Raven's Story

Katherine - posted on 03/29/2010 ( 1 mom has responded )

My little boy Raven was born after a loooong labor. On September 14, I went to my final doctor's appointment. My doctor said that since the baby was getting so big, that he wanted me to check in at the hospital the next morning. We were shocked! So the next morning when my doctor's personal clinic opened I called to see when he wanted us there; it turned out he wanted us there first thing in the morning, and to come on down. Luckily we had had several scares before then so we were packed well in advance. When we got to the hospital all the rooms were full so they took me to a PACU room on the maternity floor and waited for my doctor to come. All...day...long... I labored on my back and wasn't able to eat. We went to the hospital around 10 in the morning and it wasn't until about 3pm that my doctor ordered an ultrasound to check positioning and size of the baby because the nurse was having a hard time feeling it through my belly. The ultrasound revealed that the baby had not yet dropped, and was continuing to turn in circles under my contracting uterus. This worried my doctor, since I was at 38 weeks and the ultrasound measured the baby within 26 ounces of 9 lb 5 oz. I was blown away at how big he had gotten in a matter of 2 weeks! After that I was admitted and transferred to a labor/delivery room and my doctor showed up four hours later. When he checked me I was 3 cm dilated, which surprised me because the baby wasn't even head-down. To encourage him to turn and drop, my doctor decided to break my water and see what happened. After that, my contractions tripled in intensity but still my little fighter wouldn't decend into my pelvis. My doctor had known since I first saw him when I transferred doctors at 29 weeks that my pelvis was likely too small to fit a full-sized baby but he wanted to see how things played out. My parents showed up about an hour later, and I was contracting like a bucking bronco and it seemed that there was no break between contractions. It was encouraging when my wonderful nurse told me I was dilating at a regular rate and it was the perfect time to get an epidural if I wanted one. Did I ever! (As a personal side note, I am a firm believer that childbirth is difficult enough that you don't have to go through all the pain if you have the resources not to. Plus I'm a bit of a wimp, so I jumped at the chance to get it.) After the epidural took, I was able to sleep on and off, and my nurse turned me every hour. She even had me up on the sqatting bar to help the baby drop down. However, all our best efforts didn't work. My labor stalled at 6 1/2 cm. I still didn't dilate after 3 hours on Pitocin. When my doctor came and checked me at about 4:30 in the morning on September 16th, he told me that my stalled labor combined with the baby's size and lack of descent added up to my need for a c-section for our own safety. He told us he would do it at about 6:30. That left just enough time for me to get in a catnap and my family to soak it all in. I didn't personally care; I just wanted him out and healthy. At 6:00 I was prepped for surgery and taken to the OR. My doctor had a bit of difficulty cutting me open because my uterus was still contracting when he started. At 6:51 my beautiful baby boy let out his first strong cry. "What a chunky chicken!" were the first words my doctor said. I didn't get to find out how much he weighed until much later, after I came back from recovery. When they whisked my little boy away to the NICU for observation, my boyfriend/fiance on his heels, my doctor started stitching me up and I fell asleep. I didn't fully wake up until I was in recovery and my nurses were pressing down on my uterus to make the lochia come out, which hurt really bad because they were pressing right above my incision. I went numb when they put a brace around my waist at the incision and I slept on and off for the next three hours until they finally took me back up to the maternity floor. As I was wheeled into my room, my excited family told me that my newborn baby boy weighed a whopping 9 lb 12 oz!!! I was amazed! It was no wonder I got so big. Once I got to hold him and talk to my family a bit, I passed out and was awakened about an hour later to make my first attempts at breastfeeding. The next two days were a morphine-induced blur, and I finally got to go home after a well-deserved hot shower and hearty breakfast.