Birth Story Part II: Wednesday

Okay where were we? Right.

Wednesday

1:00am - called the midwife so she could hear what kinda sounds I was making again. At this point I was having some really insanely painful back labor. My doula guessed that the baby was posterior (with her back/spine against mine) and face up. It sucked and was the most difficult, most painful part of the whole thing. She put me on my left side with my left leg straight and my right leg up and bent to the right (they call this a pretzel) in hopes the baby would flip. At some point, my midwife suggests that I need to "reframe" my pain experience, and then said that I should come BACK to the birth center, which is when I said that there was no way I was getting back in the car to go the birth center just to hear that I was still 2cm and have to come right back home and she could come to my house, thank you very much.

1:30am - midwife comes over, has to check me, at which point I said that I was having really awful pain and would like to not be on my back for very long. We waited for a contraction to pass and I laid down to get checked which of course is when I got slammed with another horrendous contraction. When it was all over, I stood at the end of the bed, which is when we got the news that -you guessed it- I was 2.5cm. This is the point that Kyle says I totally lost my shit. I wailed and cried and cried. I haven't freaked out like that I don't think ever in my life. Mostly because I didn't understand what was going on, and there was no way I could handle much more pain than what I had just endured and my brain was going 8 MORE CENTIMETERS?!!?! I knew I could handle lots of pain if it meant we were going to be doing it for just a little bit longer or there was some progression happening, but without either of those, I felt completely helpless. It was decided at this time that resting would be best for everyone to rest. I got in a warm tub, where I relaxed enough to snooze a bit, then sat on the bathroom floor with Kyle, where I started to fall asleep sitting up.

3:00am - Finally able to sleep by stacking up pillows and sitting on the bed, flopped over them. Laying down at this point was just not going to happen.

6:00am we all pow-wowed, decided that it would be best for everyone to rest, midwife leaves to check on her patients.

10:00am we were all up and I felt tons better, was actually eating and walking. My doula was still with us and we tried to get labor going again with nipple stimulation, power walking around the neighborhood, and such. Labor was sort of going, but very slowly, and not consistently.

1:00pm Midwife showed up at the house again and checked my blood pressure and we all discussed the possibility of me ending up at the hospital at 6ish Wednesday night since that's 24 since my water had broken.

3:00pm - After a couple hours of trying to get labor going again, we decided that if we wait 'til 6 to go the hospital then it'll be forever to get me checked in and hooked up to Pitocin, which would lead to another really long night, so we just packed it up and went to the hospital. I turned and looked at Kyle and said, "what have you eaten today?" he said that he had a banana and some pizza, and he was not looking very good.

5:00pm Kyle gets slammed with a migrane, so while my doula and I in our little women tribe hang out at the hospital with Pitocin and antibiotics coursing through me, blood pressure and contraction monitors hooked up and me dilating away, Kyle pukes and naps at home. I try not to worry.

9:00pm Kyle gets back to the hospital looking much better.

11:00pm FINALLY some progress! 5cm!