Well its taken me a week to get around to Morgan’s birth story.. But here goes!
“Labor” mostly started at my 40 week doctors appointment Thursday February 11th. My OB decided to do another membrane sweep as I hadn’t really “progressed” from the week before (3cm/70% effaced) .. The membrane sweep was.. quite uncomfortable to say the least. Okay, it hurt.. But mostly in my back. But within the few minutes it took to leave the doctors office, I started feeling crampy and yucky in general. It felt like I was coming down with the flu or a cold. Hot yet clammy all over and just nauseous. Mike and I went to work after my appointment and I could just tell something was going to happen and soon so I finished up some things at work, left some instructions for the temp covering me while I was out and we left at 1 to head home. We decided it might be a good idea to stop at the store and get groceries to last us a couple of weeks just in case the baby came soon, we’d want to have food to eat without having to run out for fast food.
While we were at the store, I started having very noticeable and almost painful contractions. Enough so, that I started timing them. A few of them even made me have to stop and catch my breath. Things were getting exciting and we were getting nervous! We got our groceries and got home as soon as we could. But of course, after a bit the contractions tapered off and just came ever so often, but nothing substantial. I did however continue to feel flu-ish.
That evening I lost what I presume was the rest of my mucous plug (I had started losing it here and there a few days earlier) and had more contractions but nothing very frequent or strong. Mike and I got the babies room all finished as far as decorations went (still have a couple to hang up though!) and we just hung out and watched tv. Went to bed kind of early just in case labor got stronger in the middle of the night.. But was disappointed to wake up Friday morning still pregnant!
Friday I still felt very flu-ish, sick to my stomach, clammy and nauseous so we decided it was best to stay home and get some rest. Rest, right? Hah.. I couldn’t rest, I needed to be having contractions!! So I started doing laundry and cleaning the house. I tried to stay as active as I could to bring on the contractions without wearing myself out too much, as I knew I’d need my strength to have the baby! Later in the afternoon I decided to have Mike rub my ankles as I heard that’s a way to bring on contractions. Low and behold, it did! The more he rubbed my ankles, the more contractions I had! But of course, pretty much as soon as he stopped, they stopped. Grr! I continued to have contractions on and off that evening and finally around midnight I went to bed and laid down for a bit. Mike came in so I asked him to rub my ankles some more. As he did, I started contracting again.. Closer together and stronger this time.. I was making progress I thought!! I laid there for a bit snoozing and watching tv while Mike slept as well. A little bit after 1am I started to sit up to go to the bathroom and I felt a small “gush” and thought “OH MY GOD MY WATER BROKE”. So I started shaking Mike and trying to get him to wake up, because I was petrified to actually get up off of the bed and have it gush all over the bed. I had Mike get me a towel just in case and I hopped off the bed in time for it to go pouring down my legs. Gross huh? I got up and went to the bathroom and more came out. I got cleaned up and changed my clothes while Mike woke up more and got dressed. Of course no sooner than I get dressed and start to call the doctor, the contractions kicked it up a few notches and they were ALL in my back. By the time the doctor called back (around 1:40am) the contractions were hurting to the point that I couldn’t really talk through them, so the doctor knew it was time for me to head in to the hospital as well. Luckily for me, MY doctor was on call Friday night.
We got to the hospital a bit after 2am and were taken into Triage to be checked out. The first nurse did a cervical check and said I was just barely the same 3cm that I had been Thursday morning and still 70% effaced. She did a swab to see if my water really had broken and put a fetal monitor on my stomach to check out the babies heartbeat. She came back a bit later and said that the swab did not indicate my water had broken, and it was most likely just “normal secretions and/or mucous” .. I was kind of annoyed at this point, because I was fairly certain my water HAD broken, as it was a pretty huge gush and my contractions immediately got intense and strong, but whatever right? I’m not a nurse. She said she talked to my doctor and he wanted me to walk the halls for an hour or so to see if things progressed or if I needed to go home. I looked at Mike at this point and said “yeah, we’re NOT going home” and got dressed in some more hospital gown to walk the halls. As soon as we started walking, the contractions kicked into super-high gear and got excruciatingly painful. They were all in my back, which lead me to believe that baby was posterior (face up instead of face down) so I started swaying my hips and rocking them back in forth in hopes to turn her over to avoid the back labor that I was having. At this point I still REALLY wanted to attempt a completely drug free birth, but was starting to lose faith as each contraction was stronger and more painful than the last. About every 15 feet of walking or so, I’d have another contraction and had to stop, bend over and try to relax through the contraction, but the pain was really becoming unbearable.
