I gave birth to Minka Raz Sutkowski on August 21, 2011 at 1:09 PM. She was 8 pounds 15.2 ounces and 22 inches long. It took me a while to write out my birth story, after her birth I quickly became more interested in newborns and nursing instead of the experience of labor. So here it goes.
I had my first set of contractions on a Thursday night but they simply went away after I went to bed. My next set of contractions started in the early hours of Saturday morning, waking me periodically from sleep. I gave up on sleep around 5:00 AM and had contractions all day about 20 minutes apart (I downloaded an app on my iPhone to time them!).
They started to become intense at 7:00 PM, after a large meal which I would later regret. We headed to the hospital at 10:30 PM that night when the contractions were quite intense and had been between 2 – 3 minutes apart for over an hour. When we got to the hospital I was only 2 inches dilated! I had been 1 inch dilated for three weeks already and I was 11 days overdue.
The contractions continued pretty strongly and were coming close together. I found that walking helped make the contractions come faster and I was able to better handle the pain. They moved me to the labor room around midnight but I was still only about 2 inches dilated.
I continued to walk and felt better after throwing up the afore mentioned large meal. I rotated between walking, sitting on my Pilates ball, sitting on the bed with the ball in front of me to sitting on the bed with the ball behind me. At 5:00 AM they talked me into having my water bag broken, they said it would help to move the labor along.
They wanted to start pitocin but I was still determined to have as natural a birth as possible. I thought I could walk to push the labor along.
They broken my water and I subsequently had the most intense contraction thus far, followed by the baby flailing around inside of me. The breaking of the water only accomplished me dilating to 3 1/2 inches and followed one of two rather dramatic situations during my labor.
Suddenly all the doctors and nurses on the floor were in my room and it got very quiet. I was no longer asked what I wanted, as an oxygen mask was put on my face and an IV in my arm. The baby’s heart rate had dropped drastically, likely as a result of her putting weight on the umbilical cord.
They made me lie on my side for about an hour after which my contractions slowed way down and got less intense. I was so tired at this point and practically falling asleep between contractions. This continued until about 10 AM when my doctor talked me into starting the pitocin, as I was still only 4 inches dilated.
I was so tired at this point that my eyes kept rolling to the back of my head when I tried to talk to the nurses and doctors. I also threw up a few more times, which made me feel better for a little while. We started the pitocin and even inserted a vaginal monitor to accurately track the intensity of the contractions.
So much for a natural birth. I had wires and tubes coming out of every orifice, the only thing missing would have been a catheter! At this point I was worried about the pain that the pitocin would bring and was so tired that I just wanted to sleep. I thought with an epidural, which I truly had wanted to avoid, would allow me to sleep and my doctor warned that I would need my strength for the pushing portion of labor.
I spoke to the anesthesiologist and we decided on a low dose cocktail referred to as a walking epidural. They sat me up for the epidural and I had some really strong contractions. I realize now that I was in transition, and it only lasted for 5 – 10 minutes.
I wish they had checked my progress before administering the epidural. At this point, due to the pain, I was also WIDE awake so didn’t have to worry about falling asleep or having the energy to push. I was told it would take 15 – 20 minutes for the epidural to take effect and they laid me on my side.
Instantly the contractions changed, I felt my uterus contracting as my body was suddenly pushing the baby down, even though I was trying not to push. These contractions were less painful and almost a relief as I could feel my body making progress.
The nurse wanted to wait for my doctor to check my progress but she was seeing another patient and then the nurse even left the room.
I was sure the baby was about to come OUT so I asked my hubby to either look under the blanket to see if he could see the head or call the nurse. She came back and sure enough it was time to push. Only about 20 minutes had elapsed since getting the epidural.
We started pushing, which again was kind of a relief because it was something I could actively participate in/push through as opposed to passively enduring pain. I was so ready to push!
The pushing only lasted 25 minutes and it burned like hell! I pushed her out so quickly that she looked like a c-section baby with almost a perfectly round head! I credit yoga and Pilates for the core strength it took to get the baby out.
She was overdue and there was some meconium in the fluid but she came out crying so they were able to put her right on my chest. She was nursing within 10 minutes!
