Friday, 22 April 2011

• Becca's Birth Story: Fast and Furious

  Well, because I've always been a bit long-winded, I've decided to divide Becca's birth story into three parts: pre-labor, labor and delivery, and post-labor. But because the actual birth story is all anyone really cares about, I'll jump right into that.

  After being back in triage for a few hours, shortly after 8:15am I got a visit from the OB on duty. By this point, I was starting to have some stronger contractions that no longer felt like my false labor and I actually had to breath through them.

  The OB checked me between contractions and I was now 3cm dilated (up from 2cm), 80% effaced, and Baby had dropped from -2 station to -1. Since it looked like I was making progress despite still being in early labor, the doctor decided to let us stay and she stripped my membranes to see if that would speed things up.

  Well, that would be an understatement.

  My contractions took off with a bang. With my first delivery, I just rocked and breathed through my contractions. But that wasn't enough this time. First of all, getting my membranes stripped definitely hurt this time.

  It wasn't as terrible as I thought it'd be, but for whatever reason, I started sobbing and hyperventilating right after she did it and it took me a while to calm down. But then with each contraction, I couldn't help but start moaning. I was SO anxious to be moved out of triage and into the birthing room because I was so embarrassed that I was one of those women during labor. I was probably terrifying every other pregnant woman in there (and triage was full that morning).

  My nurse finally started to try and hurry along when she thought she heard me pushing already. I said I didn't think I was, but when she asked about pain management, I said I wanted the epidural NOW. I had wanted to go without, but these contractions were so much stronger than what I experienced with my first delivery.

  Finally, at 9:50am, we were moved into the birth room. Before I could receive an epidural, I need to be pumped with fluids via IV. I warned the nurse that I had terrible veins, but she still blew two of them before getting one of them to partially take but even then, it then experienced a lot of blockage. She finally had to ask another nurse to do it, and even she had to wrap my arm in a warm towel to get the IV to take.

  After being poked that many times with no success, I was an awesome patient. Or not...  I was thrashing around in the bed and groaning horribly. I tried so hard to listen to everything they were telling me (ie. stay calm, slow your breathing, blow it out, etc), but at that point, I just couldn't control anything anymore.

  My husband was incredible, stroking my back and holding my hand. I only told him not to touch me once right before I leaned over and threw up everything I had eaten at midnight the night before.

  I'm still embarrassed by this, but my ponytail holder was bothering me so I pulled it out and tried to toss it over to Chris, but it got caught and I ended up WHIPPING it at the nurse, who was trying so desperately to get my IV started so she could pump me with fluids before the epidural. My poor nurse!

  Well, about 30 seconds after that other nurse was finally able to get an IV going, I involuntarily started pushing. I was told not to and I so desperately tried to listen, but at 10:25am I accidentally pushed anyway and my water broke all over the bed. My nurse checked me again and I don't remember her reaction, but I did hear the words, "She's complete?!" They told me not to push yet, to "blow it out, like blowing out birthday candles." Ha! Yeah, right.

  I don't remember what exactly I said, but I know I gave some warning, probably along the lines of, "I can't help it, I have to push!"  And with that, I pushed once and Baby Becca came FLYING out at 10:36am. Just 11 minutes after my water broke, 45 minutes after we moved to the birthing room, and only 2 hours after getting my membranes stripped in triage.

  I didn't even have to push again to get Becca's shoulders out. She just slid right out as if it was nothing. I could have sworn it was the poor nurse who just barely caught her in time, but Chris says a resident doctor swooped in. They didn't even have time to break down the bed or anything. Talk about fast and furious!

  And as they placed Baby Becca on my chest, perhaps I didn't actually make a sound, but in my head, I bust out laughing. I couldn't believe that just happened.

  

  Rebecca (Becca) Anne. Born Friday, April 15, 2011 at 10:36am, weighing 6 pound, 12 ounces and 19 inches long.

  Editor's note: Congratulations to mevlink! And welcome to the world, beautiful Rebecca Anne!

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