The long delivery story
!!WARNING!! This may contain graphic or medical information that may be grotesque or TMI, read at your own risk!
So here's the entire scoop on the delivery of Dylan. It's a LONG story, so be prepared to be reading for awhile!
Starting Thursday, the 9th of April, I was feeling under the weather, like maybe I was coming down with something. I was sleeping a lot and feeling achy and crampy. Saturday was the same so I headed to bed a little after 6pm and was just lounging in bed watching tv. At a little after 6:20pm I started to have widespread stomach cramping. Shortly after it became really localized in my lower left side and was excruciating. I tried to get up from bed but the pain was so severe that I kneeled to the floor crying. Joe rushed in and I had him call the L & D triage. They said that I should go in. We drove the 10 minutes to the Women's and Children's Pavilion and it was honestly the longest 10 minutes of my life! I was hurting so bad.
We got checked into triage and I was hooked up to fetal and contraction monitors. I was having contractions about every 2 minutes and the baby's heart rate looked fine. I was barely dilated 1 cm at that time so they didn't think I was in labor yet. The next attempt was to hook me up to an IV to see if fluids would help. After 2 different nurses attempted in 5 different places in my arms, they got one started. But shortly after, my arm started swelling up and looked like Popeye's forearm! So they took that one out and tried again. That one swelled up too! So the 7th poke finally produced a successful IV. After some fluids, I began to feel better. The pain wasn't so severe any more. They had the OB doctor on duty come and check me out. My OB was actually the back-up so he came in to examine and check on me too. Based on my localized pain, he thought that maybe there was a placental abruption, meaning the placenta could be detaching from the uterine lining. Which if it were the case, would be serious and they sent the anesthesiologist in to get my health history in case an emergency C-section was needed. Since I wasn't bleeding, they didn't think too much into the placenta theory but then thought maybe I was having a kidney stone. While monitoring the fetal heart rate, the baby had a deceleration meaning his heart rate dropped below normal range for a prolonged period of time. So they admitted me to labor and delivery for observation. I received some pain meds which was heaven since the pain started to come back! They ran some tests and decided to monitor things over night.
Sunday morning, Easter, my tests were normal, ruling out possible kidney stones and my pain had gone away. I hadn't dilated any more than 1cm so they were going to discharge me. Joe had gone home for the night since the doctor didn't think anything significant would be happening that night and the couch in the hospital room wasn't even big enough to sleep a 5'8" person, let alone someone 6'5". He came back a little after 8am and my doctor said since nothing was abnormal and I was feeling better, they were ready to let us go. We still don't know what the pain was that brought me there. The nurse took out my IV and I was dressed and ready to leave when the nurse came back in and said my doctor wanted me to have a quick ultrasound to rule out low amniotic fluid levels which can cause the heart rate decelerations. That looked normal too but they wanted to just monitor the baby's heart rate for a little while longer. So I was hooked back up to the fetal monitor and again he had a decel.
That's when my doctor came back in and explained to us that since I was full-term and the baby's heart rate was having so many decels that he wanted to induce me and not risk me going home and have things get worse when I wasn't being monitored. So I was back in my hospital gown and moved to another room. I took a shower and was hooked back to another IV (which thankfully only took one try!). They started me on Cervidil (a vaginal medication that ripens the cervix) at 12:45pm on Sunday, the 12th. Joe took off for home about an hour after that to get the remaining things that I hadn't packed yet since we left in such a hurry the night before and to get a long nap since they said the Cervidil would be in place for 12 hours so at 12:45 am they'd remove it and start Pitocin to start contractions so I'd probably labor throughout the night.
The Cervidil caused me to start to have contractions shortly after being placed. At first they weren't too bad. But then they started to get worse, and they were lasting for 3-5 minutes with only short breaks in between. My doctor ok'd some pain meds to take the edge off. They continued to check me but I wasn't dilating any more than 1cm. The fetal monitor kept detecting decels of his heart which also wasn't a good sign. Every time it would happen, 2-3 extra nurses would rush in and they'd have me change positions from my left side to my right so try to get his heart rate back up to the normal range (which is between 110-160 bpm). Usually the decels would last for no longer than 5 minutes and wouldn't get below the 90 bpm range.
By late evening the contractions were getting really bad. I tried sitting in a rocking chair, sitting on a labor ball, etc but nothing seemed to help. I was basically having constant pain with maybe a few minutes here and there without it but always having constant pressure. Since I needed to be hooked up to the monitors constantly, I wasn't able to get up and walk around either so my back and body were getting really sore from being in the bed for all that time. Joe came back around 8:30pm and settled in on the way-too-small couch for the night. My parents stopped by that night too after they had come back from Bainbridge for Easter.
