Labor Story

Ok so I know I technically started to labor last Wednesday, or maybe even earlier but this takes off after part 3 of my adventure, after my water sac was broken.

Sean got to the hospital very quickly. Neither of us really knew what to expect. I was thinking things might progress really quickly based on how the doctor was reacting, but again it's hard to know for sure.


I needed Sean to distract me so I had him get on the computer and find jokes to tell me. He found a few, and they were all awful. We both agreed, whatever website he was on, had super crummy jokes. Finally I told him I was sick of jokes and I just wanted to listen to music.


The next few hours went by slowly. I was uncomfortable but not any more than I had been. The nurses and everyone were surprised that I was almost fully dilated and just laying there essentially painless. Ok I wasn't pain free, but relatively speaking I felt ok, probably at a 6 on a scale of 1-10.


We played the waiting game, waiting for my cervix to dilate to 10. They wanted to keep the monitors on me so they didn't let me get out of bed. When I had to pee they gave me the bed pan.


Everything seemed to be progressing slowly. They told me to let them know if I had an urge to push and I could start pushing. I had no urge. I was uncomfortable and kept asking the nurse if I could stand, she wouldn't let me. She was worried about keeping the monitors on me to track contractions and the baby. I was able to get on all 4's for a change of position. I knew the worse place to be during labor was flat on your back, and that's how I was laying.

I tried moving around in bed for awhile, but NOTHING was comfortable. Eventually we decided to start trying to push during contractions. I think this was around 5:30. The nurse held one foot and had Sean hold the other foot. She told me to pull back on my thighs and push down on contractions. I was told to hold my breath and push for 10 seconds at a time, and I had to do 3 sets in a row.

I did the pushing reps for awhile and while it was painful it wasn't necessarily more painful than before. I thought I was making progress but it seemed like there was still some barrier on my cervix. They weren't sure if it was skin or a barrier that would eventually go away.

During the pushing the nurse basically had her entire hand inside of me. I guess she was trying to stretch me out. The doctor had told me about a Pudendal Block before and I decided to get this. It is a type of pain relief that is frequently used just before delivery. A numbing medicine is injected through the vaginal walls to decrease the pain during the birth of your baby. It numbs more area than the local. You will still be able to feel your contractions and this anesthesia does not affect your baby. To get the Pudendal Block the doctor had to put this tool inside me. It was the most pain I had felt so far. Not sure if the pain was associated with the pressure of having something inside me or the actual injection, but I was hurting.

Not soon after my body felt a lot better. I think the Pudendal Block really worked to numb me down a little. So now on every contraction I was told to hold my breath and push for 10 seconds. I would do 3 reps of these and than take a break. Sometimes contractions were really close together so I didn't get a long break.

I'm not sure what I was really expecting, I really went in with unrealistic expectations that childbirth would be fairly easy, but I thought 3 or 4 pushes and the baby would be here. After pushing for almost an hour I casually asked the nurse how long this normally took. She said oh sometimes it can take a few hours, but I really don't think that'll be the case for you. I was really started to freak out, I didn't think I could handle pushing for 2 hours! Luckily she didn't think this would be the case for me.

Unfortunately she was wrong! I pushed for over 2 hours, and you know what, that stubborn baby barely moved at all. And you couldn't argue that I wasn't pushing hard, because everytime I pressed down to push I peed like I haven't peed in weeks. My bladder was finally giving me relief and empting. You would have thought I would have been embarrassed, but you sort of lose your dignity during childbirth when you have your legs spread open. Plus it was pretty humorous, because it was literally with every push that there was a constant stream of urine. Luckily no pooping. I've always heard that pooping happens during childbirth so I was glad I didn't do that.

While I was pushing the doctor would come in and out. He was working with another woman laboring at the same time. Therefore the nurse was really the one that was working with me. I was getting exhausted and Sean was doing awesome sticking with me and reminding me to breath and to breath slowly. They ended up giving me a little oxygen mask just so I didn't have to work so hard. Not sure if it really helped, but the mask was annoying.

I was sweating ridiculously, laboring makes you hot, plus the bright spotlight doesn't help either. They kept turning the temperature in the room down, but it didn't seem to help. Cold wash clothes on the forward felt nice but only for about 30 seconds before my body warmed them up.

I had to take a break from pushing after a few hours because I was exhausted. I couldn't push anymore. I just wanted the baby out and I didn't care how it got out at this point. Childbirth was not turning out to be as easy as I had hoped.

Considering the baby hadn't moved very far was concerning to me. Was this ever going to end. It turns out Baby Murphy was posterior, sunny side-up, face up. Whatever you want to call it, the baby was facing the wrong way making the head harder to get out, and being the reason for my back labor these last few weeks.

By this time I was in incredible pain. My entire body hurt worse than I could ever imagine. I was contracting every few minutes and it was the worse pain in the world. At least a 12 on a scale of 1-10. The pudendal block had worn off and I think that's why the pain felt even worse. At this point I was literally thrashing on the bed, holding on to the railing and in tears. I didn't think I would ever have this baby.

