Thursday, May 10, 2012
Saturday, May 5, 2012
The Birth of Maia June Colmer
On Sunday morning, April 29th (41 weeks and 1 day pregnant) at around 6am I was laying in bed feeling a cramp. I didn't think much of it but it woke me up enough to head to the bathroom to pee. I went back to bed after and the cramp returned. I turned once or twice and then suddenly heard this faint "pop" sound. I immediately remember my sister describing her water breaking as a "pop" sound or a "vagina fart" and my first reaction was "no way"...and "really?!" I got up and touched my pajama pants and noticed they were wet. I honestly still couldn't believe it, and rushed to the toilet. As soon as I sat down a flood of water gushed into the toilet. It was around 6.15am at that time. I knew then and there that my water had indeed broken...and my first thought was..."HOLY COW..this is really happening!!" When I looked at my underwear and the color of the water I noticed it was a little yellowish and I was immediately alarmed. I looked outside and it was raining like a monsoon. I called for Brad as he was still sleeping and when I said my water broke he couldn't quite fathom it.
I think we were both waiting for so long for the day to come for me to go into labor that when it actually did happen we were taken by surprise. The night before we checked out this new restaurant blue water grill right by our house and had a nice quiet evening out. I had no signs of going into labor and I was doubtful the day would ever come. I was nervous I wasn't going to have my baby before my doctor went out of town the following week and I was scheduled to be induced the day before he left (Wednesday May 2). I had all these thoughts running through my mind of what I should do and I had met with my doula to discuss possibly doing an enema the day before induction to naturally induce labor. However, looking back now that Saturday (the day before my water broke) I had gone on a very long walk. I felt physically and emotionally drained from my pregnancy and internally knew that I couldn't go on much longer. I walked and walked until I sweated and was at a point of exhaustion. That afternoon I went to my third acupuncture treatment of the week and fell asleep as he had me laying on the tables for longer than usual. When I left I felt so tired. I went to get a pedicure next door and painted my toe nails a baby blue pink..in honor of my baby girl that was set to arrive...soon. The lady doing my nails noticed how pregnant I was and laughingly said that she has a client who's come to her twice now right before she's due and both times she went into labor after getting her nails done by her. I laughed and thought to myself.. yeah right lady I'm sure you don't have that kind of magical touch...little did I know ;)
The morning my water broke, I then immediately texted my doula stating what had happened and that I was worried about the color. She had me send her a picture and said it looked like light meconium and that I could either wait it out or head to the hospital and get checked out. I was also a bit worried because I was feeling no contractions at all. I remember when my sister's water broke (I was there) her contractions began to start within minutes of her water breaking. I was confused and getting anxious. My stomach was upset and I kept running to the bathroom and wasn't sure if it was from the food I ate at blue water grill the night before or if it was just from my being nervous knowing my labor had begun. The weather was so bad outside and we knew we had to take out lucky before we left and that he would refuse to walk, which of course he did. We finished packing our bags, I took a shower, made the bed, cleaned up, ate an english muffin and drank some OJ...and off we went. When we got to the hospital I was admitted to triage where they checked me and told me I was 2-3cm's dilated. I still wasn't feeling any contractions. I asked if my doctor was going to be here soon and they told me he was not on call and that Dr. Basard was there to cover. I wanted to cry when I heard that and said I wanted to speak with my doctor immediately and have him notified that I was in labor and at the hospital. They said they would text him and he'd be in touch. When I asked if I could leave the hospital and return when my contractions began they told me I couldn't. Once the water is broken and you get admitted to the hospital, you have to stay. Then they told me they wanted to start me on pitocin immediately because typically my labor shouldn't be over 12 hours since the time my water broke. I couldn't believe all these rules and I was getting more upset by the minute as nothing was going as I had hoped. And my doctor wasn't there, which was the most upsetting news. I was firm with them and told them that I didn't want to do pitocin and that I wanted to wait it out as long as possible to see if my contractions would start naturally. I think they could already tell that I was not going to follow their protocol so easily. The new doctor came in to introduce himself and I again said I wanted my doctor here. My doctor then called and spoke with Dr. Basard and they agreed for me to wait until 1pm for pitocin to be used. It was about 9:30 then. And my doctor would be in later on they told me. Thank god. I was then transferred into my labor room where I was able to wait it out until 1pm hoping that my contractions would start. I asked for an enema, hoping that would help get my contractions started. The enema was so weak and didn't do anything for me. At around 12pm my doctor walked into my room (Brad went home quick to bring Lucky over to our friends Ryan and Jake). He kind of gave me an earful, trying to talk sense into me that the pitocin was required since my contractions weren't coming and my water had broken and I had meconium. OK, I got it then. I had no choice and would have to take pitocin