Lizzy's Birth Story

I was due, according to the chart and my doctor, on September 17 and according to an ultrasound and my calculations on September 20th. Since it was only a couple days difference my doctor didn't think it was worth it to push my due date back. I'd been telling everyone the 20th so if I went late it wouldn't seem quite so bad, it didn't really work out that way. 

I had an appointment on Friday the 19th where we discussed my options, my doctor wanted to avoid me having a c-section as much as I did. So we set up an appointment for the next week with the intention of scheduling an induction for the next day if I made it that long. We both fully anticipated me going into labor on my own sometime over the weekend. Before I left she said that anytime between now and then if I was still pregnant I could call up and she would schedule me to be induced whenever I wanted. The weekend came and went and Monday I was vacillating between waiting to go into labor on my own and calling and scheduling an induction. By Monday afternoon I still hadn't had any real contractions, so I called up my doctor and we scheduled the induction for Tuesday morning, September 23rd. 

Tuesday morning we put Peter on the bus and got ready to head out to the hospital. My mom was here for a week to help so she stayed with the other kids and Andrew and I left to go the the hospital. I do have to say it's nice to have an appointment to have a baby, we got to skip triage and go straight to a room. My labor and delivery nurse, Tracie, was awesome! I got there and explained that I was GBS positive and would need the antibiotic, which has a 4 hour active period before I would be given another dose, and I told her that I didn't want an epidural and she didn't bat an eye and I never saw an anesthesiologist. We got the pitocin going on a low dose that would guarantee I would get the full potency of the antibiotic and so we decided that after that point a doctor would come in and check me and break my water. Andrew and I had a fun morning playing on our kindles and reading and eating ice chips (they have the awesome chewable ice) and popcicles and watching my contractions on the monitor. After the first four hours, I'd been having moderate contractions, the doctor came in and checked me and I was a 4 which was 2 more than I had been that morning, and she broke my water. I continued having contractions and my pitocin was turned up and I honestly was expecting to have a baby within half an hour since that's how it went with Josie and Elias, but I went on contracting and they were gradually getting more intense. So two more hours went by and I was getting uncomfortable and was moving around in my bed and at one point I leaned forward and started gushing fluid almost like my water had broken a second time, so I called in a nurse and got that taken care of, but still no baby. The more I moved to get comfortable the more fluid came out and the more intense my contractions became. I don't really know the time frame after that, it was close to the end and I couldn't do anything during my contractions except close my eyes and breathe through them and I wouldn't let Andrew read to me or talk to me during the contractions. Then I was having contractions that made my hands and feet have that tingling feeling like they were going to sleep and it was becoming much harder to relax during these contractions. Andrew was holding my hand and trying to help me relax and breathe. My nurse went ahead and checked to see what my progress was and I was then a 6, so we figured I still had time until it was time to push, but we were wrong. Shortly after she checked me I started to have pushing contractions and then they got more intense and there was nothing anyone could do to stop me from pushing. So she called for a doctor and the other people usually there during a  delivery and  then a minute or so later she called and told therm we had a baby. My awesome nurse with only Andrew and a nursing student in the room delivered Lizzy. It was about 15 minutes from the time she determined I was a 6 until the time Lizzy came out. I heard her say something about having to move the rest of my cervix out of the way while I was pushing. I tore just a little and had to get a couple stitches. And the other nurses and doctors were amazed that I did it all without an epidural. One of the nurses told me that less than 10% of the babies born at that hospital happen without an epidural. I also have to say that Tracie put the IV in my wrist and that was the least offensive IV I've ever had. There was zero bruising when they took it out the next morning. 

Lizzy was a little bruised and had a nice round head since she spent very little time in the birth canal. I believe she had APGAR scores of 8 and then 9. They got her cleaned up and made sure her airway was clear and she nursed right away. She was 8 lbs 14 oz and 21". 

Having had a variety of birth experiences with and without various drugs and assistance I would say that Elias's delivery was my favorite. There's something to be said about having a baby exactly when my body was ready to have one. I've heard that the pitocin causes more intense contractions and I would have to say that the lead up contractions are the same but when it came to transition and pushing that was when the contractions became almost more than I could handle. I'm so glad that I had an understanding and non-pushy nurse who didn't pressure me into having an epidural. It definitely has made an amazing difference in my recovery. I brought my own new, comfy pajamas to wear in the hospital and I'm amazed at how much better/more human I felt right away while wearing them. 

On my way to have a baby!

Enjoying my ice chips!

Labor is very tiring

She's a big girl!

Getting to know you

Just chillin' under the heat lamp

Being born is tough work

Meeting baby Lizzy

Josie's in LOVE!

