I woke up at 2:45a.m. Saturday with what felt like strong back pains and abdominal cramps 2-6 minutes apart and thinking maybe my water had broken. (Turned out it had, but we didn't know that until after we'd been triaged at the hospital since I've never done this before!) I wasn't sure if I was in Labor or not, which I assumed meant I wasn't since people had been telling me all along that when it was really labor I'd know! Called the advice nurse and then spent a couple hours drinking gatorade, showering and changing positions to see if the pains went away. When they didn't we went in to be checked at 6:45a.m. and they decided my water had broken so they admitted me without doing a cervix check, planning on waiting until we'd progressed further to avoid introducing any more possibility of infection since I'd only been contracting for about 4 and a half hours at that point. Our friend Amy (Kyra's honorary auntie) showed up while we were in triage still and was a really great support all through labor to both me and DH. After we moved to the labor and delivery room, I rested for a couple hours as much as possible and eventually spent some time in the shower with the hot water on my back (WONDERFUL feeling) as most of the pain was still in my back/tailbone. Around eleven or so I was in enough pain and getting tired enough that I was thinking I wanted some i.v. pain relief so that I could possibly rest a little between contractions as I felt like I was close to being able to do that so the midwife came in to check us and saying that if I felt like resting I probably hadn't progressed very much, but PTL we were at 8 cm and in transition!!! I felt a lot better and more able to tolerate the contractions after that knowing that we weren't still in early labor and things weren't about to get a bunch worse. After another hour I was at 9 cm but it seemed like Kyra's head was still at a bad angle and not lined up with my pelvis right. Ended up getting back in the shower on hands/knees with the hot water on my back and eventually just relaxing in the tub full of water when it got too tiring to be trying to stay upright through the contractions. 2 hours later we were still at 9 cm with no progress and she wasn't turning so the midwife suggested getting an epidural as it would possibly help my body to relax enough for her to finish turning. We had a great epidural although having it put in wasn't any fun. I had almost no loss of sensation/pressure and I could still feel/move my legs well but the pain level dropped enough for me to relax. It did slow down contractions however so they started us on pitocin. After another hour or so something suddenly felt different and there was strong pain at my tailbone instead of just pressure so the midwife checked again. All that was left was a lip of cervix that the midwife thought we could push through and it seemed like Kyra had turned her head just enough. We waited until half after 5 or so when I had a stronger urge to push to give her a chance to turn the rest of the way and then started pushing with feet up on a squat bar on the bed which was very helpful. I was on oxygen for much of the pushing and they turned off the pit as Kyra's heartrate kept jumping up. Finally we were crowning (got to watch in the mirror, so neat and definitely nice to be able to see the progress we were making!) but the dr. decided she needed to come a little faster and that her head was still not sitting quite right so we had an episiotomy (made me yelp as I wasn't expecting it to hurt that much and that scared Phil). That was the CREEPIEST sensation ever as it actually FELT like scissors... Apparently the midwife and nurse started to discuss possibly needing to do a c-section then, but I thankfully didn't hear them, just Phil. She was out about 2 or 3 minutes later after a couple more long pushes. Turns out the problem was that instead of presenting the crown/back of her head, she was presenting the top/flat part and then she had both fists tucked up by her face like she was trying to push her way out!!! Her oxygen levels were low as she had fluid in her lungs and so she had to go to the nursery so Auntie Amy went with her. I did get to touch her first while she was on my stomach for about 30 seconds. It took longer than they liked to stop my bleeding and I did end up with low hematocrit at my blood test the next day but didn't end up having to have a transfusion. They put in the stitches for the episiotomy/tear after they numbed the area up. When she said she was going to do the stitches I asked if she could numb it first and she said yes, and that sometimes the epidural isn't enough to take away all the pain during the actual delivery. She looked a little startled when I pointed out that I'd NEVER been numb at all in that area, even during the episiotomy... Phil and Amy were both AMAZING throughout the whole labor and delivery. There's no way I could have done it without them. I think without the support I would have ended up with an epidural a lot sooner and probably a c-section if I hadn't been able to relax enough for her to turn or stay motivated enough to push her out as quickly as she needed to come. Kyra spent about 4 hours in the nursery for observation but was off the oxygen by 8pm. Phil was able to go down and see her there and eventually Grandma & Grandpa B. did too. I was moved upstairs around 9 but got to stop and see her in the nursery for a few minutes first. We were so relieved at 11:30 when she got to come up too! I'm so glad she's "out" now!! Honestly, Labor and Delivery wasn't at all as bad as I expected!! Phil was wonderful and I'm so glad we were able to not have a c-section.
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