I had my last OB/Midwife appointment on April 3rd, and I was really looking forward to it because it was with my favorite midwife, Lisa. They did an ultrasound and estimated Silas to be right at 9 pounds. That, along with the fact that my blood pressure was starting to go up, I had a few high blood sugar results, and my first had shoulder dystocia, made them decide that we would move my induction up from April 15th, to Monday, April 8th. I cried in the office, I was so relieved to have an end date to my miserable pregnancy. I spent the weekend getting laundry done and cuddling with my oldest, Jude.

On Monday night, we headed into L&D to get a foley bulb placed. My doctor placed the bulb right after 7pm, and she said it didn't have much to do because I was already at 3cms and 50% effaced. After she placed it, I just laid around, watched tv and FaceTimed with Jude before he had to go to bed. I also had to spend 2 hours with three different nurses and two anesthesiologists trying to get an iv placed for the antibiotics I would need the next day for gbs. I was supposed to only need occasional monitoring, but Silas was being a little troll and wouldn't stay on the monitors for anything. So I didn't sleep at all the whole night between the intense pressure Silas kept putting on the foley bulb and the nurses constantly needing to monitor him. Around 6 am my nurse came in and we discussed what my options were for when my doctor came in that morning. I found out that being on pitocin would mean I'd have to be constantly monitored for Silas' safety, and it would cause extra discomfort for me to have to lay perfectly still to keep him on the external monitors. My other option was to break my water, and put internal monitors on Silas so I could be mobile during labor. I discussed it with my husband, and decided that having my water broken was the best option, even though I had been adamant about wanting them to break naturally. At around 8 am, my doctor came in to take out the bulb and find out what I wanted to do. The bulb left me between 5-6 cms, and my doctor told me that we could break my water after two doses of antibiotics and she would feel comfortable waiting 4 hours for labor to start on its own before we started pumping pitocin into my body. I got a shower, ate breakfast, and got my first dose of penicillin. Then I took a nap until 12:30 when my doctor came in to break my water. My doctor was amazing, and took her time letting the fluid drain out, so she could guide Silas' head down because he kept reaching his hand down to try and hold her hand. She got his hand of the way and I asked her if she thought I should walk to get things going. Of course she told me yes, and that she'd be back in 3 hours to see if we needed the pitocin.

I put on underwear and a pad and started basically running in circles around L&D around 2pm. My nurse had to monitor Silas for 5 minutes every half hour, but she managed to find the sweet spot, and as long as she held the monitor the whole time we could get a good strip, then I could keep walking. Around 3:30, I started getting intense contractions in my back every 5-6 minutes. I knew that meant Silas probably wasn't in a great position, so my nurse set the bed up so I could get on my hands and knees. My doctor didn't even come in, she saw my labor pattern and decided I didn't need any pitocin and that we could wait on the monitors. I labored on my hands and knees for about an hour before Silas turned over and my contractions moved out of my back. Since I was in less pain, my doctor came in to check me and put the monitors on Silas. He had moved down, and I was 7 cms, they also gave me another dose of antibiotics at this time. Since I had to baby my iv site while I was hooked up to the medicine, I laid in the bed on my side listening to my rainbow relaxation track and trying to remember how to relax while my husband put counter pressure on my hips. My contractions had slowed down, even though they were still really strong, so my doctor decided to give me a little bit of pitocin to get them closer together. With the pitocin on 1-2 my they got a little weaker, but were about a minute apart. I was pretty sure I was going to die at this point so I got some Stadol in my iv. It made the peaks of each contraction more manageable, and I could get through them again. I had to get some zofran at the same time because I was getting sick and it was making it really difficult to focus through the contractions. At this point, I couldn't lay down through the contractions any more, I had to sit up in the bed, with my legs bent and the bottom of my feet touching each other while I held onto the rails on the bed and groaned through each contraction. I was shaking so bad, and I kept telling my husband that I couldn't do it. I started feeling like I needed to poop during my contractions, so my doctor came in to check me. (Let me add here how amazing my doctor is. She checked me while I was practically sitting up because I couldn't move into another position) I really didn't want to be checked because I was so afraid I hadn't made any progress, but I was at 9 cms, so that was awesome. Right around this time, I lost my mind a little. I decided that I couldn't sit in the bed anymore an I needed to lay down, but I couldn't lay down, so I freaked out and decided I needed to get out of the bed. I got one foot on the floor, Silas dropped and I fell back onto the bed sobbing. At that exact moment, my contractions decided that they didn't want to take any breaks. The contraction monitor looked kind of like rounded stairs, I would start another contraction before the previous one was able to stop so the nurses turned off the pitocin. I was pretty much just screaming and climbing the bed rails when I told my husband and best friend they needed to get the doctor right away because I needed to push. The doctor came in to check me, but didn't want to do it while I was having a contraction so she sat at the foot of my bed and waited until the pitocin cleared my body enough to give me a 30 second break between the contractions. They got me laid back enough for me to get checked and I was 9.5 cms but I was involuntarily pushing at the beginning of contractions. My doctor told me she could hold the lip back and I could push if I wanted to, but I told her not to put anything inside of me so she sat at the foot of the bed and waited for my body to do what it was going to do. I started pushing, and one of my nurses wanted me to lay back because I was arching my hips off of the bed to push, but I couldn't stand to lay flat because of the pressure. So I pushed in this awkward half on my side, half on my back position. I think I pushed twice and felt Silas slide down to be close to crowning. I yelled about how he moved down, then screamed "fuck!" Then apologized to a room full of adults for cussing. I pushed two more times, (I wasn't being coached, so they weren't the push for 10 seconds, wait, push again kind) and his head popped out(which surprised me because I never felt the ring of fire everyone talks about) my doctor told me his head was out, like I was unaware, I told her to get him out, pushed one more time and he was on my stomach.

Silas had an exceptionally thick cord, so it was still pulsing after 7 minutes, and my doctor asked if it was ok for them to cut it because he sounded congested and they wanted to do some deep suctioning. My husband cut the cord, and they took him over to the warming table. While he was being suctioned, we started talking about how much he weighed, because all of my doctors had been placing bets, along with everyone else that knew he was supposed to be big. The nurse called out "10 pounds, 5 ounces!" And there was a collective groan/cheer/woah in the room. Then my doctor checked to see if I tore, because she couldn't see anything, and sure enough, there wasn't even a scratch. She tugged on the cord, and it made me involuntarily push the placenta out.

 

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