I SWORE I was going to go into labor early. I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant when I decided that. I had no basis, just a feeling. So when I went to my 36 week checkup and the doctor said i was 1 centimeter dilated and 50% effaced, I started getting excited. I even knew that those statistics meant nothing, as I could be there several more weeks. I scrambled around the house, making sure everything was in its place. At my appointment a week later, there was no change. So I got depressed. The next week, still no progress. And at 39 weeks, still nothing. So I asked her about stripping (or sweeping) my membranes. If you aren't familiar, that just means she used her finger to separate my water bag from my cervix just a bit. It's done during the pelvic exam and is painless, just makes you cramp as she does it. It's thought to help start the release of oxytocin so labor can start, but will only work if the body is ready to release it anyway (which goes with a pitocin-induced labor, as well. The more ready her body is, the more successful the induction is and less risk of a c-section). In my mind, this was no more intrusive than drinking herbal teas, having sex, or walking - all methods involve releasing hormones and ripening the cervix without medication or high risks. I cramped like crazy for a few days afterwards, which I expected...
That was done on the Wednesday before my due date, and by Friday I had lost my entire mucus plug (which looks exactly like you would expect....like your vagina had just blown her nose...). So, after reading everything on this and talking to a few people, I had figured labor wasn't too far away. My grandma had already planned on flying down Saturday and waiting me out, but I was more worried about my mom. This was 3 days before she was due to start school/work and I didn't want her using all of her vacation/sick days in the first week if I wasn't actually ready to start labor. However, my doctor was talking about induction the next week at the latest (41 weeks).
One thing I should mention is that when I got pregnant, I had never even considered a non-medicated delivery. I was epidural all the way. But several weeks before my due date, I started doing a bunch of research on epidurals, and watched several documentaries. They all said the same thing - that epidurals can lead to some pretty hefty side-effects and may lead to more drugs to counteract those side effects. Plus I was worried about the effect it may have on breastfeeding, since, to be perfectly honest, my nips are the smallest I've ever seen. I was worried already about him being able to latch on, and the thought of heavy medication made me even more concerned. So, I decided that I wanted to try giving birth naturally - vaginally and non-medicated - inductions included. Pitocin speeds up contractions, making them more difficult to tolerate, which leads to an epidural, which could slow labor down, which leads to even more pitocin to speed it back up, and then if your blood pressure drops with the epidural, you need magnesium to bring it back up, and if labor slows down too much, they want to do a c-section. I really didn't want to get that snowball rolling. My doctor was on board and encouraged me, which I LOVE her for.
Now, the Friday I lost the plug, my mom decided she wanted to go ahead and fly down. She flew in that afternoon. My grandma flew in the next day (my due date). And we waited.
I had another doctor's appointment Monday, and I still had not progressed any. I thought for sure that with all the cramping I had with the loss of my mucus plug, I would have dilated a bit more. But no. So she stripped my membranes again (this isn't a proven science, but it has been known to work if the woman's body is ready for labor - otherwise no real harm is done, and the risks are very small).
Since I was then past my due date, my doctor wanted me to have a non-stress test done. So my mom, grandma, and I went to the hospital right after my doctor's appointment and I laid in a bed for an hour with monitors strapped to my stomach. Colten was moving fine and his heart rate was fine, so they set me up with another test appointment for the following Thursday. I was thinking, 'over my dead body will I be back here without a baby...'
But, having had no sign of labor at all, I wasn't holding my breath. But I was telepathically trying to communicate with Colten and my own body to go into labor that night. I felt very strapped for time because it was Monday, and my doctor was only in the office until Wednesday, so unless I wanted to wait a week to either go into labor on my own or be induced- in which case my mom would most likely have to go back home - I had until the next day to decide whether or not to be induced by that Wednesday. I thought so hard about it, and I researched more than I ever had before, and talked to friends and family about it. As much as I didn't want to be induced, I did want my mom to be there with me. So I had to choose - an unwanted induction but have my mom there, or possibly go naturally within the next week and risk my mom missing it, or end up having to be induced anyway the next week. I was incredibly stressed about it.