All that night I was in agony. I maybe slept a total of 45 minutes the entire night which would occur directly after they would give me pain meds. The contractions stayed the same, coming back-to-back and lastly for 3-5+ minutes each. I didn't dilate any more at all through the night. I was in pure misery.
The next morning, Monday the 13th, around 7am the nurses and doctors had their shift changes. My nurse from the previous night was briefing the next nurse on the night's activities. Joe was up and had gone to find coffee. Suddenly they were having me change positions since the baby was having a decel again. About 3 more nurses in addition to the 2 already in the room rushed in (they can see all the monitoring from all the rooms at the nurses station) and were directing me to move this way and that, trying to get his heart rate back to normal. His heart rate wasn't coming back up and it was lower than it had been with other decels (it was down in the 70 bpm range when it was only dropping to the 90s previously). They called in my doctor who was in the process of charting and briefing the next on-duty doctor so they both came in. I was in extreme pain at that time and the nurse tried to check me to see if I had dilated more which could be causing the contractions to be getting worse and then cause the baby to be under more strain. But nothing really had changed, I was barely 1.5 cm dilated. After about 9 agonizing minutes, the heart rate came back up. It was quite the episode. Since I was hurting so bad, I had my eyes closed but once it was over, I looked around and there were 5 nurses, 2 doctors and Joe standing all around me and I was completely exposed for all to see! How embarrassing....
After quite the pow-wow of the situation, both doctors came back and discussed with Joe and I what was going on. They said that the Cervidil was working a little too well and that they had taken it out. With such a bad decel and since he had been having quite a few, they were worried that something was potentially wrong with baby Dylan. They discussed the high chance that I would need a C-section if it continued. They said at that point the options were to just go ahead and do a C-section, to try to start Pitocin and possibly break my water, or to place a fetal monitor inside my uterus to see if my contractions were doing anything on the inside where they should be. We decided that I really wanted to try and deliver vaginally and that I would like to try and start the Pitocin (which causes contractions) and possibly break my water progress the dilation of my cervix. So the Pitocin was started.
So it seemed that hopefully Monday, April 13th would be delivery day! My parents came back that morning and we all settled in for a long day. The Pitocin did exactly what it was supposed to do, start contractions. But by mid-morning, the contractions were getting so severe again and still nothing was happening to my cervix, I was maybe dilated to 2cm. My contractions were really bad, the pain meds were starting to not work any more and baby was still having decels. The doctor ok'd an epidural even though I was only 2cm dilated (usually they wait until 4cm). Around 12pm on Monday I was given the epidural (again it took a few pokes before it was successful, story of the day). Within minutes I was feeling great! They had stopped the Pitocin to get me comfortable prior to the epidural so when the Pitocin was started back up, I was ecstatic to not feel the painful contractions any more! And the best thing was that the contractions were behaving like they should be- instead of long ones with short breaks in between, they were now 45-60 sec contractions with 5-6 minutes in between. We had hope that things were looking up!
The rest of Monday afternoon went pretty smoothly, I was having contractions closer and closer together as the Pitocin was increased and I still didn't feel much. The only problem was that I wasn't dilating any more than 2cm. The Pitocin was increased some more and after being checked around 4pm (I think?) and being 2cm and then getting checked again around 5:30 (again, I think this was the time) I was shocked to learn I was dilated 6-7 cm! All those hours being 1-2cm and then within 1.5 hours changing that much!! Very relieving to finally have some successful progress.
The doctor had been really busy all day long so we actually hadn't seen him for him to break my water. A little after an hour after I was found to be 6-7 cm, the doctor came in to break my water. He also checked me and I was already at 8cm! Looked like we were definitely having a baby soon!
My dad left to go pick up pizza for dinner for my mom, Joe and himself (agonizing to me since I hadn't been able to eat all day so I was starving!) and then my two brothers arrived. My contractions were getting closer together as they should and I was still not feeling too much. All there was to do was wait until I was 10cm so I could start pushing! A little after 7:15pm my friends, Maureen and Rachel arrived. It was a full house and a room full of excitement.
Around 8pm I was dilated to around 9-9.5 cm. An hour later it was 9.5 with just a little lip of cervix left. It was time to do a test push to see if the cervix would move out of the way. A couple test pushes and then the doctor came in to see how things were going. He thought that with pushing, the remaining cervix would move out of the way. He also noticed that the baby's head was almost completely face-up (it's best if it's facing down) which could mean that pushing would be harder and take longer.
