8 Days Late

I woke up at 4am on Saturday July 11th with contractions. I got up to us the restroom and tried to lay back down. When they didn't go away, I headed downstairs to see if a change of position would help. It didn't. I had contractions 10 minutes apart the entire day. I napped when I could but mostly I was too excited to really sleep.

By the afternoon I chose to head out to walmart to do some shopping (and walking to try to speed things up) so that I could stock up my cupboards with food for when I was too tired to cook. I was on the phone with my mom and was telling her that the contractions were still 10 minutes apart and some sweet little old lady stopped me looking panicked and asked if I was having pains every 10 minutes. I laughed and told her I was in early labor and was aware of it, she looked relieved that I wasn't going to pop out a baby in the middle of the breakfast foods isle and walked on.

About 8pm they started getting a little closer together and Cliff and I made plans for what to do with the kids just in case I needed to go into the hospital. I sat on my ball and bounced or rocked my way through most the contractions. I had Cliff start timing them for me because I was no longer able function during them by 10pm. I couldn't even click on the field as I tried to harvest my uncles onion farm. By 1am the contractions were 3 minutes apart (and had been for hours) so we called up Meg to tell her we were on our way to her house with the boys.

I gathered up my bags for the hospital and loaded them into the truck. We explained to the boys that their little sister was going to be coming out soon and that we had to go to the hospital. I think poor Cliff was nervous. We left for the hospital a little later than we planned because we didn't think I'd actually start labor that night so he seemed to be rushing to take the kids over to Meg's house (opposite direction of the hospital that I so meticulously timed our distance from). I told him to relax because I knew I wasn't having the baby in the next half hour and his driving was making it harder for me to labor without pain.

The unfortunate thing of going to Roseville with the boys was that someone had pissed off (or more likely squished) a skunk real close to Meg's house. The smell was so nauseating I actually started to cry as soon as the boys got out of the car. Luckily, we weren't there long and we got to the hospital at 1:30am.

Whoever did the scheduling for Sutter Roseville's nursing staff should be shot. They put the most idiotic, irritating woman at the front entrance. The same entrance that you have to call to get permission to come in. The really bad part of that was that she couldn't be understood on the phone, and apparently her English wasn't good enough to understand you either (I already had to deal with her when I called at 10pm and she told me to come in). When we finally got in she gave me a bunch of papers to fill out.

Just what every laboring woman wants to do her first time to the hospital: fill out papers! I thought that was why I pre-registered! What's the point of filling out papers months early (which also ended up a hassle since now my last name had changed) when you still have to fill them out why you're trying to control labor pains. The stupid woman asked me my name half a dozen times it seemed so I let Cliff deal with her for me. When I heard her ask him how it was spelt, then challenged him when she saw it written down ("that's an 'R'?") I almost lost it. She asked me how close my contractions were (also about half a dozen times) and I was so annoyed that by the time Cliff brought me papers that I just had to sign on the line all I did was draw a straight line.

Finally, they brought me to room 11 and when the nurse checked me I was 3 to 4cm dilated and they admitted me. I was very excited to find out that my doctor (Cueto) was on call that night so I was definitely going to keep him as my doctor for delivery. I called Mom on our way in and she arrived around 3am to help me out.

When I got in I had Rosemary as my nurse, she was a sweet black lady with a ton of hair. She hooked me up to the monitors and told me I'd have to be on them for 30 minutes (I was expecting 20). She wanted to hook me up to an IV (policy) but I asked her if I could just get a heparin lock instead and she agreed as long as I promised to drink water and stay hydrated. After I was all set up and she left I couldn't take the pain in my back anymore, (I assumed it was because I had jumped off the couch suddenly earlier that day) it was just too much so I broke out of the straps and headed into the shower. When she came back in to hook me back up I asked her if I could be monitored on a birthing ball instead of laying in the bed and she said okay. It was so much easier that way.

I thought I had just thrown out my back, but after I told Rosemary how I felt she said it was back labor and showed me a few tricks to help ease the discomfort. I wanted to do a natural childbirth so I spent most of my time in the shower in forward fold and when I was strapped up to the machines I was on the bed on all fours, or on the ball leaning onto the bed.

By 7am when the doctor got there I was 5cm so he broke my water to speed up the process. I was really excited figuring I would be holding my baby soon after that. Labor got really hard after he broke my water and I started to throw up with nearly every contraction. They were making me lay down on my back for the monitoring and the straps were miserable and aggravating my nausea. The nurse (a new one because Rosemary had gone home) asked me if I wanted something to take away the nausea and I told her 'no, because it made dealing with the contractions easier'. She thought that was just sick and left. Around that time I asked (felt like I begged them in my mind) the nurse to hook me up to an IV because I just didn't have the energy to drink my water anymore.

When the doctor returned I was at 7cm. He he came back 4 hours later and I was STILL at 7cm and I got super depressed. I remember I was in the shower crying to Cliff, I told him I couldn't do it anymore and that I would never have children again. We talked about how I was strong and maybe I should take something for pain. I almost shoved him out the door asking him to chase down the nurse before she left so I could get something. I told him I didn't care what it was, I trusted him, just something to help me out. Cliff talked to my mom and the nurse and they decided stadol would be the best option. After they gave me that, I finally got a little sleep.

