Labor & Delivery

I want some kind of record of my labor and delivery with Evie, so some of this might be a bit TMI. If you are a mom, you know the story. If you are pregnant and want to hear my story, read on! Don't say you weren't warned :)

After a slight delay, we arrived at Howard County General Hospital on Monday, May 23rd around 8 PM for induction. We got settled in our room and they got me started on the cervix ripening agent. Depending on how things progressed overnight, we would start pitocin in the morning. They gave me a sleeping pill to help me rest and off to sleep we went. Contractions started waking me up around 4 AM.

Sadly, no changes to my cervix in the morning. They unplugged me for 1 hour to walk the halls and enjoy going to the bathroom one last time without my IV contraption in tow. Donna, my widwife, said it was going to be a long day and didn't want to give us false hope. She said delivery late that night or even the next day. Ugh.

I started pitocin around 10:15 AM. Donna also decided to insert balloon type things in my cervix to help me dilate faster. It took her two attempts to get those puppies in. Yeah, that hurt like hell. She said they would fall out when I was 4 cm dilated.

Contractions started immediately. They were pretty painful. Being in bed was the most uncomfortable position, so I changed between the exercise ball, standing, and the rocking chair. Jason coached me through the first few hours of contractions. We did most of the stuff we learned in our child birth class- breathing, dancing together, touch. It was a long afternoon. But after a while, I got used to them and found the rocking chair the best place for me. Around 4 pm I finally felt the balloons drop. I was surprisingly 6 cm!

At this point I felt I had experienced labor pains and needed to rest up for the final push (no pun intended). Donna encouraged me to get the epidural, which I easily agreed was probably a good move. They got me prepped for the anesthesiologist.

Getting the epidural wasn't a walk in the park, but it wasn't horrible. I quickly felt relief, but not before they shoved the catheter in me before I was numb. Another fun experience. I swear, it was all the other stuff that hurt like hell- getting the IV, having penicillin going through my IV line, the catheter, not as much the labor stuff.

My water broke around 6 PM something. Another thing I wanted to experience. It was a nice big gush. Donna noted the baby pooped in uterine, so they would need to have the NICU in the room for the delivery to check her out. Seriously, can I have one more thing happen wrong?!

I continued gushing and having strong pressure. I felt like I had to poop for a good 2 hours. Donna finally checked me out at 8:30 PM and felt the head. I instantly knew the baby was ready to come!

We turned on our delivery playlist and got to work. Pushing was actually the easiest part of the whole ordeal. I had enough feeling to know when I was pushing. I was never so happy to push poop out. I only felt like I had to poop for 2 hours. I was ready to push! After about 1 hour of pushing, she pulled the baby out. Jason and I both got to see right away her parts. She was blue, but I knew that wasn't the worst thing. Jason instantly started crying and I followed in suit. Evie was placed on me for a few minutes, then taken to the NICU nurses for evaluation.

The placenta was delivered shortly after, all in tact. Donna fixed up any "damage", which was very minimal. Jason stood with Evie as they weighed her and took her Apgar scales- both 9's! I held her again, but she left too quickly again for the nursery to monitor her glucose levels. I didn't have a chance to breastfeed, which was slightly disappointing, but I knew well ahead of time that with GD moms, the baby usually needs formula to regulate sugar levels. Her sugar was low for a few hours after birth so I wasn't able to feed until the next morning.

Overall, I'm really happy how my labor and delivery went. I didn't want a C-section and I said I would play it by ear on the epidural. I am really proud of myself for enduring labor pains for almost 12 hours and pushing her out. It's something I wanted to experience. I am also thrilled Evie is making breastfeeding work for us. Donna was one of my favorite midwives and she met all of my expectations. She was so calm and positive during pushing.

After 4 days of hospital gowns, constant interruptions from nurses, uncomfortable sleeping conditions, carb loaded and high fructose corn syrup food, we were ready to come home. We left the hospital Thursday, May 26th before dinner.

Hospital Stay