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my (very long) birth story
I wrote this up so I could share it with you guys but also so I have it to look back on it and remember the experience (though I half want to forget it b/c it was so painful 
). It is very very long, but read on if you are interested...
As many of you know, on Fri Nov 6 I had an Ob appointment and my cervix
was softer but I still wasn't dilated. We discussed a possible
induction on either Nov 12 or Nov 16 because the doctor did not want me
going beyond 41 weeks. She had me come back on Tues Nov 10 and based
on that visit, we were going to decide what to do. On the 10th I went
in and she told me I that I was now a fingertip dilated but the baby
hadn't dropped all the way. We decided that since I was 40 weeks on
Nov 11th, that we would try to give the baby at least a little more
time before inducing. We had already been put down on the books for a
Nov 12th induction to hold a spot, but we simply rescheduled it for Nov
16th, hoping she would come in her own time.
Later that night after my appointment, I started having
contractions. They were coming 5 minutes apart and lasted for 90
minutes. The doctor had said to call if they lasted for longer than 60
minutes, but given how many contractions I had in the past, I thought I
would give it more time. So when I finally hit the 90 minute mark I
figured I should call the doctor and let her know. Of course as soon
as I went to grab the phone, the contractions started to go away. I
was still having them, but at sporadic intervals...every 6-10 minutes
with no clear pattern of progression. So I decided to just wait it out
until the office opening in the morning to call. When I called, they
said just to come in to get checked so we came in as a walk in
appointment. The office was packed and we waited for over an hour to
be seen. I was still having contractions at this point, but only every
10-15 minutes or so. The doctor finally came in and checked me - I was
still just a fingertip dilated - nothing had changed from the previous
day. So they sent me home to wait some more. I was so sure that they
were going to say I was at least 2 cm dilated, but unfortunately that
wasn't the case.
So I went home and went about my day as usual. Around 6pm, I
started having contractions again. Again, these were very sporadic,
but there was a definite period of time where they were 5 minutes apart
for at least an hour. But again, they tapered off and started coming
in different time intervals again so I decided to just sit through
them. Before going to bed, I showed Brent the log I was keeping of
contractions that night and asked him if he thought I should call the
doctor again - he said no, since they were all over the place like the
were the previous night. So I went to bed, or tried to get some sleep
at least. I never did fall asleep - I had been having trouble falling
asleep for quite some time from just being so big and uncomfortable.
Add some contractions to the mix and I knew I wasn't going to get much
sleep. Then the contractions started to become more painful. I had
stopped timing them but they suddenly felt like they were pretty
frequent so I started timing them again. This time, they were coming
every 2 minutes. Because they were so intense and coming so close
together, I decided to call the on-call doctor to find out if I should
come in or if I should see if these last for at least an hour (at this
point they had only been coming for about 15 minutes). The on-call
doctor told me to go drink a bunch of water and get hydrated, then wait
and see if they continue to last for a full hour. If they do, he
wanted me to call back and then they would have to go in to the
hospital. This was at around 11:30pm on the 11th. I got off the phone
with him and then proceeded to go downstairs to get some water. At the
bottom of the stairs, I felt a small gush. Nothing huge, in fact it
felt very similar to other points in the pregnancy where some discharge
would come out. In the past, I had thought my water was breaking but
went to the bathroom to check, only find it was normal pregnancy
discharge. So this time when I went to check I was actually surprised
to see that my underwear wet with no discharge present - and when I
wiped, it was bright red blood. It was a small amount of fluid though,
so I wasn't sure if this was actually my water breaking or if it was "bloody show."
So I called the doctor back and told him I wasn't sure if my water
broke or if it was bloody show - he didn't really answer my question.
He simply said, "Well, if your water broke, you should go in." I was a
little annoyed by this but was glad that it was late enough in the
night that I was pretty sure he wasn't going to be doing my delivery.
