The Labor Story

SO, here I am three days later...recounting my second labor experience for those who are interested....

Sunday afternoon on my due date, I was desperate to deliver this baby. I went out and got some castor oil. The cocktail of orange juice and castor oil wasn't as bad as what others have told me. I went ahead and called Estall wondering if I had done something wrong. She then told me I needed to drink a little more for the full effect. So, here I am chugging it down in like two shots. Within two hours, I was cramping and having liquid diarrhea. That subsided around 9:30pm with no regular contractions. At 12:10am, I woke up with really bad cramping, ran to the bathroom, no much going on there. So I thought I could just try to let it go and go back to bed. After about twenty minutes, I woke Dan up and told him, I really don't feel good. Dan said "no, you are not going to labor." So I laid back down and waited. No change, the contractions are getting worse and going to my back. Finally, we woke everybody up and left for Madigan.

When we got to L & D, I was only still 2 cm dilated with hard contractions the doctors were even considering letting me go home and walk and then come back, at least that was their plan until the baby's heart rate went down. Once that happened, I became a full admit. For the next 12 hours, Dan and I slept and waited for more dilation until about 11 AM we decided our best bet to augment the labor, which wasn't progressing was with Pitocin. I was a bit reluctant about starting because of what happened with Isaac last time and ending up with a c-section. But thank God, everything worked out okay. It helped dilate me up to 6 cm, but the baby was still at -3 station, which is way high up in my pelvis. In a last ditch effort, my doctor thought maybe we should try and rupture the membranes...well, within minutes of my water breaking, the heart rate when down for a third time. I had people coming in left and right and the doctor literally stuck his hand up my cervix to hold the baby up so that baby's head would be off the cord. It was at that time, I gave up on a VBAC and decided to go ahead with the c-section. As much as I wanted to be natural, I felt that my baby would be in more danger the longer I wait. So we went ahead and started on the c-section.

By the time we got to the OR, I already have had the epidural on board for over 10 hours and it had started to wear off. Everything was going great until they started sewing me up. For some reason, I felt more pain than anything. Not wanting more pain meds, I kept refusing. I was in so much pain, I even asked Dan to not talk me (sorry, honey). I was feeling every pull and stitch. I was screaming and swearing...at one point, I was holding on to the surgeons legs so tight, one doctor was like "Ms. Solverson can you put your arm back on the board." Finally, the surgery ended. Jed was healthy and I was put out for the final stitches. Thank God everything worked out. I was a bit bummed about not being able to do a VBAC, but I was reassured to know that the surgeons evaluated my pelvis during the operation and concluded that there was no way I was going to fit an 8-lb baby out of my pelvis. I'm just thankful I have a great doctor that listened and really cared about what was going on the whole way through.

Now, life with two kids..we'll see.....more to come...