Gretchen's Birth Story

To backtrack a little bit...

When I was 39 weeks pregnant with Rachel she turned sideways.  Thankfully, when I was induced five days later, she had turned herself head down again.  I had a sneaking suspicion I might have a similar problem with Gretchen.  Little did I know the ride she would take me on!

At my 37 week appointment with Gretchen she was sideways, despite being head down at 36 weeks.  My OB really wanted me to try a version.  Initially I was resistant to the idea because I figured she would eventually turn back like Rachel did.  But, my OB expressed her concerns, gave me a couple of days to think about it, and in the end, Richard and I decided to have her turned because we would feel awful if something went wrong that we could have prevented.  

So on August 19th I checked into Labor and Delivery at the U for an external version.  Long story short, I spent five plus hours in a hospital bed, and after they gave me a shot to relax my uterus which has side effects of making your heart race and making you shake, they found out she was head down.   Big waste of time!  But I did get to lay in bed all morning, watch the Olympics, and nap...not too shabby.

At both my 38 and 39 week appointments I had ultrasounds and Gretchen was always head down.  However, I was quite certain that she was changing her position on a daily basis.  Richard and I got pretty good at feeling my stomach trying to guess what position she was in.  At my 39 week appointment I was still just dilated to a 1, same place I had been since 36 weeks.  

Two days later, on September 1st, when I was 39 weeks and 2 days, Richard and I checked back into the hospital to be induced.  I woke up that morning feeling calm and excited and quite confident that this would be a fairly "easy" and routine delivery.  After all, I had done this three times before.  I have always been induced and each labor has gotten shorter and shorter.  In all honesty, I really thought she would be born around lunch time...and my OB thought the same thing.  She had joked with me at my last appointment that she had tickets to the Utah game that night and didn't want to miss it.  I assured her I would definitely be having the baby before kick off.  Wrong!

 Anyway, we checked into the hospital at 7:30 am.  It was slow going getting started, but I was just happy I would finally be having this baby!  My nurses got my IV going, I had an ultrasound and it was determined that she was head down, so by 9:30 they got the pitocin going and turned it on pretty high to get her moving down.  With all my other inductions I have just sat in the bed, but this time I wanted to move things along, plus my nurse, who I loved (her name was Becky) really encouraged me to get up and move around.  So for the next couple of hours I moved between walking, standing, and bouncing on the ball.  The contractions were coming fast, but not painful enough for an epidural and I was pretty optimistic.

At about 11:30 I got my epidural, which was great.  I wasn't really needing it yet, but I wanted it before they broke my water.  In Milwaukee, the anesthesiologist always had Richard leave my room while they placed the epidural.  This time though, he got to stay, which was great!  It was so nice having him rub my back and hold my hand, instead of a nurse talking me through it.  It took a while to place the epidural, but he eventually got it and things started getting nice and numb.  :)  

Once I was all situated in my bed, the residents came in to check me and break my water.  

I had only dilated to a 3, which was a bit discouraging, and Gretchen was still so high they didn't feel comfortable breaking my water.  Just a bit later, at 1:45 pm, the midwife came in who I had seen at my 38 week appointment.  She checked me and immediately knew Gretchen was no longer head down.  Before she even said anything I knew just by the look on her face.  I was so discouraged.  She left and came right back with an ultrasound, my second of the day.  Gretchen had completely turned and was almost breech.  Her head was up on my right side and she was in a diagonal with her bum down by my left hip.  They immediately turned off the pitocin and the midwife said she would be back with a plan.

This was SO disheartening.  I could not believe she had flipped around with all the contractions I had been having.  My uterus was contracting every two minutes!  My doctor came in soon after with the plan that they would try and turn her back to head down.  They figured I was a good candidate and that it was doable.  While we were waiting for things to get underway, the nurse did bring some scrubs in for Richard, just in case this all ended with a c-section.  During all of this I was so worried about the potential for a c-section, but my doctor never mentioned anything about it, so I kept trying to reassure myself with that. 

At 2:30 my room filled up with doctors, residents, nurses, and the anesthesiologist and I was prepped for an external version, yet again!  Fortunately, this time though they did the ultrasound before giving me the shot.  Good thing too because the ultrasound showed she had flipped back to head down!  I was so relieved, yet again!  They cranked the pitocin back up, turned my bed into a chair, and placed two wrapped towels on each side of my belly and put a wrap around it to give Gretchen less side to side room to move.  

This is when things started to get really hard for me.  It was 3:00, I was exhausted and starving, but I wasn't allowed to eat because of the potential for a c-section.  I was very uncomfortable in my bed that was like a chair.  I understood why they wanted me to sit straight up, but my position was not conducive to my epidural working very well and it was so hard to try and sleep sitting straight up.  

At about 3:45 my doctor and midwife came back in for another ultrasound, to check me, and to hopefully break my water if things looked good.  Thankfully, Gretchen was still head down, I had progressed to a 5, but Gretchen was still so high.  They opted to break my water anyway, carefully, with the ultrasound still monitoring Gretchen.  The hope was that when they broke my water it would help Gretchen drop and really speed things along.  Breaking my water went very smoothly, but Gretchen did not move down at all, and things did not pick up at all.  I did have TONS of water though.  It soaked my doctor's scrubs, and in the end my OB asked for a basin because I had completely soaked the towels.  :)  My OB later told the nurse she had never seen so much water come out of someone!  No wonder Gretchen was doing flips.  

