I guess first I should start out by saying that I have a
blood disorder called Factor V Leiden. So any pregnancy that I have is high
risk because of this. Throughout my pregnancy, I had to give myself shots
everyday of a blood thinner. So not fun and they left bruises all over my arm
and thighs. This was so I didn’t
get a blood clot and possibly lose the baby. Most women don’t even know that
have this disorder until they have multiple miscarriages. Thank goodness I got
tested a few years back because my Dad has it. So I knew I needed special care
if I did get pregnant. Everything went really well through this pregnancy.
The Saturday before my due date I started having contractions. I was drinking raspberry leaf tea like crazy which I think helped bring on the contractions. They were irregular and weren’t painful but different from Braxton Hicks. I did notice that I was having them and most of the time I had to stop what I was doing. It kind of took my breath away. I thought for sure Noah was going to come that weekend but that wasn’t in the cards. I had contractions all day Saturday through Monday.
40 weeks
I went for my 40 week checkup
on Tuesday. The contractions got a little more intense by then but still
nothing I couldn’t handle. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor for about 30
minutes to measures the baby’s movements and my contractions. My contractions
were still pretty irregular. Then my doctor checked to see if I was dilated at
all and I wasn’t, not even a little bit. From there my doctor said that we
could wait it out but because of my blood disorder; the longer we waited the
higher the risk for an emergency C-section. We decided to induce that night. So
we went back home, packed everything up and headed to the hospital around 5. I was scared but so excited at the same time
because I knew we would have our baby soon. It was really weird because when we got to the hospital, my contractions got more regular. Everyone was super busy at the hospital. I think it took like 45 minutes just to get us checked in. After that they gave me cervidil to start the process of inducing. The nurse on staff asked me how my contractions were so far and at that point they were making me a little uncomfortable. She told me that because of this the cervidil will most likely make my contractions more painful. And it did! I barely slept that night. They did give me a pain medication once through the night and I was able to get like an hour of shut eye. My plan at the time was only to take the pain medication. I didn’t want to get an epidural if I didn’t have to because I didn’t want to be confined to the bed.
Around 7 the next morning they started the pitocin to induce the labor. This made my contractions much worse. They were about 2 minutes apart at this time. The nurse checked me and said I was 1-2 centimeters dilated. We had like the “left-over” room because the rooms were packed. The only good thing is that it was a little bigger than the other birthing rooms. I did some walking around in the room and bounced on a birthing ball. Leaning on the bed and sitting on the ball made things a little less painful. I was having really bad back labor so Kris massaged my lower back to help with that. And during every contractions I just squeezed the heck out of his hand.
My parents and sisters drove in that morning to the hospital around 10 or so. They all wanted to see me so each of them took their turns coming into the room to say hi and good luck. I wasn’t able to talk that much because I was having contractions like every minute and they were so painful. I was in tears most of the time and just wanted this to be over. Kris was a trooper and very supportive! The pain was nothing I’ve ever felt before. My back hurt, my hips hurt. My whole body was shaking from the stress. And with each contraction the pain just got worse. Kris and I were so tired and I didn’t know how much more I could take.
After a little while they checked me again and I was still only about 1-2 centimeters dilated. Not cool! I was in so much pain and was disappointed that I wasn’t dilated more. Now I know I said I didn’t want an epidural but I have never wanted something so bad in my life. I was a wreck. After the epidural, I finally had some relief! I got a couple hours of sleep. Yay! When I woke up they checked me and I was fully dilated! The midwife on staff came in and broke my water. That was interesting. Then it was time to push. I pushed for 3 hours and was getting nowhere! Noah was posterior and because of this he wasn’t able to get past my pelvic bone. They got me up on my hands and knees and I tried pushing this way to see if Noah would turn around. (very weird when you have an epidural and your legs are completely numb) This didn’t work, Noah was still stuck. My doctor came in and said that I could continue pushing for hours and nothing was likely to happen. And that Noah was in a little distress every time I had a contraction.
