Almost from the day that I found out that I was pregnant, I thought that Jesus told me (weird, I know) that baby Goulet was going to come on October 21st. October 21st is also the anniversary of Daniel and I getting engaged. The year that we got engaged October 21st was sweetest day, so Daniel thought that it was a perfect day to get engaged.
Even though I have thought that whole time that I would have a baby on the 21st, I am not a patient woman. And I especially do not like surprises, so the suspense of going in the labor was killing me (see previous posts).
On the 20th, in my quest to go into labor I drank Castor oil. Gross I know, but I mixed it with juice and it wasn't bad. I went for me daily walk, and felt nothing. Within a couple of hours, the Castor oil had kicked in. Castor oil in found at drug stores, and is typically used as a laxative. I can now say from personal experience, that it is a good laxative if you would like to completely clean your bowels out and don't mind the taste of drinking bland salad dressing. Eight hours after drinking "the oil" I had pooped out my intestines, and still had no labor pains.
Daniel and I went to bed about midnight, and I woke up at two in the morning with slight contractions. While lying in bed, I felt a pop in my stomach but I figured that the baby just kicked me hard. I found out later that this was my water breaking. I thought that these were my standard false labor pains, so I moved onto the futon and set up the computer so that I could watch hulu while I was in "false labor." While I laid down, I started to leak a little fluid. It was at this point I realized that I know nothing. I didn't know what amniotic fluid looked liked, so I assumed it was nothing. When I came into our bedroom to change a third time Daniel asked what was happening, and I told him that I was kind of leaking a fluid but it was no big deal. I also started to feel pain in my pelvis. The false contractions that I had clenched my whole belly, so I figured that I was just having a weird pain. The pains came every seven or eight minutes.
At 2:45 I called the labor and delivery department and I told them my situation, "Ummm, I am leaking a water but I am not sure if my water broke." They said that it probably wasn't my water, that normally there is a big gush. They told me to go lay down on my left side. I went to go lay down and I noticed that it was really uncomfortable to lay.
At 3:00 I went downstairs, still unsure if I was in labor, to start pacing the floor cause I my pelvis really hurt. Daniel came down not much later and asked if I was in labor, I told him that I didn't know. I was having these weird pains in my pelvis, but it might be false labor.
At 3:15 we pulled out the labor iPhone app (there is an app for everything!) Daniel started to track my pains. The pains lasted about a minute, and came every minute. We thought, this is weird. We thought that contractions were supposed to be minutes apart and get closer together not start out a minute a part. Then the pains got worse. And we kept tracking.
I called my mom and told her I thought I was in labor, so she got in the car for her eight hour journey from Michigan to get here.
I called the labor department at 3:45am and they said that I could come in and that they would check me. So Daniel and I started to get our things together thinking the whole time that we might be coming right back home to wait. The contractions were really intense by this point. I would tell Daniel as it was starting, and then I would start to walk back and forth in our house. Daniel would tell me when it had been 30 seconds, this meant that I was in the worst of it and the pain was going away soon.
I used to have these great ideas of how I was going to do my hair and put on make up before I went to the hospital so that I would look cute in the post labor pictures. This was a fantasy. My contractions were still two minutes apart and kind of disabling so I managed to change my shirt and that was it. I was thankful to have prepacked almost everything that we needed.
I tried to get into the car, but had a couple of contractions in the driveway instead. Then when we got in the car, I knew another contractions was coming. I screamed in the car. Daniel tried to coach me through it but there was little we could do. This was the one time that I lost it on him cause he put his hand on my leg, "Don't touch me!" I screamed.
We got to the hospital at about 4:30. I asked if I could walk to the labor department because that's what felt the best to me. I barely made it to the triage room that they assigned me too. I might have screamed once in the hall, it's kind of a blur.
I got into the triage room and the nurse checked my cervix. "I'm gonna need to get help," she told us. Another nurse rushed into the room and checked my cervix, I was 9 centimeters dilated. How long had I been in labor? Umm... maybe an hour and a half? Then the nurse looked scared and called to try to get me a room. Our friend Jo (a very brave woman) arrived. It was in the triage room that I realized my water had indeed broken, I sprayed water everywhere with every contraction. The nurse left to check on a room. I need to push, really really bad. Jo ran out to the hallway and told the nurse.
They moved my into the delivery room around 5 and told me that I could push. This is again when I realized that I know nothing, I don't know how to push. The next stage is kind of a blur involving alot of pain, alot of yelling, and alot of encouragement from Daniel and the nurse. I wondered the whole time how Daniel knew what to say, and found out later that he would just copy what the nurse said. Jo moved to the corner and began to pray like crazy. She says that she "never looked into the eye of the storm."
