At the Hospital-Part #2 Scene #1

Gown? Check.

Contractions? Check.

Pain? Check.

I came in and was measured as 2-3 dilated.  I was glad about that, maybe a teeny bit surprised it wasn't more, especially as it had been over 12 hours since I first noticed contractions.  

The nurse wasn't convinced my water broke, but once she saw the puddle under me there was no more discussion.  I was being admitted.  I was leaving with a baby.  Not just a baby, MY baby! OUR baby!  

Brixton!

I took all the labor tips I had squirreled away in my brain and started applying them.  I breathed through the ever-increasing-in-pain contractions.  I walked as much as I could.  I tried stretching to keep myself relaxed.  

**Note: I had no birth plan other than this: A healthy baby.  I knew I would get an epidural.  I really didn't want a c-section.  But my focus was on Brix and just getting him out here.  

I don't know what time it was but man, the pain was getting bad.  Like a skin belt tightening around your belly and then a pull down from gravity trying to rip out your insides.  I couldn't talk and I couldn't walk anymore through them.  Brendan came back from getting our bags from the car.  I had him rub my back during the contractions...which were coming now every 3 minutes according to the nurse.  I held out till midnight--about 17 1/2 hours of contractions every 3-6 minutes and then asked for the epidural.  

If you are a lady who went natural, I just want to give you an extra shout-out.  I have no idea how you did it, but wow, you are determined.  I give you big props and you should be very VERY proud.

The anesthesiologist came and did the epidural.  The nurse, Margaret held me close to her and told me I was doing great.  That encouragement was so powerful in that moment for me.  It did hurt, but not a lot, it was just a very strange sensation.  And thankfully, it worked for me right away.  

Regarding the epidural: it was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Best because I didn't feel contractions, or exams, or anything.  I didn't even have to get up to go pee!  Yeah!  Worst because I didn't like the feeling of having numb legs.  Although I could move my feet and toes, my legs (especially the left side) felt so numb I couldn't get comfy.  So while it worked for me, it wasn't all that great.  

Ok, so I went to "sleep" around 12:30.  Sleep is a funny term.  Between hourly visits from the nurse, having to be turned over, the monitors and just the excitement, I couldn't sleep at all.  I slept a total of about 1 hour.  

Luckily, at 6:30am, one of my favorite doctors showed up for the doctor shift change (I never met rude doctor) and I was examined.  I was still at a 2-3.  That was a bummer.  I had now been contracting regularly and strongly for 24 hours with no change.  Even I knew that this meant Pitocin would be offered and that I could see this made sense at this point.  So we started the Pitocin.  They had offered me Pitocin at  midnight as well, but I refused, wanting to see what my body would do.

But there was more bad news: Brixton's heart rate was "flat." This meant that he wasn't really responding to stimuli during the night, even when they would use oxygen to try to stimulate him.  He had a good heart rate, but it just wasn't moving much and this concerned the doctor that maybe my uterus had become hostile.  (I love the idea of a hostile uterus. That's such a great story character..).  

This concerned me.  A healthy baby was my focus for my birth plan.  But I still wanted to see what the Pitocin did. So they put some monitors onto Brix's tiny baby head to better monitor him.  At first they were hopeful.  They came back about 1 hour later.  They had been watching the monitor outside and it was worse than they thought.  Not an emergency.  But my exam showed that I had only slightly progressed in dilation, even with the Pitocin.  And I had about 6-7 centimeters more to dilate and a baby with possible trouble.  It was all adding up to:

C-Section

Visit tomorrow for the next exciting chapter!