much to my dislike as I knew from others that it's very powerful and having a natural birth with no drugs is very difficult at that point. At 1pm the pitocin was given to me, and it started kicking in pretty fast. It was very manageable in the beginning. Once they got worse, I told Brad to call Michelle and have her come over. It was time for my doula to arrive to help me manage some of my pain. When she got to the hospital around 4pm, I was in pretty bad pain but it was still OK. And so for the next hours until 11pm (a total of 10 hours) I was on pitocin with no epidural. My pitocin level was at a 12 and it was so painful I thought I was going to die. The contractions were coming on fast and hard, every three minutes and lasting longer and longer - almost a minute at a time. I was getting so exhausted and I could feel my energy levels depleting. My dilation was initially progressing very nicely but then at some point between 3-5cm it took forever and I was using up a lot of energy. By 10:30pm I was 6.5cm's dilated but at the point of exhaustion. My doctor had ordered the nurse earlier on to put a contraction tracking device in my vagina to monitor my contractions probably because he wanted to know how strong my contractions were given I was on pitocin and didn't have an epidural at that point. Apparently the results showed that my contractions were strong but I still had ways to go. The nurse thought that my cervix wasn't dilating anymore because I was not relaxed enough in between the contractions. The contractions were so painful that I couldn't get my body to shut down and take breaks. I think she was right about that and it was right about then that I caved and urged for an epidural. It was just too much and I knew that if I wanted to avoid a c-section I had to start playing along with the doctors orders.
Once they gave me the epidural, I couldn't believe the difference. It was almost scary. I was trapped to the bed, had no feelings in my legs and did not feel a single contraction. I couldn't believe it. And not necessarily in a good way, I just couldn't believe how strong the epidural is that it takes away pretty much any pain you could feel during labor. OK, so the epidural took away the pain and I was able to relax. My doctor came in and said that everyone should go to sleep and rest for a while until I am fully dilated..which could take hours. My parents had arrived shortly before I was given the epidural and somehow managed to gain access into the delivery room. Strange, but I didn't care that point. They stayed until after the epidural and left around 11:30 saying they'd be back in the morning. Shortly after that my baby's heart beat dropped and so many nurses came running into the room moving me from one side to the next, changing my monitors etc. It was so scary I wanted to cry. I had no idea what was going on, felt so weak and depleted I couldn't even speak. They handed me an oxygen mask to wear which made me feel even more sick and weak. I had to wear it for most of the time since apparently without it the baby was in a little distress. When I was on the epidural the nurses were so happy because they were in total control of the situation, walking in and out of the room doing their thing, with me just laying there not being able to do a single thing. They had to adjust my position multiple times because Maia didn't like when I was laying a certain way. t think I was causing them such distress before because I refused to be on the bed, wanted to walk around and constantly disrupted the stupid monitors that were hooked to my body. It just goes to show how the medical profession has such an agenda and natural births are simply not encouraged in a hospital setting.
So, from 11pm until 4am I was resting for the most part in my bed while Brad and Michelle slept. I slept very little. I got the shakes and chills from the epidural. It was very strange but my body would not stop shaking. My paternal grandmother told me she had the same thing happen to her so maybe it's a genetic thing. But it was scary and uncomfortable and didn't allow me to rest well. Then, the IV in my arm (which had to be redone 3 times during my labor!) suddenly stopped working or fell out and the fluid was going straight into my arm. By the time I realized it my arm and hand were so swollen it was three times the size it normally is. It even freaked out the nurses and my doctor didn't seem happy about it that the nurses didn't catch this sooner. So my arm was in a lot of pain and the swelling didn't go down until two days after my labor. When the nurse came to check me the last time at around 4am she said I was 10cm dilated and about ready to push. When I started pushing around 4:30am I couldn't feel a single thing. My legs were jello and I couldn't tell or feel where my vagina was. It was my biggest nightmare come true, yup. They kept giving me instructions on how to push and it didn't do anything. Finally Dr. Basard came in and checked me and said the baby's head is still very high up and that I am not making much progress. What he was really saying is that if the baby's head doesn't drop ASAP a c-section will happen. I felt under pressure and was pissed that my doctor hadn't returned for my pushing. The nurses kept working with me and I was slowly making some progress but Maia was very uncooperative. Her head wasn't straight in my pelvis and she was completely on one side of my belly. She did not want to budge. The nurses were all saying what a stubborn little girl she was and that they were going to pinch her when she came out LOL. The pushing was very hard. I had three nurses, my doula and Brad around the table helping me in every way possible. They made me pull on a towel and do all kinds of things to help with bringing Maia's head down through the pelvis. My nurses finally turned off the epidural so I would begin to feel my legs and