Labor and Delivery

October 24, 2019 - 6am. I woke up and just didn’t feel right, I was having contractions but nothing overwhelming. I had convinced myself that since my pregnancy hadn’t necessarily been a walk in the park that labor and delivery were going to be my bitch. I always thought of myself as semi tough, but I had mentally committed that I wanted to be that rock star mom to push her baby out no problem. (I think all moms are unbelievably amazing no matter how they deliver their babies). I was going into labor and I was so ready to meet my baby and get this show on the road.

All my mom friends gave me some advice. Shower and eat. So my first order of business was to get myself clean and something to eat. I called my husband after I thought my water broke and he said he would be on his way home ASAP. Then I called my mom and told her the same thing, and so now I was ready to go! They both arrive around the same time and my husband can not believe I was so calm and getting in the shower, he told me there was no way I was being serious and was in an all out panic. I was telling him just to relax and I would be finished soon. After my shower my next mission was food of course, frustrated with me Mike told me this had to be a joke and he knew I was messing with him. I wasn’t and I knew this baby wasn’t going to drop out of me on the kitchen floor. I guess that’s was he was envisioning. I called the Dr. and they told me they would be waiting for me.

We arrived at the hospital around 11 o’clock and my contractions were progressing. They checked me and I was still only 1 cm and my water had not broken. Yes, I was the person that was just peeing. The contractions weren’t getting any stronger. I was monitored for about 1-2 hours and then they said they were sending me home. In my mind I wasn’t surprised but I was annoyed, I was past my due date and I was in labor. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS?!!! They told me to come back when my contractions were, 5 minutes apart, 1 minute long and lasting for an hour. Mike took me home and nothing seemed to be happening until later that evening. I finally started having contractions 5 minutes apart lasting for a minute for 45 MINUTES. I told Mike lets just call and lie (i’m not usually a liar but 45 minutes was close enough!!!) He made me restart.

Around 10 o’clock Mike told me to stop moaning, that he gets it I’m in labor, and it has sounded like I’ve been having an orgasm for the past 12 hours, I assured him he had no idea and that definitely was not the case. I was so thrilled with his empathy (just kidding). He and Henry took themselves to bed and were peacefully sleeping. I on the other hand was in severe pain on our couch trying to find any possible position to get comfortable. And once again after 50 minutes the contractions got further apart. I was in so much pain that my whole body was shaking, I waited a little while then called the Dr. back and told them I needed to come back in. I went and woke Mike up and told him we needed to go back to the hospital and he told me I needed to lay down. I suggested he get up and get in the car because I already called the Dr. and they are waiting for me. So back to the hospital we went.

Once we arrived I was hooked back up to the monitors and the contractions were there but still not progressing- I was still only 1 cm. My OB wasn’t in the hospital at the time so they called her and she told them to send me back home to labor there. I was exhausted at this point and asked if there was anything I could do for the pain. They said I could stay and they could give me medicine to reduce the pain and help me sleep. Well I didn’t want to get relief to be sent home and become miserable again so I told Mike lets just go, I can do this. If you remember in my last post I mentioned that I was scheduled to be induced. That was suppose Sunday night. My husband thankfully asked the Dr. that was discharging me if they ever keep people that are past due, and scheduled to be induced. She looked at me shocked and asked when that was suppose to be and how many weeks I was. I told her 40 weeks 6 days at this point and would be coming back in Sunday. The look on her face was total disbelief and called my OB back. I wasn’t going home, they were going to induce me. It was now go time.

I had already decided I was going to be getting an epidural but was terrified. I knew how still you had to be and that Mike wouldn't be able to stay in the room for that. I was still shaking and it was out of my control, thankfully the epidural was nothing to be afraid of. That was probably the easiest part of my whole experience. Unfortunately it wasn’t working because I was having all back labor. Eventually they broke my water, and holy crap was there a lot of fluid. The labor pain was nothing like I had ever felt before and remember that violent vomiting I had during pregnancy? Yeah that was back. I was finally starting to dilate more from the pitocin, but very slowly. Fast forward to around 7 pm and I was finally 9.5 cm, we waited a little and then they told me we were going to try to push. I pushed about 10 times, and nothing was happening I was stuck at 9.5 cm and wasn’t going anywhere. Honestly at this point I had no idea I was pushing to deliver the baby, I thought I was pushing to dilate more. We then took a rest and I tried anything and everything you can think of to push her down further. After this we were back to pushing. Nothing was working and at 11 pm they finally told me it was my only option to have a c-section. They turned the pitocin off and my contractions completely stopped. My body wasn’t doing any of it on its own.

Going into this I had no birth plan, and in the back of my mind a c-setion was always a possibility, especially if they baby wasn’t copperating or there was any other medical problems with me or the baby. I tried not to get my heart set on anything delivery related because I knew it wasn’t in my control. I was relieved to know labor would be over soon.

They gave Mike scrubs and told him to get dressed, while they took me into the operating room. I remember being rolled down the hallway with my eyes closed too exhausted to be feeling any type of way. When I entered the OR the room was so bright and I opened my eyes, there were people all over the place. I’m sure most of you know that during this procedure you are completely awake and can feel everything, I mean everything. It wasn’t painful but you feel every tug and pull and tons of pressure. I just kept asking if I was okay. Mike was next to me the entire time talking me through it and trying to keep me distracted. All I was worried about was finally getting to see my baby, I couldn’t wait to see who she was and what she looked like. Above the little blue sheet that was keeping me from seeing anything that was going on I saw my baby sweep across the top and that was it, she was out. Rivers Louise Runk made her appearance into the world at 1:41 am On October 26, 2019 exactly a week late and around 40 hours of labor . A perfectly healthy beautiful baby girl weighing 7lbs. 13 oz. & 20 inches long. She was face up instead of face down which explained the back labor and she also had her hand on her face explaining why I couldn’t push her out. A couple minutes later our baby girl was placed into Mikes arms and I finally got to give her a sweet kiss on the cheek. The second I looked at her it was so surreal, I made that baby, she was ours.

Needless to say I did not make labor and delivery my bitch. I got my ass handed to me by this baby once again. But I knew she was so worth it, and I would do it all over again for her. She was everything I imagined her to be, a spitting image of her dad, and I couldn’t have been more in love. My sweet Riv was finally here.

Until next time.

xoxo