The Birth Story

Andrew had a due date of May 1st. When May 1st came and went the Dr. set me up with an induction date of May 5th. The plan was to check into the hospital at 8pm on Monday night (the 4th), get started on some gel to soften up my cervix and then at 8am Tuesday morning (the 5th) my doctor would break my water and things would get going...well things don't always go as planned.
I went out to Red Robin for my last dinner without a baby then checked into the hospital at 8pm on Monday night. They hooked me up to a monitor to see what the baby was doing and come to find out I was having contractions. They determined that I was in labor. Everyone told me that I would know when I went into labor but I guess they were wrong. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00pm they decided that if they broke my water my contractions would get stronger and we could have a baby first thing in the morning. This was the strangest sensation, all this hot gooey water leaking out of me.  Gary said it was kind of cool.  He was right by side the whole time with ice chips in hand ready to make me feel better.  They broke my water and very soon after Andrews heart rate dropped drastically. They put me on my left side, they put me on my right side but they couldn't get him to come back up. They got out the oxygen for me and brought in a handful of doctors and nurses to watch his heart rate. Again Gary was right there telling me everything was okay.  It is nerve wracking to have people shove oxygen masks on your face and telling you to lay on your left side.  I'm sure Gary was nervous too seeing his wife and son in this position but he never let me see it in his face, he stayed very calm and just kept offering those ice chips.  His heart rate finally came up a little bit so they left me alone. About 2am Tuesday morning my contractions were getting really painful.  Again, Gary was there.  He let me squeeze his hand and never missed a beat when I needed my ice chips or sips of water.  He was even great at sneaking me cranberry juice sips.  Too much water can make your tummy feel a little yucky.  At 2:30 I asked about my epidural. I originally thought maybe I wouldn't get one but I was already hooked up to 2 internal monitors for Andrew and 2 external monitors for me so I couldn't move around to try to get comfortable, I might as well get the epidural. Just around 3am the anesthesiologist came in to make me feel good. He did a great job and so did Gary, he held me nice and tight so I didn't move when it was happening. The problem was that mommy and baby didn't react so well. My blood pressure kept dropping, it got down to 77/34 so they gave me ephedrine to get my blood pressure up, it worked but it also made my heart rate spike. Gary was given the job to turn off the alarm when it sounded about my heart rate because they knew it was high but there was nothing they could do about it.  Now on top of ice chipping me he had to assess my monitor and silence it when need be.  The nurse asked for my doctor but she had already gone home. I think if she had still been there they would have given me a c-section right then, but they stabilized me and thought if they could get things going quicker than everything would be over soon. They started me on pitocin and this is when Andrew's heart rate dropped yet again. No matter what they did they couldn't get it up. After a few minutes they had to stop my pitocin. Andrew stabilized and they told me to get some rest. I dozed on and off but couldn't really sleep and I know Gary didn't sleep at all, he was diligently updating facebook so the world would know what was happening. He also had to ignore all the alarms that kept going off because of my low blood pressure, my heart rate, and Andrew's heart rate.  Every time the went off he would run over to the monitor and tell me what was happening.  It was comforting to know what was going on.  The alarm sounded when my blood pressure dropped below 90, but I wasn't scared when Gary would tell me that it was 87 over something.  At 7am my doctor came on shift and checked on me. I was 5cm and she was thinking a morning baby for me. Since Andrew and I had good heart rates and blood pressures for a few hours they decided to start my pitocin again. At 9am they checked me again and I was up to 9cm, I was getting excited, I knew I was going to have a baby soon. At 11 am they told me to try pushing, he was still high up but push just to see what would happen. With each contraction I was supposed to push three times, 10 counts each. I tried pushing for 3 contractions and they said that he was too far to one side, so they had me lie on my side for a while to get him to fall. At 12 noon I tried 3 more sets of pushes but still nothing, so they upped my pitocin. At 1pm I tried pushing for about 30 minutes but he wasn't ready to budge, so we waited 30 more minutes. At 2pm they consulted with the doctor and she told me to push hard for one hour straight and that should be good. This is when Gary got yet another job.  He had to hold my left leg while I had to hold my right leg during pushes.  I pushed and pushed and pushed, 3pm came and went and I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. We reached 3:50 and still nothing.  Gary was down right exhausted from ice chipping me, holding my puke bucket (too many ice chips and smuggled cranberry juice,at least that Red Robin was already digested), holding my leg every 30 seconds for contractions and telling me I'm awesome.  After some time the nurse and doctor agreed that this baby could not come out. The nurse told me to stop pushing and wait for the doctor to get to my room, it would just take about 5 minutes. This time was pure hell.  I was in so much pain and Gary was right there telling me it would be over soon, the Dr. was on her way.  I was doing great and he let me squeeze his hand when I needed to and gave me one ice chip at a time to keep my mouth wet.  He also kept my washcloth nice and cool since I had a fever for a while now.  20 minutes later, that's 20 minutes of back to back contractions that I was not allowed to push though, my doctor came in. She checked me and said I had 2 options, I could have a c-section and just be done with everything or she could try the vacuum extractor, except you only can try that for one contraction and if it doesn't work I would have to be rushed for a super quick c-section anyway. So I signed my consent forms even though I could barely hold the pen and they prepped the OR for me. A whole team of specialist came rushing into my room and when the contraction started the doctor shoved the vacuum on his head and told me to push as hard as I could. I pushed so hard and the vacuum popped off his head. We had one last shot. I took a deep breath and pushed again while the doctor got that vacuum on his head again and all of a sudden I felt a pop, the head was out. I swear it really did make that pop noise too.  I don't remember what happened after that, if I pushed or they pulled but that baby was out and I briefly saw Gary cut the umbilical cord then baby Drew was whisked away to the neonatologist to be checked out. I had spiked a temp, they thought I had an infection and they were worried he might have one too since it had been over 18 hours since my water broke. As the baby was getting cleaned and check the stitching began for me. They said I had lacerations on my labia and a 2nd degree tear but that was to be expected with a first baby with a huge head like my guy and the vacuum caused a faster exit and more trauma to me and baby as well. It took about 30 minutes to get baby stable and mommy sewed up and then I got to hold him. I could believe it, I pushed that little stinker out. It was very hard work. Andrew Ross Plano was born at 4:27pm, 8lbs. 3oz. and 21 inches long. He has a little cephala hemotoma (sp?) from the long pushing phase and they said he has a bad head ache from the vacuum suction.
Andrew and Mommy are very healthy although we are both very sore.