vagina again. It just wasn't working with the epidural. Everyone decided to take a quick break and my doula suggested I lay in a side ways position where she adjusted my legs in a way that would do the trick and bring the baby's head down. Well thanks to her it did and when Dr. Basard came back in to check he said the head dropped significantly and I'd be ready to seriously start pushing soon. My doctor finally came in after that and was going to take over. Phew. At around 6am I started pushing hard again and the epidural had worn out significantly at that point. I could feel my contractions again which I needed to in order to know when to push. It made a huge difference although the pain was excruciating. And again, after 24 hours of labor I was at my end. Since Maia wasn't positioned quite right all the pushing I did still didn't quite get her out. She was crowning but I couldn't get her completely out. My doctor said he was going to help me in every way possible but needed my help as well. He promised it would only be a few more pushes. He ended up using the vacuum to suction out her head which helped so much! He had to do a small episiotomy which was better than having me rip really badly. He did such a great job and I am so thankful to have him as my doctor. Any other doctor in South Florida would not have allowed me to be in labor for 26 hours, I would have been forced to do a c-section a while back. The nurses kept saying that he must really like me because this is not standard (which in my opinion is crazy that it isn't but again that's the medical model of birthing) My doula was also fantastic. She was a tremendous help and I am so, so, so glad I hired her for my birth.
As soon as my doctor used the vacuum, and I pushed a few more times...Maia finally arrived. I couldn't believe it when I saw her be pulled out of me. I couldn't believe that my labor after 26 hours was finally over and Maia June Colmer was born on April 30th, at 7:47AM. I was also in sooooooo much pain that I couldn't quite enjoy the moment and kept screaming for pain meds. My doctor still had to sow me up and take out my placenta. I was in such agony. The nurses were doing their thing with Maia on the table and Brad was taking pictures and got to cut the umbilical cord. Finally they brought Maia over to me and put her on my chest. I burst out in tears, I just couldn't hold it in anymore. My miracle was born, here on this earth and I was over joyed. I thought of my mom, life gone and life born, and just couldn't hold back the tears. Maia is soooo cute, she is everything and more I dreamed of. I couldn't believe when she found her way to my nipple and started nursing! She wasn't phased at all by my difficult labor and was doing great. She nursed for a good ten minutes. We bonded some more..Brad, Maia and I until they finally came to take her to the nursery. I was also relieved in a way as I was still in soooo much pain and incredibly thirsty and hungry. For 26 hours all I got was ice chips and no food. Miserable. But honestly every second of pain was worth it. The outcome outweighs any pain and misery I went through. I would do it again. Just like that if I had to (although I hope my second labor won't be this difficult), because it was so worth it. I am so in love with my little Maia. It was love at first sight.
I think we were both waiting for so long for the day to come for me to go into labor that when it actually did happen we were taken by surprise. The night before we checked out this new restaurant blue water grill right by our house and had a nice quiet evening out. I had no signs of going into labor and I was doubtful the day would ever come. I was nervous I wasn't going to have my baby before my doctor went out of town the following week and I was scheduled to be induced the day before he left (Wednesday May 2). I had all these thoughts running through my mind of what I should do and I had met with my doula to discuss possibly doing an enema the day before induction to naturally induce labor. However, looking back now that Saturday (the day before my water broke) I had gone on a very long walk. I felt physically and emotionally drained from my pregnancy and internally knew that I couldn't go on much longer. I walked and walked until I sweated and was at a point of exhaustion. That afternoon I went to my third acupuncture treatment of the week and fell asleep as he had me laying on the tables for longer than usual. When I left I felt so tired. I went to get a pedicure next door and painted my toe nails a baby blue pink..in honor of my baby girl that was set to arrive...soon. The lady doing my nails noticed how pregnant I was and laughingly said that she has a client who's come to her twice now right before she's due and both times she went into labor after getting her nails done by her. I laughed and thought to myself.. yeah right lady I'm sure you don't have that kind of magical touch...little did I know ;)
The morning my water broke, I then immediately texted my doula stating what had happened and that I was worried about the color. She had me send her a picture and said it looked like light meconium and that I could either wait it out or head to the hospital and get checked out. I was also a bit worried because I was feeling no contractions at all. I remember when my sister's water broke (I was there) her contractions began to start within minutes of her water breaking. I was confused and getting anxious. My stomach was upset and I kept running to the bathroom and wasn't sure if it was from the food I ate at blue water grill the night before or if it was just from my being nervous knowing my labor had begun. The weather was so bad outside and we knew we had to take out lucky before we left and that he would refuse to walk, which of course he did. We finished packing our bags, I took a shower, made the bed, cleaned up, ate an english