Happy Family

Elias's Birth Story

I've had this written up for some time now I keep forgetting to post it. So almost six months later, without further ado, Elias's birth story.

I went into labor on Thursday September 6th. It started gradually with me losing my mucus plug in the morning. I told Andrew that today was probably going to be the day but I had a feeling it would be similar to Josie's birth so he didn't have to worry about not going in to work. Contractions started around 3 pm and kept going through the evening. Around 6 pm I started timing them and they were never really consistent. Later in the evening I was thinking about going to the hospital because I knew it was going to be soon, but around 10 pm the contractions had stopped. So instead of going to the hospital I went to bed. I really didn't want to get there and have to come home because I wasn't having any contractions. Around 1 am contractions woke me up. I got up and went to the bathroom and I had more bloody show so I woke Andrew up and told him it was time. I got myself dressed and sat on the bed and just stayed there until Andrew had everything ready to go. The contractions had intensified and I couldn't walk without assistance. I used Andrew as my walker as he walked backwards and I directed him where to go. In the car I was able to close my eyes and breathe through the contractions. It's about a 30 minute drive to the hospital and I kept praying, "Please make it to the hospital. I don't want to have this baby at the 7-11." A few years ago a friend of mine really did have her baby in the 7-11 parking lot. We got to the hospital and parked and again I had to use Andrew as my walker. We would go a few steps and stop for the contraction and go again until we reached the main lobby. The guys at the front desk got me a wheelchair and called up to labor and delivery to tell them we were on our way up. Here's where the fun really starts. We get upstairs and go to check in and even though I had been there only two days before they couldn't find any information about me. The lady doing the checking in seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that I was very much in labor but I finally had a nurse come out to take me to get checked in to triage. I stand up to get weighed and I have a contraction as I'm getting off the scale and even though the bed is only a few feet away I can't move. I tell the nurse I have to go to the bathroom and that it feels like I'm peeing my pants as I stood there. So she puts me back in the wheelchair and takes me to the bathroom. So I go to the bathroom and as I'm trying to get up she asks if I'm doing okay which is right when I have the sensation to push and tell her no I'm not okay and I think my water just broke. So she rushed in checked me and helped me get my underwear back on for the wheelchair ride back to the bed in triage. We really had everyone in a tizzy at this point and so I get up on the bed and they tell me to try not to push, which if you've never had to NOT push it is REALLY hard. Every time they told me not to push I would tell them I'm trying not to. So I'm trying to breathe through the contractions and not push they push my bed and try to figure out where to take me. I heard some discussion about which room and someone said no to one room because they weren't sure I was going to make it to that room. So we end up in the closest open room and I get into the labor and delivery bed, still not pushing, waiting for the all the necessary things to be set up. I now have 3 doctors, none of them mine and one is definitely a resident and one is a med student, standing at the foot of my bed all just looking at me, it seems like forever but they are waiting for me to have my next contraction to push. At first I'm really tense while I'm pushing but I'm able to catch my breath and am able to relax a little to help me push. I don't know how many pushes it takes but it seems like forever for them to say his head is out and then another long round of pushing before his shoulders came out. They told me that from the time my water broke on the toilet to the time he was out was 8 minutes. Since he spent so little time in the birth canal he didn't have enough time to have all the fluid squeezed from his lungs so they had him for a little while before I got to hold him. I had a little tear that they had to repair and then I got up and changed into the hospital gown and then I got to hold him.

I was telling my doctor my birth story later that morning and when I got to the point where the nurse wheeled me to the bathroom instead of checking me to see how far dilated I was she said, "I'm going to have a talk with someone." because she was definitely supposed to check me before taking me to the bathroom. Though I'm thankful my water broke on the toilet and not somewhere awkward, like in a wheel chair on the way to the elevator. I had been having second thoughts about having Elias completely natural with no epidural at all and going to the hospital in transition really made my decision for me. It was really nice not being tied down to an I.V. after the birth, though I had tested positive for GBS which meant I was supposed to get antibiotics in my I.V. before the birth but they really didn't have time for that. Since I didn't get that Elias and I had to stay two days in the hospital instead of just one for observation to make sure Elias wasn't affected by it. Let me just say, the delivery beds are not very comfortable and even though the recovery beds were heaven at first, two days with nowhere else to go makes for a very sore back in an increasingly uncomfortable bed.