I had been cramping all that Monday, and had Braxton Hicks contractions all day (I'd had them for months anyway, so that was nothing new). I timed them but they were still very irregular and mild. I didn't think anything of it. We had gone to lunch right before my non-stress test, and I started feeling nauseated - again, didn't think anything of it because that had happened every now and then before. Later on, we went to dinner and I had a big ol' burger. That night around 9:30, amid all my stressful worrying, I had to poop. Of all times. But, since I had eaten that burger (with jalapenos), I figured that's why I had to go to the bathroom so bad. Out of nowhere, I had painful contraction. Of course, I was on the toilet and couldn't really change positions to make it go away. I thought, "Weird..." Then a few minutes later I had another one. Then I thought, "What the hell?..." I got up, and had the same pain every few minutes. I didn't say anything to anyone, just got on the computer to look up - AGAIN - what labor contractions might feel like. I pulled up my handy contraction time app on my phone and began timing them. I also started pacing the hall every time I had one to see if they would go away, like Braxton Hicks, or get worse, like real labor. They never went away, but they weren't really getting worse, either. After several pains, I looked at my phone and saw that they were between 2 min 30 sec and 3 min apart. So I asked my mom and grandma what their contractions felt like and how they knew they were in labor. I described what mine felt like - sharp pains in my lower abdomen, and a bit of tightness in the rest of my uterus. It hurt, but wasn't bad. Then I said how close together they were, and Todd said, "Uh, weren't you supposed to go to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart?" I said, "Yeah....but these can't be labor contractions, they're too close together right off the bat! I never got a 10 minute warning like everyone said I would!" The more I timed them, the closer they got. I thought, "okay, seriously, these are a minute and a half apart. I would be in the transition period, in enough pain to give information to any terrorist that may ask for it.....and these aren't that bad.....and I don't feel pressure like I'm supposed to push.....this can't be it."
I decided to lie down on the bed to see what happened. They slowed down to about every 3 1/2-4 minutes apart, but never died down. After a few minutes, I felt a little leak, but not unlike anything else I'd felt the past few weeks. Everyone gets a bit more discharge than before the closer to labor she gets. So I got up and started to walk to the bathroom. That's when I felt it - my water broke. Then I thought, "Oh shit. We gotta go." Luckily I had a pad on because of the spotting from the membrane sweep earlier (yeah, you spot, too) so I didn't get water everywhere. It wasn't so much a gush as some people get, but it was more than a trickle. It was enough that I couldn't control it and it absolutely did feel like I was peeing my pants.
Despite the war going on in my head, I was calm throughout the whole thing. I was breathing through each contractions, even though they weren't too painful and my family was calm, too. So, a little after 10pm that Monday night, we headed to the hospital. The contractions stayed at about 3 minutes apart, give or take seconds. Since it was after hours, we had to go in through the ER and walk to Labor and Delivery - quite a walk for a woman in labor carrying luggage and pillows. We preregistered, so it was no time before I was in a bed ready to go. They checked me when I got in the bed and I was dilated to 4 and about 90% effaced. Needless to say, I was thrilled I didn't have to make the painful decision on induction, and my family was there with me. Between 10:30 and 2, my contractions were quite regular (a min and a half apart) and quite painful. By 2 am, I was shaking and could barely breath. My contractions were still a minute and a half apart, but they were coming every 2 minutes. That left about 30 seconds for me to relax. I couldn't. They had checked me not too long before that point and I was around 5.5 cm dilated. But when my contractions because that painful, I knew I was in transition, and if I was going to make it out alive, I needed help. I was getting nauseated with every contraction, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I got sick and/or passed out. I asked for the epidural (oh, and a BIG shout-out to the staff of Slidell Memorial for not pressing me or offering the epidural more than once), Todd said, "Are you sure?" I said, "Yes, I can't make it this way." They asked if I wanted to be checked beforehand or wait until after, and I said after. So they called the anesthesiologist and within 15 minutes, he was there and prepping me for the epidural. It was the longest 15 minutes of my life. He was great, though, and I didn't feel too much pain when he inserted the catheter. After about 10 minutes, I started to feel relief. They checked me and I was dilated to 8 and 100% effaced. Had I waited any longer, I wouldn't have been able to get the epidural.
I was afraid that the epidural would slow down my progress, since I had only been in labor 4.5 hours and progressed that far that fast. It didn't slow down my contractions at all, and I was beginning to feel pressure after a bit. I dilated from 8 to 10 in about 3 more hours, but my cervix was still just a bit present. Just enough that I couldn't push. That was the only thing that seemed to have slowed. By 7 am Tuesday, they said I was ready to push and they called the doctor. They gave me enough of a time window that the small lip of my cervix still present would be gone by the time she got there. 7:45 or so she was there prepping herself and me. I pushed about 15-20 minutes, with each contraction getting in 3 pushes. I got the hang of it very fast (thank you, TLC, for all the birth stories and pointers), and at 8:16am, my sweet boy was born. I was in labor for about 10.5 hours, pretty good for a first delivery considering the average time is 14 hours.
I'm quite proud to say I toughed it out that long, even though my birth plan didn't go exactly like I wanted. The nurses talked about it even the next day. Apparently, having a woman go into labor on her own, having her water break without intervention, AND going that far into labor without medication is unusual nowadays. And I don't doubt it with all the inductions for convenience and unnecessary interventions that could have been prevented with just a little patience. I'm not proud to say that I did consider those methods for the same reasons. I wasn't happy about it, let me tell you. But it didn't even matter, thank God, and I was able to do what my body wanted to do, and only 3 days past my due date, which is really good for a first pregnancy.
A tip for my pregnant friends who want to try to go natural - BREATHE. It helps with Braxton Hicks, too. There are different methods to this, but I just did what came naturally to me. That's the key - do what feels natural to you. That goes for caring for the baby, too. But more on that in a bit...
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