Friday, January 29, 2010

Labor and Delivery Pt. 3

yes, this should be the last Part, I just felt the need to make these post's as long as my labor felt ( hehe ) I will now try to wrap up the rest of our story quickly without leaving out the details.

After I was checked and told that I was at 7 cent my mind began to get overwhelmed and I told myself the pain was getting worse, that my body wasnt going to hang on much longer, it had already been so many hours, I was just sure I couldn't take much more of this. I turned my head to my husband as he wiped the hair from my face and I told him, Nick I am really thinking about a Banana.... now this needs some explaining ( banana was my code word for medication AKA Epidural or some sort of relief) nick and I wanted to have a code word that way no one from teh medical team would know what we were talking about and nick knew how much I truly wanted a natural delivery so we thought a code word would be good that way nick could talk me out of it with out the medical team ever knowing that I was thinking about it, because we were aware of the fact that If I had said the word epidural that the staff would then say ok lets go with it, instead of truly going by what I wanted from the start. The funny part is, when I said I am really thinking about a banana my Doula so sweetly said, " I have an organic banana in my bag, here let me get you one." HAHha Nick then explained to her that no she really doesn't need a banana she is just tired, and that I really didn't mean that I wanted an actual banana.

So Nick did a great job, he looked me in my eyes and told me Chels, no you don't need a banana you are doing great and will continue to do great, this is what we wanted, and we are getting so much closer through each contraction, now I had done a little more complaining and then told him that I just wish he could be in my situation and I could be standing on the side of the bed trying to talk him through this, this made us both smile and the next thing I knew I was back rolling with the contractions...

not ever needing A banana.

we tried other positions and the clock kept moving forward, it was now time to be checked again and I was a good 8.5 centimeters nearing 9 and my midwife was phoned. My midwife told my nurse that she was on her way and that she wanted to break my water when she got there, and not to have anyone else do that.

It felt like I waited for the midwife to get there for literally 2 hours because knowing I was so close now I was so ready for the next step and to get back into the tub, finally Kristin ( midwife) walks in all perky with a bright smile, and she says she was going to check me, during her examining me she said wow yep I can feel the bulging bag of water, and your a good 9.5 to 10 centimeters. she then moved her finger and POP I felt a very very warm stream of water come a flowing. YAaYAY that was it, my water had broken and she didn't have to use that long plastic pokey thing to break it because it was so low and bulging! and boy was she right, she told me at one of my previous appointments that I was going to have a lot of water come out when it broke and did I ever. Once this was over, the water was drawn up in the tub and when I was told it was ready, I kid you not I flew off that bed and ran to the tub... I can remember everyone in the room laughing saying look at her, she is so ready, just a few hours ago she couldn't even walk the halls.

Once in the tub I knew it was time, this was my final destination and I would be there until I was holding my little girl in my arms.

the contractions were about 4 and 1/3 minutes apart and the first few I didnt feel the urge to push, and then "THE" contraction came and I went ahah ohh wooeww eee and boy did I feel the need to push, and that first push let me tell you I had NO FLIPPING IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING, I then panicked a little and said wait, I never really learned how to push or how to breath and I need to know, my team could tell I was getting a little nervous there and my doula just told me to brethe and bring my chin in pull my legs back and roll with it, she was going to be there to help me.

now that each contraction I was having I was having the urge to push, the position I was in was on my back in the tub, head leaning back where my husband was ( on the outside of the tub) and under my legs was a sheet that my husband was holding behind me that way when I had a contraction he would pull the sheet tight and I would put my arms under my knees and pull my knees up to my chest and bear down. OMG did the pushing hurt, to me this was the hardest part, and I had to mentally keep telling myself I had to do this, this was the part that I had to do, I had to get her out, there was no turning back.


I pushed and pushed and pushed, my chart says that I only pushed for 45 minutes however, I am told that that time doesn't start until they start to see the head... I believe I was in the tub for around 2 hours pushing, just not successfully.


I remember when I could finally start to feel so much pressure and I just knew that was her head, it was the craziest but most miraculous feeling in the world, to know that my child was getting to enter the world and that no matter how bad it hurt or how hard it was my body was actually doing it, a couple more pushes and I heard them say your doing it chels don't stop pushing we see her head, and then I heard OH my goodness she has a full head of hair, what??!? that is what did it for me I was determined to see my little girl, she had hair? I was expecting a bald baby, bc I was until the age of two and I never had heart burn during the pregnancy.


I pushed and pushed and pushed and then all of a sudden I pushed harder and bared down and then I felt her come out so fast, I couldn't believe my eyes, there she was, she was out oh my goodness there was our daughter. and before I knew it she was placed on my chest and I was in awe, I kept repeating oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness, and I was stroking her head, she was beautiful, her eyes were WIDE open, and she was so clean ( thanks to the water birth) she was perfect with her little cone head and all... she took our breath away, daddy and I kept staring at her in awe that this is our gift from God and she is our daughter, as we studied her features. She looked just like her daddy, Nick felt as though he was looking back at his baby pictures as he was looking at her, talk about a proud daddy. he was so in love.

the water was then drained from the tub and there was a warm blanket placed over Jada as she lay on my chest and then Krisitn told me that I needed to push one last time to get my placenta out.... so daddy got to hold jada, he ripped his shirt off because skin to skin contact was so important to us and he headed into the other part of the room and just held her.


meanwhile, I gave my one last push to birth the placenta, at this point I was overwhelmed with emotion, I was not a mommy and my little girl was in the other room on her daddies chest. there wasn't a worry in the world. I was then given two hands to help pull me out of the tub and as soon as I stood up I lost blood, and a lot of blood, they quickly placed a big blanket on the side of the tub and told me to sit down, they then twisted my body carefully lifting my legs out of the tub so they were touching on the ground my midwife told me she needed me to stand and walk into the other room to the bed so she could stitch me back up. when I stood again another large amt of blood loss. I could tell that my staff team was looking a bit nervous, I just remember feeling shaky and cold, but that I wasn't worried, My little girl was here and all else was in Gods hands and I was going to be ok. I made it back to the bed and had to receive a shot of pitocin in my right hip to help stop the bleeding and then two numbing shots in my birthing area to numb the feeling of the stitches.


During the last part of my delivery Jada came so fast and her shoulders were larger than her head therefore my midwife had to corkscrew her out, which that mixed in with how fast she came during the push I suffered a second degree tear but was told that it was a straight one, and received a good amt of stitches. as for the blood loss, I lost an additions 600 ML, after doing my research since I have been home I believe this was due to the cytotec that was inserted the monday before I delivered ( one of the side effects was heavy bleeding after birth) therefore, in the future I will decline the use of this medicine.


so there you have it my birth story. Natural birth was all that I could have ever hoped and dreamed of, although it was a long labor the end result of holding your precious little baby girl in your arms is unlike anything else in the whole entire world. The natural high you feel after giving birth is incredible, its as if you are off in a place and its just you and your baby in pure happiness, nothing else is going on around you, its surreal, life changing, and breathtaking. I would do it all over again just to be where we are today.