Pregnancy Forum - Tessa Noelle's Birth Story (long & Pic Heavy)

Here's Tessa's birth story. Sorry it's long & pic heavy:

My due date was Dec. 10 according to LMP and Dec. 12 according to ovulation. At my OB appointment on Dec. 10, I was still 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced (had been that way for over a month). The OB decided to go ahead with the induction, which was scheduled for Dec. 14 at noon. The day before the induction was overall a bad day for me; I hadn’t cried so much in ages. First, my pre-op appointment at the hospital was cancelled due to the woman there having a family emergency. I was told all would be fine and to go in at noon the next day and everything would be OK, but it was still upsetting. I was told to fast after midnight. Then, I found there were weevils in my pantry in the flour and all over the place. I had an OB appointment scheduled at 3:30 p.m. and showed up, waited in the office for 30 minutes and then was told my appointment was at the other location, and the office staff had told me the wrong office to go to. Fortunately, the OB was contacted, and I was told he would wait for me to arrive at the other location. Finally, I saw the OB and had made no progress dilating. The OB told me that midnight to noon was a long time to fast, and I could go ahead and drink something for breakfast. I got a Foley catheter inserted into my cervix. It was about 4:30 p.m. The end was blown up and filled with saline. This was in the hopes that the catheter would cause my cervix to dilate more. It was pretty uncomfortable, and I was quite uncomfortable afterwards, a bit crampy but even beyond that.

I was afraid I wouldn’t sleep that night because of the discomfort I was in, but the one bright side to having such an emotionally draining and upsetting day was that I was just exhausted. I took Tylenol PM since I really, really wanted to be able to sleep before the big day. I was able to sleep from 11 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., waking up to use the bathroom in between a few times. I did notice I was bleeding and spotting a bit at one point. Around 2:30 a.m., I woke up to use the bathroom again, and while I was there, the catheter fell out. At this point, the discomfort level was rising. I can’t describe it exactly, but it was a constant feeling; it didn’t come and go like contractions. I lay down in bed and tried to sleep, but I was too uncomfortable to sleep at all. I started wondering if maybe DH and I should go to the hospital but tried to sleep. Around 3 a.m., I noticed the pain had changed and it seemed to come and go every 10 minutes or so. I thought these might be contractions, but I wasn’t sure. The pain was mild and bearable. I was able to fall back to sleep and slept until around 5:30 a.m.

I lay in bed awhile, not really sleeping, just thinking and hoping the pain or contractions wouldn’t go away. It didn’t. Around 7 a.m., I got up and decided to shower. I was still having the pains after my shower. I decided they must be contractions because it seemed to come and go at regular intervals. I woke DH up and told him to shower just in case we needed to go to the hospital early. I had a Slimfast shake for breakfast. Around 8 a.m., I began timing the pains, which had increased a bit in intensity, but were still very manageable. I was having contractions around every 6-8 minutes, sometimes a bit longer.

Around 10 a.m., the hospital called and said they were super busy and would have to postpone my induction. I was very upset and started crying, especially since I was having contractions already. DH called the OB’s office and perhaps the hospital, where my doctor was on call. He got to talk to the OB and was told they would definitely get me in that day but it might just be later than planned. In the meanwhile, I was to labor at home, where I’d be more comfortable, and I should go ahead and eat lunch, just don’t eat anything too heavy. I should not to hesitate to go to the hospital if the pain got too bad or unmanageable. I was able to finally calm down and stop crying and rationalize that DH and the OB were right, I’d be much more comfortable at home in the meantime. Through lunch, DH and I timed the contractions, which were roughly every 5-6 minutes now and sometimes less. They were much more uncomfortable at this point. I would have to stop what I was doing until the contraction was over while DH coached me through them.

Around 2 p.m., I determined the baby wasn’t going to wait for the induction, and the contractions were coming at 4-5 minute intervals. Shortly afterwards, I had a bloody show, and then the contractions started coming with increasing frequency and intensity. I told DH we needed to leave for the hospital now as the contractions were coming every 3 to 5 minutes and quite intense and painful. I just remember moaning, “Ow, it hurts so bad” through each contraction, again and again. Each contraction seemed to last forever but in reality were probably about 1 minute to 1 ½ minutes in length.

DH did a great job trying to talk me through the contractions while driving, which must have been distracting. Once at the hospital, we made a beeline to L & D, where I was told they were trying to contact me on the phone and had a bed for me, but it would be 15-20 minutes while the room was cleaned. In the meantime, I was to wait in the waiting room and was led by the nurse who would be my nurse part of the time, Angie. She was really the perfect nurse. She was bubbly and upbeat and from Scotland, so she had a fun accent to listen to and kept saying interesting things like “smashing” all the time.