So, I went and got my hospital bag, packed up the last of the
toiletries that I had held off on packing, and we were at the hospital
by about 12:30am. When I went to the admissions desk, they recognized
my name and asked, "Weren't you supposed to be here tonight for an
induction?" I smiled and told her that I was, but that we had decided
to reschedule the induction to give the baby more time to come on her
own.
Once I was admitted, a nurse came in to check on me. I was still just
a fingertip dilated (I couldn't believe it!) and the nurse wasn't sure
if my water actually broke or not because she said she had trouble
feeling my bag of waters. She said it could have also been the bloody
show, but couldn't say for sure. But they went ahead and hooked me up
to a fetal monitor and a contraction monitor, took some blood, and
started my IV. The nurse told me to get ready for a very long night,
because first time moms tend to have very long labors. At this point,
Brent and my mom decided to go home and get some sleep and return in
the morning. Before leaving, Brent told me to try and get some rest -
I told him there was no way I was getting any sleep while I was having
painful contractions every 2 minutes!!
The nurse told me that I could get the epidural at any time I
wanted it. I asked her how much it would slow down the labor and she
said it would slow it down some, but not a lot. The nurse also
informed me that if your water breaks, the contractions tend to be much
stronger than if it has not. I tried really hard to deal with the pain
for as long as possible, but with the contractions coming every 2
minutes and hours of labor ahead of me, I finally asked for the
epidural around 3:30am. The nurse told me she'd just call and wake up
the anesthesiologist and I'd feel better in no time. It didn't make me
feel great that he'd be tapping into my spine minutes after waking up,
but what choice did I have The anesthesiologist came quickly and
then they had me sit up in bed with my legs dangling over the edge. I
always thought that epidurals were administered while you were laying
on your side (like a spinal tap) but I guess not. I was terrified
about what it would feel like but it wasn't too bad. The worst part
was having to sit still while he was doing it while I was having
contractions. They don't pause while you have the contractions, they
just keep going. The nurse told me to lean over the edge of the bed
with my back hunched over and cross my arms and breathe through the
contractions but they were so painful I had to take my arms and brace
her shoulders to get through it. The lidocaine stung a bit going in
and when he went to give me the epidural I could still feel it going
in! I screamed and he stopped, then casually said "I guess we're going
to need some more lidocaine." After the second injection of lidocaine
I did not feel any pain as he inserted it, but I did feel some
pressure. There was another brief moment of pain as he did things. I
have no idea what all he did but at one point he said "You're going to
feel a back cramp now, totally normal" and when I screamed in pain
again he said "good, that's what we want." Ha! Shortly thereafter the
drugs started to kick in and all the pain from the contractions was
gone... it was wonderful. I could still feel slight pressure
from each contraction, but all the pain was gone. This was around
3:45am. From then on, I was able to doze in and out of sleep. I
wasn't ever able to get any really good sleep, as the nurse kept coming
in to check on me, adjust my monitors, etc. Plus the blood pressure
cuff was checking my blood pressure every 10 or 15 minutes and it would
wake me up.
Around 6am the nurse called my Ob who was thankfully on-call that
day - this is why we had scheduled the induction on the 12th in the
first place. She wanted to go ahead and augment my labor with pitocin
because once your water breaks, you need to deliver within 24 hrs or
else the risk of infection gets really high. So the nurse came in
around 6:30am and checked my cervix one more time before starting the
pitocin. I was 2 cm dilated, so at least I was progressing a little
bit. At this point, the pad they had put under me was soaked and there
was meconium in it so the nurse said that my water had definitely
broke. I was a little worried at this point due to the meconium being
in the amniotic fluid - the whole reason we had discussed induction was
to decrease the risk of meconium aspiration which goes up after 41
weeks. There was nothing we could do about it though, except wait and
see.
So they started the pitocin in my IV - I couldn't really feel any
difference in the contractions but from there on out, I was happy to
see that I was progressing exactly as I should be. By 7:30am I was 3cm
dilated and 80% effaced. By 10am I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced.
