a birth story

About a month ago I started looking at the calendar and thinking about when the best day to have this baby would be... you see, I have never gone into labor on my own, so I just figured the chances were not too high that with baby number seven my uterus would finally realize what it was supposed to have done all those other times and get itself in gear.  We settled on the 6th, three days before my actual due date, for several reasons both practical and self-serving.  Having the baby on a Friday meant that the hubby (who just started a new job) would not have to take as much time off work, also it meant the kids (mostly Regan, who's work load is the largest and from whom we would need the most help with the little kids) would not have to miss out on too much schoolwork, and of course the most self serving reason being that I did not want to be in the hospital on my birthday next week :)  The midwife was on board with the time table, but neither of us wanted to push an induction just for convenience sake if my body wasn't ready, so we waiting until my 39 week appointment to see if my body was actually ready.  When I went in on Tuesday I was starting to dilate and the baby had dropped so the tentative induction date became the actual induction date... unless I were to miraculously go into labor before then - and well, we all know that didn't happen so...

Friday, February 6 we got up early, said good bye to the kids, and headed to the hospital, me, the hubby and my mom.  It is all a bit surreal, walking into a hospital, no signs of labor, yet knowing you'll be holding a baby in your arms before the day is over.  We got registered and they had me strapped down to the bed (monitors) and drugged up (IV antibiotics for GBS+, and Pitocin) by 8:20am... of course because I was GBS+ they did not want me to deliver until I had the antibiotics going for 4 hrs, so the Pit level was so low I was barely having contractions.  At one point the nurse said "If those contractions start to feel at all like labor contractions, let me know, and I'll turn the Pit down"  Which of course made me think, why are you even giving it to me if you don't want me to have "labor contractions"? but whatever.  So, I spent the morning reading a book (The Fault in our Stars) and waiting for the magic 4 hour mark before they would really get things moving.

 The midwife came in at lunch time and broke my water around 12:40pm and the fun began.  Within the hour the contractions picked up but the nurse wanted them stronger, so the upped my Pit.  Sometime before 4pm I knew things were going to get serious soon so I told the nurse I wanted her to speed up my IV fluid and call the anesthesiologist, she didn't believe me and said they had to check me first to see how far I had progressed... because you can never trust a woman who is giving birth to her 7th child that she might just have some idea how her body works :)  (The nurse was a newbie, so she had to stick to the rules), so I acquiesced and allowed the nurse to check my progress, which immediately sent me into transition.  I begged them to turn down the Pit, at least until the epidural was done, but they would not... at this point I was really wishing my midwife was there. She delivered Addie and Emmy and knew first hand how my body would respond at this point, even if we turned down the Pit, but she was not there, she was still at the office seeing patients and waiting for word that I was ready to deliver to run to the hospital.

The anesthesiologist finally arrived and got straight to work.  Up to this point I have had quick and mostly positive epidural experiences (one time they made me lie flat on my back and the medicine went up my spine and my arm went numb. seriously freaky!)  That was not to be the case this time.  For some reason this Dr. could not get it right.  She stuck me numerous times (I lost count at 3) and I spent more than 30 minutes in the hunched over position trying not to move through scream worthy contractions.  The nurse finally turned the Pit down and the intensity of the contractions lessened a bit but it was still quite a painful experience.  By the time the Dr. finally got the epidural in I felt awful.  My head was spinning and my blood pressure was dropping, all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  But as soon as I laid down I felt the baby. As she walked out the door  I heard one nurse say to the other, "put the catheter in and we'll take it out when she's ready to push."  When she came over to me I said," I don't think I need that, I can feel the baby and I think I'm about ready, I think you need to call the midwife"  she responded, "Oh no, we have to do this, and we will call the midwife soon" (once again, never trust a mama who's done this 6 times before).  So, I got a catheter only to have the other nurse come in right after and say, "Oh, she's ready to push, you need to take that out."

Of course my midwife still wasn't there, so they didn't want me to push. Luckily she was in the parking lot, so I didn't have to wait too long for her arrival.  Anyway, long story short the midwife came running in to the room, pulled on her robe and gloves and in just a few pushes Kai was born at 5:02pm, Friday, February 6, 2015.  With the exception of the whole epidural experience it wasn't a bad labor and delivery and I am happy to hold Kai in my arms instead of in my belly, and I think he would agree :)