My Mom flew in on Wednesday night so she got here just in time. It was great especially since we had to leave so late that we could just go without worrying what to do with the kids. I don't think I would have made it to the hospital if we'd had to drop them off somewhere. Peter and Josie got lots of Grandma time and they loved it. Andrew's Dad happened to be in town for Jared's ordination so he came down from Phoenix and visited with the kids on Saturday and he and Tim came and visited me in the hospital. I got out of the hospital Sunday morning then Andrew and Peter and Grandpa went to Phoenix for the ordination.

Elias is such a sweet baby, he's super chill and just loves to cuddle. At first Peter didn't care one way or another about Elias but now he likes to tell me when he's crying, so I can take care of him and make him stop crying. Josie has been in love with Elias since we brought him home always trying to mother him. Now she still tries to mother him but she also tries to play with him. Which results in me yelling things like, "Stop sitting on Elias" or "Get your foot out of his face" or "Just let him roll on his own." She means well and most of the time he laughs but he has a distinct "Josie's bothering me" cry.

Two days old

  

One month old

Two months old

 Three months old

Four months old

Four months

Four months

Five months

Josie's Birth Story

Preface: If you remember from Peter's birth story I came into this pregnancy having already had 2 c-sections. This time I was bound and determined to find a doctor that would be more friendly to a VBAC. So I made appointments and talked to doctors and midwives and then I got discouraged. Everyone I talked to considered me too "high risk" to even let me attempt labor, they all wanted to schedule another c-section. Well the midwives didn't but they couldn't accept me as a patient because the doctors that back them up have a 1 c-section limit to allow a VBAC. So I took a small break from looking for a doctor and when I started my search again I started at the University Medical Center (UMC). I made yet another appointment and was really impressed with the office staff that I talked to on the phone, then when the actual appointment came along I was equally impressed with the doctor, the only problem was the doctor was a resident and could be overruled and also she was scheduled to be in oncology in November and couldn't guarantee she'd be with me for the rest of the pregnancy. So she went to find an attending doctor that would agree to a VBAC and when she came back she gave me the name of my doctor. Sometime in the middle of this this article, which is the ACOG's updated guidelines for VBACs, came out. Needless to say I was excited because I was a perfect candidate for VBAC. I printed the article and took it with me to my next appointment and actually had an intelligent conversation with my doctor about it and how it applies to me, which was a breath  of fresh air considering all the previously condescending conversations with the other doctors. I was still considered "high risk" but with the ACOG behind me I actually had a chance at getting what I wanted. 

Sidebar: I don't have anything against medically necessary c-sections, but a woman who is otherwise having a completely healthy pregnancy shouldn't be forced into major surgery just because she's had one or two before. 

My primary reason for wanting a VBAC was and still is: I don't know how many children we want to have but I'm pretty sure the number is more than 2. The more c-sections you have the more likely you are to experience the actual risks associated with VBACs. 

So now we get closer to the actual story. :) 

There had been a miscommunication between the doctor and me about the due date. Conception and the 1st ultrasound put me at November 8th, which I had been telling everyone, but the 2nd ultrasound and my last period put me at November 2nd which was what was in my chart and my doctor had been going by. So at my last scheduled appointment we scheduled an induction for the 9th (which was 41 weeks) and she wanted me to have a couple of non-stress tests done before then because I was "high risk" and would be past due. My doctor was very optimistic that Josie would come on her own and we were just going to wait and let her. 


Thursday morning I woke up around 5:30am with a contraction, it wasn't anything special just enough to wake me up. I got up and used the bathroom and went back to bed and had another contraction about a half an hour later and did the same thing and saw part of my mucus plug. I warned Andrew when he got up that today might be the day and that he should be prepared for a page to come get me to go to the hospital. Since I had never gone into labor before I had no idea what to expect but I figured he was safe to go to work and he was. I had mild contractions all morning and went to the hospital for my 9am non-stress test, which was uneventful. I took my new Robert Jordan book with me and just read during the whole thing. I mentioned to the nurses and my doctor (who was scheduled to be at the hospital all day and all night) that I had seen part of my plug so they checked my and found that I was 1.5cm dilated and 80% effaced and her head was in a -2 station, which meant as long as the ultrasound showed that the fluid levels around Josie were good I could go home. They were fine and I went home. 


Peter and I had a nice quiet day at home watching movies and resting.  My contractions were slowly getting stronger and more frequent but still nothing to make me rush to the hospital and when Andrew got home from work I told him this. So we went about our evening and the contractions slowly got stronger so Andrew suggested that we go for a short walk around our neighborhood which made the contractions increase in frequency and intensity and also made me need to use the bathroom. 


