Bug's Birth Story, part three

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Part One
Part Two

So the new on call Dr arrives in my room around 8am. Let's call him Dr Sneer. It's very fitting. He comes in, seems nice enough and introduces himself, says he is going to go check on a few patients of his upstairs who delivered and then come back and see me.

In the meantime while we await his return, we get a new RN, this one is much nicer. I cannot remember her name for the life of me. She says that although I am contracting pretty regularly they arent that strong, and the Dr may recommend Pitocin. I was pretty hesitant about this at first, because I really didnt want to be on Pitocin and add any undue stress to the baby. I knew my body was already pretty stressed out at that point, and Bug was looking awesome on the monitors, I was very wary of introducing pitocin and possibly causing him to go into distress due to the strong contractions. Even though I knew that due to the HELLP I needed to deliver soon, I was very optimistic that my labor would not last long. I just had a peace about it.

I talked with Janet about the pitocin, and I knew she understood my concerns and fears of introducing a synthetic hormone to induce contractions. She was very reassuring and said that because I had not dialated past a 2 since I was admitted and because Bug needed to be born in the next few hours, she was recommending I go with pitocin. She convinced me, partly because I know she is pretty against labor augmentation and for her to be telling me to do the pitocin, I knew that she must be concerned for me and Bug.

Dr Sneer arrived around 8:30ish after the RN had checked me again, cervix was at about a 3, 80% effaced. He recommended pitocin, as expected, and I agreed as long as it was started at a very low dose. He agreed to that. I also wanted to ask him some questions about after delivery and let him know our wishes as far as what we wanted done with Bug and what we didnt want done. I knew at this point that my dreams for an intimate home birth with minimal intervention were out the window, but there were still some desires I wanted to hang on to, and knew were reasonable to expect.
I told him that after Bug was born I wanted him immediately and wanted to delay all the weighing, etc until after he had breastfed, I also stated we would not be doing the eye drops or Hep B vaccination, as well as not circumcising. I asked that I be allowed to hold Bug for as long as I wanted unless it was clear he was struggling to breathe etc... Then I mentioned that I was planning on doing a delayed cord clamping. All was fine until I mentioned the cord clamping. He interrupted me and said, "I dont do that, there isnt any medical evidence to show that it is beneficial."

Janet stood up at that point from where she was sitting across the room and said, "Actually Dr Sneer, there is quite a bit of medical evidence to support delayed cord clamping..."
Dr Sneer interrupted her and said, "Look I'm not going to get into it with you. I'm not doing it. You have no priviledges here, You are a guest only. So if you want to act like a guest, you can stay, but this is my show and I am in charge here."

My jaw dropped. I couldnt believe he was talking to my midwife like that. My midwife who has been a CNM for 25 years, has a masters in nursing and has been taking care of pregnant women and delivering thier babies since he learned to read. Oh my word. I was so pissed. After that I didnt even know what to say to him. I was in shock. Dr Sneer quickly left the room.

Within about 10 minutes the pitocin drip started and it they were true to their word of starting it on a low dose, at a 2. Around 930am I asked the RN to check me again, I think by this time that the pitocin was up to 4 (still really low). My cervical check at this time was about a 5 and 90% effaced, I dont remember what station Bug was at, but he was very low. About this time Hubs, the kids and Tiffany went and found the hospital cafeteria to eat some breakfast. I was not hungry and was no longer vomiting thanks to the big dose of Zofran my nice RN put in my IV when she came on shift.  I was not looking forward to any more encounters with Dr Sneer.

Around 10am Hubs and the gang made it back to the room, the kids were really wiped out because they had been up since midnight when we awakened them to go to the hospital. So Tiffany was going to go ahead and take the kids home and then we would call her when I was close to delivering.
The next hour went by in kind of a haze, I remember talking to my mom on the phone, and I think my friend Mama Hen and I may have watched some TV. I was really tired at this point and I was not feeling good. It was somewhat comical to have my RN keep checking my urine bag (I had a catheter due to having an epidural and being unable to get up and walk around) and seeing nothing in it. She kept rechecking my tubing and rechecking the IV drip to make sure it was going in, which it was. By this time the pitocin was up to 8, the highest it would go. Which for me was pretty low, considering both of my other labors I was up in the 20's on the pit.

About 11am it was time to swap out my epidural medicine for a new bag, and I noticed within a few mintues of that occuring that I could really feel my contractions. ALOT. And with that alot of pressure. By around ten after 11 I was pretty uncomfortable despite pressing the button to release more epidural meds. I knew Bug was going to be here soon.
I called for the RN and she checked me again and I was fully dialted and effaced and ready to push. Hubs called Tiffany to hurry back with the kids. We had wanted them to have the option to watch Bug be born, that was the plan with the homebirth. It was going to be their choice, but we were comfortable with them being a part of the birth. I had prepped them with lots of videos of babies being born and explaining the process. We were unsure if they were going to want to witness the birth in the hospital as I know it seemed alot scarier to them with all the monitors and straps and IV's I was hooked up to.