By noon I was 6cm dilated and 100% effaced but the baby had not totally
dropped so the Ob was concerned about that. If she didn't drop, I
wouldn't be able to deliver her vaginally. Furthermore, the doctor
felt like the baby might be tilted a bit to where part of her head was
face up. She said that babies that are "sunny side up" are more
difficult to deliver so she wanted to try and reposition me to see if
we get the baby to turn. So they had me labor on my side, with my leg
elevated straight out in a stirrup. By 2pm I was 10cm dilated and the
baby had dropped completely and turned over on her back -
laboring on my side had worked! I was so relieved to hear this. The
doctor said we could go ahead and start actively pushing so the nurse
started setting everything up. She wheeled in a table and set it up
with tools to assist in delivery (vacuum, forceps, etc) as well as
instruments for an emergency c-section if needed. By 2:30pm the nurse
let me go ahead and start pushing.
At this point I was thinking to myself that having a baby wasn't
all that bad. I had painful contractions from about 11:15pm to 3:45am
but after I had the epidural, the laboring had been a breeze. Don't
get me wrong, the contractions were painful enough that I was desperate to
get the epidural as soon as they would let me (we had to wait on the
bloodwork results and for me to get enough IV fluids), but I could take
them. Well, we tried pushing for about 15 minutes but I didn't "know"
what muscles to use to push since I couldn't feel anything down there
thanks to the wonderful epidural. At that point, they decided that
we'd have to turn off the epidural so that I could feel again and push
more effectively. So we waited about 10-15 minutes for the epidural to
wear off. This was the point where I gained an utmost respect for
those moms who choose to labor med-free. The pain from the
contractions was SO painful... I would even go as far as calling them
unbearably painful!!! I expected pain, but not THAT kind of pain. It
was so painful that I was crying - actually sobbing - with each
contraction. This was not the labor that I had envisioned for myself.
In any case, the plan worked because once I could feel again, I was
able to push more effectively. "More" being the key word - I was
pushing, but not pushing hard enough. But the nurse and doctor kept
encouraging me and pushing me to keep going. At one point the nurse
tried to tell me how she could see the baby's hair and that I just
needed to push "a little harder" so she could come out. In order to
try to get her to progress more with each push, they used a special
technique with me while I was pushing. They said that if I lean over
and hunch over my belly while pushing, it would help compress my belly
and apply more pressure to get her to come out faster. So they took a
bed sheet and had me hold onto it and they would pull me forward with
each contraction/push (there was no way I was staying in that position
on my own through that much pain!). They also elevated my legs and
pulled them outward in order to get my pelvis to open up as much as
possible.
(getting ready to push)
(the nurse pulling me forward during a contraction)
So I pushed...and pushed...and pushed... my hospital gown
was soaked in tears ...the contractions were coming every 1.5-2 minutes
so I was pretty much sobbing non-stop. Nothing helped. Holding
Brent's hand, trying to focus on meeting my baby, taking deep breaths,
etc.... none of that helped with the pain. After about an hour and
half of this, after I thought I was going to die of pain, they decided
to turn the epidural back on a little bit to see if that helped. I am
not sure why they didn't do this in the first place (I guess they
thought I needed to feel everything in order to figure out which
muscles to use...and with partial numbness I would have trouble doing
so) but once I had some pain relief, I felt much better and was able to
push harder. In fact, the doctor said that those pushes were the
strongest and most effective pushes I had made since we had started.
At 5:00pm, after I had been pushing for about 2 hours and 15
minutes, the doctor stopped everything and said we need to reassess the
situation. She said that with first time moms, if the baby isn't out
after 2 hours of pushing, it probably isn't going to come out. She
said that after 2 hours, the 3rd hour of trying usually isn't very
effective because the mom is just so worn out. She then stated that we
could continue to try, and if I could just get the baby out a little
bit further, she could try to pull her out with either a vacuum or
forceps. However, she said that she herself had had a forceps delivery
and as a mother she would not recommend that because the recovery is
hard on both mom and baby. She also reached in to feel the baby and unfortunately she had turned back over and was sunny side up again, which was one more factor that was going to make it harder to deliver her vaginally.
