Lauren's Birth Story

Since it's almost Lauren's 1st birthday, I guess it's time I post her birth story.

Throughout my pregnancy, I'd been having trouble with my blood pressure, so I'd been seeing the doctor every week since my 5th month. I'd had multiple non-stress tests, but the doctor wanted to be cautious and monitor me every week. During my 34th week, the doctor put me on blood pressure medication.

I went to my regulary scheduled doctor's appointment the morning of Friday, January 20, when I was 36 weeks. My blood pressure was higher than usual, so the doctor was a bit concerned. She went ahead and did another non-stress test, hoping that my blood pressure would go down while I was relaxing. It didn't, so she thought it was best that we induce labor right away. Donald and I decided that it was probably the best thing to do, so I was wheeled right from the Dr's office to the hospital.

Once I arrived in delivery and was admitted, the nurses began to prep me for induction. A nurse gave me an enema (why, oh why don't they tell you these things beforehand?), and started my IV and hooked up the fetal monitoring belt. The monitoring showed that I was actually having steady contractions, about 3 minutes apart. What I had thought was just back pain was actually the beginning of labor! At exactly 12:00 noon, the pitocin drip was started.

The pitocin didn't immediately help get the contractions going. I was still having weak, steady contractions, but I wasn't dialating much. When I was admitted at 10:00 AM, I was at 2 cm., and at 3:00 PM I was only 3.5 cm. Around 4:00, a nurse asked me if I wanted to get an epidural, and I decided that I wanted to wait until I was dialated more so I could get to experience real labor a little.

My contractions began to get more intense, and I opted for the epidural around 5:00 PM. It took the Dr. three tries to get the catheter in the right space, and it was not pleasant! They made Donald leave the room during this time, too, so I had no support there. After the epidural was placed, a nurse put in a foley catheder. The epidural provided almost instant relief from the pain of the contractions.

At 6:00, the Dr. decided that my water should be broken to help speed up labor. Donald says this was gross, but I didn't get to see much since my belly was so big! It was a quick and easy procedure and I didn't feel a thing. After my water was broken, they also inserted an internal fetal monitor.

By 7:00, I was dilated to 5 cm. The nurses were not impressed, and my pitocin level was increased to the maximum dosage. They told me that if the pitocin would not work, I would need a c-section.

In the next hour, baby's heart rate began to have decelerations during contractions. The nurses had me try a bunch of different positions, and finally we settled on me lying on my right side. The decelerations subsided somewhat, but the nurses still seemed concerned and had me wear the oxygen mask.

Because I was stuck on my right side, the epidural wore off on my left side. The Dr. gave me a bolus to try to help my left side, but it didn't work. For the rest of my labor, I experienced near full pain on my left side.

Around 10:30 PM, the pain was really starting to get to me. My contractions had picked up, and I was 8.5 cm. dilated. Around this time I told the nurse that I was ready to start pushing, and she checked me one more time and found that I was 9 cm. She told me that there was a bit of a cervical lip left, and that I could try to push over it if I wanted to. I began pushing at 11:00 PM.

Pushing helped relieve the pain from the contractions, but it took me a few tries before I got the art of pushing down pat. After about a half hour of pushing, I was getting frustrated because I couldn't see any progress. A nurse brought in a mirror, and this helped so much! It was so awesome to see the baby's head come down with each push. After just a few pushes with the mirror, I was ready to deliver.

The nurses called in the Dr. and the pediatric team, but it took them about 10 minutes to get ready. During this time I wasn't allowed to push, and that was very hard! Once the Dr. was ready, it only took me two more pushes to deliver baby Lauren.

Baby Lauren Elizabeth was born at exactly 12:00 midnight on Saturday, January 21, 2006. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.