Labor and Delivery of Irelyn Mae

Please keep in mind I wanted to document this event before forgetting any details but I have had a total of about 9 hours of sleep in the last 3 days so just do not expect eloquent sentence structure. I went into labor with both of my girls on their due dates and both were vaginal deliveries. Other than that, the experiences were night and day. This time I had contractions for 12 days before "true labor" began and sometimes they were fairly uncomfortable and consistent leading me to think any day could be the day. Then at 3:37 on the morning of January 6 I had a contraction that was much more intense than anything in the 12 previous days. By the third one I called my parents and told them to head this way we were going to have a baby. I got up/got dressed and when I was moving around they were 2 min or sometimes less apart. As soon as my father-in-law got to the house to watch Maddie, we headed to the hospital and by the time we got to the room it was 6:00am. I was 3 cm. Labor continued to progress but I was excited and prepared with my I-pod music so I was still in good spirits. Two hours later, I was 5cm. Things seemed to intensify fairly fast so they ordered the blood work to check my platelets before I could get the epidural. Platelets looked great. So I figured I was in the clear and was fixing to get pain relief. I had brought the x-rays of my spine showing my scoliosis as a precaution for theanesthesiologist but I was not concerned about there being a problem being this was not a concern for the person who successfully did my epidural when I had Maddie. Long story short, the anesthesiologist seemed uncomfortable (not what you want to see when he is about to mess with your spine). He attempted 3 times to insert the epidural each one including a local anesthetic shot as well. This is 6 shots into my back and I kept feeling shooting nerve pain down my right leg with each attempt. Finally he said, I can try once more or you can choose to not have an epidural. By this point, I was in so much pain and petrified that I asked Donovan to make the decision. He, witnessing the entire situation said he did not feel comfortable with another attempt. I asked the nurse what would happen if I needed a c-section being they did not have access to my spine. She said they would completely sedate me. I then became very motivated to this the old fashioned way. A nurse recommends the jacuzzi but before I could get in, the physician wanted to check me one last time. I was between 6-7cm. He asked if he could break my water. I figured my birth plan was out the window so why not. When he did, he noticed there was maconium in my fluid. This meant no jacuzzi. Now I am down to stadol as my main form of pain relief so the nurse gave me a full dose. If you have never had this medication, it makes you feel very intoxicated. One hour later, I had a strong urge to push. I actually felt like my body was pushing on its own. The nurse started yelling wait wait, let me get a glove on. With the stadol in my system, I did not really care what she had to say(or anyone else for that matter). The room was then packed, pediatrician for Irelyn do to the maconium and 2 nurses for me, 2 for the baby, Donovan and my mom. My delivering physician said, don’t push yet you are only 8.5 cm and you can tare your cervix leading to bigger problems. However do to the stadol and intense pain; I was going to push anyways. He then held back my cervix the rest of the way while I pushed her out. Because she too had so much stadol in her system she was not very active and they almost gave her narcane to reverse the effects but she pulled through. Also they did not want to stimulate her right away in case she had maconium in her mouth so her first apgar score was a 2. The next 15 min were pretty scary for Donovan and my mom who were in the room with me but luckily I was oblivious to what exactly was happening around me. Once they cleared her air way and stimulated her, she received apgar scores of 8 and then 9. Thank the Lord. Then I got to hold her and once the stadol wore off I felt like a million bucks. The recovery this time was about 10 times easier than my first one. This exciting and petrifying experience had a good ending and I can only say thank you Jesus for your holy spirit, wisdom and protection. I do not take for granted all the bumps that could have been utter disasters in this scenario. I actually felt overwhelming blessed when it was all said and done. This was the short version, but Ms. Irelyn will be waking up to eat any minute. I hope you enjoyedJ