Arrival of the baby

Even at 39 weeks, I hadnt felt any contractions. When the doctor's aide mentioned inducing labour, there was a sense of relief. After the exam, the cervix was at 3cm, so the Dr just decided to wait till next week.
3 days before due date I felt few.

The next day I felt some mild contractions.

The night after hat around 9.45 I started getting contractions around 8-9 min apart.It went on like this till 2am. Facing the contraction wasnt bad.From what I have read I was to find relief in the time between contractions.I slept through them, waking up only at the contraction time to note down the time. Also, from the child birth class I knew that it would be better to be moving in the labor phase (4cm -7cm), so I tried to rest before that.

After 2am, the contractions started getting 4-5 min apart. I knew it was time. But there were some contractions that would be only 2-3 min apart. And a few back to  8-9 min range. I was confused if I should start counting again. I gave it some more time during which I made calls to the 'on call' doctor who was unreachable then and before.

We started out at around 3.30 am. In the child birth class we were asked to wait for the 511 to happen for our own convenience. I didnt want to be sent back for less dilation. I was all prepared to follow the different positions to reduce labor pain.

At the hospital, when the lady  at Triage with British accent (she is from S Africa) asked if I was in for labor. I said yes. She wondered how could I be so sure. After filling all the forms, she checked my cervix and found it to be at 7cm. When asked to rate the pain, I said 4.

Husband and I were both overjoyed for skipping the labor phase.

Yippee, I am going into the delivery room.

The nurse asked me if I could walk to the room. I tried and I did. She asked me if I needed epidural then. I told her that I was not there yet with pain. Her shift was about to end in one and half hour. She told me that the next course of action contained breaking the 'bag of water' and that could get really uncomfortable. I was convinced to take the epidural then as it would take 2 bags of IV into he body before they could give the epidural. The anaesthesiologist did a good job of explaining how I would feel pressure at the back when he was inserting the catheter, and how I would feel a weird sensation of something hitting the elbow, once the medicine kicked in. During this time, the nurse held me to comfort. After a while, I felt no pain but just pressure during contractions. The nurse had hooked the fetal monitor and other stuff which showed the contractions and baby's heart beat on the monitor. Just before the nurse was leaving, I asked her about the pushing. I had read enough only to know the oncoming labour but nothing about delivery itself. She said that its nothing but bringing out the biggest poop.

The next nurse checked the cervix and hadnt reported that it was already 9cm. When we were expecting the Dr around 8 am, I was fully dilated to 10cm. When the nurse was checking this, she surmised that the bag of water would break accidentally as any of the contractions happening then (2 min apart) could be big enough to do that. And break it did, a warm gush. So now I know what it feels like should that happen first before contractions. By this time, she had been usin catheter to empty the bladder. We want all the space out there for the baby to emerge.

We were just waiting for contractions to do their bit so that I would have to do litttle pushing. we thought we would be done by 11 or so. The nurse did another cervical exam where she realised that she could feel the cervix agin. She said that this does happen in some cases where the cervix contracts.

She put a peanut ball between my legs putting me to a side, so that things would fall in place. We tried this way and that. The nurse thought I needed extra contractions. In came Pitocin and some more epidural. At this point when asked to rate pain, I couldnt quantise as what I was feeling was pressure which I couldnt call pain but couldnt bear it too. The cervical exam would pain for around 15-20 min as the nurse had to reach far back.

The nurse noticed that the baby's heart beat was reaching 180. She realised that my contractions coupled with close pitocin induced contractions where acting on the baby vigorously. Out goes pitocin. Baby's heart beat stabilises.

Its time to push she said around 1pm.

I started pushing when my husband and the nurse spotted an oncoming  contraction on the screen, not knowing if what I was doing was helping or not. With no visible improvement, I was reaching a point where I thought it might be C-section. But the nurse never gave up. I started feeling pain in the left side of my back. The nurse wanted me to have some pain sensation so I would feel the contractions and push then. By now, I reached for the sides of the bed, to put all my energy into it. The nurse and my husband kept encouraging me and told me when they saw the head. When the nurse realised my pain was bad, she called for more epidural. When I told the nurse of the pain, she said that without epidural, the actual pain would be even more. I couldnt have delivered without the epidural, as the pain would not let me push effectively. I wasnt getting the respite between contactions when there is no need to push. The first nurse told me that the epidural works by gravity. During the peanut ball phase, I might have laid only on the left side, not numbing my right. Once the epidural was in, I got the rest in between contractions. I was ready to push and then some more. By then I had even got the urge to poop. I just followed that. Some more gut wrenching pushes and the baby crowned. The nurse made me touch the baby's head so I would still be in the ring with all energy. She even got a mirror if I liked to get the view down there. the baby's head was soft. The Dr was in the room in some time and baby Maanya was born at 2.54pm. I thought the baby is very cute but couldnt believe her to be my daughter. After the cleanup, baby was put on me for skin to skin contact. I wanted to take a look at the placenta. My mom said that in villages they bury it in the earth. Baby and dad went for Apgar score and more. And here dad was taught a secret about how to hold the baby snug in his elbows so that the baby gets body heat and feels comforted.

I was hungry and thirsty.I had chicken salad sandwich which I enjoyed with mayonnaise in it. I was off it during pregnancy. The nurse recalled what she had after each of her pregnancies.

I was glad that during the whole deal I was allowed to take water as I do not like ice. And thats the only choice on the menu druing labor and delivery.