Life Tossed Together: Lucas's Birth Story

[This is mostly copied-and-pasted from my old blog, with a few additional comments and photos added.]

On May 9th, the day before Lucas finally chose to make his big entrance, I was five days past my due date and bound and determined not to be pregnant anymore. I had spent the day trying a bunch of different natural induction techniques: squats, galloping, walking, spicy food, a swim, acupressure. In the process I had neglected to take my daily nap. So of course, my water broke about ten minutes after I got into bed.

They tell you only 10-15% of pregnant ladies have their water break before contractions begin. They also tell you that it's much more likely to be a trickle than the sitcom-style flood. But apparently Lucas has his mama's dramatic streak, because as I told Brandon after coming out of our bedroom, "My water just broke . . . everywhere." Contractions began immediately after, about 5-6 minutes apart and 1 minute in duration. We arrived at the hospital around 11:30pm.

My water had broken but I was only 2cm dilated, so the doctor wanted to start me on Pitocin right away. I thought this was a bit odd since I was already having regular, strong contractions. She offered to give me two hours to see if I would start to dilate on my own. I took her up on it, and they took me up to my labor and delivery room. It was about 1:30am when my two-hour countdown started. Contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart at this point. Although I was hoping to be one of those moms who barely notice them, mine hurt like a son of a bitch! Brandon was already doing a good job coaching me as we moved around the room and bounced on the birthing ball. We tried walking the halls as suggested by our birthing class teacher, but after my knees collapsed on me during a particularly strong contraction, Brandon requested that I stay confined in my room.

Towards the end of the two hours, I started to feel myself getting exhausted to the point of shaking. After they checked me (dilated only to 4 cm at this point), I made the decision to get the epidural so I could conserve some strength for pushing after a night without sleep. This was the best decision I made during the labor experience! Getting the epidural was not scary, and the anesthesiologist even complimented me for remaining so still during a contraction and jokingly suggested that they use me as an instructional video for future moms. He did have to give me a "basketball player sized" dose because I was still in pain after the initial dose, but then the pain faded away and all I could feel was some faint pressure. It also left me with some feeling in my legs so I wasn't totally paralyzed and could even move around a little. I was instantly calmer and pain-free. I was never opposed to an epidural, mostly just worried about the "snowball effect" of interventions that can lead to a c-section if an epidural slows the progress of labor. Luckily this didn't happen to me so I got all the benefits without any of the scary side effects I was concerned about.

After getting the epidural, I was able to doze for about 4 hours and Brandon slept in a chair in my room. I was worried that an epidural would slow down my dilation, but luckily that turned out not to be the case. When they checked me again at about 8:30am, I was fully dilated and ready to push!

The first hour of pushing went great, and the nurse told us that I was progressing quickly. Then things started getting more difficult. My progress slowed and while Lucas was doing just fine, the nurse started worrying that it was taking so long. Around hour three of pushing, I started feeling really tired and hopeless. Brandon was a fantastic, engaged coach throughout, and the nurse that came in to cover for our original nurse on her break did a much better job encouraging me to push in the most effective way. I did not scream or curse, which I'm quite proud of, although I did at one point chuck a clammy wet washcloth from my forehead across the delivery room when Brandon failed to remove it and replace it with a new, cold one.

Finally, the doctor came in and she suggested that she could give me an episiotomy and use the vacuum to help me since we were well into hour four of pushing at this point. I managed to get baby's head to crowning on my own and then, with two more pushes assisted by the doctor and vacuum, Lucas arrived in the world to a chorus of four nurses and a doctor exclaiming, "Oh my God!" "He must be at least ten pounds!" He was born on May 10 at 12:26pm, at 11 pounds 1 oz and 21 inches long.

They put him on my chest right after he came out. He was all squirmy and bigger than I thought he would be - I remember thinking about how fat he seemed. It was the most amazing moment of my life to date. They cleaned him up a bit while he was still on me (and me too: he pooped on me right away), and encouraged him to cry a bit harder to clear the remaining fluid from his lungs because his breathing was a little junky. Brandon cut the cord and we just marveled at him for a bit until they took him to the other side of the room to clean him properly, weigh him, and check everything out. He hardly cried at all when he was with me, but piped up a bit with the nurses. They brought him back to nurse and he latched on like a champ right away.

We stayed in the delivery room for a couple hours. I got all stitched up (Second degree tear as well as the episiotomy). They brought me some food (thank goodness, I was starving by this point!) and sparkling cider with two glasses. And then we were parents. Forever.