She then turned to us and asked us what we wanted to do. Brent
turned to me and asked me what I wanted to do. At this point, I was SO
worn out and tired of hurting that I did not have the energy to even
think about this (they even put an oxygen mask on me to help me get
through the contractions). I told him that we could do whatever he
wanted to do and that I didn't care anymore! He said it wasn't his
decision, but mine... we asked the doctor what the likelihood was of
continuing like this and delivering the baby okay - she said about
20%. So then we both kind of decided that we would just go ahead with
the c-section. This was at 5:04pm and I remember looking at the clock
and asking the doctor, "So this means I'll have my baby and this will
be over with before 6, right?" My doctor smiled at me and said, "Oh
yes, definitely. It won't take long at all." To which I replied,
"Great... can I have some more drugs now?" Everyone in the room
burst out laughing at this comment and the doctor said, "Yes, we'll get
you taken care of."
Once the epi was back on fully, I felt SO much better. The
anesthesiologist came in and gave me some additional drugs, then
checked to make sure I was completely numb up to my chest. By 5:24pm
they were wheeling me over to the operating room. I remember being so
cold from being exposed during the labor, plus all the cold IV fluids
that they were giving me (I think I had received at least 2-3 liters by
then!). I was shivering uncontrollably even though they put blankets
on me. I am not sure if it was the drugs or just the sheer exhaustion
of having been up for so long and having labored for so long, but the
rest of the evening is a bit of a blur to me...
I remember them transferring me from the hospital bed to the
operating room table and the nurse anesthetist talking to me and giving
me drugs. I was still shivering uncontrollably at this point - I
remember wishing I could warm up so I could feel a little more relaxed
(even my teeth were chattering). I am not even sure exactly when they
started but I remember thinking to myself that they weren't even
waiting for Brent before making the initial incision. I heard them ask
for someone to go get him, but I think they started cutting immediately
thereafter. Once he was by my head, I asked him what the burning smell
was and he told me it was the cautery they were using. I remember
thinking to myself, "great, I can smell myself burning." 
Minutes
later, at 5:42pm, they pulled her from my belly and I could hear her
crying immediately. The first thing my Ob said was, "Oh Jaime, she is
just beautiful! So beautiful." Before taking her to get cleaned up and
everything, they brought her by for me to see her and I immediately
started crying. Brent asked me what was wrong and I told him,
"Nothing's wrong. I'm just so happy she is here and this is all over
now." After that, they cleaned her up, weighed her, and I heard them
give her an apgar score of 8 and then 9. She was 7 pounds, 4.4 ounces
and 20 inches long.
My Ob actually told me that once they were in there, she could see
that my pelvis was too small and that's why she wasn't progressing when
I was pushing. She said I could have pushed until I was blue in the
face, but this baby was not coming out except via c-section. She said
that my pelvic outlet (which she could feel on her internal exams) was
big enough, but my pelvic inlet (which she couldn't see until they
opened me up) was way too small for her head to fit through. I just
thought to myself, "Well, that would have been nice to know 24 hours
ago!!"
As they were closing me up, I remember feeling intense nausea
because I was hungry - I had not eaten anything in about 24 hours. I
asked if I could eat after the surgery and everyone in the operating
room thought it was so funny that I was already thinking about food at
that point. They gave me an injection of Zofran to help with the
nausea and I had to beg for a piece of hard candy to suck on to get me
through it. They told me I would have to wait a while before I could
have anything due to the anesthetic drugs. The doctor said I'd get
some chicken broth later that evening and it would taste like the best
chicken broth I've ever had (and she was right) 
After the surgery was done they wheeled me back to labor and
delivery so I could recover and spend some time with her before she
went to the nursery for her first bath. I remember feeling so groggy
during this time that I don't even remember trying to breast feed her.
I remember them undressing her so we could have some skin to skin
contact before breast feeding, but that's it. Still, I remember how
great it felt to finally have her snuggled up against me 
It was a
wonderful ending to very very long ordeal...
(our very first family photo)
Re: my (very long) birth story
Oh wow Jaime! I know it must have been awful at the time, but she's such a beautiful girl...so worth it.
I have a question about the epidural - I'm thinking that if I want pain meds, I'll request a walking epidural (basically a light dose so the majority of the pain is gone but you can still feel which muscles to push with). Was that something you ever considered, or did you decide to go with the full epidural for a reason? Not criticizing your choice (far from it!), I'm just wondering if there are negatives to the light dose that I haven't read about/considered that would make the full dose preferable.
omg jaime! wow. and i thought my pain was bad! ha..but reading this it makes me think of how bad the pain was and actually it was like i had wrote this about haleys birth!
i know what you mean about crying through contractions because thats what i did this time around, its bad! but yet we forget all of this and end up wanting more kids! ha.
congrats again, she is precious!
Oh Jaime, what a nice story! I loved reading this. And it brought tears to my eyes when you described how your doctor said she was beautiful when she pulled her out... I cried at that moment too. Uncontrollable sobbs. I was just so happy and overcome by everything. Your daughter IS beautiful and you must be so happy! Congratulations to you guys! :-)
Malia & Dave & Alexa
Happily married since 2-17-08! Three since 9-9-09!
Baby Blog
you know, it wasn't something I had considered or even really knew about ... they didn't ask me and I didn't know to ask! I know that the day after they told me I had a "walking epidural" where I still had pain meds going directly into there but I wasn't numb at all. I'm wondering if what they did for me at the very end of all my pushing would be what you are calling the walking epidural? I wish I could remember how much pain I felt at that point vs relief to say if it was "adequate" but of course it probably wouldn't matter b/c everyone has a different pain tolerance... I do remember that it still hurt a lot, but it was more tolerable at that point, that was how I was able to focus more on the pushing as opposed to the pain. but I can also tell you that I still would have preferred the full epi over a partial one b/c I wouldn't have wanted to feel contractions every 2 minutes from 3:45am (when I got the epi) until 5:42pm when she was delivered! I had already been having the stronger ones since 11:30pm (of course you never know how long you're going to labor and you can always up the meds if you want, I guess)
I'm not aware of any negatives for the walking epidural... unless they don't put the catheter in you...b/c then if you want the full epidural they'd have to poke you again...but w/twins I can't see how they wouldn't put the catheter in just in case you need to do the c-section. that would be a good question for the anesthesiologist
or I can ask my cousin if you want, he's one.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Thank you for sharing your birth story!
Re: epidural -- with my first, I was fortunate enough to have an anesthesiologist who let me lay on my side while he did the epidural. The second time around it was a different doctor who told me I had to sit up. I wanted to cry because I was in agony (and my H was telling me to ease up on squeezing his hand b/c I was squeezing so hard) and it was so hard to sit up and stay still.
Thank you so much for sharing! I could have written your birth story (except I wasn't late and my water never broke)!! I had to laugh at the picture of the nurse and you playing tug - a - war as Adam and I did the same thing. It's so weird that everything about our births were the same. Except I think I was in labor for a little less than 23 hours before Ashton was born and I pushed for 4 1/2 hours before I finally gave in and told them to just take the baby out already, I wish I was not so stubborn to have a vaginal birth since they were asking me at the 3 hour mark that the baby most likely would not be born that way due to his position (sunny side up) and my pelvis.
Gosh, totally made me relive my birth and want to finish writing my birth story before I totally miss all those little details.
Yay for a healthy baby and mama!
Wow Jaime, now that's a birth story - you are definitely a super mama! I love that you have photos of the birth.
I also loved my magical epi
I progressed really quickly and they couldn't turn it down in time for me to push too. I told them they need to tell me when to push and what to push since I couldn't feel anything. Although not precious at all, they told me to imagine pushing out a big poop...and it felt exactly like that when the pressure released right as SP came out (I imagine why people sometimes poop on the delivery table). Not what I thought it would be like at all but it was effective, he was out in 4 contractations 
wow 4.5 hrs?!? you must be super woman! did you have an epi? I like how you describe the pushing technique as "playing" tug-of-war
actually, the nurse got tired after a while so she and Brent took turns
doing that with me so I have pictures of both of them doing that!!
