Sunday morning we went to the hospital bright and early. There were not many soon to be mothers there so we were immediately taken to a room and checked in. I also changed into my Pretty Pusher labor gown. I was determined to wear something other then the ugly hospital gowns. My nurse had never seen this type of gown but was fine with it. I think I did quite a few things different then the nurse was expecting including hypno birthing
I was so scared of having an epidural. When Austin was born, the epidural needle went in too deep and nicked my spinal cord. I had fluid seeping out into my back which means I did not have enough spinal fluid and my brain was resting on my skull, at least this is how it was explained to me. I got an instant headache that was so painful I could not move. It required me to lay down flat on my back and drink lots of water and caffeine to try and replace the spinal fluid that was leaking. In addition, I had to have three blood patches. The first three did not work and I finally went to a different hospital to have the third blood patch which finally worked. A blood patch is where the doctor draws your blood and injects it in through an epidural needle back into your spine. This should seal the hole from the original epidural. My first blood patch was given before I left the hospital with Austin and worked for about 24 hours. The second blood patch had to been drawn from my foot, I was dehydrated and had been poked so many times, it was the only place they could get any blood. This doctor told me that I was draining a lot of spinal fluid so it was more then just a poke, more of a huge gash and that is why it was so painful. This blood patch did not work at all. I was so distraught. I was reading everything I could about what happened to me and saw horror stories about it never going away. All of this was going on while I had a brand new baby and two other kids, 6 and 3, running around at home. Thad had to take off two weeks from work and I just laid in bed with Austin the entire time. I had to crawl anytime I left the bed and it was horrific driving to the hospital for the blood patches, every bump sent me into tears it was so painful. The third blood patch was a full two weeks after Austin was born and took a few hours to take effect and I started to feel a little more normal. I never want to go through that pain again but I was also scared to have a baby naturally. It was a no win situation for me. I had heard hypno birthing helped dull the pain from having a baby and we jumped on board full force and practiced hypnosis every night.
Unfortunately my doctor was delivering another baby at a different hospital so they could not start the Pitocin until he gave them approval. About two hours after arriving at the hospital my doctor arrived and started the Pitocin, he also broke my water and expected we would have a new baby girl in about 4 hours. Both the doctor and the nurse must have expected a quick delivery because as soon as the doctor left two nurses came in and set up everything for delivery. They got the little crib, lights and everything else all set up. Right after that Thad and I started the hypnosis. I listened to pre-recorded hypnosis and Thad talked me through some hypnosis scripts. Everything was going well. I was sitting on a birthing ball through most of the labor which really helped. Megan and my Mom showed up about 1/2 way through and took pictures of the labor and after the baby was born, not the delivery.
In the hypno birthing class the teacher mentioned that for every person in the room it takes an extra hour for the delivery of the baby. Both my mom and Megan were very conscious of not distracting me and would stop talking when each contraction came on. Even with the hypno birthing I could still feel each contraction but they weren't extremely painful. I was able to breathe through the contraction and then continue with our conversation.
Thins were going so well that the nurse asked Thad if he wanted to help deliver Olivia. I thought that might be an exciting thing for him to do, however he was not interested at all. He was happy to leave that to the doctors.
Around noon the nurse changed the IV solution and it was cold. My whole arm turned to ice and was so painful, much more then any of the contractions I had experienced so far. I was completely knocked out of hypnosis and could not concentrate on anything. I had to wrap my arm in a warm towel to get past it. Crazy that I freak out over a cold arm and not the contractions. This is the picture of just after I wrapped my arm to try and warm it up.By this point I was about 2 hours into my labor and the contractions were about every 3 minutes apart and lasting between 1-2 minutes long. The nurse thought it was time to move me to the bed and check to see my progress. I was very disappointed to learn that I was only at 4cm. I was losing my determination to do this without an epidural and ended up crying with every single contraction. I was not sure if I was only at a four and really starting to feel the pain of the contractions, could I make it to delivery.
It was so much harder to breathe through the contractions laying in the hospital bed compared to the ball. I had to completely tune everything out. The contractions were coming faster and harder and I was only at 4 cm, I figured this delivery could last many more hours. I made another hour and half and decided the pain was too much. The anesthesiologist was helping another expecting mother so I received some medication in my IV that helps reduce the pain a little bit.
Finally the anesthesiologist came in and I explained what happened with my last epidural. The nurse said that he was a very experienced anesthesiologist and everything should be fine. I had to sit up for the epidural and lean over a table. The nurse was holding me there because the contractions were so bad I started shaking. Trying to hold still was very challenging. During this process the hospital would only allow one person in the room with me. Thad decided it was getting a little too intense and went out to call his parents and asked Megan to stay with me.
Within moments of sitting up and before the epidural was set up correctly, I knew this baby was coming NOW. I told the nurse that I needed to push! My doctor was not there, they had just told him 30 minutes earlier that it was going to be a long time before I had the baby. The nurse needed someone to call the doctor but she could not move because she was holding me still to finish the epidural. There was no time for the medication to take effect, but the anesthesiologist was mid procedure and needed to clean everything up before I could have the baby. She asked Megan to run out to the nurses station and tell someone to get my doctor here as quickly as possible and to bring in the on call doctor as well.
I don't remember a lot of what happened next. I was told that my doctor was 10 minutes away and I needed to focus on my breathing. Thad came back in and helped me through this. I was so scared of the pain and exhausted from the last thirty minutes. After a few minutes I decided we could not wait and decided to push. At that time my doctor walked in the door and a few pushes later my sweet Olivia made her grand arrival. She was placed in my arms and I fell in love instantly! I was emotionally drained and just wanted to relax for just a few minutes holding my sweet baby girl.
