On June 12th I had around 4-5 hours of contractions before they stopped in the evening. I was a little disappointed to not go into labor fully on my own but was glad that Wiggle was waiting for when my OB was on call the next day. We brought Lily and Bella to my parents' house in the afternoon so we were ready to go for the big day. Mark and I woke up early on the 13th and headed for the hospital.
I got to my room a few minutes after 7 AM and met my labor nurse Tricia. She was actually the nurse who had cared for me a few months ago when I got sent to L&D for monitoring and Mark and I both really liked her. She had me change into my hospital gown and get all situated in bed. We got the monitors on my belly and she started an IV. At around 7:30 Dr. M came in to check me; my dilation would determine how the induction would start. He said I was 2 cm and 80% effaced so he didn't want to bother with any cervical ripening and would just go to Pitocin. His plan for the day was "Pitocin, breaking your water around lunch time, an epidural if you want it, and then having a baby!" It sounded like a good plan to us.
The Pit actually started running at around 8 AM and Tricia turned it up every half hour. I had a light drip of IV fluids as well as the Pitocin. I didn't feel much of anything for the first half hour or 45 minutes and was doing some reading on my Kindle. Then it started kicking in and the contractions felt like they had the day before. I told Tricia that I wanted to walk and she got the telemetry unit for my monitors (she had started charging it as soon as I told her I wanted to go as long as possible before getting the epidural if I got it at all). Mark pushed my IV pole and we were up and doing laps of the maternity unit. Tricia had asked if it was OK with me to have nursing students observe my care and I had said yes, so at around that time she introduced me to the two nursing students who would be following me that day. Both them were in the 1 year master's entry to nursing program at UConn. It was their first week of clinicals and their first day on the maternity unit, and they seemed excited that they would probably get to see a delivery.
After 11ish the contractions were strong enough that I decided to stay in my room. I put my iPhone in the stereo dock and put a live Rush album on repeat. I was more comfortable standing up and actually I spent a lot of time near the windows looking outside (it was pouring rain) and then leaning on Mark or swaying/rocking from side to side during the contractions themselves. While the contractions were strong and painful I felt fine in between. They were short-ish contractions but close together. A little before 1 PM a resident came in to check me. I was at 4 cm and while she was up there she asked if I wanted my water broken then - I told her to do it. It was a very funny feeling with a big pop and a gush and Wiggle's fluid was nice and clear. Things got noticeably stronger on the contraction front and they dialed the Pitocin down a little so that it didn't hit me quite as hard. Dr. M came in to see me at 1:30ish because he was done in the OR and wanted to decide if he could go back to the office or not. I was still feeling good in between contractions, so he went to the office - but knowing how fast I dilated with Lily, he made me promise that if I felt any pressure or felt the need to push I would tell Tricia because it would take him 15+ minutes to get back to the hospital.
By 2, I was feeling very uncomfortable during contractions (I had started to cry through them and had a hard time staying on my feet) and they were coming a lot closer together. Tricia offered to check me to see if progress was being made but I was still at 4 cm. I decided it was epidural time, although I felt like I had given in too early. At that point the pain was so strong during contractions that I couldn't stand at all, which made things worse because I couldn't rock and sway through them. The two nursing students got sent back in and they helped Mark coach me through the contractions. Wiggle was a trooper and tolerated the hard labor well. Tricia let me know that the anesthesiologist was in the OR for a C-section but that he could leave mid-procedure to come do my epidural. He finally arrived with a nurse anesthetist resident a little before 2:30. Tricia parked Mark in a chair in front of me so he could hold my hands and she had me hug a pillow and lean on her. The contractions were BRUTAL during the epidural process because I had to sit so still, but they told me when I could move a bit. The first positioning of the epi catheter wasn't good so they ended up snaking it up further to get it in the right spot. During one contraction as they were finishing up, I was crying out in such a way that Tricia told the anesthesiologist that she needed to lay me down and check me ASAP, and after that contraction I told her I felt pushy, confirming her suspicions that I'd dilated very fast and gone through transition. They got the epi catheter taped down and Tricia got me laid down and checked me - she thought I was almost fully dilated. I almost waited too long for the epidural AGAIN!