But he decided it was time to deliver! Everyone except for my mom and Joe were cleared out to the waiting room. I began to push and the doctor was successful at turning the baby's head so he was basically completely face-down. I believe the real pushing started around 10:30pm Monday the 13th. We were all rooting for a delivery before midnight so he'd be born on the 13th (lucky for our family, I'm March 13, my sister is Sept 13, my aunt is Jan 31-13 reversed as well as my uncle is Dec 31 and Joe is Oct 31). Unfortunately, there were two other women that were laboring at the same time so the doctor would have to have me stop pushing and run to other rooms to monitor them as well.
But all was well since he came out with no complications or problems, tiny and with a very elongated head from being in the birth canal for so long at 12:56 am on Tuesday, the 14th. He weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 19 inches long. I was so exhausted and starving from not eating since 4:30pm on Monday. Of course I wanted to be with him but I was literally loopy, light-headed and had a severe headache from not eating. After he was cleaned up and had all his tests done, the gang was brought back in. My dad, brothers Brian and Jason, Maureen and Rachel and of course Joe and my mom snapped a million pictures of the little guy and took turns passing him around as I chowed down some toast and apple juice. Since it was 2:30am by that time, everyone shortly cleared out to head for home, including Joe. I was left with little Dylan Joseph for our first night together. He slept very well (from about 3am until 7am when I woke him to feed him) after such a long process and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. Such a miracle and I couldn't believe he was finally here after 9 long months. To think how he just started a small little bundle of cells.
Joe came back a little after 12:30pm and took our car and car seat to get checked off. I had the hospital professional photographer come at 1pm to take his first professional photos. At 1:30pm my doctor came and took him to do his circumcision. I took a shower and we packed up our stuff.
Since I had delivered in the middle of the night, they gave me the option of staying until the next morning or going home that evening. Since I had been there since Saturday, I was more than ready to go home. We got the ok to be discharged after Dylan had a pee pee diaper. We were out of there by 5:30pm!
So that's it! A very long ordeal but well worth it. We are now home and adjusting to life as a family of three. Dylan is a blessing and we love him more than anything. Thanks to all who have been supportive and showered Dylan with wonderful gifts! We can't say thank you enough.
Starting Thursday, the 9th of April, I was feeling under the weather, like maybe I was coming down with something. I was sleeping a lot and feeling achy and crampy. Saturday was the same so I headed to bed a little after 6pm and was just lounging in bed watching tv. At a little after 6:20pm I started to have widespread stomach cramping. Shortly after it became really localized in my lower left side and was excruciating. I tried to get up from bed but the pain was so severe that I kneeled to the floor crying. Joe rushed in and I had him call the L & D triage. They said that I should go in. We drove the 10 minutes to the Women's and Children's Pavilion and it was honestly the longest 10 minutes of my life! I was hurting so bad.
We got checked into triage and I was hooked up to fetal and contraction monitors. I was having contractions about every 2 minutes and the baby's heart rate looked fine. I was barely dilated 1 cm at that time so they didn't think I was in labor yet. The next attempt was to hook me up to an IV to see if fluids would help. After 2 different nurses attempted in 5 different places in my arms, they got one started. But shortly after, my arm started swelling up and looked like Popeye's forearm! So they took that one out and tried again. That one swelled up too! So the 7th poke finally produced a successful IV. After some fluids, I began to feel better. The pain wasn't so severe any more. They had the OB doctor on duty come and check me out. My OB was actually the back-up so he came in to examine and check on me too. Based on my localized pain, he thought that maybe there was a placental abruption, meaning the placenta could be detaching from the uterine lining. Which if it were the case, would be serious and they sent the anesthesiologist in to get my health history in case an emergency C-section was needed. Since I wasn't bleeding, they didn't think too much into the placenta theory but then thought maybe I was having a kidney stone. While monitoring the fetal heart rate, the baby had a deceleration meaning his heart rate dropped below normal range for a prolonged period of time. So they admitted me to labor and delivery for observation. I received some pain meds which was heaven since the pain started to come back! They ran some tests and decided to monitor things over night.
