ISABELL GRACE’S BIRTH STORY
(Posted August 19, 2003 on an August Expecting Club Message Board I belonged to.)
Wow! What an amazing experience!! As I briefly posted earlier, Isabell Grace was born Friday, August 15 at 11:57am. She weighed 8lbs. 9 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. She had Apgars of 8 and 9. She also has a full head of beautiful brown curly hair, but with an awesome patch of bright blonde! I decided it is where she was kissed by an angel. I also briefly mentioned that I had a hard labor. But if you are still waiting to have your baby, don't worry. I can say with all honesty I would do it 3 times to have this beautiful baby in my arms!!
I arrived for cervix ripening at 8pm on Thursday night and was given a small dose of Cytotec and some pills to help me sleep. When I arrived I was already dilated to 2cm, 80% effaced, and baby's head was dropping. However, they never did say what station she was at. When they did the cervical check at first, it was extremely painful. The nurse said that my cervix was located very posterior so it was hard to reach. After a few hours of sleep, I awoke with some fairly strong contractions. The nurse checked me again and said I was already to 3cm and that my cervix was almost 100% effaced. She said the dr. would probably just give me Pitocin in the morning if I needed it but that I would probably just be sleeping through the night.
At 2am, though, my doctor surprised me when she walked into my room. She had been at the hospital all night and decided to come check me for herself. After checking me, she decided to break my water!! They did that, and gave me some Stadol to help me with pain management until I was ready for an epidural.
By 3am I was 4cm and was given an epidural. It managed to make my right leg, from the thigh down, tingly, but not relaxed or numb. However, my abdomen and left side never felt even a tingle! At 6:35am the anesthesiologist returned to redo epi. No change, except this one didn't do anything at all!
A great deal of my pain was in my lower back and rectal area. The nurses said they believed the baby was facing head up, causing this terrible pressure. They said that in addition to me not responding to the epidural, that even if I had, it would not have taken away all of this pain. However, if it had even relieved some of my abdominal pressure, it would have been a great help!
I was progressing fast through my dilation and at 6:30am I was 6 cm. This is when the pain really started to feel like it was approaching unbearable. I became totally focused on getting through my contractions with breathing. By the way, my husband and I never made it to a class on breathing, counting, or pushing. However, it actually comes pretty natural, if you ask me. The only thing my nurse ever said was take deep breaths in through nose, out through mouth, which I did. I think the point is to keep you from focusing on the pain. If I did focus on the pain I would hold my breath and feel
light-headed.
I was progressing about 1cm per hour. At 7cm I was really hurting and it helped to have somebody remind me how to breathe during each contraction. Squeezing hands helped, pushing my feet against foot of bed or someone standing at foot of bed, and receiving light shoulder and neck massage helped a lot as well during this time.
A new anesthesiologist arrived to do a new epi. on me at 7:40am. Still no help. By 8:15 I was 8cm. Here is where things got excruciating and felt unbearable. I could actually feel Isabell pushing her way through my birth canal. My abdomen would cramp really tightly and I would feel her bearing down. It is the most horrible feeling to not be able to push at
this time. At the same time, she was pushing in kind of the wrong spot and I couldn't stand the pressure on my rectal area and lower back. This was when my mind started to panic and say this is too much and we can't go on. However, my nurse seemed real
nonchalant in the midst of my cries and moans. This actually helped because I realized that I am not some special case and I was not going through something she had never seen before. This was also the time when I started asking for the doctor every five minutes and requesting a cervix check every ten!! I couldn't wait to hear I was at a '10'!
At 9am they made one final attempt to redo my epi. This caused horrible shooting pains to go down my thighs. Also, at this time, my IV pulled out and I started bleeding everywhere, so they were going to have to replace it. The anesthesiologist said she couldn't give me a full dose of meds until she had the IV hooked up in case of problems, so she gave me a half dose and left to go do somebody else's epi. (There were 11 babies born the same day as Isabell!) It didn’t matter anyway, the epidurals never worked.
It was another 2 hours before I reached 10. Finally my nurse said to go ahead and push!!