The chief resident came in and checked me and said I was actually around 9 cm but she would have them call Dr. M to get back to the hospital ASAP. She reassured me that the baby was tolerating everything well and if that changed, she would deliver the baby without waiting for my doctor to get there. By this point the anesthesiologist had run meds into the epidural catheter and they were taking effect - I could have kissed that man! I could still feel the contractions and could still feel and move my legs, it's just that the pain was gone. They had me labor down until Dr. M got there a little before 3. Mark and I were chatting and laughing with the resident, Tricia, and the nursing students, and it was kind of crazy that in a matter of minutes I'd gone from near-screaming to comfortably sitting in bed
My doctor checked me and decided that since Wiggle was still sunny side up, we needed to rotate the baby so that I could more effectively push. This involved him and the resident basically reaching up alongside the baby's head and physically rotating the kid as I pushed gently. Thank heavens I had the epidural because I genuinely don't think I could have tolerated that un-medicated. Mark held my left leg and Tricia held the right, and they brought in a second nurse (Mary Ann) for the baby. The nursing students got to watch from by the warmer. Once we got the baby's head and shoulders rotated it was time to push for real!
I pushed through several contractions when the doctor told me that he thought one more set would do the trick because the head was right there - I was surprised and he said I could reach down and feel it if I wanted to. I did and it was so amazing to feel the top of my baby's head, and with that motivation another two or three more pushes brought our baby into the world. Dr. M put the baby on my chest and announced, "It's a girl!" Mark cut the cord and the nurses got the top of my gown unsnapped, scooted her up onto my chest, and got a warm blanket over the two of us. Mark and I looked at each other after a few minutes and both of us said "She's Hannah" - which was funny, because Hannah was not our first choice girl's name, but we saw her and just knew what her name was meant to be.
During this time the resident and Dr. M were getting the placenta delivered and repairing the two small tears that I had. He said the damage was less than my first delivery but he still wanted the tears sutured. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of blood on their gloves and they were talking about the level of bleeding but at first I figured that birth is a messy business - besides, I was focusing on Hannah. Then we heard him say that because of the bleeding he wanted another bag of Pitocin hung and to get misoprostol (Cytotec). I asked him if there was a problem, and he reassured us that while I was bleeding more than I should, we weren't in crisis mode yet and the medicines should take care of it. The nurses got the Pit cranked open and he gave me the Cytotec, and they wanted me to get Hannah nursing quickly because my body's own oxytocin would help my uterus clamp down more.
Hannah was also shaky/jittery and she was bigger than we expected her to be. The nurses did a heel stick and found that her blood sugar was too low (hypoglycemia), so it was doubly important to get her to the breast. She nursed while they finished getting me fixed up and my bleeding under control, but when they re-checked her sugar a half hour later they found it hadn't gone up. We were given three options: supplementing with formula via SNS (recommended), supplementing with formula via cup feeding, or sending her to the special care nursery for a glucose IV and monitoring. I knew immediately that I didn't want her having to go to special care - not only did the IV seem kind of traumatic, but she would be separated from me for hours and that didn't seem like a good way to get started on breastfeeding and bonding. So we supplemented at the breast with the SNS and a little formula (20 mL). She stopped shaking immediately and the next check showed her sugar up in the normal range! She was on the "glucose protocol" for 24 hours after delivery - I had to call for a glucose check each time she wanted to nurse in order to determine if she needed additional supplementation to keep her blood sugar in a good range. It was a bit annoying and after around 18 hours the postpartum nurses basically adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" strategy. We only needed the one supplement and she nursed like a champ after that.
Hannah didn't leave my chest for 45 minutes after birth and as soon as her weighing and wristbanding/baby LoJack was done she came back to me. Mark was right there with us and it was an amazing time to bond as a family. I loved that we could do skin to skin for so long after delivery this time around. Once my bleeding situation had been resolved Dr. M said I had done a great job and Hannah was perfect, and that he would check on us later that night and in the morning. He and the resident left us to the nurses to finish my recovery and move us to postpartum. Because the maternity unit was so nuts at the time, I OKed the nursing students actually helping the nurses with our care (a little more than just the observation experience they had expected!). Then Tricia had to leave; she had already stayed well past the end of her shift and Mark and I were so grateful for the wonderful care she gave me that day. The nursing students needed to leave a little while later - they both thanked us very much for letting them be a part of my labor and delivery. At that point another nurse came in to finish getting us ready to go and we were ready to move to the postpartum side of the unit.
Around 2.5 hours after I delivered, we arrived in my postpartum room. I was almost finished with my extra bag of Pitocin for the postpartum hemorrhage and my nurse was able to pull my IV a little while later (I promised that I'd make my uterus behave so that she wouldn't have to start another one). We settled in with our Hannah, I ate dinner, and we finally called our families to let them know about our new arrival. My parents immediately set off for the hospital with Lily in tow and Mark's dad headed over too. Lily got to be the first one to meet her baby sister, and then the proud grandparents got their turns.
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