I waited in the waiting area, still having intense contractions, but feeling better that I’d soon be seen. Soon, Angie was back, saying they had a bed for me. By this time, it was about 3 p.m. I was given my birthing room and given paperwork while everyone tried to talk me through my contractions and Angie entered information on the computer, and I was hooked up to the contraction monitor and a monitor for the baby’s heartrate. I was still contracting every 3-5 minutes, and it was very intense. I was checked and was shocked to hear I was at 5 cm and ready for the epidural, at which point, I was dying to get. Everything went quickly after that. I was given my IV (by far the worst part of L & D, Angie tried and couldn’t get a vein and then two other nurses had to come and the first one wouldn’t even attempt to stick me before calling their in-house needle pro). Finally, I got the bloodwork done and then the IV.

The anesthesiologist came, and everyone had to leave the room, even DH. Angie talked me through the contractions and epidural. Getting the epidural itself wasn’t bad. The numbing medication stung and really hurt, but it was a short sting, about 5 seconds or so. Inserting the line for the epidural wasn’t bad although it’s the weirdest feeling getting the actual epidural. I can’t describe it. After about 10 minutes, I was feeling much more comfortable, and DH came back into the room. I was still feeling contractions, but they were much more manageable, and some I didn’t feel at all. I relaxed and became much happier.

The OB showed up around 4:30 p.m., and I hadn’t made much progress (was about 5 ½ cm) except the head had come down. My contractions were beginning to space apart, and he decided we should start pitocin. In the meanwhile, he broke my water. There was light meconium in the fluid. He said it was recent and hadn’t been there long and that the baby should be fine, her heartrate looked great, but it did make me grateful that I went ahead with the Foley catheter because I’m sure that jump-started my labor. The pitocin was started, and soon I noticed a spot on my right where I could still feel the contractions, and it hurt a bit. I was given a boost to my epidural, and it didn’t really help, so I was given a different medication, and soon I wasn’t feeling a thing. I wasn’t able to feel or move my legs at all (before that, I could feel them even though they were tingly and move them a bit). I was checked and still around 6 cm. The pitocin was upped. The nursing shift changed around 6 p.m.

I was doing just fine at this point, couldn’t feel a thing. I couldn’t feel the contractions or even any pressure or anything. I worried if I would be able to push but was told not to worry, they would lay off on the medication before it became time to push. The new nurse checked me for the first time around 8:15 p.m. and seemed shocked that I was 10 cm and ready to push. I wondered how on earth I would be able to push if I couldn’t feel a thing. The nurse had me do a few pushes and determined I was doing fine. Meanwhile, I continued to push with the nurse, even though I had to be told when to push because I couldn’t tell when I was having a contraction. The nurse determined it was time for the OB, and he was paged. We continued to push with contractions. I was given a mirror, so I could see while I pushed. The mirror really helped with focusing on where to push since I couldn’t feel anything. I was able to see the baby’s head, which gave me some focus while pushing.

The OB arrived, and I pushed with him. Soon the baby’s head was crowning. Unfortunately, I needed a second degree episiotomy in the end, but since I wasn’t feeling a thing, it didn’t hurt at the time. A couple of pushes, and then Tessa was born. She was covered with meconium, and suctioned, but she was crying and moving. They placed her on my chest. I was crying and kept saying, “My baby, my baby.” She was wiped off, and DH cut the cord.

Tessa was born at 8:57 p.m. and weighed 6 lb. 1.5 oz. at birth. She was 19” long. After suctioning, she was assessed and determined to be healthy. Her Apgar score was 9/9.

My recovery is going well. Once I got the feeling back in my legs, things kept progressing quite smoothly. By the next day, I felt pretty much normal, if tired, from rooming overnight with Tessa and being constantly woken by the hospital staff for blood pressure and temperature and getting weighed practically in the middle of the night (around 5 a.m. some nurse dragged in a giant metal scale and insisted I be weighed). I had some residual soreness from the episiotomy and actual labor and delivery, but overall not bad. I couldn’t have asked for an easier birth experience.

Me after my epidural:

Tessa getting weighed:

Tessa and me after her stay in the transitional nursery (the fluids from the IV made me swell up quite a bit):

pics taken today w/ Tessa:

DH w/ Tessa: