Past Due
Ten days past my due date, I found myself walking 2 miles a days, eating lots of pineapple, stimulating my nipples, trying to seduce my husband, and praying for our little sprout to make his debut. It was tough and I was willing to wait for the little guy, but time was getting short and day-by-day he was getting bigger.

On Monday morning, June 21, I called my mid-wife, Cynthia, and she said it was time to consider using Castor oil to get my contractions started. Cynthia felt it was worth trying Castor oil because we had an appointment scheduled with her backup doctor for Wednesday and would probably be induced if labor had not started by then.

I did a bit of research before deciding. The pros/cons of Castor oil are divided. Some people say there is a higher incident of meconium in the amniotic fluid when you use Castor oil, which could indicate fetal distress. However, many people feel it is safe. I decided it was worth trying and we’d just keep a close eye on the baby’s signals.

At 2pm I took my first 2 oz dose. It tasted fine and didn’t bother me much. At 3 pm, I took the 2nd dose, which was a bit harder to get down. It was very thick and it left an oily feeling to my mouth. Around 4 pm I had my first bout of diarrhea, but no contractions.

When Chris got home from work, we decided to lie down and take a nap. We slept for about 2 hours, and then I had another bout of diarrhea. My dad and step-mother came over to sit with me, my mother and Chris as we continued to do what we’ve been doing for weeks–waiting. We watched a few movies and I had 2 more rounds of diarrhea. Around 11 pm, they left for the evening, and I promised to call them if anything happened.

Oh!? That’s What It Feels Like
Shortly after that I started to feel contractions, with cramping. It was more than I’ve felt with any of my other toning contractions, which was exciting. I didn’t want to go to sleep yet, as it seems like every night I’d go to sleep feeling light contraction only to wake the next morning and find them gone. So, I pulled out my blue exercise ball to sit on and started watching a movie with my mom. About an hour later, at midnight, on my way back from a bathroom break I was lowering myself to sit on the couch and I felt a pop and gush of warm liquid. Chris was in the other room and said he heard me say, “Oh!?” It was 12:07 am.

I laughed and told mom and Chris, who both rushed around a bit in excitement. Okay, I admit I was rushing around too. The liquid was clear, and I was very happy not to see any meconium. I got in the shower and Chris called the mid-wife’s answering service. By the time I got out of the shower, Cynthia called back and I told her the news. Also, by then my contractions were getting stronger and more regular. She told us to time them and call her when they got closer together.

I continued to try and watch the movie with my mother, “Dr. Parnassus’s, Imaginarium,” which I never did finish, and thought the first half was pretty odd in a fun way. I sat on my blue exercise ball and tried rocking through my contractions. They felt like an extreme menstrual cramp, initially very intense but subsiding as I took deep breaths and rocked on the ball.

Timing them was very difficult for me. It was hard to tell when it started and ended, since what I felt first was the peak. After about 15 minutes, I decided I couldn’t pay attention to the movie and decided to move into the bedroom with dark lights and music. Chris came into the bedroom with me and we listened to Explosions in the Sky.

My contractions were coming 3 to 7 minutes apart. I rocked on the ball. I rocked leaning on Chris, like a slow dance. I rocked on the bed. I drank water between my contractions. I tried lying down through some of them but that was difficult. It felt better to move.

We called Cynthia back around 3 am and told her it seemed like the contractions were about 4 minutes apart. She felt that I was still in latent labor but came out to administer an IV of antibiotics since my water had broken and I had previously tested positive for strep-b. She arrived around 4 am and did a check on the baby and me. The baby sounded good. Then she checked my cervix. I didn’t dare to hope but I really did think I’d be further along–I measured 1 cm.

All Through the Night
She said I was still in the early part of labor and that I should try to rest and sleep between contractions as much as possible. While she was there my contractions slowed to 10 minutes apart. After she left Chris and I lay down and I labored while resting. My contractions were about 7 minutes apart, eventually we quit trying to count and just let them happen.

