Taylor's Birth Story

This post is most likely TMI for most people, but I want to record what happened so feel free to not read this post or if you choose to read it, consider yourself warned. :) Also, be warned, this is a LONG post (but again, I don't want to forget anything).

My boss had me block out my calendar starting October 28th. The hope was that if I went into labor early, I wouldn't have any appointments scheduled that my colleagues would have to scramble to try to cover. So I just kept saying and hoping that Taylor would wait to arrive until the 28th. Also, Bobby and I were taking the new membership class at church (Mars Hill) and the last class was on the evening of the 27th. So we were really hoping that Taylor would wait until at least the 28th to arrive.

She had other plans.

On Saturday the 26th of October, I finished my last call for work. I was still supposed to work another couple hours, but I was exhausted and had no other calls scheduled so I decided to take a nap and planned to work for a couple hours answering the remaining emails after my nap. After my nap, I went to the bathroom. When standing and pulling my pants back up in the bathroom, I suddenly felt like a water balloon had burst in my pants. My underwear was soaking wet and my pants were pretty wet, too. Since I had just gone to the bathroom, I knew it wasn't pee (plus, that would have been a TON of pee) but I didn't feel like I was having contractions (not that I knew what they felt like) so I wasn't 100% sure what was going on. I did know that I didn't want to leave the bathroom for fear of getting water (or whatever it was) everywhere. However, my mom and Bobby were not nearby. I texted Bobby - turns out his phone wasn't working, though, so he didn't get the message - and then I texted my mom. (Is it weird that I texted them from inside the house? I thought they were both upstairs and wouldn't hear me yell.) Meanwhile, JJ was with me in the bathroom and was pacing nervously. I seriously think he knew what was going on and was panicking himself because he didn't want to leave me but he wanted to go get my mom or Bobby and wasn't sure what to do. Poor dog. Anyway, eventually my mom found me, I explained what happened and we concluded my water broke even though I wasn't "in labor" yet. She went to tell Bobby I needed new pants (but he didn't realize yet what that meant) while I called the hospital, who told me that I needed to go ahead and come in. After packing a bag and changing pants again (seriously, how does one person leak that much water?!), we were off (Bobby and I in one car, and my mom behind us in her car). My water broke at approximately 3:30 and we left the house shortly after 4 pm.

Bobby and I walked into the maternity ward. The receptionist girls weren't ready for us so they called the nurse who came out and determined it would be better for me to go into a room (as opposed to rushing to the OR or something along those lines). This is when we met the wonderful Nurse Patty. My mom parked the cars while Bobby and I got situated in the room (a.k.a. I put on the wonderful gown) and started answering Nurse Patty's questions. After talking to the on-call doctor, it was determined that I would be started on petosin (to get my body into gear and try to start contractions) and they inserted a catheter-like object (I forgot what it was called) in an attempt to get me dilating at a faster speed than my body was doing on its own. Once all was set up, we all got comfortable in the hospital and waited. Sadly, Nurse Patty left at the shift change but she left us in the very capable and wonderful hands of Nurse Leah. (Sidenote: at Evergreen, while in labor, a nurse is assigned to each patient so I had my own private nurse until Taylor was born. This was amazing!)

Overnight while working with Nurse Leah, I started having back labor. It was painful! The contractions were coming every couple minutes and my lower back hurt. Per Leah's recommendation, I did find a comfortable position standing at the bed and bending over for the contractions while my mom rubbed my back. Unfortunately, "comfortable" was a loose term and it was definitely a painful night. I could only stand for 30 to 45 minutes at a time before my back and feet (which were horribly puffy) hurt from standing. During the night Nurse Leah decided to check to see how dilated I was (they didn't want to check me too often because my water already broke and they didn't want me to get an infection) and unfortunately, although the catheter-like object came out (which it wasn't supposed to do until I was dilated to at least 4), Leah determined I was still shy of a 4. This was honestly very frustrating to hear since I'd been in labor for 12 hours and, in my opinion, didn't have much to show for it. But, I wanted to go natural so I kept at it and did my best to work through the contractions with the support of Bobby and my mom.

