The labor with Cullen was very different from the labor with Maddie. I can’t get over how different that the two experiences were!
With Maddie, I was induced a few days before my due date due to high blood pressure issues. We showed up at 6am at the hospital, and they started the induction pretty soon after arrival. It wasn’t long before I determined that I did indeed want an epidural. The epidural didn’t take fully for a while, but I had plenty of time for it to kick in. I was in some pain before that, especially since I had back labor with her. By early afternoon, I was pretty comfortable. Progress was steady, though it seemed to take forever having never gone through it before. I was officially in labor for 10 hours, and Maddie was born after pushing for over two hours. I was exhausted and unsure why I had to wait forever in order to hold my daughter. It was a confusing and emotional experience, but I finally was able to hold my little girl in my arms.
Since I didn’t spontaneously go into labor with Maddie, I still had no real idea of what it is like to go into labor. I wondered when it would happen and how. I experienced many more contractions this time in the last few months of the pregnancy. Several times, I timed the contractions to see if they were regular. Sometimes the contractions were a little painful or uncomfortable.
Until the morning of Friday, January 22nd, every time I had timed the contractions, they were not at all regular or getting closer together. That morning, I went to work as usual and noticed that I was having somewhat frequent contractions. I took out my practice iPhone (my iPod Touch that was intended to placate me until we are out of our cell phone contract), and I started timing the contractions with one of the pregnancy apps that I had downloaded a while back. I started to think that maybe I might be heading towards labor when I discovered that the contractions were very regular and around 9 minutes apart when I started timing them. This was around 10:30am. I emailed Gabe just to let him know that maybe he should gather the hospital bag, but I wasn’t too concerned just yet. The doctors’ office didn’t want me to call until the contractions were less than 5 minutes apart for an hour.
By the time I went to lunch on campus with a friend, The contractions were around 6 minutes apart. We had to stand in a long line since they were giving out free lunch (I didn’t want to miss that!). I kept updating my friend with my status and carried the iPod so that I could continue to time them. They were definitely getting more frequent and a little bit more painful…but they really weren’t painful. By the end of lunch, I decided it was time to call the doctor. After a consult with them, they sent me to the hospital. My friend went to get her car, and we had to decide what to do. I felt like I could drive, but friends don’t let friends in labor drive – go figure! We decided that she would drive our van, and we would go by and pick up Gabe and our hospital bags. I didn’t feel like we were in a hurry at this time, though the contractions were definitely frequent. They still weren’t painful, and everyone says that you shouldn’t be able to talk through the contractions. I could still talk through them.
By the time we got to the hospital, checked in, and had my labor signs checked, it was about 2:30pm. I was disappointed to find that no progress had been made since my appointment two days ago (still at 4cm, 50%). I was thinking that things were going to progress quickly, but now I thought it might take forever. Since I had not made progress since my appointment on Wednesday, I was now considered a “watch patient.” The nurse suggested that I walk around to see if that helps progress. She wouldn’t say one way or another, but it seemed like it was even possible that they might send me home. At this point, I really didn’t want to be sent home!
So, we walked around the maternity ward. My contractions were getting more painful at this point. We made some phone calls, and I was no longer able to talk through the contractions. I really, really wanted my epidural already, but they wouldn’t even start an IV with fluids until I was officially “in labor.” I ran into the doctor at some point and let her know that my contractions were painful, and I was looking forward to my epidural. I told her it was starting to get uncomfortable to walk. She said that I didn’t have to walk around if I wasn’t comfortable and that if I was going to be in labor, it would happen whether I walked or not. At this point, I was thinking, um, *if* I go into labor? I’m pretty sure I’m in labor, woman! But officially, I wasn’t in labor yet.
Finally, the nurse comes back to check me. I had made progress! Now I was at 5-6cm and 80% effaced. Woohoo! She got the IV set up a little bit afterward, and now it was around 3:30pm. The doctor came by and assured me that we were going to run the fluids (that part takes 45 minutes to an hour), they would start the epidural, I could take a nap, and then I would wake up and push and voila! Baby! That plan sounded good to me.
The pain had gotten pretty bad by the time they started the fluids. I had to breath through the contractions and started to feel like I wasn’t getting much of a break in between them. We had called my parents to let them know they should go ahead and start the journey to our house, but we decided to wait until after I got the epidural to make other phone calls. I was quite uncomfortable! About 30 minutes into the fluids, my water broke during one of the very painful contractions. Wow. That was crazy. I told Gabe, “um, my water just broke.” His response was, “are you sure?” Ha! Um, yeah. I’m quite sure.
The nurse came by not too long after my water broke. She started to get the epidural ready but said that she needed to check my signs. I think she had a good idea that I had progressed too far and warned me that I might not be able to get the epidural. I really, really did not want to hear that! When she let me know that I was at 9.5cm, definitely past the time that they could give me the epidural (especially considering the fluids weren’t even done yet), I was scared! I hadn’t prepared to do this naturally, and now they were saying I couldn’t have any drugs. Yikes! I didn’t know how long I would have to push. After pushing for 2 hours with Maddie, I didn’t know how I was going to be able to handle anything near that long.
The nurse wanted me to let her know if I needed to push, and at that point I didn’t know if I needed to push or not. A few contractions later, I knew that it was time. Unfortunately, the doctor that was supposed to deliver Cullen was in an emergency c-section. So, they were trying to get me to wait until another doctor could arrive. The contractions were quite painful and frequent and I really wanted to push at this point. The nurse was great, but I was wondering, “don’t you deliver the babies sometimes? Get over there and catch, woman!” I didn’t say that out loud, of course. I did ask if she could snag ANY doctor out of the hallway, though. I hadn’t even met the doctor who was on the way to deliver Cullen.
Finally, after holding me off for over 20 minutes, the doctor showed up and I told him I was going to push now. They were pretty quick to get things ready at that point, and after 3 pushes, Cullen was born at 4:54pm. Officially, I had been in labor for less than an hour and a half (unofficially, it was at least 2-3 hours).
The recovery without the drugs was so much better than the recovery for Maddie. Of course, the pain was worse, but it was for a shorter period of time, thankfully. It helped that I didn’t miss a meal, and that I didn’t have to push for over two hours!! I just felt so much better overall. I was relieved that I could hold my son right away – with Maddie, it felt like forever before I was able to hold her. I was even able to walk myself from the delivery room to the postpartum room!
