Labour contractions finally started (& didn't stop) on Saturday, January 16th around 8 PM. They lasted through the night, with Cam and I down in the basement, trying to get as much sleep as possible. Cam was in the guest room and I was out on the futon getting up with each contraction and then collapsing back to sleep as soon as it was over. Around 4AM Cam came out and kept me company as the contractions were getting closer together and then they slowed down again around 5:30. Soon enough it was 7:30 and time to get up to get ready to go to the hospital.
I took Chance over to the neighbour's house for a playdate with their son so that he wouldn't be upset as I had been telling him for weeks that when it came time for me to go the hospital he would be going to play with his friend. The neighbours brought him home at lunch time.
When we arrived at the hospital, they gave me a Foley catheter induction. The catheter was supposed to fall out when I was 3 cm dilated. It was supposed to take about 8 hours. 2 hours after they put it in, it fell out! I was only about 1 1/2 cm dilated though. I was moved over to a labour and delivery room and my water was broken by the doctor around 3 PM. Contractions started coming every 7 minutes apart or so and then slowed down yet again. Around 7 PM I requested to be unhooked from the fetal heart monitor for 5 minute periods and then Cam, our doula Carmen and I walked down the hallway to the stairwell, then ran up and down the stairs as fast as I could before returning back to the delivery room. The doctors let us do this 4 times, provided I stayed connected to the monitor for at least 15 minutes between walking sessions. On our last and final outing, we climbed up to the 20th floor!
That's what really did it - the contractions picked up again, and started to get longer, stronger, and closer together. By 11 PM or so I was ready for some pain relief - gas! It took a while to get the hang of using the gas tank, the trick was to stop breathing it in before the contraction was over to allow for some uncloudy moments between contractions. The gas left a bad taste in my mouth and made me feel a bit nauseous, but it definitely took the edge off the contractions. They checked me again around midnight and I was still only 4 cm dilated, but contractions were coming every minute or so. The doctor said they could augment with pitocin but I didn't like the risks of using pitocin (uterine rupture risk goes up 10x), so opted for an epidural to allow for some break between the contractions. It took a lot of tries to get the epidural in, about 5 in total from the marks on my back. The epidural lasted for about 20 minutes before it became very spotty and then wore off completely -- not in our plan!! I laboured a bit more and I was feeling different -- feeling like it was time to push. They checked again and I was still only 4 cm -- this was going nowhere fast. I made the decision to have another c-section. In the doctor's and doula's opinion the pitocin wouldn't really do anything other than make the contractions more regular than they already were, they were plenty strong enough. It was very frustrating to have my body stall out like this but life does not always go to plan!
The surgeons were in another operating room at the time, so we had to wait for them for some time, about an hour. I inhaled a tank and half of laughing gas. By the end of it I was just breathing straight from the tank, the room was spinning and Cam and Carmen were hanging on to my hands keeping me from falling down off the edge of the bed. Finally they came by with the tequila shot of anti-nausea medication and I was wheeled (sans gas tank) to the operating room. I'm not sure how far the labour room was from the operating room but it felt like a $@!@$%** long way to me!
At the OR they gave me a spinal tap and I was soon numb chest to toes and Cam was at my side. The curtain went up and they started to operate. I was having a hard time breathing, a side effect of the anesthetic. They put oxygen tubes in my nose. Soon after, the doctor said that they could see a baby's head. The baby started to cry before we found out that it was a baby girl! It was a long hard journey, but we finally had our baby girl Karin Sylvan Demmans!
2 comments:
Congratulations Daniel and Cam, what a pretty and weet girl! Hope you recover fast from the C-section. What does Chance think of his little sister?
Thanks for sharing Dani. I know this wa wanted this not how you ideally wanted things to go, but I am so glad you got to labour and give it everything you had. I hope you are so proud of yourself. I can't wait to meet Karin - I'll call next week:)
Hugs to you!
Post a Comment