By the time Nurse Leah left in the morning, and left us in Nurse Nancy's hands, I was in pain and was honestly ready to call it quits. We decided to wait and see what the doctor on-call said. I was in a lot of pain while waiting for Dr. Cardwell to stop by. Nurse Nancy gave me some pain medication through my IV, but it wasn't really helping. Finally Dr. Cardwell came (approximately 10 am on Sunday the 27th). I was ready to call it quits and go for a c-section, thankfully, she wasn't ready to jump the gun quite yet and instead strongly encouraged me to get an epidural. I wasn't dilated much further than when Leah had checked a few hours earlier and the doctor said that women with back labor get epidurals because of the extreme pain. It was then that I decided (after talking to Bobby - who was wonderful and supportive and encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do to be comfortable)  I didn't need to be a "hero" and it was okay for me to get an epidural.

Sidenote: I didn't want an epidural because I typically don't do well on pain meds. I tend to get nauseous and queasy and I just didn't want to feel like that when Taylor was born. The problem was I was getting nauseous from the back labor and kept feeling like I was going to throw up and I wasn't on meds yet so I finally decided that I might as well be on pain meds if I was going to feel sick to my stomach.

So the anesthesiologist was called and I got my epidural. The process was not easy. I had to sit perfectly still, which was hard to do while experiencing contractions in my back every couple minutes. Thankfully I had Bobby to lean on for support and he was great at helping me focus and work through the contractions and sitting still for the doctor. The epidural took about half an hour to take full effect and even then I was still experiencing pain in the right side of my lower back and in my lower right abdomen. The anesthesiologist asked if it was tolerable and I said it was, so he left and I tried to relax. It was recommended that I try to get some sleep (I hadn't slept since waking up from my nap at home). Unfortunately, approximately 30 minutes later, the "tolerable" pain was no longer tolerable and I was again ready to get a c-section if it mean the pain would be over (I think I have a high pain tolerance, but I was nearing the end of my rope as a result of being so exhausted and just worn out). The anesthesiologist returned to tweak the epidural. Unfortunately, 30 minutes later the pain hadn't lessened so he had to come back again and redo the epidural (which he said is a fairly common procedure). The process wasn't as painful this time (since the epidural was already working to numb the left side of my body) and went much faster. And thirty minutes later I was pain free! It was amazing!

The best part? I got to sleep! It wasn't for too long, but at least I got some sleep. The downside? The epidural worked too well. I ended up being completely numb from my toes to my chest. The nurse said the epidural should work such that you can feel you're being touched, but you can't tell whether it's a hot or cold sensation. That is, when the nurse rubbed ice on me, I should have felt her rubbing it but not felt that it was cold. I couldn't even feel it! This is fine, it meant I couldn't feel the contractions, except it also meant I wouldn't be able to push and it meant I couldn't readjust my position in the bed.

At this point Nurse Patty came back to relieve Nurse Nancy for a couple hours. Nurse Patty was determined to get Taylor to roll over (back labor means although Taylor was head down, her head was facing the wrong way and she needed to roll over for an easier delivery). So Patty wanted me to get into some "funny" positions to encourage Taylor to move. The problem was I couldn't move my lower body so my mom, Bobby, Patty, and another nurse had to move me into position. I cannot express how weird it is to have your body moving and not be in control of it. After readjusting my position again an hour later, and then again an hour later when Nurse Lisa relieved Nurse Patty, it was the hope of everyone that Taylor was finally in the correct position.

During this time I also saw Dr. Cardwell again. She came in while Nurse Nancy was still on shift and let me know that if my body did not progress (I was still at a 4 even though it was now late afternoon on Sunday) in the next couple hours, that she was recommending a c-section. She was worried about me being in labor for too much longer with my water already broken and was concerned that my body just wasn't cooperating enough for a vaginal delivery. I was so appreciative of her openness and honesty about my options. It also allowed Bobby and I to have time to talk about what we would do.

When Dr. Cardwell came back (when Nurse Lisa was on shift), I was fully expecting her to say that I was still at a 4. We were all pleasantly surprised when she said I was at about an 8! It was about time! It was about 7 pm at this time so it only took my body 24+ hours to get into gear! The doctor said she recommended we go ahead and proceed with a vaginal delivery and she asked the anesthesiologist to come back to get my numbness under control (she wanted me to have some feeling so I could push).

