Now, I know that some of you who had talked to me throughout the pregnancy are probably thinking to varying degrees of amusement, “Hey, I thought you were going to go au natural?!?” And you would be right. I had truly wanted to go natural, but I hadn’t anticipated back labor either. I spent most of the morning laboring in a haze, not completely aware of what was going on around me. The pain was so intense that it took every ounce of my being to get through each contraction. Breathing exercises (hee hee hoooooooo) and Aaron’s wonderful fist were the only things helping to keep my sane. I felt like I was at the point where I couldn’t relax through the contractions, and if I couldn’t relax, I knew my labor had a great chance of stalling. So, an epidural was in my future.

They brought me a wheel chair to take me to my room, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk there. As we rounded the corner, a big contraction hit, and there I was going “Hee hee hoooooo. Hee hee hooooooo,” like a character out of a Bill Cosby sketch. A nurse sitting at one of the stations looked at me and said, “Great breathing,” and part of me thought, “Yay me!” And then another part of me thought, “OMG shut up lady!” I don’t know that I really needed a cheering section.

When we got in the room, I did have the nurse get an epidural ready in case I decided to go for it, but I did labor for another hour or so before I actually gave in. Once I got the epidural though, I was the happiest person on the face of the earth. I could actually pay attention to my surroundings, and the horrible pain was finally gone. After that experience, I have to say I wouldn’t wish back labor on my mortal enemy.

The consistent theme throughout the labor though, was the unsettling rate of Alex’s heart. It gave no signs of slowing down, and my doctor was a little baffled as to why it was happening. The rapid heart-rate, coupled with the fact that my dilation stalled at around 5 cm, was an indication that I had an infection, but without a fever, no one was quite certain.

Unfortunately after I got the epidural, there was not much I could do being restricted to my bed. Everyone was hungry (including me but the option to eat had been taken away), so the family went to lunch while I took a nap. About an hour after everyone left, I woke up with severe chills, and at about the same time, my doctor walked in. She asked me how I was doing and I told her of the new development, so she felt me. I was burning up. Obviously at this point, it was apparent that I had an infection, and so antibiotics and rectal tylenol were ordered. Thank goodness for epidurals.

Now that I had a fever my doctor told me she was reluctant to let me labor for much longer. It was obviously putting a strain on my body, as well as on Alex’s. When the fever hit, his heart-rate started to become more elevated and reached 214 at one point. I essentially had two options. I could continue to labor to see if the tylenol would bring down my fever and possibly allow my labor to progress beyond 5 cm. Or I could have a c-section. So, I called Aaron (while I was still shivering uncontrollably) to tell him he needed to come back so we could discuss our options. Ultimately, after talking for a short while, we opted to have the c-section because we felt that was the best course of action for both me and the baby.

Once the decision was made, things moved rather quickly after that. It seemed in no time at all, I was on a gurney heading in for surgery.

The final part to come later…

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Approaching the due date of Alex was an interesting experience because everyone had their own predictions of when the little bugger would finally make his appearance. The Friday before he was due, my chiropractor predicted he’d probably see me one more time in the coming week, and that Alex would make his debut sometime around Tuesday or Wednesday. My mother-in-law had the date of June 14th in her mind, and I have to admit, I had my own suspicions of June 18th being the big day. No one was correct. As the days rolled by, no true signs of labor were apparent (except for loss of my lovely mucus plug of which I’m sure you’re more than happy for me to share with you).

Finally on June 19th, labor actually seemed possible. During the morning hours I started experiencing some light menstrual like cramping accompanied by some discomfort in my back. I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up though, so I kept it to myself. These light pains continued to happen throughout the day, but weren’t strong enough to raise my concern. At one point, my mother-in-law commented that perhaps Alex was waiting for his “Poppie” (my father-in-law, Michael, who was due to arrive in Seattle that day at around 3:00 pm) to show up. We all laughed at this thinking nothing of it, only to realize about less than a minute after Poppie’s arrival, Alex would decide to make his intentions known.

I was sitting on the couch, and Michael had just sat in a chair across from me after dropping his luggage off in the spare room. At that moment I experienced a definite contraction, and Michael asked me, “Are you in labor?” I’m sure he didn’t expect me to say, “Well, I think so.” This was around 4:30 pm, and the hour that we’ve decided to name the start of our birth experience. Nana (my mother-in-law Nancy) started timing the contractions immediately with great excitement. Until later that night we proceeded with normal everyday activities like shopping and eating dinner at a nice restaurant, as Aaron mentioned in the previous post. I could speak and walk through the contractions at this point and instead of being painful, they were mostly annoying. When we got home, the contractions became more insistent, and whereas I could still speak and walk through them, they were becoming increasingly more distracting…stealing my attention from tasks at hand like eating delicious Blizzards from Dairy Queen.