I was concerned that we might have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night so we called up our friends and asked if we could bring Peter by all ready for bed to their house just in case so we wouldn't have to worry. We dropped Peter off around 7:30pm and stayed and chatted for a while. At that point my contractions were about 6 minutes apart but I could still walk and talk through them. We discussed going to the hospital and since my doctor didn't want me contracting too much at home (the whole high risk thing again), we decided that the worst that could happen is they could send us home. So off to the hospital we went. It was about 8:30pm when we got to the hospital so it was closed off to the public and the guy at the desk asks us who we're visiting  I tell him, "I'm thinking about having a baby" and show him my belly. He smiled and let us pass. :) The contractions stayed pretty consistently at 6 minutes apart on the drive to the hospital. 


We go up to labor and delivery and we're told that the triage is full and that it's about an hour wait until a bed would be ready for us. They had just gotten 2 ambulance patients and I heard a nurse comment that it must be the new moon causing so many women to be there that night. At least 4 of the laboring women already admitted were my doctor's patients. So we waited. My doctor walked by and stopped to talk to us. She told us that she was going to admit me but we still had to wait for a bed in triage. Thankfully that meant the minimum time was going to be spent there. Our wait was more like an hour and a half during which we considered going to Wendy's to get a frosty or something, we didn't but we talked about it. The chairs in the waiting room were actually quite comfortable so it wasn't too bad, plus I had my crocheting and my book so we were both able to keep occupied. During this time the contractions got to a point where I couldn't keep walking but I could still talk through them. The nurse that discharged me earlier that day was the one who admitted me that night, she was also the same nurse that did my previous non-stress test on Monday. So they hook me up and I'm in there for a relatively short time and they check me and I'm only at 2cm. So they move us to a Labor & Delivery room and we're prepared to hunker down for the night. My doctor anticipated me delivering around noon the next day. I estimate that we got to the room around 10:30, 11 o'clock, something like that. The contractions are now to a point where I stop talking and close my eyes and breathe through them and relax. 


I just have to say that I'm SO thankful that my nurse, Mary Jo, got called in to work that night because she was absolutely the BEST ever! So she's going through her list of things that she has to do and is very considerate of me and the contractions. 


Then the anesthesiologist comes in to consult with me about getting an epidural and I don't really feel it necessary so he goes away and we go on with contracting. Then I feel like I'm going to throw up, I don't yet but a little later I do. While I'm throwing up the main anesthesiologist guy comes in and tries to talk to me, I thought that was quite rude. I think he was trying to get me to get the epidural again. When I'm done I inform him that that's the first time this pregnancy that I've thrown up. Either way he leaves and I'm given something for the nausea and I'm started on the very bare minimum dose of Pitocin. The first anesthesiologist comes back in and we discuss the epidural again. I'm still on the fence leaning towards no but the point is brought up that we can put it in check that it's working and not do anything else with it just in case I have to be taken in for a c-section. That sounded good to me so that's what we did. After a little while we discover that the epidural has only taken effect on my right side, Mary Jo has me lay on my left side because gravity can typically help move things around and we want to try that before we call the anesthesiologist back. So I'm laying on my left side and we're finally left alone to labor when in rushes the doctor on duty and my nurse because he was concerned about a dip in Josie's heart beat. 


I get checked and I'm at 5cm and the doctor breaks my water and puts an internal monitor in to check the true intensity of my contractions, I could have told him they were pretty intense and they got more intense after breaking my water and with the minuscule drip of Pitocin. I have no idea about how long this all took, there was a clock in my room but I wasn't paying any attention to it. So the doctor leaves and Mary Jo stays and talks to us about something. She mentioned that if I felt the need to poop that is ususally a sign that it's time to push. Not too long after that I have that feeling but she misunderstood me and thought that I said that I was going to be sick again and she rushed out of the room to get me another sick bag. When she got back I shook my head and pointed to my bum, she got the hint and checked me again and I was a 9. At which point she suggests we discuss pushing. I agree with her and we do a few practice pushes and then she makes the call to wake my doctor up so we can do some real pushing to get this baby out of me. 


I expected just my doctor to show up but I get a total of 3 doctors, 2 nurses and a nurse technician all there to cheer me on and catch Josie. My doctor was there for obvious reasons, then there was the doctor on call and the 3rd doctor was a new doctor there for training or something like that. The 2nd nurse was there because she was new to the hospital and needed to learn processes and procedures, etc. So everyone was nervous and excited for me because of the whole VBAC thing. Anyway everyone is there and encouraging me and they tell me I'm at 10 and I can start pushing. I have Mary Jo holding my leg on the left and Andrew holding my leg on the right and I push and they count and we get 3 good pushes in with each contraction and near the end my doctor says, while I'm waiting for the next contraction, that Josie is so close I don't have to wait for a contraction to push and so I do. I don't know how many more pushes after that it takes, not many, and out she came. From the time I'm declared a 10 to the time Josie comes out is only 14 minutes. I can't imagine having to do that for longer and hopefully I never have to. 