I moaned and breathed through each contraction and slept the rest of the time. Chris held me and rubbed my back to help me through each contraction. I remember thinking how good I felt between contractions in contrast to the pain. And each contraction that started I thought I didn’t want it to happen. It hurt so much, but only for a few moments. I kept trying to relax into them. Cynthia said I needed to release not tense up, but it was very hard to relax my muscles and just feel each contraction.

Around 8:30 am, I woke up and suddenly felt very sick. I told Chris I needed to puke. He got up to get me a bowl, but didn’t make it in time. I threw up all over the bed. I just couldn’t stop. Then I got up used the restroom, leaving behind my mucus plug. I was pretty excited by the puke and the plug (I thought it was my bloody show), because I thought this meant I was getting closer to active labor. So, I started trying to labor standing up and rocking again because I thought it would help things progress.

Dance with Me Baby
We called Cynthia, who came out about 12:00 noon for my second set of IV antibiotics. When she checked me again, I had only progressed to 2cm. I couldn’t believe it. I’d be laboring for 12 hours. Only 2 cm!

She told us to continue to rest as much as possible. I didn’t feel overly tired. However, she was worried I would be too tired by the time we reached active labor. They also wanted me to eat something. I drank half of my smoothie but could only stand to eat 1 or 2 bites of a pita from the Pita Pit. It just turned to cardboard in my mouth. After attempting to eat, I lay back down again and tried to labor through resting. I slept and labored from 2 pm – 6 pm. Then I got up and started trying to dance and rock. I knew Crystal, Cynthia’s intern, would be out to check me around 7 pm and I wanted to make sure there was some progress.

We put on good music and started dancing and standing. My contractions were still sporadic from 3 minutes to 7 minutes apart. Crystal arrived and did an internal check–I was dilated to 3 cm. Some progress but still not close to active labor. At this point, Crystal said we really need to do something else to get my contractions going. She suggested an aggressive route, another round of Castor oil, and a less aggressive route, the breast pump. We decided to try both. We were serious.

I started drinking the Castor oil and got about half of it down before I threw up again. It was quite unpleasant. So, we decided to put a warm Castor oil compress on my belly and just use the pump. I was disappointed since I really wanted things to progress. At this point, Crystal stayed with us and waited for Cynthia’s back up mid-wife, Melissa. It turns out my mid-wife’s son was getting married the following weekend and it was his birthday. Since I was not in active labor, Melissa came in Cynthia’s place to administer the 3 round of antibiotics.

The Clock’s a’Tickin’
Once the IV was done, I got in the shower with Chris and we danced and labored and squatted, trying really hard to get the contractions going. Melissa came in and said they were very concerned as I approached 24 hours of laboring because with my water breaking there was a risk of infection. It was 11 pm and she said we should continue doing what we were doing for another 30 minutes and then we needed to think about going to the hospital to get some help. Chris and I really tried at this point. I used the bed to lunge against. We danced and sang. I really tried to release into each contraction. But it was all in vain. I made no progress.

At midnight, the decision was made to transfer to the hospital. I had 3 contractions on the way to the hospital in the car. It was difficult to sit through contractions after dancing through them. Dancing was so much easier. I was disappointed, but really resigned by the time we got to the hospital. I just wanted my labor to progress.

Give Me Drugs
I was anxious about the pitocin. I’d heard that pitocin contractions could be much stronger and based on the pain I’d already been through, I wasn’t sure I could take more. Plus, as I soon discovered, once I was in the hospital I was laboring on my back attached to monitors with a catheter. No more dancing. No more rocking on my husband’s shoulder. I decided I wanted an epidural.

I’d also been told that sometimes an epidural is just the thing to help a laboring mother who isn’t progressing. So, I had real hope that the pitocin/epidural combination would help us. The anesthesiologist was excellent. Her name was Pat and she was the guiding light through the next several hours for me. Not just because she gave me drugs but because she really put me at ease and she was my main point of contact.

