Alison's Birth Story, Long Overdue

This post is a few months over due but I've had mastitis three times in the last two months and now we're all sick again, so I kind of have an excuse.  I was hoping that Alison would come a little early because I was huge this time around and though for sure she would come sometime soon after 37 weeks.  Ladies a word of advice: DO NOT count on having your baby at 37 weeks because the next 3-4 weeks suck if you've figured that you're done.  At my 40 week and 2 day appointment my doctor asked if I wanted to be induced.  I declined because really, she'll come when she's ready and she was still looking great.  Also, I didn't want to put undue stress on her due to Pitocin contractions and I certainly didn't want to risk an unnecessary C-section etc...  And I'm a little bit of a hippy so there's that.  To be honest I did want to be induced, desperately.  But my conscience got the better of me. :)  My doctor and I both agreed that if at 41 weeks I hadn't gone into labor on my own we would schedule an induction.  I asked to have my membranes stripped in an effort to help me along (I'd had this done twice previously to no avail)  But I was dilated to 2.5 cm this week so things were looking up. I know early dilation is absolutely no indicator of labor starting but for the desperate pregnant lady I was taking any good news I could get.  I was starting to get to the point where I literally thought I would be pregnant forever.

The day went on and no heavy contractions started from the membrane stripping so I was a little discouraged but tried to remain positive while hauling around an extra 40+ pounds.  Dave got home from work and we joked about all the home remedies we could try to get things going but I didn't want to have bathroom issues from castor oil or heartburn from spicy food and I'd already tried the elliptical a few times and that was just silly so we got to bed and chit chatted about what it would be like to have a newborn again.  Around 11 o'clock I started having painful contractions but this was about the time my painful Braxton Hicks started out for the night for the previous month so I didn't think much of it.  But within 10 minutes or so the contractions were to painful for me to lie down.  Dave got on his contraction app and started timing them.  They were about a minute apart and a little less than a minute long.  I immediately started putting last minute things into my hospital bag between contractions and within the hour the contractions were so intense I had to stop everything and hold onto our dresser for support.  Dave called the hospital to see if we should come in and they agreed that we probably should.  I didn't want to jump the gun because we got sent home twice last time around.  But I'd had a few contractions that were right on top of each other and I didn't know how much longer I could handle it.  We woke Lynda to let her know we were heading to the hospital and we hurried out to the car.

When we got to the hospital they took us right into a delivery room and skipped over the triage room.  I was thankful for that.  Once there they "checked" me and said I was dilated to a 4 yippee we were having a baby.  They asked if I knew what I wanted to do for pain management and I quickly exclaimed that I would like an epidural asap.  The nurse had to run labs and get an entire bag of IV fluids in before they could order the epidural and the last time around they were really fast at getting all that done.  This time it seemed like FOREVER!!!!  And it was forever seriously like two hours after we got there before they even got the order in.  For me sitting on a bed while in labor is a special kind of torture.  The contractions are so much worse sitting/laying down than they are walking or standing.  But they made me sit in the bed while answering the hundreds of questions about medical history, lifestyle etc.  I was so annoyed.  If that is one thing that a hospital can do before or after labor I really think they should.  No woman wants to answer questions about mental health or recreational drug use while she's having intense contractions every other minute.  If my husband was on board with a home birth I'd seriously consider it.   Anyway, finally the anesthesiologist got there to give me my epidural and it took forever.  Apparently I have very stiff joints which makes inserting the needle very difficult.  Also, I have scoliosis and so I have to curve my spine in a weird way to make it straight.  A fact that the nurse overlooked and forcefully sat me up straight after the doctor had me bent correctly.  I was a little irritated at her.  (Obviously)  After the doc finally got the epidural in he realized that it was blocked off and so had to maneuver the needle a bit and pull it out some to get it to start flowing.  Then it was only working on one side and not all that well either.  He said to give it some time to see if it would work and if not to call him back to REINSERT IT!!!  At this point I thought we'd have some time so I sent Dave to the car to get my bag while I tried to get the epidural flowing.   But as soon as I rolled over my water broke and the pain and pressure became very intense.  I told this to the nurse who immediately called the doctor to come in.  Dave got back right before Dr. Kozak arrived and I told him that my water had broken and that I would really like him to get the music going because last time it was really awkward with everyone staring at me in silence and we ended up putting on Michael Jackson.  Yes, Isabel was born to "beat it".  Dave desperately tried to get the music going but my phone decided to shut down and the speaker was out of batteries so we were left with the music on his phone.  Country.  I hate country.  But anything was better than nothing.  Dr. Kozak arrived and it was time to push.  I was terrified because the epidural was not working but the pressure was so intense I couldn't not push.  Alison's head was visible during the first or second pushing contraction but then Dr. Kozak said, "You're not supposed to go back in" followed by my sweet husband cracking a joke and saying, "It's cold out there!!"  I was not all that amused and I was frantic that I'd just done all that work to have her go back in!  Plus the ring of fire really does feel like you are on fire.  I don't know why women choose to go naturally on purpose!  The second or third pushing contraction she finally came out and the pain was over.  Man, that was the worst pain I can imagine.  And, I have it all on film to prove it.

Alison was born at 3:07 a.m. just over 4 hours after the first contraction and about 15 minutes after the epidural. :)  Dr. Kozak held up the placenta which I hadn't seen with Isabel and to be honest I was a little mortified with out huge it was.  She explained that she liked to guess how much the baby weighed by how much the placenta weighed.  She was an interesting lady. :)  She guessed 7lbs 12oz.  I laughed her off because I don't have big babies like that, Isabel was only 7.  But Alison weighed in at 8lbs. 4oz!  Big girl.  I don't remember her APGAR scores but I'm sure they were amazing. ;)  We did skin to skin for a while and she nursed well right off the bat which was great.  We got to our regular room around 6 a.m. and Dave took off around 6:30 a.m. to be home when Isabel woke up.

That's our birth story.  Pretty crazy how different it was this time around.  We feel so blessed to have Alison here and happy and healthy.  We sure love her and Isabel is such an amazing big sister.  My favorite Isabel quote is when she gives Alison a kiss and exclaims, "I lub her!"

Life is just so sweet.