Here’s the short story:
Amelia Grace Loftis
Born 12/18/07 at 2:02pm CST
6lbs 1.6oz, 19.25”
No, I did not have a caesarean (despite the timing that would indicate otherwise), I kind of had an epidural and she is breastfeeding like a champ.
And now for the rest of the story…
Where to begin?!?
We had originally planned the induction for Wednesday (12/19) at 9pm, but we got a call at 9:30 on Monday morning informing us that we’d been moved up to Monday night. Eek! I had joked with Dustin over the weekend that we were going to get a call Monday with a date change or my water would break and he’d have to come home right after he got to work on Monday morning. Sure enough I called him only an hour after he got to work on Monday and told him he needed to head home and get ready. He wrapped things up and got home around noon. We spent Monday afternoon packing, cleaning up the house and doing our final preparations for the baby. We dropped the pup off at my brother’s house Monday evening and ate our “last supper” –Freebirds before heading to the hospital.
We got to the hospital a bit early, 8:30 or so, but they took us and got things started. It took a few hours to get checked in, hooked up to the IV, monitors, etc. They gave me a sleeping pill as well as Cytotec (an induction agent) to get things started. They checked my vitals too many times during the night and made it impossible for us to sleep.
The Cytotec induction failed miserably. I had been 1 cm dilated at my last doctor’s appointment and I was the same after taking the Cytotec. They started a Pitocin drip at 5:30 Tuesday morning to see if that would kick things into gear. I woke up from one of my many ‘naps’ that night to my nurse flipping me on my side, moving the baby monitor around on my belly and putting an oxygen mask on my face. I quickly realized what they were doing and it sent me into a bit of panic, they couldn’t get a reading on the baby’s heartbeat. She was moving around and away from the monitor, but she also wasn’t tolerating the Pitocin well at all. Her heart rate would go from 150-170bpm and drop down to 60-70bpm very quickly. They stopped the Pitocin for a few hours and waited for input from our doctor. They restarted it again in the 8:00 hour, but once again after only 30 minutes on it the baby’s heart rate dropped so they turned it off.
Here’s where a timeline is easiest way to explain our progress.
9:15-9:45 – My doctor arrived at 9:15 and checked my cervix, I was barely a 2 (she made me a 2 if you know what I mean) and the baby was still very high. She decided instead of sending us home to wait it out for a few days she would push forward with the induction and break my water and put a fetal scalp monitor on the baby’s head to keep a closer eye on her. OUCH did this exam hurt…that was only the beginning; I would learn what true pain was a short bit later. The internal monitor was wonderful; it’s an accurate picture of the baby’s heart rate and really set our minds at ease as we wouldn’t lose her heart rate again due to her movements or the monitor shifting on my tummy.
9:45-10:45 – Relaxed and had a few contractions on my own though not completely predictable or very strong. Around 10:00 they started the Pitocin for the 3rd time and they slowly stepped it up. Typically Pitocin is administered faster, but because of the morning’s adventures we were on 3/3’s. That means we started at 3 mL/hr and go up by 3 every 15 minutes. Previously I had only made it to 6, but this time we were working on 12.
11:00-11:15 – I sent Dustin to the cafeteria so he could get lunch and make sure his tummy was full for what we thought would be a very long day of labor. He asked if I wanted him to bring his food back or eat it down there, I told him he could bring it back as I wasn’t hungry and wouldn’t be annoyed if he ate in front of me. Thank goodness I told him to come back up as things REALLY got out of control shortly thereafter.
11:15-12:00 – Dustin attempted to eat his lunch but my contractions really intensified and he paused every few minutes to hold my hand and comfort me. My contractions became so intense that I asked my nurses to check me again and see if I had progressed to 4cm, the point at which my doctor would allow the epidural. I had hoped to labor naturally, but the Pitocin made my contractions stronger than we expected and we wanted to ensure that I had enough steam left when it was time to push.
12:00-12:15 – The nurses checked and I was only at 3cm…not a lot of progress considering they broke my water almost 3 hours earlier and I was on the Pitocin and contracting steadily (2 minutes long, 3-5 minutes apart). They decided to push my doctor for the epidural as they had already tried an IV pain reliever that didn’t do anything more than make me fall asleep between contractions only to awake two minutes later to the increasingly intense contractions. They got the approval for the epidural and put in the request with the anesthesiologist, but of course we were on the waiting list so we relied on breathing and squeezing life out of Dustin’s hands and the rails of the bed for a little longer.
12:15-12:45 – Here’s where everything changed…literally.
I told Dustin that I had to once again go to the bathroom (they pump you FULL of fluids during an induction). We disconnected the monitors and walked with my IV toward the bathroom. My contractions were really gaining in intensity and becoming uncontrollable. My breathing was for the most part useless and I was about to lose it. While we were in the bathroom my contractions changed dramatically. They started coming one on top of the other, literally I would contract for 2+ minutes with about 20 seconds in between them. Each time I tried to leave the restroom I would have to sit back down and wait out another contraction. I was truly losing control and asked Dustin to “please help me”. Thinking back now I simply can’t imagine how this made him feel, there was absolutely nothing more he could do. He was already mastering being the best husband and labor coach anyone could ask for.