Tiffany and the kids arrived back at the hospital around 11:30am, and in the meantime I was having the hardest time NOT pushing. My body was almost taking over at one point and I was pushing involuntarily. I had heard about this happening with other women, it is described as vomiting backwards, where even if you wanted to stop yourself from vomiting your body just does its own thing. Janet was working with me on my breathing to "blow away" the urge to push and oh my goodness it took all of my concentration to focus on not pushing. Once the kids got there we brought them in and asked them if they wanted to stay. They said yes initally, but within a few minutes they changed their minds. Which was okay, I was bummed they wouldnt be there, but didnt want them there if they felt incomfortable.

Dr Sneer came in and said I needed to start on oxygen because the baby was having some variables in his heart rate. I asked if he was having any decelerations (large drops in babys heartrate like from 150's down to 80 or something, a sign of baby being in distress). Dr Sneer said no, but the heartrate was variable and oxygen would help. (Later found out that research shows that moms being put on oxygen in labor only helps the moms oxygen levels and does not translate to the baby. My oxygen stats were normal. Whatever) So I put on the stupid oxygen mask.

Oh yeah look how puffy and swollen I am due to retaining all those fluids they pumped me full of. Super hot in the mask. Just the birth I wanted. 

That pillow has been with me for every birth. Kinda cool.

So the Dr is "ready" and I am so ready to start pushing. I kept pushing that stupid epidural button because I was feeling EVERYTHING. And it wasnt helping one bit. I discovered later that when the bag got swapped out of pain meds it didnt get connected to the machine correctly so I was not receiving any more meds through my epidural. Nice!

I wanted to remain as upright as possible to push because that felt the most comfortable and natural to me, but of course as soon as I start to push the RN lowers my bed back to almost flat. I was saying "No, no I want to sit up". And she said "No its better this way, you'll be more comfortable". Um, no I won't!!  Laying down narrows my pelvis and makes it harder for baby to come out! Last time I laid flat on my back to deliver I pushed for 90 minutes and baby was stuck on my pubic bone all that time. 

Argh!

The Dr starts rambling on about how to push and hold my breath and count to ten and I honestly just drowned him out. Janet was right next to my head holding my hand and encouraging me and telling me how I was progressing. Hubs was on the same side, holding my leg and counting for me and encouraging me. After the first push (I think I stopped pushing at the count of 8) I remember the Dr asking me why I didnt keep pushing. I was so annoyed that I just mumbled something like "shut up". I wanted to just do this without some idiot Dr questioning what I was doing. Plus I could feel everything, totally natural birth, which is what I wanted at home... but not the way it was happening here! 

I started my first push around 11:45am and about 5 pushes later Bug emerged at 11:51am. I am not gonna lie. It hurt. Like hell. I remember on the last push hearing something down there 'pop'. I had a split second of "what the heck was that?"(turned out I popped the tear that had healed from my last birth with Moo) and at the same time feeling like his head was as big as giant pumpkin and would break me in half. Once his head was out, unlike with my other births, I had to push each section of him out. All the other babies slid out in one push once the head came through. Not Bug! I had to work for it... shoulders, chest, abdomen and finally he was here!! 

They handed him right to me and I dont remember, but I think I cried. He was quiet and cried just a little while the RN rubbed him down while he was on my chest. He was alert and wonderful.

Bug breastfed within the first 30 minutes or so, and did great. Janet was there to help and I was so glad for her encouragement and assistance. The kids came in when he was about an hour old and were enthralled with thier new baby brother. Although the birth and hospital stay in labor and delivery were difficult at best and for the most part we were not treated well, that evening and the next few hours in the mother/baby ward were great. We had great RN's who were respectful of us and a few that even expressed their disappointment for us that we didnt get to have our homebirth. They only took Bug twice, once for his bath and another for a weight check. Hubs accompanied him both times. By the time I went home all of my abnormal labs went back to the normal range and my urine output started back up about 10 hours after the birth. The HELLP syndrome took less than 24 hours to be eliminated from my body and I was glad that Bug was healthy and I was on the mend as well. 

Bug weighed in a 6lbs 6oz at birth and was 18 and 3/4 inches. Our biggest baby to date! We were home the next day by 330pm. And it was nice to be home in my own bed snuggled with my new little Lovebug.