It was so awesome to hold her without assistance right away for as long as I wanted. Since she came out so fast she had a bit of fluid still in her lungs that they needed to suction out but when they finished I was able to nurse her. Her APGAR score was 8 and then 5 minutes later she was a 9. She was perfectly healthy and beautiful and still is. 


I did need a bit of stitching up after that though. I was told that I had a 2nd degree tear that the on call doctor and newbie doctor took care of. Andrew says that she was an extremely slow stitcher; I agree that she was because I had to request a 2nd dose of lidocaine since I started to feel the poking midway through being stitched up. I had to request the 1st dose of lidocaine because the epidural was only working on my right side and it was starting to wear off. 


Both my doctor and my nurse were really impressed with how I handled labor and delivery. I think it was because I was able to breathe through most of the contractions so well and I only yelled out a couple of times while pushing. They said that the shoulders are easier than the head, that may be true but they don't feel that much better, in fact I think the only reason they are considered better is they take a lot less time to come out. 


Even though I carried her in my body for 9 months it's hard to believe, albeit I've done this before, she ever fit in my belly. 

Random Facts:

• Josie was both early and late.
• My favorite part of pregnancy is the fact that my nails grow so much faster and my hair doesn't shed. 
• I weighed the same on the day I had Peter and the day I had Josie but with Peter I only gained 15 lbs the whole pregnancy and with Josie I gained 40 lbs. 
• I've lost 30 of those pounds already. Thank you nursing!
• I went to the chiropractor and got my back adjusted the day before I went into labor. 
• Josie shares my brother Wyatt's birthday and Andrew's brother Jared's legal birthday (he was really born on the 6th but his driver's license says the 5th). A few days before I jokingly predicted that Josie was waiting to share her birthday with them.
• 21 hours of labor isn't as bad as it sounds. The worst was the transition contractions and Josie's head crowning and coming out.
• If you've ever had an abnormal pap-smear and you've had to have a colposcopy and you've undergone cryotherapy to freeze the abnormal cells off of your cervix then you have scar tissue on your cervix, like I have, then you're more likely to be slow to dilate at first and then when it's time to fully dilate it'll happen all at once. I was told this by 3 different nurses on Thursday and I wondered why my doctor with Peter never mentioned it or thought of it and perhaps that was the reason I wasn't dilating. C'est la vie. 
• I had an excellent experience and wouldn't change a thing about how it all happened. That's not true, if I could control it I wouldn't have torn, but that's the only thing I would have changed. 

Why I Had a C-Section

The short answer is, it's a long story. :)

The long story goes something like this:

Once upon a time... When I was 19 I had twins and placed them for adoption. I had a C-Section then because I had toxemia pretty bad and was hospitalized for 3 days because of my high blood pressure. In the middle of the night that 3rd night I was having breathing problems and they discovered that I had fluid in my lungs in addition to the fun of having toxemia. So they decided to do an emergency C-Section. The twins were born January 3, 2004 at 3am. I was in the hospital for another 2 or 3 days and the boys were there for another week. Amazingly, they never had to be put on oxygen even though they only weighed 3 and 5 pounds.

This time around I was planning on having a completely natural birth (we took the Bradley class and everything). The doctor that I chose is a very nice man and a good doctor but he's a very typical mainstream type of doctor; in that he believes in the adage, "Once a C-Section, Always a C-Section." I could tell this because he said things like, "I'll let you try to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean)," etc. So with me not progressing, I was 1cm dilated for 3 weeks AND Peter never dropped, we made a deal with our doctor: If I hadn't progressed (dilated & dropped) on my due date then we would schedule the C-section, if I had dilated more & dropped then we would wait for labor to start on it's own and if I still hadn't delivered by the 6th or 7th than we would do a C-Section then. As you all can guess I was a tight 1cm and Peter's head was not in position on the due date so we did the C-Section later that day. When it came down to it we really wanted to have Peter before the end of the year and since it was looking like we were going to have a C-Section anyway we figured we might as well get our tax deduction this year. Peter was one of 4% (annually) of babies actually born on their due date.

Even though I really didn't want to have another C-Section, I would say that I am perfectly content/at ease/comfortable/confident in my decision to have it. Peter is perfectly healthy and happy and in the long run that's what really matters. I am already thinking about next time (no, I'm not crazy, though I am really glad I'm not pregnant anymore) and I think I want to find a midwife and go that route, to better ensure a natural birth.

The End.