apart Estimated Delivery Date: 11/12/2022
Actual Delivery Date: 11/6/2022
To preface everything, I just want to say that man I underestimated how tiring it would be to work full-time while being pregnant with the second kid having to constantly chase and hold an almost two-year-old. It was exhausting!!!
The Unknown Beginning for a Second-Time Mom
Thursday – Nov 3rd – I elected to undergo a membrane sweep. Afterwards, I had some cramping, but I returned to work with nothing crazy happening.
Saturday – Nov 5th – Around 12:20 pm I started having intermittent brown/red-tinged discharge throughout the day, but again no cramping or anything suggesting labor would start soon.
It Wasn’t a Gush, but I Think My Water Broke
Sunday – Nov 6th – I believe my water “broke” around 1:20 am before the time change. I decided to get up and eat just in case I was going into labor. I instantly resorted to getting food because with my first I was unable to eat food for the duration of the induction which was 30-plus hours, and I was terrified that would happen again.
Around 2 am or the next 1 am, I started having contractions almost instantly lasting for 45 sec to 1 minute and anywhere from 3-5 min apart. I started timing contractions probably about 30 minutes after the contractions started. I alternated between sitting on the couch and getting in the shower to help manage the pain.
My husband woke up at some point during all of my moving around and asked if I was alright. I told him I was definitely having contractions, but I would let him know if/when we needed to do something. Shortly after that, he came into the living room to lie down and literally stare at me during contractions. He pointed out they were less than 5 minutes apart and lasted close to a minute and asked if we should go to the hospital. I told him they want them to last for at least an hour too and at the moment I had not officially timed them for that long.
So I hopped in the shower again.
After the shower I thought, maybe laying down would feel good, but the next contraction came and the pain was so bad I threw up….so much for eating. I then threw up in between the next two contractions. Somewhere during this madness, my husband came into the room and I finally agreed to go to the hospital. Luckily, all we had to do was wake up my best friend to let her know she would have to watch our first born and we were out the door to the hospital.
Overall, the 25-minute drive to the hospital was unremarkable. I continued to breathe through contractions and even hummed through some of the rougher ones. We got to the hospital around 5:45 am. Walking up to the ER I felt myself leaking more and more as the contractions continued to ramp up. Once in the ER, someone wheeled me to the OB ER and that is where things REALLY escalated.
The Transition to Active Labor
A nurse asked that I get changed into a gown and requested a urine sample. So I stepped into the restroom which resulted in a ridiculous amount of fluids, mucous, and the bloody show getting everywhere. I had tried to sit down on the toilet but I had to stand during the next contraction resulting in a terrible mess. I came out of the bathroom with the gown barely draped over my front side and they immediately asked me to lie down which made my contractions a 10/10 TERRIBLE. I was eventually able to get on my hands and knees as they wheeled me to L&D. I was 5 cm dilated and very much in active labor.
Epidural, Please!
I originally denied the request for an epidural but they kept asking me to be in a semi-reclined/laying down position for various reasons during the admittance process making the pain worse. I could not bear the pain anymore so I requested the epidural. It felt like an eternity before getting it so I requested IV pain meds in the interim.
The fentanyl took the edge off and made me feel extremely relaxed in-between contractions and seemed to work for 10-15 minutes which was better than nothing. The epidural was finally placed, but initially, it was only working on my right side. The anesthesiologist suggested rolling to my left side to see if that would help get the meds to the left side. I did as he suggested, but during my next contraction little girl’s heart rate dropped significantly. I was quickly ushered back to the semi-reclined position, and placed on oxygen along with 4 more nurses and the doctor coming into the room within seconds. They decided to place internal monitors as her heart rate kept decreasing during contractions and they were unsure as to why.
If Things Weren’t Already Crazy, it Gets Crazier
Somewhere during all of this chaos, the epidural started working which was great, but then my blood pressure (BP) tanked getting as low as 82/42 at one point. Lucky for me, I did not feel any symptoms from my low BP except being extremely tired. They eventually elected to give me some BP meds in hopes of stabilizing my BP.
At this point, I was able to come to the realization of how much they were concerned for little miss. They had me move to my hands and knees with the epidural in full swing which was a huge chore with mostly dead legs and all the lines connected to me, but little girl seemed to like this position best.
8 cm – Perfect Time to Push
The word C-section got thrown around a couple of times but baby stabilized and eventually allowed me to lay on my right side without too many dips in heart rate. Sometime later guesstimating around 7 am baby’s heart rate decided to drop during consecutive contractions again causing the flood of hospital personnel back into our room.
The doctor checked me and I was 8 cm. She decided it was time to push. She worked to pull my cervix out of the way to allow our little girl to pass since I was not 10 cm, but I believe the doctor was at the point of either we push or elect for a C-section.
After 40 minutes of pushing which felt like an eternity, little miss was born into the world at 8:10 am. Her cord had been wrapped around her neck once which is what contributed to the constant drop in heart rate throughout labor. Her dad was able to cut her cord and we enjoyed the golden hour with her on my chest. She was beautiful and very attentive. I, however, was exhausted and wanted pizza and Doritos!
As a second-time mom, I thought I knew what to expect from my first birth experience; but clearly, that did not go as planned.
