The Freitags: My Labor Day

This may be more of a record for myself but this is the story of how Karsen came into the world. (Be warned, it's kinda long.)

In an earlier post I wrote about my 41 week doctor appointment on June 3rd and having my membranes stripped. Well apparently it worked! After leaving the doctor's office, I started feeling some cramps but nothing too intense. As the night wore on though, things started to pick up.

Tim and I played Wii that night and still I wasn't having any real measurable amount of pain. Tim went to bed around 11 or so since he has to be at work at 5 AM everyday. I stayed in our office room on the couch because of my nagging cough that I hadn't been able to get rid of and I didn't want to keep Tim up all night with my coughing.

At about midnight or so, my contractions really started to pick up. I used the website contractionmaster.com to help me time my contractions. Some of them were very painful to the point of putting me in tears.

At about 1 AM, I went to wake Tim up because I couldn't stand it anymore and it was just too painful. He told me to call the hospital to see if they wanted me to come in. So I called and they said to go ahead and come in so that they could check me out.

After Tim took a quick shower to wake himself up a bit, we headed to the hospital and got there sometime between 1:30 and 2 AM. We were taken into the Triage area of Labor & Delivery and I got to change into one of those really fashionable hospital gowns. A Labor Nurse checked me to see if I had dilated any more than I was at my doctor appointment earlier (I was 3cm then) and unfortunately there was no change. So she told me to go walk around for about an hour. (Luckily she gave me a robe to put on since the hospital gowns don't really have a back.)

Tim and I walked around the hospital, which was very quiet since it was so early in the morning. We would have to stop every couple of minutes because of my contractions, that I wasn't able to walk through. We returned to Triage just before 3 AM and the labor nurse checked me again and still no change. So she said she was going to call the doctor on call to see what they wanted to do with me because they wouldn't admit me until I had a change in dilation.

After talking to the doctor, the labor nurse told me that they wanted me to walk around again for another hour! I really didn't want to walk anymore because I was so exhausted since I hadn't gotten any sleep so far that night, but off we went again. (We could probably give tours around the hospital now! Haha!)

We returned again just before 4 AM and again the labor nurse checked me and still no progress. So she called the doctor again to see what they wanted to do with me. They decided that they were just going to give me something to help subside the contractions enough to let me go home and get some sleep. At this point I was kinda grateful because I was so exhausted and all I wanted to do was sleep.

The labor nurse gave me a morphine cocktail shot in my thigh and sent us home. She told us that the shot should allow for me to get several hours of sleep. We got home just before 5 AM and we both went straight to bed.

At 7:30 AM I woke up to contractions again. (So much for several hours of sleep!) These contractions felt a bit different than the ones before, as I had this urge to push (although I thought I had to go number 2...) I got up and went to the bathroom and noticed that there was blood in my underwear, but didn't really think too much of it because I had gotten my cervix checked so many times in the past 12 hours. I then decided to take a warm bath to maybe help calm things down a bit.

I kept getting contractions while in the bath, but I was still so exhausted that I would start to doze off inbetween contractions. So I decided to get out of the bath and go back to bed to see if I could fall asleep again. Unfortunately I wasn't able to fall asleep and I kept getting this urge to push with every contraction (which I still thought was a feeling to go number 2).

At around 8:30 AM I got out of bed and went to the bathroom again and noticed more blood, but still didn't really think much of it. I was starting to think about waking Tim up at this point because I couldn't get these contractions to go away and then all of a sudden it felt like a water balloon had burst inbetween my legs. My water had broken! Luckily I was sitting on the toliet when it happened!

I managed to get up and grab a phone so that I could call the hospital again and I quickly got back to sit on the toliet again since amniotic fluid was continuously leaking from me. I called Labor & Delivery and they told me to come in. I then called out to Tim to wake him up.

Me: "Babe! My water just broke!"

Tim: "Are you sure?" (Rolls over and goes back to sleep.)

Me: "Tim! Seriously, my water just broke! We need to go!"

He got up and we quickly got ready to leave again. (Luckily all of our stuff was was still in the car from our earlier adventure to the hospital.)