Sunday morning, Easter, my tests were normal, ruling out possible kidney stones and my pain had gone away. I hadn't dilated any more than 1cm so they were going to discharge me. Joe had gone home for the night since the doctor didn't think anything significant would be happening that night and the couch in the hospital room wasn't even big enough to sleep a 5'8" person, let alone someone 6'5". He came back a little after 8am and my doctor said since nothing was abnormal and I was feeling better, they were ready to let us go. We still don't know what the pain was that brought me there. The nurse took out my IV and I was dressed and ready to leave when the nurse came back in and said my doctor wanted me to have a quick ultrasound to rule out low amniotic fluid levels which can cause the heart rate decelerations. That looked normal too but they wanted to just monitor the baby's heart rate for a little while longer. So I was hooked back up to the fetal monitor and again he had a decel.
That's when my doctor came back in and explained to us that since I was full-term and the baby's heart rate was having so many decels that he wanted to induce me and not risk me going home and have things get worse when I wasn't being monitored. So I was back in my hospital gown and moved to another room. I took a shower and was hooked back to another IV (which thankfully only took one try!). They started me on Cervidil (a vaginal medication that ripens the cervix) at 12:45pm on Sunday, the 12th. Joe took off for home about an hour after that to get the remaining things that I hadn't packed yet since we left in such a hurry the night before and to get a long nap since they said the Cervidil would be in place for 12 hours so at 12:45 am they'd remove it and start Pitocin to start contractions so I'd probably labor throughout the night.
The Cervidil caused me to start to have contractions shortly after being placed. At first they weren't too bad. But then they started to get worse, and they were lasting for 3-5 minutes with only short breaks in between. My doctor ok'd some pain meds to take the edge off. They continued to check me but I wasn't dilating any more than 1cm. The fetal monitor kept detecting decels of his heart which also wasn't a good sign. Every time it would happen, 2-3 extra nurses would rush in and they'd have me change positions from my left side to my right so try to get his heart rate back up to the normal range (which is between 110-160 bpm). Usually the decels would last for no longer than 5 minutes and wouldn't get below the 90 bpm range.
By late evening the contractions were getting really bad. I tried sitting in a rocking chair, sitting on a labor ball, etc but nothing seemed to help. I was basically having constant pain with maybe a few minutes here and there without it but always having constant pressure. Since I needed to be hooked up to the monitors constantly, I wasn't able to get up and walk around either so my back and body were getting really sore from being in the bed for all that time. Joe came back around 8:30pm and settled in on the way-too-small couch for the night. My parents stopped by that night too after they had come back from Bainbridge for Easter.
All that night I was in agony. I maybe slept a total of 45 minutes the entire night which would occur directly after they would give me pain meds. The contractions stayed the same, coming back-to-back and lastly for 3-5+ minutes each. I didn't dilate any more at all through the night. I was in pure misery.
The next morning, Monday the 13th, around 7am the nurses and doctors had their shift changes. My nurse from the previous night was briefing the next nurse on the night's activities. Joe was up and had gone to find coffee. Suddenly they were having me change positions since the baby was having a decel again. About 3 more nurses in addition to the 2 already in the room rushed in (they can see all the monitoring from all the rooms at the nurses station) and were directing me to move this way and that, trying to get his heart rate back to normal. His heart rate wasn't coming back up and it was lower than it had been with other decels (it was down in the 70 bpm range when it was only dropping to the 90s previously). They called in my doctor who was in the process of charting and briefing the next on-duty doctor so they both came in. I was in extreme pain at that time and the nurse tried to check me to see if I had dilated more which could be causing the contractions to be getting worse and then cause the baby to be under more strain. But nothing really had changed, I was barely 1.5 cm dilated. After about 9 agonizing minutes, the heart rate came back up. It was quite the episode. Since I was hurting so bad, I had my eyes closed but once it was over, I looked around and there were 5 nurses, 2 doctors and Joe standing all around me and I was completely exposed for all to see! How embarrassing....
After quite the pow-wow of the situation, both doctors came back and discussed with Joe and I what was going on. They said that the Cervidil was working a little too well and that they had taken it out. With such a bad decel and since he had been having quite a few, they were worried that something was potentially wrong with baby Dylan. They discussed the high chance that I would need a C-section if it continued. They said at that point the options were to just go ahead and do a C-section, to try to start Pitocin and possibly break my water, or to place a fetal monitor inside my uterus to see if my contractions were doing anything on the inside where they should be. We decided that I really wanted to try and deliver vaginally and that I would like to try and start the Pitocin (which causes contractions) and possibly break my water progress the dilation of my cervix. So the Pitocin was started.
