Lorelai's Birth Story

While I've made a couple of posts since we came to the hospital, I'm going to recap for those who just come to this blog entry for the first time.

On Friday morning, we had an ultrasound scheduled at 8:40 am to check on Lorelai's weight. I knew that if she'd fallen under the 10th percentile of weight for her age, then my induction would be scheduled sooner rather than later. However, I was pretty confident that she would be fine, maybe even gaining some on her previous estimate of being in the 14th percentile. When we got in, she was measuring an estimated 5lbs, 6 oz, which put her under that 10th percentile. The ultrasound tech, tight lipped and worried, went to talk to the doctor. Dr. Lanni came in and took a look at the cord and while it looked like the flow was good, there was serious talk about how her lack of growth could mean that she wasn't getting what she needed in the womb.

Dr. Lanni asked, "How do you feel about having this baby today?" And for some reason I was calm about it. Calm, but terrified all at once. As Matt and I walked to Labor and Delivery, it was sinking in more and more. I was shaking and excited as we got there. They were really busy, so I was put in an exam room to wait while a room was readied for us. Several hours later, I was in one of the labor rooms, with an IV and a doctor talking about my options for ripening my cervix. A cervical check showed that I was tightly closed and not very soft. We went with Misoprostil - two doses over the course of the day. The next morning when my cervix was soft, the doctor inserted a Foley bulb.

The procedure was awful, mostly due to my issues with vaginismus. Despite being sedated for cervical checks with IV pain relief, they were difficult at best. I was put on Pitocin that was steadily increased to 20ml/h and 6 hours later, a rough check revealed that I wasn't dilating. They gave it another 6 hours, saying that they didn't like to keep the Foley in past 12 hours. When that 12 hour mark passed, it was removed and I was at a 3. The contractions I felt on the high dose of Pit plus the Foley bulb were incredibly intense. I was sure that there was progress being made. They increased my pitocin from 20 to 30, the highest dose that one of my nurses had ever seen.

24 hours later, and there was no change. I was still at 3 centimeters dilated, with Lorelai floating at -4 station. I was also completely miserable. We'd tried walking, showering, squatting, everything in our power. Finally, the doctors made the decision to break my water on Sunday. I wasn't able to tolerate the internal needed to get to my sac of waters so I decided to opt for the epidural.

That's when we found out that I have pretty bad scoliosis. Not only is my spine curved from side to side, it's also rotated. The anesthiologist tried for 20 minutes to place the epidural and kept hitting bone. When he finally got it placed, it didn't do anything. I had zero pain relief from it, but one hell of a bruised back. My water breaking was excrutiating. I was completely miserable. Still I attempted to bring her down. Now that I had the epidural, I was confined to bed, even though it wasn't affecting me at all. I squatted in bed and did what I could to let gravity and movement bring her down. Sunday night we checked and absolutely no progress. Still -4 station, 3 centimeters dilated, 60% effaced.

A C-section got brought up and honestly, I was so ready to just be done. The weekend had broken me, completely obliterated me. However, I didn't feel pushed into it. One thing I can say for MCV is that they have the lowest C-section rates in the state and they really did try everything to get me to go into labor on my own before we went into surgery. When we went in there, the plan was general anesthesia because the epidural wouldn't work. However, the night anesthesiologist decided to take another look at my spine and go for a spinal block. It was easy and painless. He found a place that not only took a block, but also had room for an epidural. I was able to stay awake through the procedure and also have Matt there holding my hand.

And then, an hour later I was holding my little girl while we were being wheeled back to the room. I never thought that losing out on the natural birth I had planned and needing a C-section (what I desperately wanted to avoid) would have been so positive. From the moment I entered that emergency room, everything was positive and happy. It's still positive and happy. It was C-section done right.