Kira's Birth - Part 3

With that scare behind us, I tried to relax and get my body to get serious about labor. I was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. By noon (12 or 13 hours after my water broke), I was basically having no contractions. My doctor came by to check me and I was barely 5cm dilated. He felt a bulging sac and questioned whether my water had actually broken. It definitely had, but he broke the sac part that he felt and more fluid gushed. I hoped that that might get things rolling. He agreed to one more hour before starting me on pitocin. Their concern was the 18 hour mark after my water broke.

And then at some point during all of this non contraction time, the baby's heart rate went down to 64 and was staying there. The nurse got me to lay on my side to make sure the baby was okay and after a few minutes, her heart rate came back up. Now, you have to understand that a week or so before, I had a dream that I was having a cesarean. So during all of this drama with her heart rate and my body refusing to go into labor, I just kept praying that I would be able to have a vaginal delivery. I wanted the baby to be safe, of course, but I just wanted to avoid a cesarean if at all possible.

By 1pm my contractions had not started back up with any type of regularity, so they started the pitocin. It started working pretty much right away. First it just gave me stronger contractions, then they started getting more regular. The nurse turned the dose up around 1:20pm. At this point, I was in instant hard labor. With contractions that basically never stopped. When the nurse came in somewhere around 2pm and tried upping the dose, I told her no. I was actually concerned that my uterus might explode or something. I stayed at that for a while with Mike's constant attention to rubbing my back and trying to keep me comfortable. I finally asked for a shot of Nubane. The contractions were never stopping. I think I got the shot around 3pm. It was great for the first few seconds before the first contraction started. Then the contraction hit and I thought, "Okay, that literally took the very tippy top of the contraction off, and that's it." And within about three contractions, everything was back to the way it was, and more so, before I got the shot and I started to freak out. Fortunately, Mike did the "take charge" routine with me and got me to focus on the contractions instead of on my anger at the pitocin machine. I literally wanted to kick the **** out of that machine. :)

Now, at some point, the nurse came in again saying that they wanted to up the pitocin level (I still can't figure out why) and I told them that I wouldn't let them increase it unless I got an epidural first. There would have been no way for me to handle that pain. This was probably around 3:40 or so. In order to give the epidural, they apparently had to pump me full of fluid first, so she started the fluids and said it would take about an hour for them to get my hydrated enough for the epidural. Mike was super during this time. He talked me through each contractions and rubbed my legs, my back, and anything else I demanded. :)

I knew within about twenty minutes that I was getting close to being fully dilated. I didn't say anything to Mike or the nurse about it. I'm not sure why I didn't want to tell anyone, but I didn't.

Then I started feeling lots of pressure and I finally said something to the nurse. She checked and I was fully dilated. The pitocin got turned off because I was in one big huge contraction and they finally decided that "my body had taken over". At this point, they called for the doctor and were asking me not to push. The pain from the pitocin overshadowed the urge to push, so it wasn't terribly difficult not to push. But the doctor got there pretty quickly and after getting myself situated, I was able to deliver the sweet little baby. She was born 1 1/2 hours before the 18 hour mark that they were so worried about. I was so happy to have a healthy baby and to have the whole thing over.

And after her little "I refuse to breathe" moment, they weighed her and I was completely shocked to hear that she weighed 8lb 4oz. When Reid was born, the doctor asked where I was hiding that baby. This time I asked myself that question.

So that's Kira's story. Full of drama. Hopefully she got it all out of her system and we can expect an even keeled child from here on out. :)