Labor Story: Short Form
5:30 am – Water broke
8:00 am – Arrive at hospital dilated to a 1cm still from week 37
11:00 am – After 3 hours of walking I progressed to a 2cm
12:30 pm – Pitocin drip was started
1:00 pm – 2 1/2 cm
3:30 pm – 4 cm
4:30 pm – 5 cm
5:15 pm – 7 cm
5:45 pm – 8 cm
5:55 pm – 8 1/2 cm (I caved to a 1/2 dose of Nembutal intravenously)
6:30 pm – 9cm
6:45 pm – 9 1/2 cm
7:04pm – Crowning and into pushing stage
7:05pm – Born
Labor Story: Long Form
My water broke at 5:30am after me having dreams of me peeing the bed. I woke up and hit Aaron in the back and said, “I either just pissed the bed or my water broke.” So he got up for me to go to the bathroom and I couldn’t stop the flow, so we started grabbing the last minute items that couldn’t be packed, cleaning up the house some, and then waited for Rian to wake up. We took her to school, got Aaron some breakfast at Jack in the Box, and headed to the hospital where we got the heartbreaking news that after about 3 hours of contractions 2 minutes apart I was still dilated at a 1cm. After doing their amnio testing to make sure I was ruptured I made it perfectly clear to my nurse that I wanted to avoid the pitocin drip if at all possible. My doctor was there for morning rounds and came in to say hello and wish me luck and that he would see me later.
After walking non-stop (except for a few bathroom breaks) outside the OB wing we headed back to get checked and got another dose of bad news, I was only dilated to a 2. At that moment I knew they weren’t going to let me labor naturally and that I’d be stuck in bed laboring. I wanted to die because I was so afraid I’d cave to a bunch of drugs because I have heard so many horror stories about pitocin. They gave me the benefit of the doubt after speaking with my doctor and all of them knowing my wishes and gave me another hour to walk, I do so, and do so fast, singing to Ava, praying to God, and giving my cervix the best pep talk of its life…after another hour I had progressed another 1/2 cm, at 30 minutes past noon they started that horrible drip.
Over the course of the hours I began to hate my nurse coming into my room because I knew she was going to up the dosage of that damn drip and each time she did I got more uncomfortable and in more pain. Finally at 8cm I could not handle it and caved to a half dose of Nembutal, I cried for feeling weak and apologized to Aaron and Ava for my weakness, little do I know at the time the worst had yet to pass.
At 9 1/2cm I had the urge to push and was told not to because it would cause me to swell as I was not completely dilated. So for the worst 15 minutes of my life I tried to breathe through it and did so successfully with the amazing help of Aaron, my Mom, Aaron’s Mom, and our wonderful labor nurse. Once I heard she was crowning I was overwhelmed by the fact that I had been in labor since 5:30am, hadn’t eaten since 6, and was physically and emotionally drained. With Aaron at one leg, a nurse at my other, Aaron’s Mom videotaping and my Mom ready with the still camera I began to push. I heard for what seemed like forever “Her head is right there. Push with all your might, her head is just sitting there. She has so much hair, just push!” I knew half her head was birthed and for the life of me I could not push the rest of it out to get it over with. So I mustered what I thougth was my last bit of energy and pushed with all my heart and her head was birthed. I immediately knew something was wrong because I still had the urge to push and the rest of her body was still inside. I hear, “She is stuck.” At that point 2 other nurses come rushing into the room and each take one foot and jam my legs into my chest. I then hear, “Meagan you have to push as hard as you can and do it now.” After two contractions and 5 failed pushes I hear Aaron yell, “Baby, you gotta push, you can do it I love you.” The fear I heard in his voice made me gasp for one last breath and I pushed with every ounce of my being to stop that fear and at 7:05pm, weighing 9lbs 14oz, and measuring 21inches long Ava Dean Isaak was born.
She was not born screaming as most infants are; she was in distress, Aaron didn’t even get a chance to cut the cord because they immediately placed her in the incubator and 3 of the 4 nurses began working on her. I could see her entire blue body just trembling and I started screaming, “What’s wrong with my baby? Why isn’t she crying? Aaron she isn’t crying, do something” After what seemed like an eternity I hear a tiny whimper and someone says, “She is crying now, she is okay” Her cord was wrapped around her neck, she got stuck at the shoulders, was given a bruised face, and had to have oxygen for a few minutes after birth but is otherwise a healthy newborn.
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