I kept telling Mike “I can’t do this without pain meds, I just can’t”, he’d do as I had told him to do for months and tell me that yes, I could, I was stronger than the contractions and I could make it (he’s stronger than I am, that’s for sure!). We made it 1 lap around the L&D ward before I had to go crying to the nurses that I couldn’t handle the walking any more and couldn’t handle the pain anymore. The first nurse told me that while I didn’t have to keep walking, the doctor didn’t want me checked until an hour had passed. I immediately did not like this nurse. About this time, Mike went out to the waiting room to get Michelle so he could have a break and she could be with me for a bit. Michelle came back and could tell that I was in so much pain that I seriously could not have this baby without an epidural and she went to get a nurse for me. At this time a new nurse came back and I just laid there, crying and begging for help as each contraction was stronger and there was no break between them so I could not get into a decent position to try to work through the pain. Each contraction made me feel like I was going to throw up and my entire body would tense up no matter what I did. The nurse decided to check and see if I had progressed at all so she could talk to the doctor and plead my case about the pain. Laying on my back so she could check was awful, but worth it as I was now 5cm and 90% effaced. I like to call that progress!
I continued to beg the nurse for something, anything to help with the pain and she said as soon as she got an IV in my arm, she could give me some fentanyl to help out until they could get an anesthesiologist to give me an epidural. I gladly accepted this course of action and just prayed it would help. As soon as she got the IV going (took a couple of tries, grr) I was wheeled into my L&D room and the 3 of us (Mike, Michelle and I) set up camp to wait for the epidural. Luckily the nurse anesthetist came in quite soon and got to work. Of course the contractions were still painful, I was doped up enough to be able to handle them without screaming in pain but still needed the epi, badly. She had me sit up (which actually felt pretty good) and put my feet on Mike’s legs as he sat in a chair on the side of my bed. I kept having contractions while she was doing the procedure, but luckily it was over soon and within a few minutes I had great pain relief. I felt awful, emotionally about needing the epidural as I had spent the last few months convincing myself, Mike and everyone around me that all-natural, no drugs was the way to go. But I never in a million years expected to have such horrendous back labor and the pain associated with it. I was so worried that the epidural would slow down my progress and I’d end up needing pitocin and/or other interventions to get things going. Luckily for me, my nurse wasn’t the type to push such interventions on me and let me labor just how I was and never once asked if I wanted to speed things up.
If I recall correctly, I got the epidural about 4:45 or so and my doctor came in between 5 and 5:30 to check on me before he went off call and a new doctor came on. At this time I was now 6cm and 100% effaced and I felt good about this. A little bit later the new OB came in to meet me and see if I had any questions. It was this time that I let it be known that I did not want an episiotomy, no matter what. I almost had to fight with them about it, but I think I got my point across 
I continued to lay there and rest while having contractions every couple of minutes or so, but since the epidural worked so well, I didn’t notice them. That right there, was awesome. My mom and sister showed up to visit around 7 am or so and we all just hung out, talking etc.. I was kind of in and out of it at this point and don’t remember a lot. But I do remember the nurse deciding to check my progress around 9:30am and found that I was 9 1/2 cm or so and could probably start pushing soon. At this point we were all taking bets as to when baby would get here. I don’t think any of us thought I’d have to push as long as I did though ..
Finally about 11am the nurse checked again and I was ready to push! My mom and sister had to leave as they would only let 2 people stay in the room with me and we got down to business! We did a few “test” pushes so the nurse could explain to me what to do and we could figure out good positioning. After a few minutes we started pushing for real with each contraction. For 2 hours. We pushed and pushed.. For 2 hours!
About 12:30 or so the doctor came in and he and the nurse got everything prepped and ready to go as we had pushed enough without him to get her head *right there* but as the doctor could tell, she was coming out at a weird angle and of course was face up (optimal positioning for delivering a baby is face down.. go figure!). With the doctor in place, we continued to push for another 20 minutes or so but it just wasn’t enough. About this time, the doctor unwrapped the “tray of doom” as I like to call it. It had the vacuum extractor, forceps & cutting tools for an episiotomy. It was about this time I found my second wind and pushed like hell. Within 2 or 3 pushes, baby came out. There was no way in hell I was letting him near me or my baby with those tools!
The doctor pulled her out and suctioned out her nose and mouth, clamped off her cord and handed Mike the scissors to cut it. It was amazing watching him do this, that’s for sure. It was like something instantly clicked in his head and daddy-mode kicked in. Pretty awesome if you ask me 
Once they got her clamped and breathing right they laid her on my chest and the 3 of us just sat together and bonded. I of course, was crying but I’m sure that is to be expected. We all 3 sat there for a long time, Mike and I just staring at her in amazement while the doctor did his cleanup and stitched up the minor 2nd degree tear that I obtained. The nurse told me that a 2nd degree tear is amazing for how she came out and how long I pushed! I felt awesome for hearing that.
So while I didn’t get the “natural” childbirth I wanted, I think I got the best childbirth I could ask for. Nothing went wrong and we got a perfect baby out of it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
Baby Stats:
Birthday - February 13 2010 - 1:03pm - 40W2D gestation
Weight: 9lbs 2oz
Length: 22inches