I pushed standing up. I pushed on all fours. I pushed while pulling on a towel. I pushed while leaning on the bed. I pushed while squatting. I pushed while sitting on the toilet. I pushed while laying down. I pushed while squatting again. I pushed and pushed and screamed and screamed. The baby's head did not want to move down. The midwife puts me on pitocin to make the contractions stronger and the uterus contract more. Contract more? I think. After two and a half hours I started to think that something was not right. The midwife said that most first time moms will push for about an hour to an hour and a half. Then the midwife kept coming in to coach me and watch me push.
The midwife says that she can see the head. She shows Daniel and he can see the hair. I get encouraged, I think I can totally do this. I push more. The pitocin is working and the contractions are more painful. Three and a half hours of pushing and I crack. I ask about using a vacuum. The midwife brings in a doctor. The doctor looks at the baby's head and said that a vacuum would not work. The doctor and midwife then inform me that the babies head looks like its stuck. They recommend a c section to me, they say that Daniel and I can think about it. But then they see me push one more time and they don't leave much of an option.
My heart kind of broke over this decision. I so wanted a natural birth and a fast recovery. Part of my felt like it was my fault that my baby couldn't come out. But I signed a bunch of papers, and they rolled me scared and screaming from contractions down the hall. I had one really bad, scream and cry contraction in the operating room. Then they injected my spine with some drug that made everything from the neck down paralyzed. Daniel came to join me in the operating room. He peaked over the cloth screen in front of my face and watched the doctor unlodge the babies head from my pelvis. Then the rest of the baby came out of my belly. I was so drugged and so tired at this point that I was barely awake.
Daniel helped them clean up the baby while I was sewn back together. I got to see him really quickly before they took the baby now known as Nathan up to the nursery. I remember feeling very relieved that the baby was healthy and that labor was over. We found out later, that there was not way that Nathan was coming out on his own. He was face up instead of face down and the side of his head was trying to come out first, not the top. Evidence of this was the huge cone that he had on the side of his head where he was trapped in my pelvis.
So I know only God knew that Nathan was coming on October 21st and only he knew the way that Nathan would come into this world. So that is my labor induction technique that does work, listening to God and sticking with his plan.
Even though I have thought that whole time that I would have a baby on the 21st, I am not a patient woman. And I especially do not like surprises, so the suspense of going in the labor was killing me (see previous posts).
On the 20th, in my quest to go into labor I drank Castor oil. Gross I know, but I mixed it with juice and it wasn't bad. I went for me daily walk, and felt nothing. Within a couple of hours, the Castor oil had kicked in. Castor oil in found at drug stores, and is typically used as a laxative. I can now say from personal experience, that it is a good laxative if you would like to completely clean your bowels out and don't mind the taste of drinking bland salad dressing. Eight hours after drinking "the oil" I had pooped out my intestines, and still had no labor pains.
Daniel and I went to bed about midnight, and I woke up at two in the morning with slight contractions. While lying in bed, I felt a pop in my stomach but I figured that the baby just kicked me hard. I found out later that this was my water breaking. I thought that these were my standard false labor pains, so I moved onto the futon and set up the computer so that I could watch hulu while I was in "false labor." While I laid down, I started to leak a little fluid. It was at this point I realized that I know nothing. I didn't know what amniotic fluid looked liked, so I assumed it was nothing. When I came into our bedroom to change a third time Daniel asked what was happening, and I told him that I was kind of leaking a fluid but it was no big deal. I also started to feel pain in my pelvis. The false contractions that I had clenched my whole belly, so I figured that I was just having a weird pain. The pains came every seven or eight minutes.
At 2:45 I called the labor and delivery department and I told them my situation, "Ummm, I am leaking a water but I am not sure if my water broke." They said that it probably wasn't my water, that normally there is a big gush. They told me to go lay down on my left side. I went to go lay down and I noticed that it was really uncomfortable to lay.
At 3:00 I went downstairs, still unsure if I was in labor, to start pacing the floor cause I my pelvis really hurt. Daniel came down not much later and asked if I was in labor, I told him that I didn't know. I was having these weird pains in my pelvis, but it might be false labor.
At 3:15 we pulled out the labor iPhone app (there is an app for everything!) Daniel started to track my pains. The pains lasted about a minute, and came every minute. We thought, this is weird. We thought that contractions were supposed to be minutes apart and get closer together not start out a minute a part. Then the pains got worse. And we kept tracking.
I called my mom and told her I thought I was in labor, so she got in the car for her eight hour journey from Michigan to get here.
I called the labor department at 3:45am and they said that I could come in and that they would check me. So Daniel and I started to get our things together thinking the whole time that we might be coming right back home to wait. The contractions were really intense by this point. I would tell Daniel as it was starting, and then I would start to walk back and forth in our house. Daniel would tell me when it had been 30 seconds, this meant that I was in the worst of it and the pain was going away soon.
