The Kid- Labor and Delivery

So I am really late with this posting, but here goes:

So we decided to stay after the nurse gave me the ambien. They wanted to give me two, but my hubby intervened and so they only gave me one. I had to have an IV of fluids because I was so dehydrated. The nurse wanted to monitor me with an EFM, but agreed to monitor me intermittently. 

So once I had the ambien, I was out. Not all the way out, but I don't remember the rest of the night either. The hubs said I slept, woke up, had conversations with my mom, and listened to music, but I don't remember anything from about 4am to about 3 pm.

Apparently, there was some miscommunication between the midwife on call, and my midwife. So my midwife thought I had gone home and she didn't come in early. When she finally did come in, my labor had actually stalled and I wasn't progressing much.

The midwife broke my water, and I felt like I had wet the bed. There was lots of meconium in the fluid so there was some concern for the kid. My contractions got stronger, finally, but I was still not progressing. I kept leaking fluid and because there was so much meconium, the midwife asked if she could give me pitocin to see if she could get my labor back on track. I agreed because I knew the kid needed to make an appearance, but I still did not want an Epidural. The midwife gave me the pitocin through my iv on the lowest drip she could.

I don't remember a lot about the part of the labor. I remember moving about with the IV and talking to the hubby about the possibility of an epidural. I remember going pee ALOT. Probably because I was given so much fluid through my IV. I remember sitting on the bed for about an hour listening to Clubbed to Death on my Zune and being in a meditative type zone. I remember seeing my mom, but I don't remember talking to her for the half hour that I talked to her. I remember seeing my MIL and telling her NOT to take my picture. I remember the midwife turning up the pitocin a couple notches over the course of the day. I remember hitting the wall and still not progressing. I remember not being able to take the pain. I remember finally asking for the Epidural because I couldn't progress and I needed to.

The anesthesiologist came in. He told me to curl up tight into a ball, which sounds totally ridiculous when you have a yoga ball where your stomach is. I couldn't curl tight enough, so the hubs had to help me curl. The anesthesiologist told me to hold veeeeery still, and I remember the poke and a sickening pop. I remember the hubby's face going pale white when he heard the pop. I remember telling everyone I was going to take a nap. 

The midwife came in again to check me. I could still feel contractions, but only in half my body. I felt when the midwife checked me and she told me to keep pushing the button for my epidural. I did, but I could still feel my right side. They poked my left foot and I couldn't feel it, so they poked my right foot and I about kicked the midwife.

She decided to call the anesthesiologist back up. It took him a while, but when he finally checked the catheter in my back he found that he had pushed it in a little too far. So the block was only hitting half the nerves it needed to, which was why I could still feel all the pain in my right side. Once, he fixed the catheter, and I was finally blocked on both sides, I took another nap.

The midwife came back and checked me again. She said it was getting close to time to push, but I would probably be pushing for a while, since it was my first kid. I followed the midwife's instructions and started to crown fairly quickly. They prepped the room and me, and I pushed for about 45 minutes. I don't remember feeling a whole lot, other than some stretching.

The midwife said that his head was sideways and he wasn't fully posterior, which was probably why I didn't progress as fast. I was pushing out a lot of meconium, so they called the pediatric nurses to have them on standby.

The kid came out in another couple pushes The midwife said that his head was not the biggest part of him, it was his shoulders. She said she looked at the hubby when the kid got stuck and realized she should have expected the kid to be wide in the chest too.

Once the kid was finally out, the nurses checked him and found he was in good health. His apgar score was high. He didn't have any meconium in his lungs, which was one of the concerns. He weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs ad 12 oz and a very long 20 inches. The nurses determined he was 40 weeks and 6 days, which was why there was so much meconium. Although he was healthy, it was a good time for him to be delivered.

I delivered the placenta, but I had a whole lot of bleeding after. Turned out that it had split in half, so I still had a piece in me. I had to be scraped out and given some blood clot medication. I got cleaned up, and they wheeled me into the post delivery room. The hospital plays a lullaby every time a baby is born, so I heard the kid's as I was being wheeled to my new room.

I got into bed and we settled down for the night. I ate, and stared at the baby a while. I thought he looked like an alien, but at least he didn't have any weird bumps or a funny shaped head. I have to admit I was glad to have him out, but he was totally worth the 26 hours of labor.