When the doctor returned next around 12:30pm or so, I was 8cm and he informed me that I had to get and epidural to relax or I'd have to go into a cesarean because my hips were too tight because of all the hours of hard labor I had been in and the baby was stuck because of it. I was too exhausted to care and gladly took the help. He told me that in cases like mine, often times once the epidural took effect the baby practically fell out because of how ready the body was to have the baby. I was in so much pain (and so tired) that I didn't even feel it when they gave it to me.

After a little while the anesthesiologist came in to see if it was working and I told him it made my left side feel better, but all the pain was on my right and I was still feeling every contraction strongly. He just had me roll over. It helped, but I never went completely numb like most woman seem to experience. Of course, I was too out of it to hear about the button to give myself more so I never pushed it.

I managed to get some sleep and when the doctor came back in he told me I was 100% effaced and 10cm but I still had a rim so I needed to wait some more. I finally couldn't take lying on my back anymore and asked the nurse if I could go back to my hands and knees like I had been earlier in labor. She told me I wasn't allowed to because my legs wouldn't support me after the epidural. Within that hour I was in so much pain I flipped over onto my hands and knees anyway. The doctor saw me and told them to increase my epidural.

By that time I had already had 2 nurses and my nurse from the morning had returned for her next shift. She decided to help me by having me do practice pushes to help open up the rim. It seemed to work, but that's when we found out my baby's head was transverse and stuck on my pelvic bone. Rosemary used her hands to help turn the baby and keep her from moving back up after each time I pushed.

After 2 and a half hours of pushing my contractions started spacing out to 5-10 minutes apart and were very weak even though they had me maxed out on pitocin. The doctor came back in and told me that the baby still hadn't turned so I could get a c-section and be done with it. He said that normally if nothing had happened after that much time of pushing he'd take the woman in for the cesarean but if I wanted, he'd let me have one more hour because my baby's heartbeat was still really strong. I asked for the hour. What I didn't know was that the doctor told my family that there wasn't anyway I'd should be able to push this baby out and I'd have to go into surgery.

When they came in to take my blood I knew I was running out of time. I hated that clock, it had moved too slow and too fast all day and now I was restricted by it. I started pushing as hard and as long as I could with EVERY contraction, not just the big ones, and sometimes even when I didn't feel any. Finally, my baby turned and the nurse called the doctor. He told me that he could help me with the vacuum becuase my uterus had given up on me and was no longer actually helping me push the baby out. I told him I needed the help. My nurse was helping by pushing on my stomach to keep my baby from slipping back up and stretching my perineum (both things she had been doing for at least an hour).

The doctor got everyone that was needed and on my next big push we got her out. She had the cord wrapped around her neck twice and there was meconium as she came out. The doctor flipped her upside down until they suctioned her nose and mouth and then put her on my stomach. The nurse started rubbing her down and it wasn't until she finally started crying and Melissa made a comment about how relieved she knew I must have been to hear her cry that I even noticed something had been wrong.

They let me keep her for about 15 minutes (like I had asked) before taking her and did all her warming and cleaning on my stomach (where she pooped again). I'm not sure if it was because of all the nurses help or stretching I'd been doing for awhile, but I got lucky and my perineum didn't tear. However, I started to hemorrhage really bad and finally the doctor had them take her from me so he could stop the bleeding and repair the tear I did have (I probably would of needed an episotomy but there wasn't time), I didn't even know those parts could tear in labor. He said he had to reconstruct my girly bits.

My doctor stopped the bleeding, and got be patched back up so that I could spend time with my healthy baby girl. Dr. Cueto was amazing and really wonderful. He let me have the birthing experience I wanted even when so many things kept going wrong. I know I couldn't have done it without my nurse Rosemary who helped me in the morning and really made it all happen for me that night. I had been in labor for 41 hours, and 23 of those hours were in HARD labor. I made it 12 hours of serious labor without any medication doing just relaxation techniques I had learned.

Evelyn Victoria Ellis Brewer was born on Sunday, July 12th at 9:08pm.
She weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 and a half inches long.

My support group was perfect, all of them family and my best friends at the same time.

Ma got there around 3am and was the only one who never napped. She was wonderful at keeping me focused, was very knowledgeable and helpful, and I'm so grateful that she took pictures for me as well. Having her there with me was more special than anything I could of hoped for and I'm so grateful I could share such an experience with her.

Melissa kept me company in the shower (her rubbing my back was the best) and truely was like having my best friend there. She also helped with the peace keeping that was needed.

Debby kept record of the day and had an arm to fan me that never seemed to tire. She made notes of the day and I'm very grateful for it. I'll be able to look back at this special time years from now and even be able to share them with Evelyn.

And of course Cliff. His presence really helped me when I reached those points where I didn't think there was any possible way I could continue.

I had 41 hours of total labor, and 23 hours of HARD labor. I hemorrhaged and tore in places I didn't know a woman could tear but I got to have my baby naturally. If I had to do it over again I would. Evelyn is worth everything I went through and so much more.