Birth Story

Finally! I will try to type this out quickly as Anna is about to come ask about using the computer as I had promised her earlier.

Once it was believed that the cholestasis was indeed back, the midwives decided to go ahead and schedule me for induction on Friday September 29. They did not have all the blood work back yet, but went on my word about the symptoms and how I was feeling. What a long week! Between Monday and Friday I only slept about 2 hours each night, the itching was so intense. Of course it peeked between 12 am and 6 am. It was bearable during the day, but you try sleeping with 6 other children to take care of. Even so, I was pretty useless and mostly lay around trying to to relax and get ready for induction. I was VERY anxious about being induced. I'm still not sure why. I did not want it though I knew it was the safest course for the baby.
We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 am. With it being so far, we had to wake up at about 5:30 am to get there on time. So my parents picked up the children on Thursday night.
Next morning, Dave set his alarm, got up, went in to shower. While he was in there, the phone rang (nearly 6 am at this point). It was the Birthing Inn calling to let us know that there was no rooms available and we needed to call back at 9 am. Wasn't Dave thrilled when he came out of the shower. So he got back into bed and we both actually slept for a couple hours more. Got up, had a little breakfast, called back. Now they wanted us to call at 11 am or I could reschedule for another day. Reschedule?! It dawned on me that they didn't realize that this induction was out of medical neccessity. So I called my midwives' office. They paged Wendy (the one on call), told her what was going on, called me back and said to come in right away. Off we went to the hospital. Where, guess what, there was still no room. They were somewhat annoyed that Wendy had told me to come in. I learned later that she spent the morning cleaning rooms herself to quickly try and get one ready for me. We also learned later that it had been a record braking month for births and that particular day looked to be record breaker as well. I also learned later that results on my bloodwork earlier in the week had come back and they were concerned at what they had seen. I was also diagnosed with pregnancy induced hypertension as the cholestasis had slowly driven up my blood pressure over the past 2 weeks.
When it was all said and done, induction started at 2:45. Wendy left at 3:00, and Paula came on duty. From 3:00-5:00 pitocin got some contractions going pretty good. I had started off at 4 cm dilated. I got to 5 cm in about an hour with the baby now low enough to break my water and moves thing along even more. After 5 pm, I felt like I was in active labor. Had to breathe through contractions and didn't want to be alone. Still, I felt I was getting of a little easy and I began to worry about how long I would be able to handle this pitocin fueled labor. Around 7 pm I started feeling more pressure, a little pushy, full. So Paula checked me. I was 7 cm. I had a moment of despair. She firmly told me not to even think about numbers, that everything was going just fine. Still, labor was getting harder. I decided to get in the shower to take the edge off some of the contractions. I had a couple more not so bad ones, and then I had the ones that had me moaning. Like 4 or 5. And suddenly I HAD to push. I paniced! Big time. I know I said something about it being to soon, I'll try hard not to push, I can't do it. Meanwhile, Dave avd Paula are trying to get me out of the shower and into the bed. I can't, too soon PANIC. I get right by the bed. I have to PUSH. I get in the bed. Paula gets ready checks me, yes indeed she is crowning. I pushed a few times as I felt the urge and she was born. She had the cord loosely around her neck and her face is all bruised up from descending so quickly. I look up at the clock. It is 7:15. From 7cm to delivered in 15 minutes. Her Apgars are 9 and 9. She is 7 lbs 9.5 oz. and adorable. Agnes Christine. As wonderful, mysterious and sacred a moment as when Maddy was born nearly 12 years ago.