That night I went to bed around 10 or 11pm, but I couldn't sleep. Around midnight, I felt the baby stretching and hurting inside me again and again. I woke Ben up "Awwww Ben the baby is stretching inside me, it really hurts". The next time the baby 'stretched' inside me, I thought, hmmmm, could this be a contraction?
I said "Hey Ben, I think I had a contraction". We didn't get exited about it because we had heard many stories of false labour and false starts and stops. I tried sleeping but the pain was so bad. I don't really remember what I did all night but Ben was sleeping most of the night. I paced around the house and tried different positions, sitting in the lazy boy, laying on the couch.... Around 3 am, I layed in bed and I felt the most gripping pain I've ever felt in my life. It felt like someone grabbed my butthole and twisted my insides like a wet towel. I screamed and Ben finally woke up.
I started pacing and groaning for the rest of the night. I was leaning on the staircase, rocking my hips. Around 6am, the pain was getting bad and frequent. Ben was timing the contractions and I was standing in the hot shower. The shower helped the pain. The contractions were coming harder and more frequent, they were 45 seconds long and 3 minutes apart, regularly. From that time on, we tried figuring out when to go to the hospital.
We went to the hospital at 8am. I couldn't sit in the truck, so I crawled on the floor of the truck on my hands and knees. It was a 45 minute drive to the hospital on my hands and knees, contractions all the way to the hospital. It was hard to walk from the parking lot to the Labour and Delivery ward with contractions. When we got to Labour and Delivery, I was examined and found to be 6cm dialated. I was admitted into a birthing room.
For the first few hours the nurse and I tried all kinds of different natural pain relief methods, the birthing ball, counter pressure, etc. I wanted a natural childbirth, this was my "birth plan". However, things didn't go the way I planned. I got stuck at 8cm and I stopped progressing.
The doctor came in the birthing room with the resident. I guess the resident was learning what to do, so the doctor asked 'what should we do?" The resident shrugged his shoulders and says "Oxytocin?". The doctor nodded and they asked me if I wanted the oxytocin. That was sort of weird, I thought, you're asking me? Sure, why not. The doctor and resident left the room. The nurse started the oxytocin drip to increase my contractions to get to 10cm. The oxytocin made my contractions harder and more frequent, and thankfully, I started progressing again in labour. I was getting tired.
I was exhasted and I couldnt take anymore. My 'natural birth' plan was thrown out and I asked for the epidural, partially because of the pain, but mostly because I was so tired. The anesthesiologist was busy so I had to wait a painful 45 minutes. Finally, the anesthesiologist administered the epidural.
The epidural didn't work. The nurse was putting ice cubes on my belly and I felt everything. Only a tiny 2 inch band was frozen around my waist. I had to go on without any pain relief. I kept pushing the epidural button and it gave me nothing. I actually stood up and walked around. I started asking for General Anesthetic.
By God's grace, I found enough strength and determination to carry on without pain relief, perhaps God strengthened me by the prayers of those who were praying for me. Ben was there beside me and we discovered we could make it through each hellish contraction if I pulled his arm and he pulled, like tug of war. Ben was counting down each contraction for me "only 10 more seconds...." This went on for hours. Finally, around 6pm everything changed. I reached 10cm, and my body started automatically trying to push the baby out. I couldn't control the pushing, my body took over.
I yelled to the nurse "I'm pushing!". The nurse called the doctor but there were no doctors available. The nurse was coaching me how to push and showing me different positions. But the baby would not move down the birth canal, the baby was stuck. At one point the resident showed up without the doctor. I overheard "the doctor is doing a repair, the doctor is in surgery". The nurse and resident checked the position of the babies head, I heard the resident say "I think the baby is posterior". I knew that meant the baby's head was facing my belly instead of facing my spine.
The nurse tried turning the baby using natural methods. I was pushing on my hands and knees and the nurse tried lifting one of my legs and turning me on my side. But the baby would not turn. Me and Ben started praying fervently. Both of us were crying out to God "Jesus please turn this baby, Jesus please hear our prayers. I think it was the most desperate prayer I have ever prayed in my life. I was literally crying to God to hear me. So was Ben.
And God did answer our prayers. Suddenly, a team of doctors rushed into the room. A woman doctor appeared like an angel. She was so skilled and confident. The resident said to her "I think the baby is posterior". The doctor checked me and said "Yes, he is posterior". The doctor reached in and turned the baby around . I felt the babies body rotate inside me, forcefully, bones grinding against bones. I just rolled my eyes back into my head and suffered.
Finally, the baby was in the right position. I started pushing again and baby started moving easily down the birth canal. I was so exhasted. I couldn't push anymore. I said to the doctor "can you vacuum him out or something???" The doctor grabbed the vacuum and said "Yes, but you have to help me". I heard the vacuum suction onto the babies head and he was out in 2 or 3 pushes.
The pain was so bad, I heard voices clearly, but I was closing my eyes. I heard people cheering for me. (There were 10 or 12 people in the room), doctors, nurses and a team to suction the babies lungs because my water had broken and I had mecomium in the water.
I felt the babies head crown, and I knew, its really happening, I did it, its over. The babies head came out, and the babies body easily slid out. I heard the doctor ask Ben if he wanted to cut the cord, I looked up and I saw my baby covered in blood being rushed to the warming station. I said to the doctor "Is he OK" She said "Oh yeah". The pain was instantly over. It was instant relief.
Then I heard my baby cry. That was the happiest moment of my life. He had these tiny cries. I thought it would be like in the movies, like loud screaming 'waaahhhs" but he had these tiny cries, like 'ah ah ah'. It was so cute. Ben was with the baby, taking photos, watching everything the nurses were doing.
The doctor removed the placenta, I didn't feel anything. Ben was with the baby, feeding him with a bottle of formula the nurse had given him. The nurse wanted me to breastfeed but didn't want to, I didn't even want to hold the baby I was so tired, I just wanted to rest. I held him for a few minutes, but he was too heavy for me, I was so tired. In total, I was in labor for 20 hours and 38 minutes.
Finally I was wheeled into a recovery room with my baby. That was the best night of my life. Me and Ben spent the whole night staring at our baby in amazement. We couldn't do anything but stare at him.
In the end, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Baby was almost 9lbs. My body stretched and I was able to birth the 9lb baby, even though I'm a small woman. I lost a lot of blood, just like I feared, but I didn't even notice or feel different. I didn't have any bad reactions to any drugs. All my fears were unfounded, and eveyrthing worked out in the end.
