The Birth Story Part 3

We arrived at the hospital around 2:30 in the morning. Kelly was quickly ushered into a room and given her gown. She gladly took off her clothes - they were seriously annoying her every time a contraction would hit - and got on the table. The nurse came back in to do our first check and to get us hooked up to the monitors.

The nurse was pretty rough with Kelly and when she entered her to check her, Kelly tensed up a lot. The nurse wasn't really able to get a good read, but commented that not much had changed since our doctors appointment on Thursday. We were still a loose one centimeter. She hooked us up to the monitors and left.

And so began the long part of labor. It's a hurry up and wait game and the parts where you are just quiet, waiting, are really difficult. Kelly continued to have regular contractions and they continued to get more painful. Kelly's response to pain was to get very quiet and go internal. I knew this would happen and I found myself grateful for the monitors. Rather than having to ask Kelly if she was having a contraction, I was able to watch the "TOCO" number. When it started going up, I knew one was coming. I was even able to figure out at which number she would start to feel the pain. In this way, I was able to support her in silence, with a touch of my hand. A couple of times, she asked me not to touch her. I backed off, of course and let her labor.

At around 3:30 AM, they came in to tell us that the doctor on call had decided to have us checked at 4:00 AM to see if any progress was coming from the contractions or if we should go home. They said she had a "great contraction pattern". Kelly moved to the rocking chair and continued to labor there. The rocking chair was much less painful for her than laying on her back. The contractions seemed to pick up in intensity while she was sitting. The quiet laboring continued.

At 4 AM, they came to check us. Kelly was much more relaxed this time and the nurse was much more gentle. She told us that Kelly was 4 centimeters dilated and that he was very, very low. She was certain the doctor would decide to keep us. Kelly's pain was pretty high, but still tolerable. They offered her pain medication - either through the IV or an epidural, but Kelly turned them down. For now, she would continue to labor without medication.

At 6 AM, she was in lots of pain. They had, of course, admitted her and we were excited about having gone into labor on our own. In between contractions, there was a palpable tension in the air - anticipation, excited and nervousness all in one. We found out around this time that Kelly was Strep B Positive. Strangely, we had forgotten to ask the results of the test at 36 weeks and had just assumed they would tell us if it were positive. They brought in the antibiotic and started it.

At 7 AM, the shift change had occurred and our nurse came on. Cathy was a nurse that we knew well and were very comfortable with. She checked Kelly's cervix and announced that she was 7-8 centimeters dilated! We were so excited!!! We began making jokes about being able to watch Ellen at 2 PM from the extended stay unit. Kelly also asked for an epidural at this point. She did not want to go too much further and risk not being able to have one.

The anestiologist came in quickly and they asked me to leave the room. I waited in the waiting room for what felt like forever. They called me back in when the epidural was in and the waiting began again.

The relief was immediate. Kelly was immoble, but feeling much better. They put in a catheder and we continued to wait.

At around 8:30 AM, our doctor came in to check Kelly and see where we were in the process. She did her internal and decided that the nurse had been very generous by saying 8 centimeters and that Kelly was more like a very tight 7 centimeters. Dr. Riley broke her water. She told us to sit tight and that she would be back to check in a while. That was a bit disappointing, but we took it in stride.

I went out to get a cup of coffee at this point and heard Dr. Riley saying that Kelly was 6-7 centimeters to another doctor. That sucked to hear.

We continued to labor and while there was some pressure, it really wasn't that much. We rested and waited. They came in and gave her fluid. They watched the monitors. And we waited some more.

At 10:30, Kelly was checked again. She was finally 8 centimeters! The nurse had another nurse check Kelly as well, because the doctor had second-guessed her. The second nurse agreed with the 8 centimeter measurement. But this meant that we really hadn't progressed much since 7 AM. The waiting continued.

At 11:30, Kelly's mother arrived. When she walked in, Kelly and I were dosing and trying to get some rest. We had not slept the night before and were gearing up for the real hard part of labor. Things were relatively calm at this point. There wasn't much happening. Just a lot of waiting.

They checked Kelly again right before 1 PM, and while she had not dilated much more, Connor was lower (a zero station) and her cervix was completely thinned on one side. Her contractions had started to slow down, however, so they started a pitocin drip. They wanted to get her contractions back up to every 1-2 minutes and strong so that they continued to do their job.

It sucked to watch labor start ot stall out. We really wanted to do this on our own. But, the pitocin did the job. Kelly's contractions picked back up. We began to see the dip in heartrate with every contraction. This is good because it means that the head is being squeezed with every contraction which is an indicator that he's low and getting ready.

They continued to check Kelly and had her start rotating sides to thin areas of the cervix that were still thicker. He was low and she was dilated to 9 centimeters by around 3:30 PM. At 5 PM, they announced that was ready to go. The doctor came in and checked her and saw some problems with her cervix - there was a lip. She asked Kelly to push and was able to slip the lip backwards. She didn't see any reason not to start pushing.

Kelly's epidural had become mostly ineffective by now. The pressure of having Connor's head so low really caused a great deal of pain. She was back to breathing through every contraction and was exhausted and irritable. Being able to start pushing made us both very, very happy. We were ready for our baby.

(final chapter to come!)