Labor and Delivery Story

 

The Short Version

I started leaking amniotic fluid on Sunday September 24th, so we had to induce labor within 24 hours. After a labor of 16 hours, and all of 5 minutes of pushing, Haley Marie came to us, 3 weeks and 5 days early.

The Long Version

I'd been feeling a bit "leaky" and told that to my OB at my 36 week checkup on Friday the 22nd. She gave me a strip of paper to use to dab at the wetness to
see if it might be amniotic fluid. If the PH matched amniotic fluid the strip would turn blue.

On Sunday morning I tested using the strip. There was just the barest hint of blue. No worries. On Sunday night around 10:30 I tested again. BRIGHT BLUE. I
wasn't feeling really leaky, just a little, but I figured I'd better call the doctor. I spoke to the nurse on call and she paged my obstetrician, Dr. Karen Roberts. I expected them to just tell me to rest and come into the office in the morning. Instead they told me to head to the hospital! I hadn't even packed a bag, so I did so, and off we went to Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame.

The doctor met us at the hospital. She verified the strip turning blue, and swabbed to get some of the fluid. She went to look at it under a microscope. She was looking for "ferning", a particular structure of crystalization of the fluid which indicates amniotic fluid. She found it! So I had a slow leak. This is a problem because this means the baby was being slowly exposed to the outside world. Basically the doctor said "You're having this baby in the next 24 hours...do you want to start the induction now or go home, sleep, and come back in the morning?" We knew we wouldn't sleep, so we said just go ahead. We started pitocin at 3am. I got some drugs to help me sleep since I would need my strength later on. I was dilated to 2cm at this point.

At around 8am I started feeling interesting contractions, and was walking the halls with my support team. By about 10 they were stronger and I was dilated to
3 cm. My friend Judy kept a record of all my contractions, the time and duration. (For those of you who haven't labored before, I strongly recommend this if you have someone at your labor who can do it...it really helped the nurses and doctors track my labor without having to wear a monitor.)

The doctor came at 10 and broke my water, and put in an internal fetal monitor (attached to the baby's skull) so I didn't have to write down contractions anymore. I was tracked on a remote telemetry unit so I continued walking.

By about 1:30 the contraction were making me stop walking, and by 2 I had to stop talking through them. At about 2:30 I got some paid medication. I still felt the contractions strongly, but I was so doped I almost didn't care! :-) But by 3 I was in a lot of pain and decided to have an epidural. I'd had one 4 years ago and I hated that I couldn't even move my own legs. However I was assured that things had changed and I would be able to move, although not walk. It took 3 needle sticks to get it right, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part was having to hold completely still through contractions during the procedure. But it was over quickly and I had relief within 5 or 10 minutes. At this point I was dilated to 4cm. I was indeed able to continue to move my own legs and turn over.

I was able to nap a bit during the next couple of hours as the contractions were only a minor pulling sensation. We had the Olympics on TV (muted), so I watched a bit.

At about 6:45 I started feeling the contractions VERY strongly, but in my rectum. It was as if I had to have a bowel movement, really bad. This was definitely the worst part of the labor.

At 7:25 the doctor came and checked and said I was fully dilated, and it was time to push. We used birthing stirrups. These aren't the kind your feet go in, like at the doctor's office, but instead a cradle for your calves, to hold your legs up and apart.

I started pushing, sure I was about to poop the biggest poop in the world. Instead, about 3 minutes later, after just 2 really strong pushes and contractions, the baby came out!!! She was covered in white gunk, vernix, which is usually shed by about the 38th week but because she was just over 36 weeks she still had a lot of it.

I had just a tiny tear that needed a single stitch, which I haven't felt even once since.

Haley had low blood sugar (a common side effect of babies of gestational diabetics) so was given sugar water, and was fine in a short while. She also started getting a bit cold shortly after birth. After a short stint at the breast she was taken to the special needs nursery for warming. She had to stay the night in the nursery because of having trouble keeping her temperature up.This is a common problem with pre-term babies since they don't have enough body fat.

I felt great! The worst thing was the bleeding and the catheter. (For those of you new to childbirth, I STRONGLY recommend you find the largest (thin) pad you find comfortable and take them with you to the hospital. The ones they have there are BIG and awful and leaky. I recommend Always with Wings.) You bleed a LOT after the birth. The catheter was left in for about 12 hours. It was really uncomfortable, and I should have insisted it come out sooner. After it came out I took a shower and felt like a human being again! The most difficult part of that first night was that the Labor and Delivery area got overloaded and they had to move me to Maternity in the middle of the night.

But I recovered quickly. My gestational diabetes is gone, and I was discharged from the hospital after 48 hours. However Haley wasn't. First, she had low blood sugar, so she had to be given sugar water. Her blood sugar came up fine, and has been fine since. She also had a problem with keeping her temperature up, which is common for preterm babies with little body fat. She was kept in the nursery under warmers overnight and did fine after that. As with all babies she lost weight after birth, but continued to lose weight. Because of her lower birth weight she was kept in the hospital until she started gaining, which was on Sunday the 1st, so now she's home and doing well. While she was there I was able to "room in", staying in a spare hospital room and feeding here every 3-4 hours.

Speaking of which, we've had some trouble with breastfeeding. It turns out that early babies often don't have the energy to breastfeed. So we try her at the breast only a few times a day, but I'm pumping breast milk. I'm now keeping up with her demand, so we're currently not having to supplement with formula, as we had to do for a few days. We have high hopes of being able to breastfeed within a few weeks.

Overall the experience was very positive. The Labor and Delivery staff, the Maternity ward staff, and the Special Care Nursery staff were all OUTSTANDING. And now our little angel is home with us, and doing well.