Labor of Love

** We've been terribly busy staring at Lorelei so we are very behind. Here is a more thorough recounting of our hospital ordeal. 


Given that we were weeks past our due date, we had lots of extra check ups to ensure that baby was still doing well. It was encouraging to hear a resounding "Yes!" at all of these appointments, but it had been disappointing to routinely be told that I was only dilated to 1 cm. Given that I needed to hit 10, 1 cm sounded pretty puny. 

Apparently this wasn't just our perception. Our midwife, Pat, gently suggested we start talking induction. She knew we wanted to do everything as natural as possible and she was very supportive, but it was starting to look like I was going to be carrying a toddler if we didn't make some kind of move. So, she said if the baby was a no show by Thursday, September 23rd, we needed to check into the hospital to begin the process. 


That final week we tried everything. We ate spicy Thai food. We went for long walks. We even tried acupuncture. Nothing. Not even a twinge. Incidentally, it is a curious thing to be waiting and wishing for pain. Anyway, Thursday came and we took our time packing to go to the hospital. 

Just before we left for the hospital...

Because Sean is Sean, we brought
several bags of groceries.
Because I am me, we also brought half a dozen books.

After we got checked in, they hooked me up to a fetal monitor. The plan was to begin by putting some medication directly on my cervix in the hopes that it would efface 100% and then spur contractions and dilation. (It is worth noting I had been 90% effaced for nearly a month but, upon arrival, was told I was now at 60%. This fun fact would become a bit of a trend...) The midwife on duty decided they needed to wait to try the meds because I was actually having very regular, although low grade, contractions. The concern was that if they added the medicine, it could make the contractions too intense for baby. We were also hopeful that my body was maybe going to do this on its own. 


By 11 pm, it was clear that wasn't happening. My midwife decided it was time to give the medicine a try. It's supposed to stay in place for twelve hours, so we settled in for the night. Sean is the greatest. He somehow managed to convince a nurse to give him the code to the nutrition room. Translation? Unbridled access to juice and graham crackers for our entire stay! We watched Scrubs on DVD while sipping orange juice and then we went to sleep.


I woke up at 6 am with actual pain! Really exciting. Sean was still sleeping, so I just paced around the room a bit to get more comfortable. A half hour later, the nurse came in and announced they needed to take the medicine out early because the contractions were coming on top of each other and it wasn't safe for baby. So the medicine came out but the contractions continued. It seemed like maybe my body was taking over.


Several hours later, we were at 1 cm and 80% dilated. So, in essence, we had a little bit of progress but not enough to put us back to where we had been a month ago. Nice. 


The next step entailed two residents putting, in essence, a balloon next to my cervix to forcibly dilate it. I will spare you the details of this procedure and simply say that the residents in question appeared to be in junior high and one was guiding the other with phrases like, "I think maybe you should, um, hmm..." In reality, they were very kind, very sweet and just a tad inexperienced. I suppose that's part of the experience at a teaching hospital. Anyway, this meddling did spur some pretty intense contractions, though. A nurse suggested I try taking a bath. I love her. We very nearly named the child after her. 


I stayed in the tub for four hours. The nurse rechecked me and said I was at almost 5 cm! Again, it seemed like nature was taking the lead. So I stayed in the tub for hours and hours, confident things were progressing. By 11 pm, I was still in the tub- a veritable prune. The nurse rechecked me and discovered I was now at... 4cm. Huh?! I didn't even know it was possible to regress. It was so disappointing. Seventeen hours in and we were losing ground. Again. 


Given the hour, we decided to try to get some sleep and see if anything happened overnight. If there was no change, we would start the pitocin in the morning. The nurse gave me some medicine to help me sleep since it seemed the contractions were slowing. As if on cue, the contractions started back up, intense and on top of each other. I was exhausted and near tears. The nurses were encouraging- perhaps this was the labor getting going again on its own. Sean and I paced the hallway. I was so tired but couldn't sleep because of the pain. I held out until about 2 am and then asked to be checked again. No progress. None. 


I got an epidural. I cried that I was a big quitter. Sean told me I had no choice, which wasn't true but sounded nice at the time. But let me just say, epidurals are great. Honestly, greatest invention of all time. I suddenly couldn't remember why I was going for natural anyway. The midwife started the pitocin and I slept soundly. They woke me periodically to check me. By 10 am on Saturday, I was at 9 cm. The pushing started at 11 am and was over by 12:30. (The only thing I will say about that is I repeatedly asked variations on "how much longer?" and the midwife kept saying she couldn't say. I finally told her, Look, I can't see the clock. Just lie to me. Sean is much more perceptive and he kept telling me I was almost done. I knew he had no idea but I needed to hear it, even if it wasn't true.)


Lorelei Agnes finally arrived and she's perfect. She was all soft and warm and beautiful. They put her on my chest and I was just overwhelmed by the loveliness of her. 

Getting her ID bracelet

Getting cleaned up

Getting ready to go home