Labor Story

Hello all! In case you're interested, this is how Lizzie decided to enter the world :-) Sorry for any TMI moments!

I was heading to the end of 41wks pregnant, and the hospital doesn't generally let anyone go past 42wks. Because it appeared nothing was going to happen soon naturally (I wasn't dilated at all or having even mild contractions), they had started trying to 'encourage' labor to begin. I got 3 gel treatments (Prepidil I think) to try to soften my cervix, on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. When the checked on Tuesday, my cervix was softer, but that's it, so we decided I would be induced starting Wednesday evening, and plan to start labor on Thursday morning.


However, the 3rd gel treatment must have done something. It was administered around 2pm, and at 5:30pm I was on the computer in the library when I started noticing slight contractions. I thought they would go away when I got up to walk, but they didn't. I ran (walked?) the rest of my errands and got back to the Stork's Nest. Will was driving up after work to trade a few things for a radio I had picked up at the PX, and he arrived around 9pm. By then, my contractions were happening more often, but still weren't regular or painful. He left at midnight, and I went to sleep. A few hours later, I woke up because they were stronger and I couldn't sleep anymore. I walked back and forth in my room (it was raining outside), and rested some more. At 4am, I went to the bathroom, and then decided to see if the contractions were regular or not, so I could decide if I needed to call Will and tell him to drive back up. He planned on working Wednesday and coming up with the van on Wed pm for when my induction started. I came back from the bathroom, and wrote down a few times, but not enough to tell anything. Then, I thought I had to go to the bathroom again, so I went back. It seemed like, since I hadn't drank anything for awhile, I shouldn't be peeing that much, and thought I should start so see if maybe my water had broken. I laid down for 20min or so, then stood up, and sure enough more liquid came out. At that point, I put on a pad, and called Will (who hadn't gone to bed yet!!)to say he should probably come back soon (after a nap). Then I called the WICU (women/infant care unit) at the hospital to find out what they wanted me to do. Since I was by myself, they had me call the ambulance. I did, then went back to my room to get some of my things together. I also quickly ate a few servings of applesauce, because I figured they wouldn't let me eat at the hospital (I was right). The ambulance came, thank goodness without sirens, and I walked through the rain to the street. I sat on the stretcher, because it was the only place to sit, and we rode to the hospital. When I got there, they strapped me in and unloaded me, on the stretcher! I felt so silly, because I wasn't hurt, and could walk fine. But, they said I was already strapped in, so I may as well stay on for a ride. We arrived at the WICU, and they brought me into the evaluation room, but as soon as they saw that I was clearly losing liquid, they moved me immediately to the Labor and Delivery room. Dr Kim checked me, and I was dilated a fingertip. Because my water was broken, I wasn't going to be leaving the hospital without a baby. This was around 5:30am. I waited until 6, then called Will to tell him I had been checked in and he should head back up to Seoul.

Will got there around 7:30 or so. Everything was still pretty easy, nothing too painful. The nurses and midwife said I could walk around as long as I came back to be monitored every 30min, so I took a few laps of the WICU. Around 9:30, Dr Han came in and asked if I'd be willing to start Pitocen to make my contractions stronger. Because my water had broken and we weren't sure how long my body would take to dilate naturally, she was worried I was at risk for an infection. Plus, it could possibly take several days. As I was planning to start Pitocen the next day anyway, I figured it was a good idea. They let me take one more set of laps, which Will joined me for (he had been napping on the recliner in the Labor and Delivery room), then hooked me up to all the monitors and started the Pitocen. I'd guess this was around 10am.

Contractions started getting harder and closer right away. Every 20min the nurses would come in, see how I was doing, and turn up the dosage. By the 3rd or 4th time, I wasn't very happy about it! Lizzie's heart rate dropped a few times with the first strong contractions, so they put me on oxygen for a bit. She started looking OK pretty soon, though, and I didn't need the oxygen anymore. At first I was fine with my ipod, then I couldn't concentrate on the audiobook anymore and one of the nurses helped a bit. Will got up when he saw what he could do to help (I didn't know what to ask for either, so I'm glad the nurse was there to show us!), and he was great, doing everything I asked him to do. He put pressure and heat on my back, and let me lean on him in awkward positions, and helped me relax. The midwife came in often as well, to see how I was doing, and help out. She gave Will some ideas too. When it started getting more painful, I got out of bed and sat on the exercise ball I had brought, which was much better than sitting in bed. It was frustrating, though, because the monitors were sensitive and in certain positions (most often the ones I wanted to be in), one or both of the monitors (baby heartbeat and contraction sensor) would quit working, so I had to hold them in position. I changed positions whenever I thought something else would feel better, and they let me get unhooked in order to go to the bathroom, so that was a nice change as well. Focused breathing helped quite a bit, though I never did the 'hee hee hoo' stuff you see on tv. Long 'whooshes' and moaning helped me, because I could concentrate on the sound I was making instead of the pain. Contractions came close and hard, and when the midwife checked me at 3pm, I thought I would be decently far along. I was 3cm, which wasn't bad, but not where I wished I was! I started thinking about an epidural at this point, because although we were getting through the contractions fine, I didn't know if I wanted to keep doing it through 7 more centimeters.