I had originally planned on not calling anyone to let them know we were at the hospital until we were admited, since I didn't want anyone to drive all the way to the hospital just for us to be sent home. But I decided that since my water had broken, that this was definitely it and that I should at least call my mom. It was probably around 9 AM when I called her and of course she wasn't expecting to get "the" call yet and still needed to take a shower and get ready for the day. I told her not to worry, as we thought that it would be quite a few hours until the baby came out.

Tim pulled up outside the hospital just after 9 AM and I asked him to get me a wheelchair, as I was having a hard time walking since the contractions were so intense, I was sleep deprived and I was still leaking amniotic fluid. A labor nurse met us at the front counter and took us right away to a room. Yay! We were being admited! I was so relieved to not have to go to Triage again!

Right away I told the nurse that I wanted an epidural because I couldn't stand the pain anymore. (My original plan was to see how far I could go without any medication.) She started to get things ready for the epidural as I changed into another hospital gown and tried to give them a urine sample.

After I got situated in bed, the nurse had to check me for dilation before she could start the epidural process. She checked and said very surprised that I was a full 10cm dilated already! Which of course meant no epidural for me since it was too late! (I guess my body really wanted to follow my original plan of no meds!) The nurse then said that I would be having the baby in the next hour or two! This of course was sooner than we were expecting and I was a bit concerned that my mom wouldn't get there on time, as I wanted her in the room when I delivered. Tim left to go park the truck and I asked him to call my mom to tell her to hurry as things were going faster than expected.

The labor nurse called a bunch of different people to come into my room. Since my doctor was out on vacation, she called the OB on call (who was awesome!). She also had to call a respiratory specialist because from the sample I gave them when I first arrived, they were able to tell that the baby had a bowel movement inside me and they would need to clean out his throat as soon as he came out.

The nurse told me that with the next contraction, I would need to start pushing. She held one of my legs while Tim held the other as I began the pushing part of labor. With each contraction, as I would start to feel it come on, I would just say "OK" and everyone would take their positions and then I would start pushing, without making much sound.

Before I started pushing, the labor nurse tried to start an IV in my arm, but it wasn't taking, so then she tried it in my hand (I now have lovely bruises.) On the first push or so, I successfully managed to pull out the IV as I went to grab my leg. Luckily she didn't try to put it back in. (Oh and my mom got there just after I had started pushing.)

In between contractions, I would start to doze off because of the lack of sleep, which is kinda funny now that I look back on it. How can someone is pain fall asleep so easily? Don't worry though, each contraction woke me right back up!

Also in between contractions, Tim would ask me how I was doing. At some point I finally looked at him and asked him to stop asking me that. I guess if that's all I said to him he's pretty lucky as I've heard stories of some women cussing out their husbands for doing this to them.

I was asked if I wanted to reach down and feel the baby's head, and I was quick to say no. Towards the end, the labor nurse asked if I wanted a mirror to see the head coming out, which I knew from the beginning of the pregnancy that I did NOT want. Unfortunately she had already put the mirror down there and I saw, but I quickly said no and turned my head away.

On the last push was when I started to lose my self control and started crying and making sound (luckily it was the last push!) I probably had only been pushing for an hour and a half or so before Karsen came out at 11:56 AM.

As soon as he was out, the doctor cut his umbilical cord right away (Tim was kinda disappointed that he didn't get to) and he was handed over to the respiratory specialist to clear out his throat. He did cry right away though!

The doctor then started to examine me to see if I needed stitches or anything. I had one tiny little tear that she said wasn't even worth a stitch. Yay for no stitches! They did give me a shot of pitocin in my thigh though.

The labor nurse then told me that she couldn't believe how well I handled the whole thing, and she said that she had only heard about women like me, but had never witnessed it before. Apparently I handled the contractions and pushing better than most women who are on an epidural! Everyone couldn't believe that I didn't have any medication - and honestly, neither could I!

The best part was when they handed Karsen to me. I instantly started crying and Tim even was teary eyed. It really was the best day of our lives!

My mom thought we needed pictures of me in bed: