Mary Lynne: Birth Story

Mary Lynne Ellertson

11/16/2012 8:52 pm

8 lbs 4oz, 21 inches

Birth Story: Here is the play by play of everything that went down on November 16th, 2012.
Disclaimer: I am generally too open and verbose, therefore this may be a little tmi and very long.

Tim and I went to the hospital at 6:30 am to be induced.  I was one week over my due date and although I had hoped to go into natural labor I was fine being induced because I didn't want to push our luck (and my doctor wouldn't let me go more than 1 week past my due date).  Although really...I still felt fine and think that my little chica could have stayed in for a few more days. Tim and I had our bag packed (even though I really didn't use anything in it until we were leaving) and our copies of our birth preferences...which basically went all out the window...but I really feel like my hypnobirthing class helped me to be flexible with however the birth went and so even though most of it didn't happen...it was still a wonderful experience and I felt pretty calm through it all.

6:30-we checked into the Timpanogas Hospital

7:00-they started me on pitocin and an IV.

11:00-they break my water.  Up until this point I was doing fine with the contractions and was at a 4.  After breaking my water there was definitely a lot more pressure and the contractions came closer together and were harder.  Mary was also starting to have some little dips in her heartbeat.

12:00ish-they put in an internal contraction monitor.  In hypnobirthing it is encouraged to kind of do everything as natural as you can.  I developed some opinions to try and go natural in some things and not others.  For example: I got an IV because I didn't really care about being hooked up to it and, to be honest, I wanted one because I'm always dehydrated. Well anyway, in regards to internal monitors the only thing I knew was that there was an internal heartbeat monitor for the baby and that they have to screw something into the babies head.  I knew that I didn't want to have that unless totally necessary.  I had no idea what a contraction monitor was.  So I asked them to explain it to me.  It's basically a little catheter that looks like a glow stick that they put up next to the babies head to see how well she is handling the contractions/how strong they are so they can determine whether to increase or decrease the pitocin. I agreed to have it.  However, for some reason after getting that put in my contractions became really, really hard.  They came about every other minute and were really strong/painful.  I tried concentrating and doing all of my breathing. I was still only at a 4 and my nurse told me it would be about one hour per centimeter.  I started to get really stressed out.  I didn't think I could do that for another 6 hours.  I was getting really tense, and then Mary's heartbeat started dipping more.  I realized she was getting stressed because I was.  I calmed down a little and realized I wanted an epidural.

1:30-I asked for an epidural. (My family-especially my dad and sister-were very relieved by this).

3:00-I got an epidural spinal block mixture from a Dr. Jones.  He was so great! I had done a lot of research about epidurals and the pros and cons of medications.  One of the cons I'd read on epidurals (other than the side effects that can happen) was that it was really hard to hold still during a contraction.  My anesthesiologist was amazing.  I didn't have to sit up and bend over.  I was laying on one side already and he just had me scoot closer to the edge of the bed.  He explained everything to me before/as he was doing it and he watched my monitor to see when my contractions were.  He put in the epidural between a contraction (it seriously only took one minute) and then it was like magic.  The spinal block gave me immediate relief and then that would slowly wear off and then the epidural gave longer, lower continuous relief.  I had said that I wanted a low dose of the epidural because I still wanted to feel a lot at the end but he assured me that his mixture was a lower dose.

3-7:30ish-I took little naps and dozed.  I had to stay on my right side for a few hours because that's where Mary was doing the best.  Being on my right side for that long made the epidural drain into my right leg.  My left leg felt fine but my right leg felt like a million pounds.  I couldn't feel it or move it at all.

7:30-they checked me and I was a 9 on one side and a 10 on the other.  My doctor said that Mary was also face up and that could be contributing to why I was progessing slowly.  He also said that he would probably have to use forcepts becaues of that. After he and the nurses left the room Tim and I talked to Mary and asked her to roll face down if she could.  I really didn't want them to have to use forcepts.  By the time they came to check me again (when I was a 10 on both sides) she had moved face down :-D She is a good girl!

