Third Trimester Wrap Up:
My third trimester of pregnancy was pretty uneventful. As time drew nearer to my due date it became more difficult to sleep and walk around for more than an hour at a time. However other than that I was able to go about all of my normal routines and activities during the day. I went into nesting mode pretty heavily. I organized random drawers in the house, color coded our family calendar, and washed and folded onesies like nobody's business. I went on maternity leave officially the Monday before my due date. My goal for that week was to take it easy, relax as much as possible, and enjoy time with my husband before we welcomed our sweet daughter into the world. I had even planned to go get a manicure and pedicure on Tuesday, so I would have cute nails for my Friday due date. Sweet P had other plans however.
How It All Began:
It became pretty routine about halfway through my last trimester that I would get up once in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Baby girl was just so big that she was pressing on my bladder whenever I laid flat on my back. On Tuesday morning around 2am I got up for my routine bathroom trip. When I went to the bathroom that morning though it was obvious that labor was beginning soon. I woke Chase up and told him and then I laid back down to try to get some rest before active labor kicked in.
At around 3:30am I began to feel contractions. They were not incredibly painful, but they were coming regularly about every 10 minutes. We timed the contractions waiting for them to be 5 minutes apart so we could go to the hospital. We called our parents and let them know and then we just played the waiting game. I walked, I bounced on the exercise ball, and I drank lots of water. However, my contractions never reached 5 minutes. In fact they even stalled a bit. We had an OB appointment that afternoon so we decided to wait and see what the doctor had to say about what we should do.
Doctor's Orders:
We finally made it to the doctor's office and we let our OB know what was going on. She checked and I was only 1 cm dilated and 50 percent effaced. She instructed us to go back home and continue doing exactly what we were doing. She assured us that everything was okay. By that time my parents had made their way to town. They rented a hotel room and waited patiently for their grand-daughter to arrive. By Tuesday evening the contractions were becoming a bit more painful. It was uncomfortable to stay still for very long. Needless to say neither Chase nor I got much sleep that night. I ended up taking a couple of hot showers to help relieve the pain. Come to find out later on in the process, it was during one of those showers that my water apparently broke.
Taking Charge:
Wednesday morning my contractions had still not reached 5 minute intervals. They stayed right at 8-10 minutes for the majority of the time. I finally had enough of the pain and waiting and I called the triage nurse at the OB's office. She asked me what seemed like a million questions. At the end of it all she told me to go to the hospital and see what they had to say. So we packed up our "go bags" and away we went.
When we arrived at the hospital they sent us to triage. The rooms in triage were cold and tiny. They put me in a fashionable hospital gown and hooked me up to a ton on monitors and asked me more questions. They eventually were concerned about if my water had actually broken or not. They ran a few tests and we waited in that triage room for nearly 2.5 hours. Finally, the OB walked through the door with a big smile on her face. My water had in fact broken and I was being admitted to the labor and delivery ward. However, since my contractions were still not regular even after the breaking of my water, I would have to be induced to speed along labor and reduce the risk of infection and harm to our sweet girl.
Admission & Induction:
At around noon on Wednesday I was taken to my labor and delivery room. In my birth plan I had stated that I really wanted to have a natural birth. I wanted to utilize the exercise ball, the shower, the heating pad, and I wanted the freedom to walk to halls. However birth plans are meant to be broken it seems. Because I was being induced I was attached to an IV pole. And because I was being induced I had to have constant fetal monitoring, which meant no shower and I was restricted to a six foot radius of my bed because that was how long my monitor and IV wires were. It was frustrating, but I was okay.
Chase was a wonderful support person. As the rate of petocin increased, so did my pain level. He was right there to rub my back (I had mostly all back labor), to move my heating pad, and to get me water and jello. He talked me through my pain and he never left my side. He even was there through my sick times. Lets just say that at a certain point, the contractions were so intense and so close together that I just kept getting sick over and over again. Our sweet nurse encouraged us that getting sick was a good sign. My body was preparing for labor and helping my cervix dilate.
Not Natural After All:
However, every time they checked me I was barely progressing. Which then equated to them increasing my dose of pitocin. I was in SO. MUCH. PAIN. Our sweet nurse once again came to our side and asked me a very good question. She asked me if my natural birth plan was for any particular reason (religious, medical, personal...). It dawned on me that my natural birth plan was only set in place because it was preference, and it was not a requirement. By this point in time it was Wednesday evening and I had been in labor for nearly 48 hours. I looked into the eyes of my nurse and with an exhausted breath I told her to order the epidural.
The doctor was in the room within a matter of minutes. The procedure was not painful at all. The numbing medicine hurt worse than the epidural itself. The only scary part of labor happened as soon as I received the epidural. Sweet P's heart rate dropped a bit and it was like the entire labor and delivery floor came into our room. They put me on oxygen, flipped me on my side and put a bunch of monitors on my belly. Thankfully she was more than okay and they found her heartbeat quickly.
Once everything settled down we played the waiting game for a couple of hours. The pain meds gave me INSTANT relief and I was able to get a couple hours of rest. I also was able to eat a snack for some energy thank the good Lord above. My body relaxing also sped up my progression. Within a matter of hours I was ready to push.
Push Baby Push:
To add to the craziness of our birth story, the nurse and the doctor discovered that Sweet P was turned "Sunny Side Up". Basically this made pushing more difficult (another reason I was grateful after it all was over that I didn't feel all of the pain of pushing). I pushed and pushed with each contraction. I didn't give myself the full dose of medicine I could have given myself so I could feel when a contraction was beginning. I think that helped me push stronger and more effectively. I pushed and pushed and pushed some more. In all I pushed for 3 hours. They had me on my back, on my sides, in a squatting position, and on all fours. It was quite interesting attempting to squat and be on all fours when I could not fully feel anything from my waist down. The doctor's were about to begin discussing a C-Section when labor hit the 50 hour mark. Thankfully our OB was persistent and let me keep pushing.
Finally, at 4:43am on Thursday, March 22, 2018 Penelope Ruth Smith entered this world at 20 inches long and 7 pounds 9 ounces.
Thank you to everyone who has poured into Nellie's life already. It truly does take a village and we have a pretty remarkable village beside of us. We love you all!
-Chase & Sara & Penelope
*All photos in this post were taken by SNAP By Ang*
https://www.facebook.com/Snap-by-Ang-200884539930693/
