Lexi's Birth Story

Starting at midnight, Nikki and I timed my contractions while we chatted on Yahoo Messenger (THANK YOU FOR STAYING UP WITH ME, NIKKI!!). As we monitored it, I changed positions, got up and walked around a bit, ate and drank, etc – all to see if changing anything would make the contractions change. At 2:30am, I woke George up to tell him that I’d had steady contractions for over an hour. At 3am, we agreed that I would go to the hospital and get checked out in Labor and Delivery alone. That way, if it wasn’t time to “GO,” we weren’t waking Brady up and disturbing our neighbors (our “Brady watchers”) for no reason. It turned out to be the best decision since I was still only 2 centimeters, 90% effaced, and the contractions got further apart.

I came home and both George and I tried to sleep. George succeeded, I didn’t (story of my entire pregnancy!). Around 6am, I started having stronger contractions than I’d had earlier. I drank some water and laid on my left side, hoping to stall the pain so I could get a nap in. The contractions started getting stronger and stronger, and eventually, I ended up making noise during one of them around 6:30am. George came in and asked what was wrong and I said I was having much stronger contractions. I asked him to grab my laptop so we could use an online timer I found to help time the duration and frequency of the contractions. As we were timing them, they got closer together until they were about 3 minutes apart lasting about 45 seconds each. I got up to use the restroom and the contractions went crazy – longer, harder, faster. I told George that this was “D-Day” for us and that we needed to call Becky, pack the car, and get GOING. I had trouble getting out of the bathroom because of the contractions. I would finish, wipe, then have a contraction that would make me need to sit down and the process would start all over again. I told George if we didn’t leave soon, I would end up having my water break in the car if it wasn’t already breaking. After what seemed like a looooong hour and a half, we were finally in the car going to the hospital.

While I was being checked in, it felt like I was wetting my pants. I honestly couldn’t tell if I was having trouble holding my pee because of the pain or if it was my water breaking. I was hooked up to monitors as soon as we got to the hospital and the nurses VANISHED. The contractions were coming much harder and stronger and I told George that I didn’t think I would be able to make it through the entire labor without pain medication if it already hurt this badly. I think we were monitored for about an hour and the nurses finally came back in because I was starting to have trouble managing the contraction pain. The doctor came in to check me and asked if I had felt any gushes or trickles. I told her that I had felt wet since checking in and sure enough, my membranes had ruptured. When she checked my cervix, I was already SIX centimeters dilated!

They wheeled me down to a Labor and Delivery room (LD4) and started asking a ton of questions about my medical history, etc. Half of the questions were answered by George while I was breathing through contractions. The pain management nurse came in to talk to me about my options and I asked if there was anything other than the epidural (since I had an anxiety attack when I got one with Brady). She said I could have Stadol, and though I had been warned against it by Nikki, I opted for that. The doctor recommended that if I was going to consider an epidural if the Stadol didn’t work, I should sign the consent now, before I needed to try to use a pen while I was in even more pain. My signature was…creative! I’m SO glad I signed off when I did. In the twenty minutes since I’d been put in the LD room, I had gone another two centimeters, totaling EIGHT.

My contractions were coming really hard and really fast now, and I was starting to feel light-headed. I had used breathing as my only pain management up until they started the IV. Even after the IV was in, I wasn’t feeling any relief and I said so to the doctors. The nurse next to me told me that if the Stadol wasn’t working by now, it wasn’t going to work. Reluctantly, I asked for the epidural.

George stood next to me the entire time I was having the epidural put in, telling me I was doing great. I asked him to tell me a story, and he started talking about Brady – silly things he does, lovey things he does, etc. It helped keep me calm!! My adrenaline was rushing so fast, I had trouble staying still enough for the placement because my legs were shaking so hard. When it was finally placed, the doctors and George helped me get my legs back on the bed. I continued to breathe through the contractions, but it felt like I had to push, so I told the nurses. One of the nurses checked me and said I was at a TEN! They looked at each other and told me that if I wanted to push, I could, but I probably wouldn’t feel any relief from the epidural yet. I told them I didn’t think I could wait because the sensation was so strong, so I started pushing.
The pushing felt amazing! I labored mostly in the traditional way you see on tv. I got Lexi to where the doctor, nurses, and George could see her hair when the doctors helped push the opening apart. The nurses informed the doctor that Lexi’s heart rate was dropping considerably when I was doing long periods of pushing and as Lexi got down further, it became harder to monitor her heart rate. After trying to labor on each side (to try the monitor in different places) they ended up putting a sensor on her head (which was hard to place with ALL that hair!) to monitor it and asked me breathe through what I was feeling and not push to allow both Lexi and I time to rest. They also assisted me in getting on my hands and knees to allow Lexi to come back up the birth canal a bit. The doctors asked me to wait until 1:45pm (I think it was a 30-40 minute wait).

The epidural FINALLY started working and I was a much better patient! I was able to talk to the doctors and nurses, tell them what was going on and what I was feeling with better words, and get back into a normal position. I was even laughing with George and the staff in the room! At this point, I talked to Mom, Nikki, and Shannon on the phone (which, now that I think about it, they must have thought I was INSANE).

The doctors and nurses started coming back into the room at 1:40pm, and once everyone was in the room and ready to go, they told me to start pushing. According to my discharge papers, it took six minutes for Lexi to make her debut and it only took that long because my doctor had to do an episiotomy so that Lexi could fit. She came out yelling, announcing to everyone that she was here and that she was not happy it took so long to get out (at least Lexi and I were on the same page, haha). Everyone couldn’t stop talking about how much hair she had. She received an 8, 9 on her Apgar tests and the doctors heard a VERY random irregular heartbeat and said it would probably go away on its own. George was able to hold her finally while the doctor sewed me back up.

According to my discharge papers, I only labored for 3 hours and 1 minute! I’m not sure I agree with their timeline, but I’ll go with it. I felt like I labored longer, I’ll take the credit they want to give me for a fast labor, though. One of the nurses asked what class we took before the labor and when George told her we hadn’t been able to take one because of the move, she looked surprised and said that I did surprisingly well with my breathing since I didn’t have any practice. I think the nurses must have said something to each other because every time a new nurse came in while I was recovering, they commented about my breathing and how well I’d done managing the pain. Yay me!