I did call the hospital to speak with a labor nurse to assess whether or not I should come in. Unfortunately at that point, the contractions weren’t consistent and close enough together to warrant a trip to the hospital. Most likely they would simply send me home again. After our trip to Dairy Queen, the pain ramped up, and I decided it was time to go. Occasionally, I needed Aaron to push his fist into my lower back to help ease the pain, and I will tell you I will never forget where this place on my body is for the rest of my life, for as the night and day progressed, Aaron’s fist would take up near permanent residence there. We quickly packed up the rest of the odds and ends we needed and headed to the hospital.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got to the hospital, but I had a sneaking suspicion they were going to send me home. The pain was pretty intense, as it was all pretty much back labor, but unfortunately, I could still talk and walk through the contractions. I still went though, hoping for the best.

I was taken to the triage area, where they hooked me up to machines to monitor the baby’s heart-rate and to monitor my contractions. The nurse checked my cervix, and I was still only about 2.5 to 3 cm dilated (sign number one they were probably going to send me home). Also my contractions weren’t staying consistent enough to warrant a stay either (sign number two). The only concern of the nurse was that our little guy’s heartbeat was a bit too high. So, they kept me for about an hour, after which his heartbeat seemed to regulate itself a bit better. This was a relief, but it also meant that I had to go home. The doctor and the nurse told me that this was essentially pre-labor, and that it could go on for a few days! The sent me home with some super benadryl to hopefully knock me out enough to get some rest.

The contractions had definitely slowed down, and so Aaron and I headed home with me feeling pretty sleepy from the drugs. When we got home, we both tried to go to sleep, but I kept having to have Aaron push his fist in my back. I did eventually start to doze at around 2:30, only to wake up to excruciating pain in my lower back at around 4:00. For about 45 minutes I tried to deal with the pain on my own, using the positions and breathing techniques I learned in my childbirth classes, but eventually I had to wake Aaron up. At this point, the contractions had me in tears and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a pain that intense in all my life. So, we headed back to the hospital, all the while with me fearing that the hospital would send me back home. I remember commenting to Aaron through tears, “How the hell is someone supposed to endure this for a few days?!?”

More to come later…

He weighs 8 pounds 9 ounces and is 21 and 5/8ths inches in length. The story of his birth is very interesting, as is evidenced in the prior post, but the baby is doing well and we should be able to come home on Monday.

I am ecstatic. More later.

10pm arrived and we decided to drop into the hospital for a checkup. We entered the triage area, she donned the lovely gown and was attached to various probes to assess the baby’s health. Mr. Alex decided that this was all too exciting and his heart rate was a steady 170bpm. The waiting began in earnest. After an hour the contractions were 2 minutes apart and she was still 3cm dilated (the same as in the doctor’s office on Tuesday). The kid finally calmed down to a healthy 150bpm at around midnight, they gave her some super-benadryl and we went home to try and rest.

The insanity continues to mount as we attempt to go to bed. Chrissey’s contractions became crazily hard and my fist took up residence in her lower back. This continued until about 2:30am when I passed out from exhaustion. Chrissey apparently fell asleep at 3am and was awoken with the big pain at 4am. Around 4:30 we decided to give the hospital a call to see what the heck to do. They told us it was time to come back.

We arrived at 5am and Alex was still super-excited with a heart rate of around 180bpm…and she was STILL only 3cm. The frustration and pain continued for another hour and a half and then the doctor on-call pronounced her 4cm, the heart rate insane and told us it was time to be admitted. At 6am we arrived in our lovely room and I continued embedding my fist in her back. IV fluids were administered, a 6am turkey sandwich consumed and great pain continued. Around 8am Chrissey decided that after 15 hours of pain it was time for relief and ordered the epidural. The doctor came by and broke her water at 10am her cervix was dilated around 5cm.  We both took lovely naps.

My parents are hanging out with us and our pal Denise dropped by to say hi. The baby’s heartbeat continues to be high, but he’s doing well otherwise. It looks from the strip like he’s had a nap as well. Things are progressing nicely and the doctor wants to have the baby this afternoon no matter what. More updates later, but I’m mega-excited and wanted to start sharing the experience.