The Sprayberries

Cayden Hoyt Henry Sprayberry's Arrival

[jordanna]

** Warning: these are the down and dirty birth details, which may not interest you at all **

Some of you may recall my post that we would be induced on Thursday night if we didn't go into labor naturally, as we were getting farther past our due date, which tends to make doctors nervous. It is standard procedure to go in for a 'Non Stress Test' (NST) twice a week after your due date to keep an eye on the kid. I stopped by the hospital Tuesday afternoon for one of these on my way home from work. My plan was to go from there to an acupuncture clinic, and have them load me up with baby bringing needles. This was not to be. I thought that there might be something wrong when the nurse running my NST said the baby looked fine, and she was paging our doctor. Now, last time I had this test and the baby looked fine they let us go home and just filed a report with our doctor.

I could hear her on the phone with Barbara, the best doctor ever, telling her that they saw all the technically good things on the NST, but they were also getting a couple minor red flags and did Barbara want to look at the trace herself. She happened to be on shift in the hospital that day instead of in our clinic. Five minutes later Barbara was at my bed telling me that she was bringing someone in to measure the level of amniotic fluid. We had this test done a couple weeks ago, because my belly was consistently measuring short. they found that we had a good amount of fluid ('9' random units) and sent us home. On Tuesday we measured in at 5.8. At a level of 5 or less they will automatically induce labor. Our doctor's opinion was that my body wouldn't really be any more ready for labor in two days, and that 5.8 was within range of error of measurement. She was willing to send us home, but she recommended that we check in that night and be induced. I called Ty at home and told him what was going on and he agreed with Barbara and said he would be there soon. We were settled and checked in around 8:30 and they started me on a prostoglandin gel treatment. I had to stay in bed for an hour after that, and since the contractions weren't so strong yet we decided to catch some sleep. They put me back on a fetal monitor at midnight to see if we were ready for another gel treatment, but I was contracting too frequently (every 3 minutes). Contractions had to be at least 10 minutes apart for them to do another treatment. We got out of bed and walked around for an hour, which made the contractions come stronger. At 1 we decided to try and catch a little more sleep. The nurse was supposed to come back at 2 and put me on the monitor again, but they got very busy and we didn't see anyone until 5, at which point we were passed off to a different nurse, Tracey. Tracey used to be a doula and was wonderful. She determined that my contractions had become very sporadic and started us on another gel around 5:45. At 7 we got out of bed and headed off for a walk. It was a really beautiful morning and we meandered around the patios and gardens, stopping to rest when contractions hit (which were coming in 2-4 minute intervals). After around an hour of walking we headed back up to the room. The walking definitely made the contractions stronger, but it also caused each contraction to charlie-horse my right hamstring so I was ready for a rest. When we got back, the nurses had changed shifts and Tracey had gone home (wishing us well before she left and saying she hoped not to see us that night). I got back in bed and we waited for our 4 hour gel treatment window to finish up. At 11 our doctor came in to talk options. The contractions were petering out again, and she wanted to know if we wanted to try Pitosin or another gel before moving to Pitocin. We opted to get on the pitocin, as that is the hormone that directly causes the uterus to contract. The contractions had been painful and strong for several hours but I had only dilated from 1 cm to 2.5 cm.

We decided to take a walk and get lunch before starting the pitocin drip, because I would have to stay in bed once we did that. This turned out to be a poor idea for several reasons. First, the contractions were now painful enough that I really couldn't handle being around people. Everyone kept asking if I needed help or a wheelchair when I stopped to streatch my hamstring during a contraction and it was all I could do not to snap at them. Plus, during our hour out, the delivery room got slammed. By the time we got back, they didn't have enough nurses to assign us one and we couldn't start the pitocin. By 3:00 I was 3.5 cm dilated and they were ready to start us off. They hooked up the I.V. and withing 10 minutes my contractions were regular and less painful. They felt much more coordinated, more like a strong tensing then general cramping. By 5 they were quite painful again, but still relatively easy to manage. At that point they told us we had dilated to 4 cm. They called our doctor and updated her. By 7 things were getting pretty gnarly. We had turned off movies and TV and Ty was talking me through each contraction. My sister arrived at 8, having landed at the Tucson airport at 7:35 and being driven to the hopsital by our good friend David. Around 8:30 I thought I could feel some fluid leaking and by 9 we were certain my water had broken.

