Labor & delivery
Posted by Wendy on Saturday Aug 14, 2010 Under PersonalThe following posts are mostly for my benefit, so I can chronicle the events to the best of my memory (which already is slipping). Feel free to skip.
I had been getting irregular contractions off and on the week before Avery’s birth date. I wasn’t even sure they were Braxton Hicks contractions or real labor pains. We were still in the midst of getting the house unpacked (actually we haven’t moved everything yet, and I still have a suitcase full of clothes sitting in the master bedroom). Sunday, 8/1/2010, we went to Albert’s parents’ house for another round of stuff. We stayed for dinner, during which I started getting somewhat regular contractions (as Albert’s mom was saying, “Any day now!”). Having read about other women’s labor stories and knowing there may still be some time before we could leave for the hospital, I kept quiet. But at 8:30pm back in Mountain View, I was getting regular contractions every 8 minutes. Good thing I downloaded a contractions calculator app on my DROID months before! I informed Albert, that there was a possibility that we would go to the hospital tonight. We both started packing up last minute items. Contractions became more frequent, but still not frequent enough to garner a trip to the hospital. We decided to go to bed.
I woke up at around 1:30am and restarted calculating my contractions. I had trouble figuring if I was really having a contraction. But little did I know things started becoming regular every 3 minutes. Albert started brushing his teeth and doing his morning routine. “Who knows when I’ll have the opportunity to wash up?!” is what he said. He got into some sort of battle mode all on his own – cute. :) We checked into L&D at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose at around 3:30am. I was in the triage room, where the nurse strapped me in for NST (non-stress test) to measure my contractions and baby’s heartbeat. They wanted to confirm that I was having regular contractions, and that I was starting to dilate. I think I had to be having contractions every 5 minutes and dilated 3cm at a minimum. The nurse stretched my cervix to 3cm so that I could be admitted. By then my contraction pains were so bad, I was leaning onto the left side gripping the bed post as hard as I could. Just like all the labor stories I had read, I was perfectly fine in between, but during a contraction a sharp pain surged through my body, incapacitating all my rationale. I think at this point Albert got a bit worried.
I had this silly idea that I would try to stall getting an epidural as long as possible, knowing that getting one may delay labor, to the point where I would stop dilating and would require a Caesarian birth. So when I was finally admitted, I told the attending doctor that I would start with pain medications in my IV. What happened next was the most painful part of the whole ordeal: Getting the needle in for the IV. The nurse tried and failed three times. I have 3 throbbing bruises on my hands. Good thing it was the end of the nurse’s shift. She called the head nurse for help, who quickly stuck a needle in me. Felt like a quick pin prick, just like how it was supposed to be done. So the pain meds came, but didn’t do much. It dulled the underlying pain, but did not reduce any of the contraction pains at all. So I immediately requested for an epidural. Bad thing was I was a bit loopy from the intravenous pain meds, and Kathleen, my new attending nurse, had to wait til I was alert enough to make a conscious decision to get an epidural.
When Winnie was in labor for Mason’s birth, Eric passed out when she got an epidural. So I told Albert to buck up. Fortunately he was a champ and helped me get my epidural uneventfully. And boy was I glad the epidural was effective (apparently some women are not as lucky as me). The anesthesiologist (I forget his last name, Dr S) was wonderful. Gave me my drugs, and by then it was probably around 6am. I really wanted to sleep, and had Albert ask Kathleen if it was OK for me to rest. She chuckled, saying “Of course! Now is the time to regain energy so you can push the Baby out!” I must’ve slept for a good 5+ hours, on my sides with Kathleen helping me by placing a wedged cushion on either side. I also had to have a catheter put in on my urethra because I could not use the toilet after having gotten the epidural. By 11:30am or so, I started feeling pressure and the need to push. Albert called for Kathleen, who immediately said, “Don’t push yet!” Well, it’s a bit hard not to! But she quickly checked that I was fully dilated to 10cm, and prepped for delivery.
We started “practicing” how to push. Albert got my left leg, Kathleen my right. She showed Albert that as I’m pushing he’ll have to push back on my foot. That woman must be buff, coz I pushed against her with all my might! She taught me that I had to envision myself, basically, pooping. To wait for the rise of a contraction until I can no longer hold it in, then to push while holding my breath like I’m taking a dump (her words, not mine…). I had trouble pushing, until Kathleen had her fingers in my cervix. It was good to feel something in there so I could something tangible to push out of my va-jay-jay.
To be continued…Avery’s crying.
exhausted