, just weird. I didn't have a huge gush either, just a slow leak. Next, the anesthesiologist came in to discuss epidurals and offered to insert it now. The epidural scared me more than the actual birth- stupid, I know- so I declined it for the time being. He told me just to make sure that I understood there was sometimes a wait for him to return and it took the epidural about 30 minutes to kick in. I understood and still declined.
At this point, my aunt (who is a L&D nurse herself) and my sister were there with me. The rest of my family and DH's family were working and we told them not to rush out, we still fully expected to be laboring in the late night.
Another half hour passed and I started feeling contractions- mild period-like cramping. I was fine, still chatting away with my family but they increased in intensity very quickly. I was checked by my doctor again at this point and had progressed to 7 CM. After another half hour, it was to the point where I couldn't talk during contractions and asked for them to call the anesthesiologist back. I also kept telling the nurse I felt a lot of pressure in my butt, like I had to poop. She said that was normal and was a good sign. The anesthesiologist came back very quickly- was in the room in 10 minutes and set everything up and administered the epidural easily. It was surprisingly painless. I could feel the needle go in, but it didn't hurt. At this point, we called my mom since I was progressing so quickly and she was to be in the delivery room with me. 20 minutes later, I was back to feeling good and decided I'd take a nap and get some rest since it seemed I would be pushing in the next few hours. It was about 3:00 then.
As soon as I laid down on my left side, monitors started beeping frantically. Nurses rushed in and started switching my position- from my left side to my right, to on all fours. Apparently the baby's heart rate dropped rapidly, but picked right back up again when they got me on all fours. The nurses were very calm and reassuring. They called the doctor to come in and check me and he said it was time to push!  DH called the rest of my family and his family and told them to get down to the hospital right away. My mom got there by 3:15 and just a few minutes later I was ready to push! My OB had been called and was on her way down to the hospital, but I began pushing with another doctor from the practice. She arrived about 20 minutes later and started doing some pushing exercises with me- like tug of war with an extra blanket. The baby's heart rate kept dropping whenever I pushed, so they would only let me push every other contraction. At this point, it hurt so much more to NOT push than it did to push, but they didn't want to put stress on the baby and urged me to push only every other contraction. They also gave me an oxygen mask to regulate my breathing between pushing. This went on for a little over an hour, though it felt like no time at all. In the throes of active labor it seems you only live contraction to contraction. They could see the baby crowning, but she was kind of stuck since I couldn't push every time without her heart rate dropping. My OB came over to talk to me about intervening and I was so afraid she was going to suggest a c-section. But she didn't, she recommended forceps since the baby was RIGHT there. Of course I'd have agreed to anything to get her out quickly and safely without causing her further distress.
Now, everyone under the sun was in the delivery room- 4 OBs from my practice, nurses, students, pediatricians, and god only knows who else- all introducing themselves to me, as if I cared what their names were. I couldn't remember my own name at this point. The epidural was wearing off and I begged the nurse to bring the anesthesiologist back. He was helping someone else so it would be a few minutes. They would do the prep work while we waited for him. Unfortunately with the forceps, they needed to do an episiotomy. Doubly so since the epidural wasn't doing it's job anymore. I felt that and it hurt, but not as much as the contractions since I wasn't allowed to push. The anesthesiologist finally arrived and gave me another injection, but it would take another 20 minutes to kick in fully. In that time, the forceps (aka giant hand sized salad tongs) were inserted (ouch!) and she was here in just a few more pushes. The doctors urged me on, even when I broke down and said I couldn't do it, I couldn't push anymore. The tried to get me to look to see Ava's entrance into the world, but I couldn't and definitely didn't WANT to. I peeked my eyes open and quickly shut them tight again. And then she was here! I could not believe it. I literally could not imagine a world where she was no longer in my belly but being placed on my chest, but there she was. 6 lbs, 8 oz, 19.5 inches long, dark blue eyes, and a little dark hair on the back of her head.  They took her off of my chest to clean her up, weigh her, and do all the brand new baby things they do while I delivered the placenta easily and painlessly. The only big bad thing left to do was for the doctor to stitch me up. That wasn't fun since the epidural STILL hadn't kicked in fully, though it would just a few minutes later. Once they were done stitching, they brought my daughter over to me and she almost immediately began rooting around and looking to nurse. I don't think she stopped nursing for a full hour after she was born. I felt fantastic at that point, though I still couldn't feel my legs. My amazing SIL and BIL were kind enough to bring me and DH Shake Shack so while I nursed my baby, I also nursed a milkshake. Once she had her fill, she was passed around so everyone got to give her a squeeze. I could barely keep my eyes open and visiting hours were up at 8:30 so everyone started leaving. I still couldn't feel my legs from the epidural so I didn't get into a room until about 9:30/10:00. But that was just fine by us. We got to bask in our baby in the privacy of the delivery room for just a little while longer.
All in all, everything was so quick that I barely had time to register what was going on. Despite the interventions like the foley catheter and the forceps, everything was fairly painless. I'm already excited for number two in a few years!
Message edited 7/13/2016 10:22:36 AM.
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