muffin and drank some OJ...and off we went. When we got to the hospital I was admitted to triage where they checked me and told me I was 2-3cm's dilated. I still wasn't feeling any contractions. I asked if my doctor was going to be here soon and they told me he was not on call and that Dr. Basard was there to cover. I wanted to cry when I heard that and said I wanted to speak with my doctor immediately and have him notified that I was in labor and at the hospital. They said they would text him and he'd be in touch. When I asked if I could leave the hospital and return when my contractions began they told me I couldn't. Once the water is broken and you get admitted to the hospital, you have to stay. Then they told me they wanted to start me on pitocin immediately because typically my labor shouldn't be over 12 hours since the time my water broke. I couldn't believe all these rules and I was getting more upset by the minute as nothing was going as I had hoped. And my doctor wasn't there, which was the most upsetting news. I was firm with them and told them that I didn't want to do pitocin and that I wanted to wait it out as long as possible to see if my contractions would start naturally. I think they could already tell that I was not going to follow their protocol so easily. The new doctor came in to introduce himself and I again said I wanted my doctor here. My doctor then called and spoke with Dr. Basard and they agreed for me to wait until 1pm for pitocin to be used. It was about 9:30 then. And my doctor would be in later on they told me. Thank god. I was then transferred into my labor room where I was able to wait it out until 1pm hoping that my contractions would start. I asked for an enema, hoping that would help get my contractions started. The enema was so weak and didn't do anything for me. At around 12pm my doctor walked into my room (Brad went home quick to bring Lucky over to our friends Ryan and Jake). He kind of gave me an earful, trying to talk sense into me that the pitocin was required since my contractions weren't coming and my water had broken and I had meconium. OK, I got it then. I had no choice and would have to take pitocin much to my dislike as I knew from others that it's very powerful and having a natural birth with no drugs is very difficult at that point. At 1pm the pitocin was given to me, and it started kicking in pretty fast. It was very manageable in the beginning. Once they got worse, I told Brad to call Michelle and have her come over. It was time for my doula to arrive to help me manage some of my pain. When she got to the hospital around 4pm, I was in pretty bad pain but it was still OK. And so for the next hours until 11pm (a total of 10 hours) I was on pitocin with no epidural. My pitocin level was at a 12 and it was so painful I thought I was going to die. The contractions were coming on fast and hard, every three minutes and lasting longer and longer - almost a minute at a time. I was getting so exhausted and I could feel my energy levels depleting. My dilation was initially progressing very nicely but then at some point between 3-5cm it took forever and I was using up a lot of energy. By 10:30pm I was 6.5cm's dilated but at the point of exhaustion. My doctor had ordered the nurse earlier on to put a contraction tracking device in my vagina to monitor my contractions probably because he wanted to know how strong my contractions were given I was on pitocin and didn't have an epidural at that point. Apparently the results showed that my contractions were strong but I still had ways to go. The nurse thought that my cervix wasn't dilating anymore because I was not relaxed enough in between the contractions. The contractions were so painful that I couldn't get my body to shut down and take breaks. I think she was right about that and it was right about then that I caved and urged for an epidural. It was just too much and I knew that if I wanted to avoid a c-section I had to start playing along with the doctors orders.
Once they gave me the epidural, I couldn't believe the difference. It was almost scary. I was trapped to the bed, had no feelings in my legs and did not feel a single contraction. I couldn't believe it. And not necessarily in a good way, I just couldn't believe how strong the epidural is that it takes away pretty much any pain you could feel during labor. OK, so the epidural took away the pain and I was able to relax. My doctor came in and said that everyone should go to sleep and rest for a while until I am fully dilated..which could take hours. My parents had arrived shortly before I was given the epidural and somehow managed to gain access into the delivery room. Strange, but I didn't care that point. They stayed until after the epidural and left around 11:30 saying they'd be back in the morning. Shortly after that my baby's heart beat dropped and so many nurses came running into the room moving me from one side to the next, changing my monitors etc. It was so scary I wanted to cry. I had no idea what was going on, felt so weak and depleted I couldn't even speak. They handed me an oxygen mask to wear which made me feel even more sick and weak. I had to wear it for most of the time since apparently without it the baby was in a little distress. When I was on the epidural the nurses were so happy because they were in total control of the situation, walking in and out of the room doing their thing, with me just laying there not being able to do a single thing. They had to adjust my position multiple times because Maia didn't like when I was laying a certain way. t think I was causing them such distress before because I refused to be on the bed, wanted to walk around and constantly disrupted the stupid monitors that were hooked to my body. It just goes to show how the medical profession has such an agenda and natural births are simply not encouraged in a hospital setting.
