Nitty Gritty

In case you missed my other note, this is the looooooong version of my labor and delivery story, including all the nitty gritty details. If you would prefer the short and sweet rendition, read the post above this instead.

The plan: We had a c-section scheduled for noon on Tuesday, because the baby was transverse. My doctor wanted to try another version to get him to turn around. If the version worked and he flipped, we would induce. If it didn't work, we would proceed with the already planned c-section.

I have to admit, by the time we actually got to the hospital on Tuesday, I had basically decided that I didn't want them to do the version. I had absolutely no confidence that it would work, based on everything else we had tried previously, as well as the complete and utter failure of the first version. My stomach had been massively bruised during that first attempt, and I didn't relish the idea of adding that to the normal postpartum recovery. I also knew that I was only barely dilated to a one and not effaced at all, meaning my body was not at all prepared to go into labor on its own. That did not bode well for an induction--chances were very good that an induction would take a very long time. I wasn't so keen on that idea, either. When it came right down to it, I mostly just wanted the c-section and call it done.

So much for my opinions.

Once I was checked in and settled into my room in labor and delivery, the nurse whipped out the ultrasound machine. SURPRISE!! The baby was already turned head down, no version necessary. New options, 1st Edition: induce labor, or go home and wait to go into labor naturally. The c-section was no longer on the table because there was no medical reason for surgery.

Please, please, please don't send me home.

They started the pitocin drip, and within about twenty minutes contractions started. Things were going pretty well--contractions got up to 1-2 minutes apart, each lasting 30-45 seconds. Decent, right? I had a lot more back pain than I expected, which probably meant I had some back labor going from whatever position Ben was in. I was still feeling pretty good overall though, so I didn't get an epidural yet. Good thing, too. After three and a half hours of laboring, all contractions stopped. Completely.

Ugh. As I had anticipated, my body was not really ready to go into labor at all. Because the baby's head wasn't down in the last few weeks, there was no pressure to move things along. Because of that, my body wasn't really responding much to the pitocin. After almost four hours of contractions, I was in exactly the same position--dilated to a one, only 40% effaced.

New options, 2nd Edition: Go home and wait to go into labor naturally. Try a different medication designed to thin out the cervix, in hopes that it would progress things to the point where the baby would move down more and my body would hopefully respond better to the pit drip.

Insert emotional breakdown here. I wasn't mentally prepared to handle hours and hours of labor when I had geared myself up for a c-section. And the mere thought of going home after all that? Especially considering that if I didn't go into labor on my own, my induction date would be the next Tuesday, August 2. Pregnant for another week?? Just kill me now.

We opted to try the other medication. We knew going in that each dose took three hours, and we likely wouldn't see any results at all from the first dose. My mom went home and Chris and I then settled in for the night, mentally preparing for the idea that we would be going home baby-less early in the morning and waiting another week.

The first dose didn't do anything. I wasn't having any contractions, nothing was progressing. Second dose, there were a few contractions. The nurse tried to check me, but wasn't quite able to tell for sure. I was farther than a one, but she didn't know how much. Third dose, I had some major contractions that were seriously hurting my back. Not fun, but at least enough to suggest that the medicine was working and there was hope yet that the induction would take.

At this point, it was 3:30 in the morning. The nurse came in again to check me in order to determine if we would do a fourth dose or start pitocin. Ummm...that check didn't go well, either. Instead of feeling the baby's head, the nurse's hand got kicked. SURPRISE!! He had flipped back to breech.

Are you kidding me?!?!

New options, 3rd Edition: Do another version, turn him back around, continue the induction. Do a c-section because he's breech. Go home and see if he turns himself again, then I go into labor naturally or come back in a week and play this same game all over again.

C-section. Just get this dang kid out already before he opens his own gymnastics company.

It became the running joke between Chris and I that it didn't matter at all what we wanted or picked, it wasn't going to happen. Even if we picked a c-section, something would come up. That had become the well-established pattern. My mom came back just in time to bid us farewell as we went into the operating room.

Once we were in and getting prepped, my doctor promptly left to deliver someone else's baby.

Sigh.

No worries, though! She finally came back, and we f-i-n-a-l-l-y got to have the baby. He was born at 7:07 am on 7-27-2011. Cool play on numbers, I think. Maybe that's what he was planning all along...

Here is the first thing I saw of our new Benjamin Ryan:


And here is what I did as soon as they took him back to wash up:


Yes, I fell asleep on the operating table while they were stitching me up. What can I say? It had been a rather stressful and exhausting 21 hours, during only five or six of which can we say that I might actually have been in labor.

We made it back to the labor and delivery room, where we hung out for an hour or so. We had been in that room so long that we had gone through quite a few nurses.


We were also the talk of the floor, with none of the medical personnel having seen a baby do a complete 360 in less than 24 hours, breech to vertex to breech.

But look! We had a baby!


And that's the story. Future posts to look forward to: Jane and Megan visiting Ben in the hospital. Ben going home...on Saturday.