Labor started off at 11:45 Friday night with contractions about every 7 minutes
Labor started off at 11:45 Friday night with contractions about every 7 minutes. By 4:30am they'd made it to 3mins apart but not quite strong enough to head to the birth center. Midwife told us to press on and we agreed for the birth center at 2pm. I labored all over our apartment and the time went surprisingly fast. The drive there was definitely terrible with my contractions. When we got to the birth center I was already 7cm and definitely laboring hard. However, the team found my blood pressure to be in the 150s and even as high as 170/90. The midwife began making the arrangements to move to the hospital to check for preeclampsia.
Since we weren't admitted yet, we had our choice and went to Camp Pendleton. While waiting to leave my water broke, over and over again like niagra falls 😂 I had to wear a make shift diaper fortress. The drive to CP was AWFUL. I had a few very strong contractions and was the shouting pregnant lady coming through the gate. Our family friend wheeled me in bent over a wheel chair with a pillow, I'm pretty sure with my diaper fortress barren to the whole world. I don't know because my eyes were closed the whole time!
Once we got in the room, it was just a flood of probably more than half a dozen people in and out of the room. Checking my BP every minute. It was in the 180s at one point and I think the fervent prayers of our friends brought it down or we would've been sent for a Csection. Started IV. Set up external fetal monitoring for baby. My midwife team stayed with us which was incredible because with all the people poking at me I really needed help to survive my contractions. I was at 8cm at the hospital when we got there at 5pm.
After probably an hour or longer they confirmed protein in the urine and preeclampsia. I continued to labor for quite a while and tried to convince my husband I needed pain relief. He definitely went back to everything we learned in class and tried to encourage me to keep going because we were so close. After about 19 hours of labor with no relief, I elected to use nitrous oxide as pain relief during my contractions. WHICH WAS GREAT. It just helped me to relax because I was sooo uncomfortable in the hospital room. I was ready to start pushing then but just not dilated enough.
Unfortunately by about 8pm labor had slowed down to the magnesium and the other blood pressure medication administered. My midwife team helped us talk through the decision to have an epidural and pitocin in an effort to still have a vaginal birth. The epidural would help baby drop a little further and relax the body. So we got that done around 9 or 10pm. Then started the pitocin. Epidural contractions were like nothing compared to what I'd endured at that point. The pitocin helped get our contractions to 2-3mins apart but eventually they tapered off while I sat at 9cm. Fortunately we avoided having internal monitoring done although it was discussed. I continued until about 3am when finally the gates of heaven opened and we hit 10cms! We did some practice pushes and got started. It really sucked being on my back and having my pushing directed. I was restricted not only by the monitor but I had also had a foley tube catheter up to that point They moved me from side to side but it definitely was no easy feat. Although I'd had the epidural earlier, the delivery was definitely still extremely intense!! WHEW. Pushed for about 45mins and delivered at 3:54am. Even though the birth was far from what we envisioned, I'm so glad we had all the knowledge from class! It made everything being thrown at us much easier to take. And thank God we had our birth plan! Our OB said, "it's hard to avoid a laminated and highlighted birth plan, Mrs. Crespin."
9lbs1oz 21 inches
09/04/16
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