It was such a relief to push!!!! I mean, at that point the pain shifts from one kind to another, but to relieve that ache and need to push is so great! Once you get to this point everything starts to seem faster and more exciting. I began to realize that I was about to meet my child. Others in the room began to guess at what time she would arrive.
I pushed the way I had learned to on Birth Day and Baby Story! I took a deep breath, put my chin to my chest, and pushed with all my strength as if I were having a bowel movement. The nurse commented on how well I did at pushing with this being my first and having received no instructions from her. After a few pushes on my own, up went my feet in stirrups and then I started to grab my own legs and pull with each push. With each contraction I would get in three or four good pushes.
After about 40 minutes, the baby's head had gotten to where it didn't suck back in after a push. Then the doctor finally was ready to come in. She got there right away and suited up. I pushed through about four rounds of contractions until the baby's head came out. This hurt pretty bad with no epi. It burned as the doctor kept rubbing her fingers around the head to help it come out and not cause me to tear. After her head emerged, the doctor realized her shoulders were stuck. She performed an episiotomy but at this point everything hurt and I was yelling and screaming.
The doctor said something and the nurse came and pushed with both hands on my stomach and pushed the baby out. It hurt really badly, then immediately I felt relief. I also felt a thrill as I looked down and saw my baby!!! The doctor cut her cord quickly and gave her to the nurse. She was worried about her shoulder being fractured and that she didn't take a breath right away. She was fine, though. She cried as soon as they got her to the table, just a few feet away. I was relieved she was okay, and then I looked at my doctor working on me and looking a bit worried. She had her hand inside me and was pushing on my abdomen really hard. She said I was bleeding too much and that my uterus wasn't firming up. Finally it did, though. They whisked Isabell away to check for blood sugar level because she was so big.
Then all was good again! I was so glad to get it over with that all I could feel was wonderful!! It is true that you quickly forget the pain. I mean, I can remember feeling it, but it doesn't matter because it is over! Within about an hour I got to hold
my baby girl! At that instant I knew I would go through that experience three times for her! I am also amazed at the capabilities of the woman's body! The mind is powerful and makes you really sure you can't go on, but with each contraction you just do! And the hard thing is, each contraction is worse than the last but things get so intense that you
don't have time to think about that.
Now that it is over, I realize that it is not as bad as it seemed at the time. What made it seem so bad was not knowing when the pain would stop or how much worse it would get. You get a little scared that what is ahead will be too much to bear. But once the baby arrives, it all disappears! That fear and most of the pain is gone. I am sore and achy but holding Isabell for one second makes everything bad go away and everything is perfect and beautiful at that moment. I would do it again. In fact, I look forward to doing it again someday!
If I knew then what I know now, I would have refused an epidural altogether and kept myself free to walk, sit up, sway, etc. During the fourth attempt at the epidural, when I was sitting up and leaning forward against my husband, the contractions didn't hurt as bad as they did while I was lying down. I also would have gotten in a warm bath to sooth the pressure some. If an epi. doesn't work for you, I would suggest moving positions and getting in a tub of water. That probably would help the most. However, with all my attempted epidurals I was forced to lie down flat or on my side almost the entire time.
Okay, I have typed so much! I haven't even typed all of this in one sitting! I just really wanted to share my experience and encourage you that if you choose or have to go natural, you CAN do it and you will be forever changed by the experience. You will feel strong and in awe of your own body. I don't think the pain took away from the joy of Isabell's arrival, I think it made it more rewarding for me. This is only my experience, though. I love my baby with every last bit of myself and I feel like I am walking in a dream ever since she arrived. I wake up happy and looking forward to setting my eyes upon her. I hated when they would take her to the nursery during my hospital stay. I would smile and laugh and sometimes even cry when they would bring her back to me. She makes the room light up! Good luck to all the rest of you still waiting. I am almost envious in a way. The experience of bringing life into this world was amazing and I can't wait to do it again!
Isabell's Homepage
In the Womb!
My Birth Announcement
My Arrival!
My Nursery
Watch Me Grow