So, from 11pm until 4am I was resting for the most part in my bed while Brad and Michelle slept. I slept very little. I got the shakes and chills from the epidural. It was very strange but my body would not stop shaking. My paternal grandmother told me she had the same thing happen to her so maybe it's a genetic thing. But it was scary and uncomfortable and didn't allow me to rest well. Then, the IV in my arm (which had to be redone 3 times during my labor!) suddenly stopped working or fell out and the fluid was going straight into my arm. By the time I realized it my arm and hand were so swollen it was three times the size it normally is. It even freaked out the nurses and my doctor didn't seem happy about it that the nurses didn't catch this sooner. So my arm was in a lot of pain and the swelling didn't go down until two days after my labor. When the nurse came to check me the last time at around 4am she said I was 10cm dilated and about ready to push. When I started pushing around 4:30am I couldn't feel a single thing. My legs were jello and I couldn't tell or feel where my vagina was. It was my biggest nightmare come true, yup. They kept giving me instructions on how to push and it didn't do anything. Finally Dr. Basard came in and checked me and said the baby's head is still very high up and that I am not making much progress. What he was really saying is that if the baby's head doesn't drop ASAP a c-section will happen. I felt under pressure and was pissed that my doctor hadn't returned for my pushing. The nurses kept working with me and I was slowly making some progress but Maia was very uncooperative. Her head wasn't straight in my pelvis and she was completely on one side of my belly. She did not want to budge. The nurses were all saying what a stubborn little girl she was and that they were going to pinch her when she came out LOL. The pushing was very hard. I had three nurses, my doula and Brad around the table helping me in every way possible. They made me pull on a towel and do all kinds of things to help with bringing Maia's head down through the pelvis. My nurses finally turned off the epidural so I would begin to feel my legs and vagina again. It just wasn't working with the epidural. Everyone decided to take a quick break and my doula suggested I lay in a side ways position where she adjusted my legs in a way that would do the trick and bring the baby's head down. Well thanks to her it did and when Dr. Basard came back in to check he said the head dropped significantly and I'd be ready to seriously start pushing soon. My doctor finally came in after that and was going to take over. Phew. At around 6am I started pushing hard again and the epidural had worn out significantly at that point. I could feel my contractions again which I needed to in order to know when to push. It made a huge difference although the pain was excruciating. And again, after 24 hours of labor I was at my end. Since Maia wasn't positioned quite right all the pushing I did still didn't quite get her out. She was crowning but I couldn't get her completely out. My doctor said he was going to help me in every way possible but needed my help as well. He promised it would only be a few more pushes. He ended up using the vacuum to suction out her head which helped so much! He had to do a small episiotomy which was better than having me rip really badly. He did such a great job and I am so thankful to have him as my doctor. Any other doctor in South Florida would not have allowed me to be in labor for 26 hours, I would have been forced to do a c-section a while back. The nurses kept saying that he must really like me because this is not standard (which in my opinion is crazy that it isn't but again that's the medical model of birthing) My doula was also fantastic. She was a tremendous help and I am so, so, so glad I hired her for my birth.
As soon as my doctor used the vacuum, and I pushed a few more times...Maia finally arrived. I couldn't believe it when I saw her be pulled out of me. I couldn't believe that my labor after 26 hours was finally over and Maia June Colmer was born on April 30th, at 7:47AM. I was also in sooooooo much pain that I couldn't quite enjoy the moment and kept screaming for pain meds. My doctor still had to sow me up and take out my placenta. I was in such agony. The nurses were doing their thing with Maia on the table and Brad was taking pictures and got to cut the umbilical cord. Finally they brought Maia over to me and put her on my chest. I burst out in tears, I just couldn't hold it in anymore. My miracle was born, here on this earth and I was over joyed. I thought of my mom, life gone and life born, and just couldn't hold back the tears. Maia is soooo cute, she is everything and more I dreamed of. I couldn't believe when she found her way to my nipple and started nursing! She wasn't phased at all by my difficult labor and was doing great. She nursed for a good ten minutes. We bonded some more..Brad, Maia and I until they finally came to take her to the nursery. I was also relieved in a way as I was still in soooo much pain and incredibly thirsty and hungry. For 26 hours all I got was ice chips and no food. Miserable. But honestly every second of pain was worth it. The outcome outweighs any pain and misery I went through. I would do it again. Just like that if I had to (although I hope my second labor won't be this difficult), because it was so worth it. I am so in love with my little Maia. It was love at first sight.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)