Ginny Lee, the midwife:

An hour later or so, Dr Han came back, and said she wanted me to stop moving around so much, and that I couldn't get off the monitors anymore to go to the bathroom. Because the baby hadn't dropped hardly at all, there was a possibility that the cord could drop below the baby, forcing a c-section. Since I was going to be stuck in bed anyway, I started leaning stronger towards an epidural. Dr Han asked if I wanted one, saying it was only going to get worse, and I talked to Will about it. He made sure I wouldn't be mad at him afterwards for letting me get one, but once I pointed out that the contractions were fake (because they were from Pitocen), and that in a normal natural birth I wouldn't even be at the hospital yet, and that since I was going to be tied to the bed anyway (one of the reasons I didn't want an epidural originally), he agreed it was probably best. I got the epidural at 5:30pm, 12hrs after I got to the hospital.

Because I had the epidural, the nurses could turn up the Pitocen so it was stronger than I could have tolerated without the pain relief. The contractions were long and strong even through the epidural. Dr Han came in to check me 2hrs later, and I was at 5cm, and Lizzie had moved down further. Until this time, I had still been doubting that my body would respond properly, and I was worried about a c-section. On my mother's side, most births seem to be from c-sections because of big babies/small birth canals, including my mom and grandmother. So, I was expecting a continuation of that. But, because I was progressing, it was a great sign, and we were all really excited. Dr Han said she would be back in 2hrs.

I could still feel the contractions through the epidural, though they were almost painless. My left leg didn't go as numb as my right leg, and I could feel some pain there, but I lay on my side for awhile and the medicine evened out a bit more. About an hour after Dr Han left, though, I started feeling more pressure and pain, and it felt like Lizzie was moving down. At this point, Lizzie's heart rate dropped a bit again, so they put me back on the oxygen. Her head felt like it was pressing against my bottom with every contraction, and it was very uncomfortable. Will came over to hold my hand. I watched the clock closely for when Dr Han was supposed to come back, and felt like I was very close to feeling the 'urge to push'. I almost asked for her to be called earlier, but kept waiting. When she arrived at 9:30pm, she was surprised, and said I was 100% - ready to push! 2hrs to go from 5cm to pushing, pretty crazy.

The nurse came in at that point to help us start pushing, and set up a mirror at the end of the bed for me to watch (at my request). She took one leg and told Will to take the other, and we started pushing! It was hard at first to focus on the muscles that needed to do the work, but the mirror helped a lot with that and when she told me to relax my legs and not push into them, I started doing better. Will counted to 10 several times during each contraction while I tried to push Lizzie along. Will said he could see the bulge of Lizzie's head move down inside my belly, and at one point could see her hair. Then she rotated to move through the tight spaces, and we had to wait awhile to see her again.

An hour into pushing, Dr Han came in to check out my progress. She felt all around Lizzie's head (not fun for me!), and said she was in a good position to come out. I got scared for a minute though, because it had hurt to have her hands in there, and her hands weren't nearly as big as a baby! For a few minutes, the room was a flurry of activity as the end of the bed was taken off, the stirrups set up, a light came down from the ceiling, and Dr Han got all her equipment ready. Pretty soon we were ready for the real thing! Dr Han sat at the end of the bed, and Will had my leg. They still had the mirror set up, but it was hard for me to see because everyone was in the way. Dr Han kept checking Lizzie's progress, and told me when I wasn't pushing enough, and at some point was able to hold her head to keep her from going backwards in between contractions. Her heart rate was still going down with every contraction, but would go back to normal in between. Dr Han thought she might have the cord around her neck. I kept pushing, and her head was almost out. It was stuck on a piece of skin that Dr Han was going to cut, but on the next push it tore itself so she didn't have to. Later, I pushed Lizzie to the point where her head was halfway out, and the contraction stopped so I couldn't push effectively anymore. It hurt pretty bad to have it just sitting there stretching me! But, I had to wait for the next contraction. When it came, I pushed, and then Dr Han said to stop pushing. I felt her unwrap the cord, and thought I would have to push again to finish getting her out, but there she was! Born at 11:05pm.

Dr Han with Lizzie:
They put her on my stomach to clean her, while Will cut the cord, but because she had the cord on her neck she was a bit blue and they had to take her over to the warmer. She cried right away though, while she was on me, so I wasn't too worried. Will went wither her, and watched them do tests, give her the standard medications, etc., while Dr Han stitched me up in two places (nothing too bad, she said). I had to wait a bit to get Lizzie back, but they finally brought her over and I got to hold her and start to feed her while the epidural wore off. We moved into the postpartum room around 5am.

In the Labor and Delivery room: