Here's the story:
My wife, Diana, has been having painful contractions on and off, regular and irregular, for the past two weeks or so. Very frustrating! As of Friday morning, we were a week overdue. We went in to the doctor's for her scheduled checkup. Not much to report... the doctor predicted that we may have 3-4 days yet.
We live 30 minutes away from the hospital, so while we were in town, we decided to hang out a little bit. We walked around town, talked, ate lunch, etc. It was over 90 out so we went into places like Safeway for the A/C. Diana's contractions started getting more intense, and were coming about every five minutes or so. We'd seen this before, so we were hesitant to jump to any conclusions.
For our last baby, we had gone into the hospital at least three times thinking Diana was in labor because she was showing the signs, only to have things die down after a few hours. Diana has been finally induced around two weeks past her due date. It's frustrating to get your hopes up only to have them dashed to pieces.
By a couple hours after Diana's doctor appointment (2pm or so), her contractions were still coming strong, so we decided to go home and pack up our stuff. The "labor bags" had been packed three weeks previously, but ransacked to get clothing and toiletries during the interim time. We considered calling my mother, who was watching the kids, and asking her to bring the stuff, but after looking over our "to-pack" list, we realized it would be better if we went ourselves.
You probably aren't all that interested in the packing list, so I'll skip ahead. Packed and back at the hospital by 5pm or so. Hooked up to monitors, not officially checked in. Contractions slowing... ARGH! We were convinced this was it, but the nurses were not so sure, and we were close to being sent home. In any case, labor progresses better while walking around, not while laying down. We asked to be able to walk around a bit in the hospital gardens and then be rechecked. Diana was doing a lot better before she had to be strapped down for 90 minutes.
At 7:30, the doctor gave us the option to artificially rupture Diana's membranes (break her waters). This would
probably give her a shove in the right direction. It was a hard decision, but we decided to do it because a) my mother was in the US (doesn't happen often!) and leaving the country Sunday morning and b) Diana's doctor was also flying out for a week starting Saturday morning. After the rupture, nothing much while the nurses ran tests from 7:30 to 8:30. Contractions seven minutes apart (3-4 is active labor). Dilated to 5cm (she needs to get to 10 to push).
At 8:30, she finally was allowed to get up and start walking again. That's what the contractions really starting coming HARD and fast. Some of them were back-to-back, others with 30-60 seconds in between. We mostly labored together, with little intervention from the nurses, who had gone out of the room. By 9:30pm Diana was in a LOT of pain, and when checked, she had progressed to 6cm or so.
10:00-10:15... breathing through contractions was helping, but Diana wasn't sure she could handle it anymore. Going from 6 to 10cm dilated can take a looooong time. We had hoped for a "natural" birth without drugs as they had really messed things up in our first birth. Still, it's all fine and dandy to say such things when you're not experiencing the incredible pain of childbirth. Diana wanted to try a "walking epidural"... I'm not sure how to spell the official name for it, but it's like an epidural without the bed confinement. It normally lasts for 2 hours and doesn't result in as much paralysis for the mother. So, we called in the nurse and she had to call the doctor to get permission and the anesthesiologist, who lived in another town some 20 minutes away.
10:30! IV's were being put into Diana's arm to prepare for the meds. The doctor, who had been absent since breaking Diana's waters, conveniently decided to stop in and see how Diana was doing. All of a sudden Diana felt the irresistible urge to PUSH! It can be very bad if a woman pushes when she is not ready... lots of tearing and such. Naturally, the doctor and I were saying, "Hold on! Wait! Blow out the birthday candles!" (breathing trick) until the doctor could check her. Diana was saying, "AAaaaaaah! How can I
not push?!?!?!" Anyway, the doctor did get a chance to check Diana in there somewhere, and said, "Oh! We're going to have a baby!" No chance even to put on her gloves, Vivienne practically
flew out! It was so shocking... we couldn't believe it was done already! I'll spare you the cleanup details, but all I can say is... it was an incredible fast and (relatively) easy birth. No chance for meds, which was better in the long run.
I think we were able to get settled and asleep by about 1-2am that morning... yesterday was a flurry of early morning-afternoon visitors which left us exhausted. We're now back at home and trying to adapt to taking care of three kids.
My wife has graciously given me permission to sit down and write the story.
...and... here's a picture! In the flurry of activity we forgot to bring our digital camera, so most of our pictures were taken on a disposable camera provided by the hospital. However, here's a snapshot that my mother-in-law took:
Topic: In the hospital... (Read 3501 times)