They ended up having a hell of a time getting my IV started. In fact, I was bruised for weeks from the trial and error process. Eventually they got it going. Then Pat came in and explained how she would give me the epidural. It was not as painful or scary as I thought it would be (getting a shot in the spinal column). And within a few minutes I could no longer feel my contractions. But we could watch them on the monitor, which tracked the baby’s heart rate and my contraction internally.

We could see that I was having regular strong contractions but they weren’t close enough together. So, they administered the pitocin and I slept. It was the first time in over 24 hours that I wasn’t in regular and constant pain. There were a bunch of people in the room and I was oblivious to them all. I don’t know if Chris slept. I was in my own world. Nothing disturbed me.

After a bit, the doctor came in and suggested increasing the pitocin, as we were still not progressing. Then I slept more. At some point I noticed my mom getting up to look at the monitor and then the nurse and doctor came in and said that the pitocin was working and my contraction had gotten stronger but during the contraction the baby’s heart rate dropped dramatically.

They were concerned that he wasn’t handling the intensity. They said we needed to decide what to do at this point because they didn’t want to continue the pitocin at that level, and I wasn’t progressing on my own.

A Door or a Window?
Chris asked everyone to give us a moment to discuss it. He said, “Ultimately it is your decision, but at this point we didn’t have many options. You have not failed and if we do it this way you can not hold onto any regret.” I felt so much love for my husband at that point. I felt that as long as we were together and our baby is healthy, we could get through anything.

So, we called everyone back in and said we’d go with a Cesarean birth. I read somewhere that some babies come through a door, other’s need a window. Our sprout was going to need a window. The nurse said they started surgeries at 7 am and they’d bumped me into the first slot. Another nurse came and took Chris to be prepped to be in surgery with me and I napped a bit more.

At 7 am, they came in and wheeled me out to surgery. It was very surreal, being wheel through the hospital, watching the ceiling and wondering about the unknowns. Again, my anesthesiologist, Pat, was there and she was the only person I really saw while Chris was waiting to be brought in and she was very comforting. They moved me onto the surgery table and Pat talked me through the things happening.

I was numb from the waist down. I felt a pushing feeling that turned out to be the doctor shaving me. Then the blue blanket went up, making a sterile environment for the surgery. Chris came in and he gave me a kiss. At this point, I began to feel very nauseous. I told them I thought I might puke, and then I did for the third time during labor. I felt much better afterward. Then the surgery began.

Happy Birthday Son
Chris watched over the sheet and said they were starting. Pat said I would feel some tugging, which I did. But it didn’t hurt. Chris said the sprout was almost out. Then I heard him. He let out a yell and I laughed. I cried. The baby cried. I cried. I remember feeling so happy and relieved. I couldn’t move anything so I just laid there and wept as I watched my husband’s face. He was beaming. He looked down at me excitedly and said “Are you okay? I am going to go see our son!” and I said, “Go, go!” Then I took a deep breath and laughed more.

I felt overcome with joy. And then they brought him over to me–Brennus Edain, 9 lbs. 2 oz. 20 1/4 inches, a beautiful boy. I couldn’t believe it. His little nose and lips. He has Chris lips! I could touch him a little bit, but it was hard the way I was laying and they had to take him to the nursery. I couldn’t wait for them to finish up so I could hold my Bren.

Chris went with him to the nursery and they started working on stitching me back up. Pat was there and she talked to me and made me feel very comfortable as they finished up. It took a little bit and I started to feel twinges of claustrophobia since I couldn’t move. But I kept it at bay, Pat really helped. And eventually they were done. They moved me back over to a bed and rolled me into the recovery room.

By then I could move my feet and legs again and I spent about 15 minutes under observation. The nurse talked to me about her grandchildren and I told her about Bren. Then finally (finally!) they wheeled me back to my room and handed me my son.

I finally got to hold him and really look at him. He was so beautiful and he was finally here, June 23, 2010–32 hours of labor and worth every second.