Monday, April 20, 2009

Taylor's birth story

Now that Taylor is almost one month old, I figure I should put her birth story up on the blog for her to someday read about (and tell me over and over again how much she loves me and how thankful she is for all that I went through :).


I was scheduled for a c-section on Wednesday April 1st if I did not go into labor on my own by then. That would be 1 week and 1 day past my due date. Because I was hoping to VBAC, my doctors would not induce labor since it increases that chance of uterine rupture. Sunday March 29th J told me that I was the only one who did not realize that I was going to have a c-section on April 1st, and I was still being optimistic about going into labor on my own. So we called Lissa and started to plan for her to help us out with Ella on Wednesday night just in case I did not go into labor on my own before then.


Sunday evening we went to bed and I woke up at 3 am with contractions. I could not sleep through them and I kept glancing at the clock to try and time them. I woke up J and let him know that I thought I was in labor, but that I was going to shower and get a few things done, just to make sure that the contractions didn't stop. J said "ok" and fell right back asleep.


After I showered, I went to the basement and sat on the yoga ball while I played on the computer. I found a website that allowed me to time my contractions so I was chatting online and checking my facebook while I was timing contractions. After about an hour of contraction timing, I saw that they were about 3 minutes apart and never more than 5 minutes. They were getting progressively worse, so I went upstairs to wake up J and let him know it was the real deal. I called my mom and dad to see if one of them could come take Ella to school because I did not think that I could wait until 7 am to go to the hospital. I took a bath while J got ready and while we waited for my mom to come over so that we could go to the hospital.


At 5:30 am my mom arrived, we gave her a quick run down of what to do with Ella and we were on our way to St. Joseph hospital. We got there right at 6 am and headed straight up to labor and delivery. Got into my gown, got my IV, was told I was 2-3 cm and sat around waiting for the contractions to do their job. 30 minutes later, the nurse came in and told us some bad news. Because I was trying to VBAC, the hospital rules state that my OB must be present the entire time I am in labor. Unforunately one of the doctors in the practice was on vacation, the two midwives were manning each office and Dr. Epstein had to do surgery at Sherman. Our options were to take something to stop contractions until the doctor could stay at St. Joseph, we could go home and labor at home for a while and come back when things were completely unbearable, or we could leave and go to Sherman hospital. Since the contractions were strong and steady, and I was already 6 days past my due date, we decided to pack up and head to Sherman.


The drive to Sherman was incredibly uncomfortable, but they took us right up to labor and delivery and got things started immediately. It was about 8 am, I was still about 3 cm dilated but the contractions were getting stronger and were consistently 3 minutes apart. At 2:30 pm I was in a lot of pain and decided to get a shot of nubain to let me get a little rest. Though I was able to still feel the contractions, I managed to get about 45 minutes of sleep. Then the contractions were back and stronger than ever. Dr. Eptein came in to check me and he broke my water since I was about 4 cm dilated at that time. He also told me they don't hand out awards to women that do not get epidurals. The major decision to get an epidural this time (aside from the extraordinary pain) was that I did not get one for quite some time with Ella and I did not progress enough, so I was trying to do things a little differently this time around in hopes of a different birthing experience.

At 5:00 pm I asked for an epidural and the anethesiologist was in within a few minutes. I was at 5 cm and the doctor had started me on pitocin in hopes of speeding up my labor. I was really hoping that the chance to relax a little bit would help progress things. Unforunately, it took about 45 minutes to get the epidural in. Mainly because I can't help but flinch when someone touches my back, but also because the contractions were strong at 2 minutes apart and because of the spacing in my back. After the epidural I was able to get about an hour of sleep, which felt great. Then the nurse checked me and I was 7 centimeters and the head was very low causing me to feel some consistent pressure. The bad thing was that the epidural was wearing off and I was really starting to feel the contractions quite intensely again. They would not top it off though because they did not want me numb when it came time to push.

At 11 pm I was in unbearable pain and feeling quite a bit of pressure. Doctor Epstein came in to check me and told me that I was still 7-8 cm dilating and that although her head was "right there" as soon as they would touch her head, she would float back up. Meaning that she was not engaged. Since I had not fully dilated, and was stuck for 3 hours at 7-8 centimeters, the doctor suggested that I get a c-section. As much as I had wanted to VBAC, 20 hours of labor had me quickly agreeing to just get her out.

Taylor then arrived via c-section at 11:44 pm on March 30, 2009 weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and 20 inches long.

3 comments:

oma said...

next time you and JP will have everything under control. and what a beautiful little girl you have, it couldn't have worked better!

Fishvb24 said...

Wow! That sounds wonderful... j/k. Both Ella and Taylor will surely be grateful that their mama went through such an ordeal to bring them into the world. Are you trying to scare me into never having a child!? ;)

Gramma said...

Thank you for Taylor and Ella too. Some of the story we had not heard. May God bless you all.