Miles' Birth Story

I have been meaning to sit down and type this before I forget (the details are totally for me to remember, so feel free to skip over this post!), so hopefully I can get my thoughts down quickly before Grant and Kyle get home from church and the chaos returns! As you know, Miles' was born at 2:15 pm on May 18th, but his true labor and delivery story begins many weeks before. I had told my OB from my very first appointment that I wanted to avoid an induction with this baby's birth because my induction with Grant had been so long, and since we had discovered that my body does not respond well to IV Pitocin (with Grant, I had incredibly low blood pressure and even on the lowest dose on record at the UofU hospital, my contractions were non stop with no break in between). I intended that this baby's birth would happen when my body was ready. Fast forward to my 32 week appointment when an ultrasound reveals that baby is measuring a full two weeks ahead and is already estimated to weigh 5lbs 8 oz. My doctor again encouraged me to consider an induction since I was on track to have a very big baby. I told him I would just wait and see what my body was doing at full term. Then, at my 36 week appointment, my doctor tells me that he will be out of town from May 20th thru June 1st on a bear hunting trip. Great. I was due on May 26th! He tells me that with my history, he would hate to have a random on call doctor deliver me while he is out of town. He tells me that I am again measuring ahead of schedule and there is a strong chance that I will deliver on my own before he leaves town, but schedules an induction for Friday the 18th just in case. I came home panicked, but determined to help my baby come on his own before then. I tried everything. I was out walking every day and night, using evening primrose oil capsules, drinking raspberry leaf tea, and I had my feet zoned twice to help stimulate labor. Kyle rubbed my feet every night and used the pressure points near my toes and ankles to start contractions. I went and jumped on my friend's trampoline one night and went to another friends to ride their 4 wheeler on the bumpy farm roads for an hour. I am serious when I say I tried everything!! At 37 weeks, I was dilated to a 2 and fully effaced, at 38 weeks, I was at a 3 and ready to go. I had been having false labor nearly every night since I hit the 37 week mark, but after hours on consistent contractions in the afternoon and evening, I would go to bed and they would stop. My doctor stripped my membranes hoping to speed things along, but still, the same results. I was so discouraged on Thursday night that my body had not obeyed my one request. I cried to Kyle, got a priesthood blessing that things would go ok in the morning, and we went to bed. I woke up at 4 am feeling wet and I ran to the bathroom excited because I was certain that my water had broken! Finally!! Since the leak was so slow, I determined that if I had indeed had my water break, it must have been high because every time Miles would move, I would feel a little leak and then nothing. Labor and Delivery told me to just wait and come in for the induction since I was supposed to check in at 6:30 am anyway.

At the hospital, my contractions were minimal and not doing much (I was still at a 3 when I arrived), so the dreaded pitocin (which was really what I had wanted to avoid the entire time) was started. My doctor came in and broke my water fully at 8:30 and that started to speed things along. My doctor told me when he checked me that baby's head was right there, so hopefully this would be very fast.  I had a few meltdowns in the delivery room because I felt pressured by my doctor to keep increasing the pitocin (I felt like his philosophy was to crank it as high as possible so that the contractions would be hard and fast. I really felt like his goal was just to get this baby delivered as soon as possible), but I had a fabulous nurse who was very much in support of my desire to keep the pit very low since my body was contracting very regularly on my drip rate of a 4. I did start having some low blood pressure issues, but luckily this time, I was only lightheaded for a short time and I never blacked out or required supplemental oxygen. I cried because I really wanted to be able to be up and moving, using the birthing balls, etc. but with the blasted pitocin, I had to be on monitors to make sure that the baby was handling it ok, and I was on a frequent blood pressure monitor for myself. My nurse let me go off monitor for about 20 minutes so I could move my way through the contractions, but ultimately, she had to hook my back up and since Miles was not cooperating, I had to be back in bed. It was about this point (around 11 am) that I had the nurse check me again. I was feeling really discouraged when I was only at a 4 despite constant hard contractions. Remembering my 26 hour labor that spanned 3 calendar days with Grant, I wondered if I was in for yet another horrendously long labor. With Grant, I held off on getting an epidural until it was very difficult to hold still through the constant hard contractions and the epidural placement process was miserable. With that experience fresh in mind, I decided that I had better request an epidural since everything that I had hoped for in the labor process was going out the window (I might as well be numb if I was going to be stuck in bed for hours unable to move through my contractions). The anesthesiologist finished placing the epidural around 12:30 and I was at a 6. Thankfully, this epidural process was a dream and he only gave me a very small amount of medicine initially, so I could still feel everything. Unfortunately, only my right side got the medicine (again! That happened last time too!), so I laid on my left side trying to move the medicine over and eventually required a bolus to get the medicine on my left side (though feeling one sided contractions was pretty interesting!). Kyle and I just chilled for a little bit while I waited for the bolus to wear off so that I could feel my legs again. The lactation specialist came in since I was excited to try breasfeeding after pumping for 11 months with Grant, but never being able to actually nurse him. She stayed for 45 minutes answering my questions and though I was still very numb, I started to feel some pressure. My nurse checked me and in a very calm way, told me ... "uh, you are totally there. I can feel your baby's head. It is probably time to run for the doctor!". Wow. That was fast.

It was a little surreal since I was still really numb from my epidural bolus (I prefer epidurals to be very light so I can still feel the contractions and pressure). My doctor came in at 2pm and after pushing for about 15 minutes (during which thankfully the bolus wore off so I could feel the contractions and urge to push), baby Miles was here! Despite my irritation with my doctor, I have to admit that he was great during delivery. He was great at making sure that things went slowly enough to be safe, and he made sure that I didn't tear despite delivering an 8 lb 11 oz baby. Once Miles was in my arms, I forgot all about being upset that my delivery wasn't just as I had hoped that it would be. It was so cool to have hours with him totally uninterrupted so that we could just enjoy snuggling and admiring him. We are so in love!