On Monday, February 15, 2016 I was 38 weeks and 6 days pregnant. I'd been having mild contractions off and on since the night before and was thinking that this little boy was on his way. We called Grandma to come stay with the older kids (they were off school for President's Day), just in case. I walked around the house for a few hours and the contractions continued to get closer together, but just really weren't all that painful. I knew I wasn't in serious labor yet, but because of how quickly my labor and birth went with Hadley Drew was VERY nervous and wanted to head to the hospital. It was snowing and he wasn't interested in a fly-by-the-cuff home birth, I guess. #wimp
Anyway, I gave in around 11am and agreed to go to the hospital to get checked out - and hopefully stay until we left with a baby! One last picture as a family of 4...where no one but me is looking. Well done, everyone.
Once we arrived I got hooked up to the monitors and was contracting every few minutes. The pain still wasn't very bad, so I knew we had a ways to go. I was only 3 cm dilated and at this rate it would be awhile. The doctor who checked me said that we had a couple hours to make some progress or they'd be forced to send me home. Legally they aren't allowed to intervene to help the birth along until 39 weeks, so if I didn't progress on my own there was nothing they would/could do. I totally understood that and wasn't looking for interventions of any kind. I just mostly didn't want to get stuck in a snow storm and birth my baby in the car. High maintenance, I know.
I spent a few hours walking around the room and at 3pm my water broke on its own! Drew went to tell the nurse and she came in, very excited for me. They all knew the situation and didn't want me to have to leave either. ha!
So here's where things got a little, eh. After my water broke I expected the contractions to really rev up and get the party started, but they didn't. A few hours later the doctor came in to check me and I was only at a 4. That seriously stunk. I was willing to keep pacing and wait a bit, but doctors get weird about the water being broken without progress so she strongly suggested "just a tiny bit of pitocin". Now, I had this with Asher and swore it would never come near me again. Strong, vile stuff. I like to think I'm a pretty good advocate for myself, but when she started throwing out words like "infection" and "birth complications" I got scared and agreed to a bit of an artificial jump start. No sooner had the nurse hooked it up to my IV than my contractions went through the roof. Stupid pitocin, seriously.
Less than 20 minutes later the nurse was back and said she was turning off the drip because I was contracting "too hard and too often" - apparently going every minute is too much. No joke. Turning off the pitocin couldn't stop the track my body was on now, so I continued contracting like crazy. Looking back, it's at this point that I should have asked to be checked again. I'm sure that I was in transition and just didn't know it. The pain had skyrocketed so quickly that I couldn't take it for more than 30 minutes and asked for an epidural. The anesthesiologist came and put one in for me, but I never felt any relief. She couldn't figure out why it wasn't working until I mentioned that I had to push and everyone realized I was complete and the darn thing wasn't going to do any good.
SERIOUSLY. WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE DOING ANY WORK THAT NIGHT?? I really feel like the birth team let me down and didn't do a great job. There were a number of times when things could have gone differently and more easily, if they had been more attentive and focused on my labor (instead of on the clock, and on how many weeks along I was, and on their basic checklist of "how birth goes").
Since it was suddenly time to push, the nurse called in the doctor who noticed that Noel was having some decels on the monitor. Basically his heart rate was going down with each contraction. This is no bueno, so she called in a NICU team to be in the room and check him as soon as he was born. Let me tell you, nothing makes a mama heart race like hearing the words "get the NICU in here STAT!"
I gave a few pushes and my baby boy eased into the world at 7:24pm.
Despite the rush and the chaos, I remember it so clearly. Drew was right by my side and we cried together as Noel took his first breath. The doctor handed him right to me so Drew could cut the cord, then within a few seconds the pediatrician gently took him and said "I'm sorry, but I need to check him. I'll bring him right back." Baby boy was really blue and not looking so great, so I wanted them to give him a good once over.
There was a pretty big team working on him on the other side of the room. I couldn't see what was going on so I sent Drew over to keep an eye on things. Noel did great and pinked up in no time. He was breathing well and crying to beat the band, so the NICU team gave him two thumbs up. After my placenta was delivered the doctor commented on how short the umbilical cord was. It's very possible that it was the cause of his decels during birth.
As with each of my babies' births there was a noisy rush, then in what seems like only minutes a lot of quiet and stillness as the nurses and doctors left. Drew and I spent some time getting to know our new little guy before they moved us to the postpartum room. Noel cried for quite awhile (he wasn't pleased at all with leaving his warm home a week early) but then settled in to nurse for the first time and take a long rest.
Oh Noel, how happy I was that you were here safe and sound!
Being born and giving birth is hard work, but the sweet newborn skin-to-skin afterwards makes it all worthwhile. This birth was different from my others and not at all how I thought it would go. I'm so grateful that Noel was born healthy. All was well and that's all I could ask.