Interestingly, me breaking and my water breaking more or less coincided. By 9:30, my ability to relax through the contractions was more or less shot. I started yelling obscenities during every one and couldn't seem to find a position to get comfortable or make the contractions bearable. I feel bad for everyone else in the room at this point. I have few coherent memories of this stage, but most of them center around me telling people to shut up or stop touching me. At 10 they checked me and said I was 5 cm dilated. I had been mentally prepared for 36 hours of labor. At that level of pain, I really thought I could only handle another 2 hours. My doctor started talking to me about an epidural. She knew I didn't want one, but at our birth plan meeting she said that her only request was I not back myself into a corner during labor and keep my mind open about one. My main fear of an epidural at this point was that it would extend labor and I wouldn't be able to push well when the time came. Barbara also mentioned that they could give me morhpine. She said that as long as it wasn't administered within 30 minutes of delivery (and promptly assured me I was NOT delivering in the next half hour), my body would clear the drug and the boy would come out clean as a whistle. She said it wouldn't remove the pain, but it would help me relax. Now, in all the labor pain management I read, nobody mentioned that the narcotic used was morphine. I LOVE morhpine. I typically hate the feeling of chemically altered state. It is why I rarely drink to excess, I am rarely in the mood to feel like that. I have had morhpine twice before, and been thoroughly grateful each time. Ty sent everyone out of the room as asked if I really wanted to go with the morhpine. I had told him to check in with me if I asked for drugs. I asked if he was okay with it, and he said that since it wouldn't hurt the baby and I wanted it, he was fine. Five? ten? minutes later they injected the morhpine and it took hold. Then commenced one of the strangest 90 minute periods in my life. Ty would ask how I was doing as I lay propped up with my eyes closed. I would quietly murmur, "I have never been in this much pain in my life. " The edge had been taken off,and I was in a very zen-like pain trance. I had hoped to hit that point with mind power alone, but not so much. I could feel the contractions in my toes and it started to feel like they wouldn't end so much as vaguely oscillate in strength. Turns out that they jacked the level of pitocin as soon as I slipped into torpor (with Tyson's consent). Once my water was completely drained they were worried about getting Cayden out in time, since I had been low on fluid to begin with. At 11:15 / 11:20 I started to really want to push. This worried me, because I had so far to go. After four contractions of wanting to push more each time, I told the nurse. She asked if I wanted to be checked and I said no. I didn't want any more bad news. The next contraction came and when I tried not to push my body involuntarily spasmed, so I let her check me. At that point all hell broke loose. The nurse started calling for people, and had Tyson and Clarissa get me into an upright postion. She told me to start bearing down during contractions and called in the doctor. They started morphing the bed, pulling off the end and pulling out pushing stirrups. My doctor came running in with her attending and setting up the 'birthing bag'. I later realized this was a chute and the end of the bed to catch all the mess. Once she was set the pushing began in earnest. A friend of mine pushed for 11 hours last year delivering her son, and I was determined to push as hard as I could to make sure this wouldn't happen. For the first 60% of the contractions (starting as I could just feel them ramping up) I would hold my breath and push like a mother, just like the bradley method book told us. After 3 or 4 of these I would start to get out of breath, so I would breath in and push while yelling. And I mean yelling. Clarissa told me to drop the sound lower in my diaphram and boy did that make a difference. Both in volume and efficacy. Nothing takes away pain / tension for me lile a deep throated yell. Boy do I feel sorry for any mothers in nearby rooms beginning labor, because I am sure I made that sound like the most miserable experience ever. But I can definitively say it was the best part of labor. Uncomfortable yes. Every contraction he wasn't out I dreaded the next one, but it was the most cathartic experience I have ever had. When he crowned and slipped out I have never felt better in my life. Until I popped out the placenta. That blissful feeling of emptiness and ending is phenomenal. My zeal for pushing resulted in a baby in about 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately you don't have much time to stretch when things move that fast, so it also resulted in a fair number of stitches. But hey.When the doctor showed Tyson the placenta, she told him to take a glove and touch it. We had both played with Kell's (our nephew) placenta, which was this marvelous, soft, life giving organ. Cayden's was calcified over significant portions of the surface. Seeing that placenta removed any doubt that we had done the right thing. One of the major risks of delayed birth is placental failure. If we ever do this again, I would much rather not be induced but I will not hesitate if it seems like the right thing to do.

This has unexpectedly been a difficult post to write. I started a couple days ago and have worked a little each day on it. It was such a crazy emotional exprience, I wanted it recorded for posterity. That said, I think I needed a little distance to understand it a bit better. It has also been nice to be lazy at home together getting used to our newly, and wonderfully, expanded family.