I used to have these great ideas of how I was going to do my hair and put on make up before I went to the hospital so that I would look cute in the post labor pictures. This was a fantasy. My contractions were still two minutes apart and kind of disabling so I managed to change my shirt and that was it. I was thankful to have prepacked almost everything that we needed.
I tried to get into the car, but had a couple of contractions in the driveway instead. Then when we got in the car, I knew another contractions was coming. I screamed in the car. Daniel tried to coach me through it but there was little we could do. This was the one time that I lost it on him cause he put his hand on my leg, "Don't touch me!" I screamed.
We got to the hospital at about 4:30. I asked if I could walk to the labor department because that's what felt the best to me. I barely made it to the triage room that they assigned me too. I might have screamed once in the hall, it's kind of a blur.
I got into the triage room and the nurse checked my cervix. "I'm gonna need to get help," she told us. Another nurse rushed into the room and checked my cervix, I was 9 centimeters dilated. How long had I been in labor? Umm... maybe an hour and a half? Then the nurse looked scared and called to try to get me a room. Our friend Jo (a very brave woman) arrived. It was in the triage room that I realized my water had indeed broken, I sprayed water everywhere with every contraction. The nurse left to check on a room. I need to push, really really bad. Jo ran out to the hallway and told the nurse.
They moved my into the delivery room around 5 and told me that I could push. This is again when I realized that I know nothing, I don't know how to push. The next stage is kind of a blur involving alot of pain, alot of yelling, and alot of encouragement from Daniel and the nurse. I wondered the whole time how Daniel knew what to say, and found out later that he would just copy what the nurse said. Jo moved to the corner and began to pray like crazy. She says that she "never looked into the eye of the storm."
I pushed standing up. I pushed on all fours. I pushed while pulling on a towel. I pushed while leaning on the bed. I pushed while squatting. I pushed while sitting on the toilet. I pushed while laying down. I pushed while squatting again. I pushed and pushed and screamed and screamed. The baby's head did not want to move down. The midwife puts me on pitocin to make the contractions stronger and the uterus contract more. Contract more? I think. After two and a half hours I started to think that something was not right. The midwife said that most first time moms will push for about an hour to an hour and a half. Then the midwife kept coming in to coach me and watch me push.
The midwife says that she can see the head. She shows Daniel and he can see the hair. I get encouraged, I think I can totally do this. I push more. The pitocin is working and the contractions are more painful. Three and a half hours of pushing and I crack. I ask about using a vacuum. The midwife brings in a doctor. The doctor looks at the baby's head and said that a vacuum would not work. The doctor and midwife then inform me that the babies head looks like its stuck. They recommend a c section to me, they say that Daniel and I can think about it. But then they see me push one more time and they don't leave much of an option.
My heart kind of broke over this decision. I so wanted a natural birth and a fast recovery. Part of my felt like it was my fault that my baby couldn't come out. But I signed a bunch of papers, and they rolled me scared and screaming from contractions down the hall. I had one really bad, scream and cry contraction in the operating room. Then they injected my spine with some drug that made everything from the neck down paralyzed. Daniel came to join me in the operating room. He peaked over the cloth screen in front of my face and watched the doctor unlodge the babies head from my pelvis. Then the rest of the baby came out of my belly. I was so drugged and so tired at this point that I was barely awake.
Daniel helped them clean up the baby while I was sewn back together. I got to see him really quickly before they took the baby now known as Nathan up to the nursery. I remember feeling very relieved that the baby was healthy and that labor was over. We found out later, that there was not way that Nathan was coming out on his own. He was face up instead of face down and the side of his head was trying to come out first, not the top. Evidence of this was the huge cone that he had on the side of his head where he was trapped in my pelvis.
So I know only God knew that Nathan was coming on October 21st and only he knew the way that Nathan would come into this world. So that is my labor induction technique that does work, listening to God and sticking with his plan.
Woohoo!! Congratulations, Katie :) What a beautiful boy!!!
ReplyDeleteHe's adorable!
ReplyDeletekatie, you are my hero! seriously, you pushed for over 3 hours? my oh my! i pushed for 20 minutes and i thought that was awful. i can't imagine pushing for 3 and a half hours! wow, you are amazing! clearly the c-section was needed, and we are lucky to have such great healthcare at our fingertips... and now you have a beautiful baby boy! congrats!!
ReplyDelete"My heart kind of broke over this decision. I so wanted a natural birth and a fast recovery. Part of my felt like it was my fault that my baby couldn't come out. But I signed a bunch of papers, and they rolled me scared and screaming from contractions down the hall. I had one really bad, scream and cry contraction in the operating room." I could have written this part too. I can relate and I'm so sorry you had to deal with this too. But, Nathan is a doll and you are super mom!
ReplyDelete