4 contractions? I am so jealous! they kept telling me the same thing (I've also heard it before from a lot of mamas) and I kept trying to imagine myself pooping but as long as I was numb I couldn't do it...it wasn't until I felt things down there that I was able to "find" those muscles and figure out what I needed to do... I always thought my body would know how to push, never thought it would need to learn how to first.
yeah, i am really happy we have the photos... I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted someone there to photograph the experience but I'm really glad I decided to in the end. I hired a local nestie that is trying to get into photography and I think she did a really good job.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
I'm not sure how it's normally done, but I know that at my hospital, they put the catheter in when you're admitted for a twin birth whether you want pain meds or not - apparently a woman lost a baby a few years back because she didn't want one and it wasn't policy at the time, and they couldn't get it in fast enough to give her the emergency c-section she needed for the second twin. So now it's hospital policy to put them in upon admittance whether they're actually used or not.
So I was thinking that if I start with a walking epi (assuming I go for the pain meds, which, to be honest, I probably will), I can always ask them to up the dosage to a full one if it's not enough relief. At least, that's the plan right now lol.
Wow, I'm exhausted just reading this! And maybe a little scared. Although I really don't want a c-section, I think after all of that, I'd just want her out, too.
At least next time you can skip all the pain and exhaustion and just schedule your repeat c-section.
Thanks for sharing!
Heck yeah!! Like you they turned it off for a few and my pushing was not as productive as when it was turned on. I could have killed that Dr. for doing that. So funny, I have pictures of Adam and I "playing" tug a war too:-) Luckily I kept my mom in the delivery room so she got a few good ones for me.
I love Hawaii!
Tara & Ian . 4/24/2008 . The Kahala Planning . Married
Ditto!!! Your story gives me a lot to think about.
Thank you for sharing your story Jaime and your awesome photos. I am sorry you had a tough labor but thrilled that Annelise came into this world healthy and strong.
The closer I get to Libby's birthday the more I am realizing that I am going to have to be flexible on my natural birth plan...because you never know until you're there what's going to happen. I am curious to know if you had prepared for a vaginal birth with any classes, breathing techniques, etc. or just went in knowing you'd get an epi asap to deal with the pain and contractions. You decription of administering the epi is the main reason I don't want one at all...I am teriified of feeling numb, let alone getting stabbed in the back. That may all change when I am in the moment, but for now I am more afraid of that then the pain of unmedicated contractions.
I hope that no matter what course our birth ends up taking that it ends up happy like yours...with a beautiful daughter and the amazing birth of a family.
TTC/PG Blog | Mommy Blog
I really wanted a vaginal birth and wanted to avoid the c-section but in the end after laboring that long, I no longer cared! I did not take any birthing classes b/c I knew from the get go that I wanted an epidural no matter what and Brent has delivered 30+ babies during his ob/gyn rotation so he already knew what he was doing.
Honestly, I was really scared of getting the epidural even though I was certain I wanted it. The thought of having something stuck in your spine is the scary part - I think it's more mental than anything else.... b/c I don't think it hurt much more than getting my blood drawn, it was just having to sit still through the contractions while he was doing it that was hard. well, the brief "back cramp" hurt too but it was like a split second and didn't hurt any more than the contractions themselves.... so to me, the epidural was just a moment of pain vs the contractions which were an ongoing source of pain. Being numb isn't bad...in fact, it's great when you're having contractions
Like I said, I have the utmost respect for the moms who labor med-free but I know that I personally couldn't ever do it... once your body gets going, those contractions get hard and strong!
You will do great whatever happens, Lori... and you'll have a beautiful baby girl to show for it
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Aww Jaime, thanks for sharing your experience with us. Annalise is just beautiful, congrats to you again, good job Mama, you're quite the trooper!
P.S. Totally agree about the chicken broth. I had a c-section too & that was the first thing I was able to eat after delivery. It was the best!