The birth - part 2

Ok, where was I... Dilated to a 6 and discovering I was in labor, right.

So, even though I wasn't really feeling that much pain I thought that I should probably request an epidural because it might get worse. Looking back that was probably the best decision I made that night.

I was so happy to find that I had really good staff helping me, the iv was put in quickly and the epidural was very tolerable.

Unfortunately, due to the epidural and/or who knows why my labor totally stalled out and I was stuck at 6 cm until 2 a.m. when the doctor finally came in and broke my water. I think the idea was for me to get some sleep and really relax before I needed to push, but the epidural and I started having a love/hate relationship that made it hard for me to calm down. Not feeling contractions - good, not feeling my legs, like at all - bad. And frustrating. I also started shaking really hard which was impossible to control and kinda embarrassing for me every time the nurses came in.

Oh and get this, they had to give me medicine for what? Heartburn. Yeah, I know. It haunts me.

So when the doc came in and broke my water I was happy to get this labor going again and meet my baby! And get my labor going it did. Unfortunately, it also got something weird going on with Logan. It seems like baby's heartbeats are always fluctuating during labor, so when the nurse said that something like that was going on with him, I didn't get that nervous. She had me change positions several times to try and get his heart beat back to normal and then strapped an oxygen mask to my face so that he would at least get a higher concentration of it in his blood.

A bit before 4 am the doctor came back and checked me. 9.5 cm, yay! However, the baby's heartbeat was making him nervous, especially because he couldn't tell why it was going down so much. He watched the printout of my contractions and Logan's heartbeat for a long time without really saying anything. Finally he said the words I had been dreading, "I think we should do a c-section."

Crap.

A c-section was my worst fear. Especially after laboring for so long I was not excited to give it all up for a c-section.

Very quickly, people started coming in a getting ready for me to go into surgery. The anesthesiologist filled a syringe with drugs, someone brought clothes for Tyson to change into, and reports that they were holding the o.r. for us came in.

But the doctor still wasn't sure.

He said that all signs were saying that my baby was totally healthy except for this heartbeat problem. He really didn't want to do a c-section for a healthy baby.

Finally, after a few more minutes of agonizing deliberation that involved everyone but me, the doctor said that he would check me again. If I was at a 10 I would push, if I was a 9.5 we'd go in for a cesarean.

I was at a 10.

Game on.

Now, here's where my perception of things varies from reality mainly because I couldn't see what was going on.

My point of view:

The nurse and the doc quickly explained how I was supposed to push and on their mark I went for it. I was sure to glance at the clock so I would know how long I was pushing.

It was about 4:10

I pushed like my eyeballs were going to explode and prayed that I was making progress since I couldn't feel a darn thing. I could hear the doctor mumbling something about being transverse and the nurse asking him if he wanted forceps. He said no, thank goodness! Everyone, and by everyone I mean the doc, the nurse, Tyson, my mom, and the whole O.R. team, was cheering me on so I kept at it.

At some point during the pushing phase I heard a LOUD sucking sound and I glanced up to see the doctor jerking back with a surprised look on his face and blood spraying across the room.

I couldn't dwell on that though because the pushing must go on!

At 4:21 everyone shouted "stop!" so I did and a few seconds later Logan was out and being laid across my chest.

What really happened:

As I was pushing and the doctor was mumbling about being transverse, he was using both hands to try and turn the baby from inside me. Apparently we were in a rush and I basically had once chance to prove I could push this baby out, or else it was c-section for us. I pushed well, so we kept with it.

That loud sucking sound I heard? The doctor had been using a vacuum to help get Logan out faster and he was attempting to avoid an episiotomy. Because of the restricted space he didn't get a good grip on his head and the vacuum lost suction right as the doctor was pulling really hard.

Yeah, that epidural decision? A good one.

Two seconds later he snipped an episiotomy and was assisting the birth again. Logan's head came out so fast I tore some more and everyone was shouting stop so they could unwrap the cord that was all around him.

And then I had him wriggling on my chest.

I left the hospital with a 3rd degree tear which one of the nurses jokingly called a vaginal c-section (sorry to use the v-word) which has been a beast to heal from but Logan has been an angel which has made everything easier.

We are healthy and happy and don't ever want grandma to leave or Tyson to go back to work!