(Husband’s note: “please help me” is potentially the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t really explain how hard it was for me to watch her agony and be completely powerless to help.)
12:45–1:15 – I finally mustered up the strength to make a run for the bed. Just as we got past the restroom door another contraction hit and I told Dustin “faster, faster” and he pushed my IV stand along behind me. I managed to get one leg up on the bed and the other was still on the floor for the next few contractions. TMI: after your water is broken you have to hold towels against you as you walk. I was holding my towel and could feel the pressure intensifying, the all telling feeling that you need to poop. I was told that you would only feel this pressure when it was time to push.
Wait a minute…I am only 3cm dilated…why am I feeling this??? Panic sets in. I told Dustin that something was wrong, that we needed help. Dustin very quickly left the room and went to the nurse’s station to get help. He walked up to our nurse and told her “I need some help… she says that she feels like she needs to push.” Irene, a nurse of only 3 months very calmly but very briskly started walking to our room and called for assistance. She didn’t seem very comfortable with the news Dustin had just delivered.
Dustin, Irene and Emily (our other nurse) entered the room to find me on all fours on the bed. They told me I had to get the rest of the way into the bed so they could check me. I thought they were joking, I could barely move as I was paralyzed by the pain. I managed to pull myself up on the bed using the rails that I loved so very much. They checked me. Emily said “she’s complete, she’s 10cm”. I said “I’m complete?” and she confirmed it. No wonder I was in such uncontrollable pain, I had just dilated, without pain meds, from 3cm to 10cm in less than 30 minutes. Needless to say they turned off the Pitocin.
You know those TV shows like ER where they transform a room in a matter of moments from a hospital room to a surgical unit…well those bits of TV are a reality. They transformed my room in a matter of minutes in preparation for my delivery.
They told me I couldn’t push…”WHAT? Are you freaking kidding me?” The pressure was more intense than anything I’ve ever felt and the pain was so paralyzing that the only thing that relieved my pain was pushing. A few moments later (but not before paging several of them) an anesthesiologist appeared, they were going to give me an epidural. It seemed strange to me that they’d give me an epidural at this stage, but they did so to get my pain under control and to delay my delivery so that my doctor, Dr. Bobo, could get out of surgery and delivery my baby. (Dustin told me later that they did have the on-call obstetrician outside the door… just in case.)
The anesthesiologist administered the fastest epidural I’ve ever heard of… less than 5 minutes. He explained each step as he did it, “this will hurt, this will burn, etc.”. It didn’t hurt, it didn’t phase me a bit as I had just experienced pure agony and a tiny prick of a needle here and there was nothing compared to true labor contractions and rapid dilation. He used a fast acting medicine, and a lot of it, to get me relaxed as soon as possible. It took about 5 minutes to calm things down; each contraction was less and less intense.
1:25-2:02 – Pushing. I had the epidural for a whopping 15 minutes…just long enough to delay pushing/delivery (they turn it off at this point) and for Dr. Bobo to arrive. I pushed 2 -3 times before she got there, but they made me stop as they could see her head crowning and they didn’t know how long it would be until Dr. Bobo arrived. Once Dr. Bobo arrived we started pushing again. Each time I pushed Amelia’s heart rate would decline. Dr. Bobo suspected that there was some amount of cord prolapse caused by the contractions. I knew that she needed to be born soon to make sure she was ok so I gave it my all. I pushed 8-10 times total (3 pushes each contraction) and she was born.
Pushing was wonderful. I truly enjoyed this part and felt every bit of her descent and birth. I felt like I was doing the most important work I’ve ever done. I was focused and intent upon bringing my beautiful healthy baby girl into the world as fast as possible. At 2:02pm on December 18, 2007 our gorgeous miracle, Amelia Grace, was born.
She was placed on my tummy for a few moments, but due to being very “wet” (full of amniotic fluid) Amelia went quickly under the warmer and the nurses did their best to make her cry it out, and sucked it out with the vacuum. There were a total of 3 other births in the half hour before Amelia was born, so it was almost an hour before the pediatric nurse was able to come in and evaluate her and say that it was OK for her to come out of the warmer for a little while. She scored an 8/9 on the Apgar. We finally got to hold her and give nursing a go. She latched on immediately and has been a nursing champ ever since.
Aside from the ‘rapid’ delivery, everything went quite well and everyone was perfectly healthy. I never really had a birth plan aside from “NO C-SECTION!” and thankfully, everything went according to that plan. I apologize for the delay in posting this, but I’m sure anyone with children will know that life with a newborn is anything but ordinary… and time in front of the computer is not plentiful. Amelia is eating up a storm and growing every day, and Mommy is making a full recovery.
Life has changed in so many ways and we can’t imagine life without our little miracle.
