So this is the start of Nolan. Without this story my blog name would be inappropriate and nonexistent. I warn you ahead of time it's the true and detailed description of his arrival into this world. Read at your own peril!
On Saturday October 24, 2009 I awoke at 6am and had to quickly go to the bathroom. I’ve heard of others saying your body knows to empty itself before labor and I thought about that for a bit and shrugged it off. I couldn’t get back to sleep very well and was restless. At 7:30 I suddenly felt like I had wet the bed and rushed into the bathroom. I was pretty certain that was my water but since the day before the I had measure no dilation and only 50% effaced I was confused. I was after all only 38 weeks and 3 days pregnant. After a few minutes of trying to see if movement made more "water" release, I was certain it was my water. It was unmistakable. I walked out and woke Tim to let him know. He asked about contractions and I let him know that I had nothing more than usual yet.
I got showered and dressed in comfy clothes and we started talking. We knew the Dr.’s like you to call ASAP so they start timing how long since the water broke but we weren’t really comfortable being on their clock yet. We discussed getting up and active to get things going and calling the Dr. at a later time if labor hadn’t progressed. We went to Babies R Us and I had some light lunch. After lunch I tried lying on my side because the walking hadn’t really brought contractions on. Lying seemed to do the trick and I got some contractions all timing at 5 minutes apart. They were a little painful but only early labor contractions. We decided that we would call the Dr. at 8pm and tell them my water had broke at 4pm so they didn’t get too freaked out. Once we were admitted they would be monitoring us anyways so they exact time my water broke wouldn’t matter. Only that Nolan was doing well would be important.
Once at the hospital they confirmed broken water and got me in my room. My midwife was there for another delivery and came by. She actually started talking inducing in two hours and I expressed my dislike for that and stated I definitely wanted more time as long as Nolan was healthy (which she confirmed). Tim and I started walking the halls of the hospital. Once in the hospital, my contractions got a lot stronger but not closer together. We walked through the night until 3am and I continued to get stronger more painful contractions but not the pick up in frequency. They were always 5 min apart.
I was checked upon arrival at the hospital and was only 1 cm dilated. At 3am I was 3 cm dilated. The midwife commented that 5cm is usually considered active labor so the strong contractions I had been having pretty much had no effect and 20 hrs after water breakage I was not any closer to true labor. It was really discouraging as they could tell my contractions were intense but they just weren’t progressing me. My midwife stated she’d give me a bit more time and went home for the night. I was checked again at 9am and still at 3 cm. At this point I was pretty tired and wore out and just upset that all the work my body was doing was not bringing us closer to delivery. The midwife was contacted and they prepared me to get antibiotics, IV, and pitocin. That would mean I couldn’t be mobile as I had been doing. At 10am pitocin was started. It was upped pretty frequently. My contractions continued getting stronger and more painful and we really hoped it was actually dilating me too. It did not, however, bring contractions closer together as its supposed to.
At noon it was clear that I had been dealing with this for 30 hours, had no sleep, and was going to be bumped to the maximum pitocin dosage. I had an epidural placed so I could get a bit of rest and possibly make it through. I had the anesthesiologist give me a very low dose so I could feel my legs, move, and even walk. Basically I could tell what was happening it just wasn’t painful. Upon getting the Epidural my blood pressure crashed and there were tense moments getting it all aligned and me back to normal. Nolan was spot on vitals through it all. The Doc ended up turning my Epi down a bit more even to help with the BP.
I was re-checked at 3pm and after being on maximum pitiocin I was only 5cm dialted. The midwife and nurses talked a bit hushed and I was pretty upset. They weren’t really sure while the pitocin wasn’t bringing on the constant contractions. At 4pm the midwife came in and started to tell me options I had or didn’t have anymore. She stopped herself and checked me first. FINALLY I was dilated to an 8 even though contractions still were intense but 5 min apart. She manually stretched me to a nine. Helped get rid of the anterior lip which was pretty strong and then told me she’d give me a little more time to get fully dilated. I wasn’t going to be required to get a c-section afterall!! I was to call immediately if I felt pressure and they got the room ready for baby. Shortly before 5 pm we started pushing. I was able to hold my own legs and we pushed on the normal bed and did not modify it or bring up stirrups or anything. I could feel the contractions and feel how pushing was working. At about this time the epidural was also no longer strong enough to get rid of the contraction pain. I started feel the pain in addition to just the pressure and pushing through the contractions was nice.
I pushed for almost an hour and had a mirror in place so I could see it all. Nolan’s head came out on the third push of a contraction. Since usually I only pushed 3 times with each contraction I was a little freaked out and said “we can’t stop. I need to keep pushing.” His cord was wrapped tightly around his neck so they (Tim actually) moved it off so he could have delayed clamping and be on my chest. I got the go ahead to give a final few pushed and out he came. Everyone was laughing as he started peeing immediately. Nolan gave a small cry but didn’t full out scream and they ended up having Tim cut his cord and got him to the table next to me to clear out his mouth. He was born at 5:47 pm.
Prep on me began then. The afterbirth and placenta delivered easily and Tim and I were both intrigued to check it out. I thought I hadn’t tore but indeed I had a bad 3rd degree tear that took about 20-30 minutes of stitching. Nolan was healthy and happy and finally here almost 36 hours after my water broke!!
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