melz world

a secret site where I can capture my deepest thoughts about my infertility and other whatnots


Friday, June 15, 2007

Labor: Part I

It all started at 5 PM on Wed June 6. I was rushing as I do at the end of every day at work to finish up what I could just in case that day was THE day, and I get a contraction. I got them all the time, so I thought nothing of it. I continued to finish up a few tasks and realized that I had been feeling contractions for 45 minutes really regularly. I called my husband, we work at the same company, and let him know that I was ready to go home and oh by the way, I think I am having regular contractions. They were very VERY weak, but still present. I got in the car to go get D and started watching the clock. The contractions, as weak as they were 2-3 minutes apart. D got in and we decided that we would get dinner and go home so I could lie down. Last time I had a bout of contractions, laying down helped to stop them. They remained regular for the whole ride home. We go home and I rested on my side and still they persisted every 3 minutes like clockwork. Well the rule is that you are supposed to call the hospital when you reach the 511 - contraction happening every 5 minutes, lasting one minute, and go for one hour straight. I never had 511, I went straight to 311. At 8 PM we called the hospital and I told them what was going on with the very weak contractions. They told me to go ahead and come on in so they could take a look.

D and I then ran around getting everything in order, like feeding the cat, getting the neighbors to feed the cat if we don't come home that night, and making sure that we do indeed have everything. It was pretty fun watching my husband start to go into a tizzy with getting us out the door. We pulled out of the driveway and we realized that we needed my living will, and power of attorney (nice having an attorney for a husband) so we pulled back in the driveway and he ran in to get it. Needless to say, this caused the neighbor across the street to take notice of the activity and he inquired as to whether or not we were heading in to have a baby. We said we were going in for a look see which was plenty of info for our very plugged in neighbor to get the news out.

We get to the hospital and they have my room waiting. We go in and they hook me up to a fetal monitor to track the baby’s heart rate and my contractions. I am NOT admitted at this point, I am only there for observation. I am to be monitored for 30 minutes, get up and walk for 15 minutes, then be monitored for another 30 minutes. I do all of that and my contractions are still weak and 3 minutes apart. They check my progress and I am still at 2.5 centimeters, where I was a week ago. They leave me hooked up for more observation. Another hour goes by and still no progress, just really regular contractions. Another hour, same thing. All the while, the nurses are saying that I looks like they will send me home. It’s midnight now, and the doctor comes in and announces that they are going to admit me and put me on Pitocin to get this show started as they feel that I am officially in labor, but not progressing very quickly. Once the Pitocin goes in, my contractions start to get stronger and I begin to use my breathing techniques to help with the pain. After 2 hours of regular contractions 3 minutes apart they checked my progress and I was now at a whopping 3 centimeters! WHA? I have been in labor for 9 hours now and I have only progressed half a centimeter, are you kidding? They up the Pitocin another notch and I start to have stronger contractions that are now starting to cause me to feel faint. They hook me up to oxygen to help with the dizziness which does help and they ask me to just sleep as much as I can for the next couple of hours to see how I progress. I also ask for some pain medication, so they add a half does of a meds to my IV which do indeed reduce the intensity, and make me groggy. D and I sleep about 2 hours and are woken up at 5 AM to be checked for how I am progressing. I am now at 4 cm. However, the baby’s heart rate isn’t doing well on the upped Pitocin, so the medication is backed back down to its original amount. The nurses say that my OB will be coming on duty at 8 AM and that we’ll consult her as to our next steps.

To be continued…

2 Comments:

  • At 2:23 PM, Blogger Pat said…

    I am waiting patiently for Part II please :-).

     
  • At 11:27 PM, Blogger mrs.naramor said…

    I am up late having contractions 3-4 minutes apart and came across your blog for the first time. Beautiful baby! Beautiful nursery! Congratulations on your new family.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home