Around 8:15-8:30 I asked if it was too late to get an epidural. Luckily it wasn't too late. They called the anesthesiologist and it seemed like it took forever for him to come up.

While we waited for the anesthesiologist to come they decided to put a heart rate monitor on the baby's head, instead of the monitor belt on my abdomen. The nurse did this by sticking her hands inside me, again this was painful, but just because it's not a pleasant feeling having someone stick their hands inside you. They were better able to keep tabs on the baby this way. The doctor also gave me another pudendal block. This one was even more painful than the first. They also decided to give me an injection of brethine to help reduce the strength of the contractions until I could get the epidural.

It was probably about 8:45 when he got to the room. I wasn't really sure what to expect with the epidural since I hadn't really done any research on it. I was pretty certain I was going to go med-free. I kind of thought an epidural was just a shot in the back of your spine.

Apparently it's a 15-20 minute sterile procedure where you have to lean forward and hold perfectly still since there are risks involved when they are putting stuff in your back. The only risk I heard was possible paralysis and that freaked me out enough to sit still. The pudendal block and brethine must have worked because I was able to sit forward perfectly still and was able to breathe through the contractions.

Getting the epidural wasn't painful in the least, especially compared to the pain I was going through before. It sort of felt like little bee stings up and down your back. After doing the epidural they insert a catheter so it doesn't "run out" of meds. They can continuously provide the medicine this way.

I thought the pain would go away completely with the epidural. Again I was unrealistic about this entire laboring experience. I still felt the contractions and said it's not working I can still feel it. Everyone in the room knew it was working because I wasn't thrashing around like a crazy woman anymore and I could concentrate on my breathing and was able to start pushing again.

The doctor tried to turn the baby with his hands, all I can say is OUCH! There is nothing comfortable about this at all. At this point the doctor mentioned the use of forceps. The baby wasn't coming on it's own. The forceps would help guide the baby through the birth canal. They looked like big salad tongs and inserted one side at a time around the baby's head. The baby still wouldn't really budge but he was able to turn the baby with the forceps so that the baby was now the correct way in the birth canal.

It was now close to 9:30, I had been actively laboring for 7 hours. I was exhausted. The baby's heart rate started to decrease a little. Not enough for them to be super concerned, but enough that they knew the stress of my labor was having an impact on my child. It was then that the doctor said we have a few more pushes otherwise we would have to do a c-section. He than stated, I don't want to do a c-section on a 4 lb baby.

Even though at this point I probably would have been fine with a c-section, that's how much I wanted this baby out, I knew I really didn't want a c-section so I pushed harder than I pushed before and since the baby was now facing the correct direction I started making progress. The baby started moving and even Sean could see the head. He kept me positive and kept me continuing to breath.

The more I pushed the more progress I made. They could see that the baby had a full head of hair and than the baby started to crown. I asked if they could see the head and the doctor told me to look down and feel, and I could feel my baby's head. It was crazy!

A few more pushes and the baby really started to move. I was making progress and this helped with the pushing, because I knew I could do it now.

Finally I pushed once more and out came the head and the rest of the body. It's a boy, we have a son, Kieran Riley, we're parents. Labor had been so hard and it seemed surreal. The doctor handed Sean scissors and told him to cut the umbilical cord. Originally Sean had said he had no desire to do this, but he wasn't really given a choice. I think he's glad he did it though.

Shortly after the placenta came out. I had heard that the placenta usually hurts, but the epidural must have been working because I didn't feel anymore contractions and the placenta came out with no problem at all. It was pretty gross looking.

The doctor than looked to see about any tearing and any stitching I may need. I was more than pleased to hear that I had no tearing and didn't need any stitching. At least one thing during labor turned out well.

Immediately after delivering Kieran my stomach was no longer huge and tight. My skin relaxed and it was crazy how it felt. I was also STARVING! I hadn't eaten much these past two weeks, and especially that day I had only eaten half a slice of peanut butter toast and a yogurt.

I had sherbert in the freezer in our room. I ate 6 cups in about 10 minutes, and than the nurse brought me a bag lunch. I had a turkey sandwich, Lorna Doones cookies, and an apple. This food helped me feel better since I was slightly light headed.

The doctor came back in a little while later and explained to me that as an athlete delivery a baby should be easy but unfortunately my vaginal muscules were fighting against me and when I was pushing the muscles were pushing back. He told me body builders are the worse deliverers. Luckily I wasn't a deliverer, but I was in shape and I struggled to deliver a 4 lb 13 oz baby, what would have happened if he was full term? Luckily the epidural helped to relax all of my muscles including the vaginal muscles, but we'll really have to think in the future about what we'll need to do if we want to have a future child. Maybe we'll adopt, childbirth is tough.

Oh and if I learned anything from this experience it's that I love and appreciate my mother more than anything. Love you mom, thanks for bringing me into this world!