Nurse Lisa and everyone else in the room kept helping me change positions periodically in the hopes of ensuring Taylor was positioned correctly and to try to further my dilation progress. At approximately 9:30 Sunday night (the 27th), I started feeling like I needed to push so we decided it was time. Yay! This is when it started to become a blur. I was able to feel my waist area so I could feel myself pushing, but I wasn't positive that I knew when I was having a contraction so Nurse Lisa had to tell me. I also couldn't feel my legs so Bobby and my mom had to help me hold my legs up. Lisa wanted me to take a deep breath in and then breathe out for 10 seconds while pushing and then quickly inhale and repeat the process three more times. The problem? My lung capacity is not this big and I didn't have my inhaler (stupid me forgot it at home) so I usually breathed out for only 5 to 8 seconds instead of 10. Bobby was a wonderful support system and counted for me and kept encouraging me to breathe. This went on for about an hour or so before it was determined that Taylor was far enough along that the doctor needed to come in.

When Dr. Cardwell came in, the rest of the labor happened quickly. We were wondering if I would finish before midnight and I honestly just wanted to be done so I was hoping to be done before midnight. Seriously, at various times throughout the process I might have told the doctor to just go in and get her! Pushing through the barrier (for lack of a better term) was painful and I was having trouble pushing through. Finally, I mustered up enough breathing and strength and energy to push through the barrier and I felt such a sense of relief and I wanted to take a break but everyone was yelling at me to keep pushing and to finish so I breathed quickly and kept pushing until I heard a beautiful scream!

Nurse Lisa brought Taylor to my chest but she was no longer screaming and I didn't understand why and then Lisa took her away immediately and put her on the hot bed and the doctor asked Lisa to call the Nursery (which I knew meant something was wrong). I started crying because I didn't know what was going on and I wanted to know why Taylor wasn't crying. My mom said she was born with the cord around her neck (which I know can sometimes cause problems) so I really started to worry. I also saw Bobby who was crying (but he was crying out of pure amazement, not because he was worried - he had faith that Taylor would be okay). After what seemed like forever but was actually only a minute or so, Taylor started screaming and all the nurses said she was okay. Such a blessing!! She was born at 11:50 pm on October 27th. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Then the Dr asked Lisa and the back-up nurse to come back because there were complications with me. At this point I asked my mom to put a wet washcloth over my eyes and I sent Bobby to be with Taylor. The epidural was wearing off and I could feel the doctor trying to get my placenta out and it was painful and I just wanted the washcloth to block it all out. The anesthesiologist was called back to up my epidural and to give me another IV (just in case) and the doctor kept working on getting my placenta out. There was also a problem with my uterus being "weak" and not recovering and I was bleeding from an unknown location. In short, the Dr was busy trying to get my body "back to normal". I'm honestly not sure how long it took, I just kept squeezing my mom's hand and listening to Bobby talking to Taylor and did my best to ignore what the Dr was doing. Finally, the Dr was done, and I was able to remove the washcloth and look at my beautiful daughter. Seriously, such a blessing!

I cannot say enough about the wonderful nurses. Nurse Patty, Nurse Leah, and Nurse Lisa were phenomenal and I honestly don't think I would have had a successful vaginal delivery without Nurses Patty and Lisa helping me Sunday afternoon/evening. They were wonderful and I appreciated how determined they were to help me and to get Taylor to cooperate! I also cannot say enough about how great Dr. Cardwell was! I think we were all very lucky and very blessed to work with such great people at Evergreen hospital!

After Taylor was born, I no longer had a private nurse but I still had great nurses! I don't remember the name of my night nurses but they were wonderful and helped me get cleaned up. On Monday I had Nurse Julie and she was phenomenal! She was helpful, full of wonderful information, and was great to work with! She helped Bobby and I feel comfortable taking care of Taylor. We weren't very fond of the Monday night nurses that we had (they were older and weren't as sensitive to the fact that we were new parents) nor were we fond of the new baby class that we took before being discharged (I cannot express how uncomfortable it was to sit and listen for an hour when my butt hurt so bad!) but really, those were minor details compared to all the great and wonderful experiences we had!

Taylor did great the whole time we were in the hospital! The doctor's were all impressed and she passed all her check-ups with flying colors. She only lost 2 ounces the first day and she took to nursing like a champ (she nursed for 30+ minutes the first time). We were discharged without a problem late Tuesday morning (after Bobby got done at work). She was not a fan of her carseat (she stopped breathing) but nurse Jenny got Taylor to start breathing again (by blowing in her face and swinging the carseat) and offered some helpful words of advice while walking me out.

Although the labor was a long and painful process, I am so thankful and blessed and in awe of what happened! I can't believe we have a daughter! I can't believe how beautiful she is! And how in love with her we are! And how lucky I am to get to raise her with Bobby, who is already an amazingly wonderful father!