My 26+ hour easy labor

This will be long but decided to post it because I wanted to document it anyways. Read if you want, I wrote this for my memory.

Woke up the morning of my due date (June 2) at 0730 with odd Braxton Hicks. They felt like my anus was splitting in half. I was told that Braxton Hicks go away if you drink water and change positions, these did not go away. They were about every 5 minutes. I tried walking the dog... mistake so I tried to go back to bed and I woke my husband out of his sleep they got so bad. So we got up, he started timing my contractions to see and then I started crying due to the pain so he went and grabbed my mom who (Thank God) just so happened to be staying with us from the night before. She said we should go to the hospital because they hadn’t been that bad before so we went.

In labor and delivery triage I got my cervix checked and I was fully effaced 1cm dilated. My goal in labor was to not get induced because I heard it hurt so much more and she said if I checked in at 1cm they would have to induce me. That was at 12pm. So we checked into a hotel two miles away and labored. My mom finally got to the hotel room and noticed how strong and painful my contractions were and urged me to go back to the hospital. Went back to triage, they checked me, I was 3cm. That was at 2pm.

I was not getting sent away, they were so bad I was asking for an epidural in triage. They admitted me and took me to my room and Praise God the anesthesiologist was less busy as it was a Sunday. He came and hooked me up at 3cm. Best decision I ever made. I even had a button to refill it which I pressed frequently. I labored for a few hours in bliss and they checked me and I was 5cm dilated.

When she checked me she said she felt amniotic sac but since I was developing on my own she wasn’t going to break it she was going to let it pop on it’s own. She checked me a few hours later and I was still 5cm dilated. Very discouraging. The epidural had taken my pain away but it had also slowed my labor. So they started me on pitocin to get my contractions a regular 3 minutes or less apart and said they’d check me again in two hours. That was at 10pm.

During that time I decided to take a nap... on my right side. Something about an epidural is that it follows gravity so after my nap I woke up to discover my epidural severely fading on my right side and I could feel my 3 minute apart contractions! On one side! How women do it naturally I can not imagine. Conveniently my bag of epidural was empty and the pharmacy was having computer trouble so I was nearly screaming for more epidural and begged for the anesthesiologist to come back and top me off with another dose. Which he did, incredible. I laid on my left side to get the flow back there.

Immediately after I rolled to my left I felt pressure like my water was breaking and I told the nurse my water had broken. She lifted the blanket and... my water had not broken, half of his sac fell out of me! The sac. I reached back and touched it to her dismay and it felt like a filled up water balloon. She attempted to push it back in and then it broke. So now my baby was in there with no amniotic sac and they saw there was meconium in the sac... I cried. It was baby time.

The doctor came in immediately after and checked me again and I was 9 1/2 cm dilated. That was at 12 am. I dilated 4 1/2 cm in two hours. However baby was way too high up she wanted to wait and see if he’d drop more so she let me go back to sleep for three hours. Then checked me again at 3am. Still to high up. Let me sleep again.

At 6am she came in, woke me up, and said it is time to start pushing. He was still too high up but I was 10cm dilated and ready to go.

I pushed for 3hrs straight. Luckily I had a great night’s sleep and great epidural. I pushed for 2 hours with no changes because he was not facing down, he was facing to the right. The doctors kept trying to turn him with their hands but he would keep changing back. They suggested forceps which I adamantly denied. I kept pushing for another hour and he came out beautifully at 9:20am.

I have a first degree tear and my entire downstairs area feels like it’s going to rip in half but I have a beautiful baby next to me as I write this and I would do it all again.