So it seemed that hopefully Monday, April 13th would be delivery day! My parents came back that morning and we all settled in for a long day. The Pitocin did exactly what it was supposed to do, start contractions. But by mid-morning, the contractions were getting so severe again and still nothing was happening to my cervix, I was maybe dilated to 2cm. My contractions were really bad, the pain meds were starting to not work any more and baby was still having decels. The doctor ok'd an epidural even though I was only 2cm dilated (usually they wait until 4cm). Around 12pm on Monday I was given the epidural (again it took a few pokes before it was successful, story of the day). Within minutes I was feeling great! They had stopped the Pitocin to get me comfortable prior to the epidural so when the Pitocin was started back up, I was ecstatic to not feel the painful contractions any more! And the best thing was that the contractions were behaving like they should be- instead of long ones with short breaks in between, they were now 45-60 sec contractions with 5-6 minutes in between. We had hope that things were looking up!
The rest of Monday afternoon went pretty smoothly, I was having contractions closer and closer together as the Pitocin was increased and I still didn't feel much. The only problem was that I wasn't dilating any more than 2cm. The Pitocin was increased some more and after being checked around 4pm (I think?) and being 2cm and then getting checked again around 5:30 (again, I think this was the time) I was shocked to learn I was dilated 6-7 cm! All those hours being 1-2cm and then within 1.5 hours changing that much!! Very relieving to finally have some successful progress.
The doctor had been really busy all day long so we actually hadn't seen him for him to break my water. A little after an hour after I was found to be 6-7 cm, the doctor came in to break my water. He also checked me and I was already at 8cm! Looked like we were definitely having a baby soon!
My dad left to go pick up pizza for dinner for my mom, Joe and himself (agonizing to me since I hadn't been able to eat all day so I was starving!) and then my two brothers arrived. My contractions were getting closer together as they should and I was still not feeling too much. All there was to do was wait until I was 10cm so I could start pushing! A little after 7:15pm my friends, Maureen and Rachel arrived. It was a full house and a room full of excitement.
Around 8pm I was dilated to around 9-9.5 cm. An hour later it was 9.5 with just a little lip of cervix left. It was time to do a test push to see if the cervix would move out of the way. A couple test pushes and then the doctor came in to see how things were going. He thought that with pushing, the remaining cervix would move out of the way. He also noticed that the baby's head was almost completely face-up (it's best if it's facing down) which could mean that pushing would be harder and take longer.
But he decided it was time to deliver! Everyone except for my mom and Joe were cleared out to the waiting room. I began to push and the doctor was successful at turning the baby's head so he was basically completely face-down. I believe the real pushing started around 10:30pm Monday the 13th. We were all rooting for a delivery before midnight so he'd be born on the 13th (lucky for our family, I'm March 13, my sister is Sept 13, my aunt is Jan 31-13 reversed as well as my uncle is Dec 31 and Joe is Oct 31). Unfortunately, there were two other women that were laboring at the same time so the doctor would have to have me stop pushing and run to other rooms to monitor them as well.
But all was well since he came out with no complications or problems, tiny and with a very elongated head from being in the birth canal for so long at 12:56 am on Tuesday, the 14th. He weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and measured 19 inches long. I was so exhausted and starving from not eating since 4:30pm on Monday. Of course I wanted to be with him but I was literally loopy, light-headed and had a severe headache from not eating. After he was cleaned up and had all his tests done, the gang was brought back in. My dad, brothers Brian and Jason, Maureen and Rachel and of course Joe and my mom snapped a million pictures of the little guy and took turns passing him around as I chowed down some toast and apple juice. Since it was 2:30am by that time, everyone shortly cleared out to head for home, including Joe. I was left with little Dylan Joseph for our first night together. He slept very well (from about 3am until 7am when I woke him to feed him) after such a long process and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. Such a miracle and I couldn't believe he was finally here after 9 long months. To think how he just started a small little bundle of cells.
Joe came back a little after 12:30pm and took our car and car seat to get checked off. I had the hospital professional photographer come at 1pm to take his first professional photos. At 1:30pm my doctor came and took him to do his circumcision. I took a shower and we packed up our stuff.
Since I had delivered in the middle of the night, they gave me the option of staying until the next morning or going home that evening. Since I had been there since Saturday, I was more than ready to go home. We got the ok to be discharged after Dylan had a pee pee diaper. We were out of there by 5:30pm!
So that's it! A very long ordeal but well worth it. We are now home and adjusting to life as a family of three. Dylan is a blessing and we love him more than anything. Thanks to all who have been supportive and showered Dylan with wonderful gifts! We can't say thank you enough.
I'm glad that he's finally here...and you're out of the hospital! I know a face up delivery is difficult--that's how Whitney came out. I'm glad the dr. was able to turn him!
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