Natural.... not: A Birth Story

To the readers of Bloomin’ Babies:

Thank you.

Thank you for standing by me. I was the first infertile to blog regularly here and the support I received from the readers and fellow bloggers was invaluable to my survival. You allowed me to be myself. To vent, to cry, to rejoice and to mourn. With you, I found out I was broken, there was hope, hope was lost, I could have faith, faith could fail me, it actually worked, I lost my twin baby, Smudge could flourish, Smudge was stubborn… and now, finally, Smudge is here.

And SHE is wonderful.

This will be my last post here at Bloomin’ Babies. If you’d care to follow my family’s continuing story, you are welcome to email me and I can send you an invite to our private blog.

But for now – this is how it all went down. The end of a saga, the beginning of a perfect lifetime.

I can’t believe this was 2 weeks ago. It feels like a lifetime ago. Things have been hectic and crazy since delivering our peanut. So, I’m sorry this was delayed at all.

This is Anna’s birth story. I call it “Natural, Not”.

My 40 week appointment was fairly uneventful. My OB wanted to discuss a 41 week induction, because she’d be going out of town, but we decided that we’d simply try every old wives tale in the book, and take our chances with whoever would be covering for her if I didn’t go before then. She was happy with my progress at the appointment anyway. I was at 2cm and 40% effaced.

I did acupuncture that afternoon, step 1 in our 2 step acu-induction process. My acupuncturist gave me a list of things to do to move things along. I decided to do ALL of them. So, for dinner, we planned on a big meal, with some basil, fresh garlic, etc. I cut out the red raspberry leaf tea and was going to go walk the mall, as had become regular activity for me, after dinner.

We went out for dinner to a local hamburger place, and as we were standing up after paying the bill (at 6:45pm), I felt a gush. I looked at Mr. DB and said “um, I have to go to the bathroom – I think my water just broke”. Upon going to the bathroom, there was no question. The rest of my mucous plug (which had been coming out slowly in pieces all week) was in the toilet. My water was clear (thankfully – buying me some time to stay home). I stuffed some toilet paper in my underwear and went back out to my husband. The manager was bussing our table, and I asked her if by any chance she had a maxi pad I could have to get me home, explaining that my water had just broken. We settled on some clean kitchen towels that they wouldn’t need back. And we went home. On the way, I called my doula and my OB to keep them in the loop.

My OB said that if things didn’t get started on their own, she wanted me in the hospital by 6am for a pit induction. Knowing how much I wanted that to happen, my doula recommended that I take some castor oil.

I did.

I won’t do that again.

For a good amount of time, I don’t know what was worse: the abdominal pain or the contractions – but it did get the contractions started, and once they started, they didn’t stop.

Contractions started around 11pm. They were dreadful immediately. (I didn’t know it at the time, but the baby had flipped posterior at some point during the day, and I was having god awful “back labor”.) Fairly quickly they were less than 2 minutes apart, but slowing down if I was lying on the sofa. We called the doula, and she came to the house. For the next few hours she got me through some tough labor. Eventually, we thought I was nearing transition, and the clock was nearing rush hour. With the hospital 40 minutes away, we decided to leave around 6am.

Once we got to the hospital, finding out I was only 4cm was a blow, but at least I was there and 80% effaced.

Things got worse though. Very quickly, the contractions became unbearable. At this point I had been awake for more than 24 hours. My coping mechanisms weren’t really helping; the shower was barely taking the edge off… I eventually asked for a dose of morphine. It did nothing. The contractions were on top of each other with no breaks at all in between. I was only 7-8cm, but 100%. The baby was still high.

At 10:30 I made the decision, and asked for the epidural. I realized that even if I made it to 10cm on my own, I wasn’t going to have enough energy to push. I was exhausted. I needed help.

Once I got the epidural, things were sort of a blur. I was able to get some sleep. By 2:30pm, I was 10cm, and by 3pm, I was ready to push. They turned down the epi, and I was able to push squatting, which was the most comfortable position for me. All together, I pushed for 4 hours. At one point, they did put me on pit, because my contractions were slowing down, and they were hoping to make them more organized and effective.

Right before 8pm, I was still pushing. They could see the top of the baby’s head. Then the decels started. I was completely unaware of them. But the next thing I knew I was on my left side with an oxygen mask on my face and my OB was telling me they had to take her NOW. Within 5 minutes, I was in the OR and at 8:16pm, despite a 21 hour labor and 26 hours ruptured… despite a complete placental abruption (explaining the decels), Anna Renee was born at 8:16pm measuring in at 18 in and 5 lbs 8 oz.

In the Recovery Room

Birth Announcement

Our road since Anna’s birth has been as rocky as the path she took to get here. She has bilateral hip dysplasia, with a dislocated right hip and subluxed left hip. She has to wear a pavlik harness for 6-12 weeks. She’s being seen at CHOP, which is the best place for her. Additionally, the day her daddy went back to work, she choked on some breast milk and is now on an apnea monitor for a month. Lastly, we had our neonatal follow up with the cardiologist. Anna does have a small ventricular septal defect, and we’ll be following up with her again in a month.

So, if you’ve made it this far, please continue to think of us and keep Anna in your thoughts and prayers.

This is Dandelion Bud, signing off.