The Rest of the Story

When I left off in my last entry, I had been in labor for 18 hours. So far, things had been progressing smoothly, albeit slowly. I was just starting to encounter some complications when Riley's heart rate started to show some signs of distress, confining me to bed to lay on one side or the other in efforts to get stabilized.

Once in bed, the contractions worsened along with my ability to handle them on my own. After about two hours of that, I asked for and received an epidural. The anesthesiologist did a wonderful job, and I experienced immediate relief from the pain while still retaining feeling in my pelvis and legs. However, even though I was now able to relax a bit more, I was still not progressing, stalled out at 4 cm dilated since about 11:00 that morning. The doctor was starting to get concerned about this lack of progress and prepared me for the real possibility of having to have another c-section.

They switched my contraction and fetal heart rate monitors from the external to the internal variety to get a more accurate picture of what was going on and discovered that my contractions, although strong and regular, were not quite strong enough to be considered "adequate". So, although using pictocin during a VBAC can be risky, the doctor decided to put me on half the normal starting dose to see if that little bit of help would get the ball rolling faster. At that point, she gave me two hours. If she did not see significant progress at that point, she would need to do the c-section.

So, after being thrilled at finally going into labor on my own the day before my scheduled c-section, I was right back to where I started. I spent the next two hours resting and mentally preparing for the disappointment I knew I would feel if I was unsuccessful in delivering this baby normally.

The two hours passed, and the doctor returned to check me out. She started doing the exam and said, "You're never going to believe it." She kept feeling around and repeating her exclamation without telling me what exactly I wasn't going to believe. I was on pins and needles as I waited to hear my fate. She finally contained her surprise long enough to tell me I was dilated to 10, 100% effaced, and at station 2. She could feel the head. She then began giving me instructions on how to push while I was still trying to wrap my head around the reality that I was actually going to get to deliver this baby.

The next thing I knew, I was pushing. If you can believe the doctor and nurses, I'm apparently a pretty good pusher. The heart rate issues that we'd been experiencing for the last several hours started to get more intense, giving me more incentive to push this baby out. Forty minutes later, Riley emerged with the cord around his neck.

So, after 24 and 1/2 hours of labor, I now had two fine sons. However, I wasn't out of the woods quite yet. The next five hours were not exactly as I had envisioned they would be. Stay tuned for my next entry to read about the aftermath of birth.