Four Is Enough For Us: Birth Story, Part 3 and Final!

When I left off, it was about 5am on October 2nd and they just started the Pitocin drip. The "real" contractions started coming within an hour.

I know I wasn't very far into labor, but these things were easy! They were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 1-2 minutes. They were not comfortable but not really painful either. At about 7 am, they checked my cervix and I was a whopping 2 cm. Woohoo!

At that point they decided to break my water and try to get things progressing faster. They said once my water was broke, the contractions would become more intense and since the plan was to get this kid out I might as well have an epidural.

Since it was never my plan to be a pain hero, I was cool with the epidural. So, they called anesthesia and within about 20 minutes they showed up. I did a double-take when the Anesthesiologist came in... Hellloooooo Dr. McSteamy! There are very few things that have made me feel less attractive in my life than that moment. I had not showered in >24 hrs and was sitting on the edge of a bed in a gown with my butt crack hanging out the back as a good looking doctor sticks a giant needle in my spine. Awesome. But, I digress....

Within about 20 minutes of the epidural, I felt nothing. I wasn't in pain before, but just knowing that I wouldn't be in pain going forward was calming.

An ObGyn Resident came in and broke my water... THAT was a weird feeling. There was a a rush of fluid and my belly literally shrunk. Then the Resident started trying to feel around Isaac's head to ensure it wasn't sitting on the cord... I was happy to have the epidural during that.

So for the next hour I was happy watching HGTV with my epidural, watching the contractions on the monitor.

At about 8-8:30 am, a nurse comes in and calmly asks me to lay down on my side and put on an oxygen mask. After about a minute she commented that Isaac's heart rate had gotten a little low... they typically want it between 110 - 140 during contractions. It had gone up but they needed to let him rest by turning off the Pitocin.

About 10 minutes later the attending high risk ObGyn came in and reiterated this. He said that sometimes when you force your body to do something it's not ready to do, there are unintended consequences... like the Baby not doing well with Pitocin. He said they would turn the Pitocin off for 30 min then try again.

So after the "rest" time, they turned the Pitocin back on and we wait again.

Then, at about 12:45 pm, 4 ObGyn's and 3 nurses rushed in the the room. They told me to get on my side ASAP and put on oxygen. I had one ObGyn put in the "direct" heart rate monitor into Isaac's scalp. Then they told me to move onto my other side and faster! Then after about a minute, everything calmed down and they said we were stable. Apparently Isaac's heart rate had dropped to about 60, which was significantly worse than what happened a few hours earlier.

The attending ObGyn talked to us again and said that it looks like I would not be able to deliver normally. Isaac was not taking well to the Pitocin because my body just wasn't ready to have the baby on it's own. He said that in order to ensure a healthy baby we needed to do a C-section and we needed to do it now since we were both stable. If we became unstable we would have to do an emergency C-section which no one wants.

We both agreed that the goal should be to have a healthy baby and we needed to do a C-section. I also had only made it to ~3.5 cm in 8 hours.

From the time we had this conversation to the time Isaac arrived was only about 20 minutes! They wheeled me into the operating room, got me prepped (which included another visit from Dr. McSteamy to beef up my epidural meds).

Since Memorial Hermann is a teaching hospital, there was the attending ObGyn and about 4 Residents in the operating room. The attending was narrating the entire procedure... I'll save you the details but I needed Bryce to distract me so I didn't pass out. Once I heard Isaac's scream, that was the best sound I'd ever heard. :)

It took about 20 minutse to sew me back up. During which, I got incredibly nauseous and threw up on my right shoulder... again, awesome. Bryce followed Isaac into the warming room where they got his weight and cleaned him up. Then he was able to bring him over to me. Best. Moment. Ever.

I wish I didn't need an C-section, but in the end I got a healthy baby which made it worth it.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Me about to be wheeled into the Operating Room.

Isaac Henry born October 2nd at 1:46pm. 20" long and 8 lbs 10 oz. Yes, I had a HUGE kid at 37 weeks. When we saw how big he was, I was kind of glad I didn't have him the "normal" way. :)