8:00-Time to start pushing.  I just want to say that I knew giving birth was going to be hard if I did it natural.  I definitely underestimated how hard it would be even though I had an epidural.  I don't know if it had just worn off a lot by the time I was to start pushing, but by then I was exhausted.  I knew there would be a lot of pressure but I didn't anticipate just how much or understand at all how it could feel.  It was crazy feeling. Tim asked me if it was painful or not, and there was so much pressure it was almost to the point of pain but really just crazy uncomfortable. My labor nurse told us that some first time moms end up pushing for about two hours.  My doctor had been around during the evening, checking in every once in a while. Well my nurse thought it would be a little while and then somehow the next contraction Mary was crowning and she told me to stop.  Are you kidding?! That was probably the hardest part. Of course my doctor was no where to be found at this time so a few other nurses rushed in to help incase they had to deliver her. I think I was there in that limbo state for about 5 minutes (maybe a little more? It felt like forever!). Finally, my doctor arrived.  Ug-he took his sweet time.  I was there writhing and he just took his time pulling up some shoe covers, laying out a sheet, putting on his gown. Finally...after what seemed forever, and let me tell you, not pushing was what was killing me, my body was shaking, I was exhausted, and I wanted to meet my daughter! Finally though, they said I could push and she was out!

8:52 pm-Mary was born!  She had the cord wrapped around her neck twice and was gray in color. One of our birth preferences was to wait at least a minute to clamp the cord. I knew that having her cord wrapped twice could influence that/mean they couldn't necessarily do that.  My doctor immediately clamped the cord  and they took her to the warming table because she didn't cry...well on the way to the table she started to cry. This was probably the worst/hardest part of the whole experience.  We had been really great and flexible during the whole labor and birth, but after she cried they wouldn't give her back to me.  I was exhausted and shakey and I try to look on the bright side and say that I may have been too weak to hold her really well anyway/I knew she was healthy and doing great.  But I really wanted to hold her as soon afterward as I could.  They kept her for 10-15 minutes.  I asked for her 3 times and the nurses just kept saying that I'd get to do skin to skin with her in a minute. Finally Tim said we wanted her NOW and they brought her to us. Tim and I were both pretty upset with the two nurses that had taken Mary (especially one of them), but afterward our labor nurse apologized for them.  Because Mary came so quickly during that one contraction and all those nurses rushed in to help, they hadn't read our birth preferences because they hadn't been working with us. I know that's not the biggest thing in the world. My daughter is healthy and safe and doing great, but that is the one thing that I regret from the experience. Anywapy-moving on.

New daddy Tim meeting Mary for the first time.

Mary scored an 8 on her immediate Apgar test and then a 9 after 5 minutes. She was beautiful, healthy, and an miraculous baby. One neat thing during the last phase of labor was that my nurse asked us how much we thought she would weigh.  I said 8 lbs 4 oz and that was how much she weighed...which I later found out was how much I weighed when I was born (I had always thought I was 8lbs 3oz but my mom told me that was just what my oldest sister had always told me).

Meeting Mary for the first time out of my belly :-)

 
Hospital Stay
Our stay in the hospital was great and I feel like my recovery has gone really well (I didn't tear at all). All of our nurses were phenomenal, especially our one nurse named Jameia, who reminded us so much of our sis-in-law Suzanne.  Seriously Suzanne-she was the Polynesian version of you and it made us feel kind of like we had family taking care of us.   Our nurses (just because I want to remember all the details) were Melissa (during the day of labor), Elise (during delivery), and Rachelle, Ashley (and some guy nursing student who I forgot the name of), Jameia, and Sara (were our recovery nurses).

The first night I woke up about every 15 minutes to check to make sure Mary was alive.  She was so still and quiet after such a big day that I got really nervous and couldn't stop checking on her. The biggest thing that Tim and I weren't prepared for in the hospital was that she would gargle, spit up, and throw up and how to use the suction thing.  Using the suction bulb in her mouth was especially nerve wracking but we have since figured it out/become pros.

Visitors: My Mom came and saw her the night she was born and then continued to help throughout the next week while we were in the hospital and at home. Tim's parents came to see Mary the next morning. My friends Mary and Chanelle came Saturday afternoon. And Grandpa and Grandma Frogley came as well (although we can't remember if it was Saturday or Sunday).

We went home Sunday afternoon as a new family.  We were so incredibly happy, in love, nervous, and excited about our new baby Mary and the adventure of being parents.