So, here I was at 4:00, anxious, exhausted, starving, worried.  I had had all my babies before 4:00 and I was only dilated to a 5.  At 7:00 I said a sad good-bye to my wonderful nurse Becky.  She had prepped my room at like 11:00 am for the baby and now I was saying good-bye to her with no baby!  That was depressing.  I started to worry about my choice to be induced earlier than I ever had been before and I was quite concerned this would end up in a c-section.  

Soon after my new nurse started her shift, they had to turn off my pitocin and put me on oxygen.  My uterus was contracting so frequently and Gretchen wasn't handling the contractions as well as they wanted her to.  This was again such a blow to me.  The only good thing though is that I talked my new nurse into letting me lay on my side.  The epidural was not working well in my sitting position despite getting a bolus from the anesthesiologist earlier.  So even though the pitocin was off and I was on oxygen, at least I was laying down on my side and able to nap off and on.  After about an hour, Gretchen was doing better, so they took me off the oxygen and turned the pitocin back on. 

Finally, at 9:00 pm I had dilated to a 7.  I was very relieved, but things were starting to get pretty uncomfortable.  I started feeling so much pressure in my tailbone, and I knew from my experience with Rachel that meant I was ready to push.  Over the next hour I called my nurse in three times to check me, convinced I was ready to push this baby out.  Each time she was so kind, checked me, smiled, and said I was still a 7!  I couldn't believe it.  The pain was becoming almost intolerable, I was breathing through each contraction and squeezing the bed railing or Richard's hand.  I had maxed out my epidural and the anesthesiologists were in a c-section so I was out of luck.  

At 10:00, I believe it was Richard who finally pushed the button to call the nurse in to check me again.  The contractions were so painful and all I wanted to do was push.  All sorts of noises were coming out of my mouth-it was miserable!  The nurse came in and said I was at a 10 and asked me if I wanted to push; I answered with a resounding yes!  My room immediately turned into a buzz of excitement as a new attending came in (my OB was at the football game), a resident, a couple of nurses.  Things were in such a hurry Richard even helped the attending put her gown on.  Once everyone was ready they turned me from my side to my back, and while painful, I didn't quite have the same urgency to push.  I pushed through a few contractions, but clearly things looked different to them down there then they had earlier and they asked if I wanted to wait for my OB.  I reluctantly admitted that I did not have the same urgency so I would try and wait.  Every couple of minutes I did push through a contraction and they were great to sit there and wait with me.  Richard alternated between holding a leg and feeding me ice chips, that's a good husband.

At about 10:15 my OB arrived straight from the football game, which was good, because things were starting to get more painful again.  My epidural did a great job at making my legs completely numb (so numb that I couldn't get out of bed and had a catheter in until the next morning!), but it was not as good at making everything else numb if you know what I'm saying.  During my last few minutes of pushing I told Richard, "It has never hurt this bad before!"  Geez.  It was painful.  Thankfully, after just several minutes of pushing with my OB, little Gretchen was born into the world at 10:24 pm.  

The physical relief I felt was astounding, but also the emotional relief was huge.  This pregnancy was my hardest in all ways, and the labor and delivery was hands down my hardest also.  To hear her cry, and see her, and have her resting on my chest within a minute brought so much relief to me physically and emotionally.  

She spent probably close to an hour just laying on me.  It took a while for them to stitch me up, and even though that was painful, I just focused on this new little girl with chubby, chubby cheeks.  She was so alert during that time and hardly cried.  It was a beautiful time.  After I was put back together they weighed her, measured her, and cleaned her up a bit more and then I was able to nurse her.  It took her a few minutes to get the hang of it, but she ended up doing great.  After all of that Richard got some time with her.  I love seeing him hold our newborns.  Those are some of my favorite pictures of him.

Finally at 1:00 am I was wheeled into my recovery room.  What a day.  I have always wondered what it would be like to have a baby at night.  Now I know.  Exhausting!  It was quite a day, one I never would have predicted!  We are thrilled she is here and we love, love, love her dearly.

And lastly, I have to mention something about Richard.  With all my past deliveries, which have been rather uneventful, he and I have kind of done our own thing until the end.  Usually I nap in bed, read magazines, and watch tv while he sits in a chair on his ipad.  He is always great to get things for me and support me, but things have been so "easy".  This time though, as things were so challenging and at times worrisome, Richard was right there with me, so attentive and involved.  He kept a close eye on the monitors, talked to me, calmed me down, looked stuff up, and kept apologizing for my misery!  He was so supportive and involved the entire day, and it was really quite wonderful to go through something so exceptionally hard with him by my side.  He definitely saw me at some low points that day, I was so vulnerable  and felt so much emotion.  It was just so wonderful to have him there with me every step of the way.  I sure love him and this family we have created together.