It's about time for me to finish up my pregnancy blog. It's been 9 weeks since I had my beautiful Sadie and I'm recovered enough to give an accounting of her birth. The actual birth went really well. If you aren't interested in the details though, you won't want to proceed.
It was a strange labor because I was induced this time around. Because of my history of rapid labor and the distance of the hospital, we were concerned that I wouldn't get there on time. So I went ahead with an induction. I was given pitocin at 6:30 am. I began the labor dilated to a 3 plus and 50% effaced. The early labor was slow. I had contractions but they didn't seem to progress much. By 10:30 I got the epidural. Things continued but it still seemed slow to me. By 1:00 pm I had only dilated to a 4 and was 60% effaced. I really enjoyed the time I spent with Dan. We watched TV and I ate light snacks. But I was concerned that I didn't seem to be progressing. The nurses kept assuring me that it was normal, but I was so used to hard fast labor, it was very foreign to me.
At 1:00 pm they decided to go ahead and break my water. That really sped things up. My contractions were immediately more productive. 30 minutes after breaking my water the nurse helped me shift my position and left the room. But as soon as I shifted, I was immediately OVERWHELMED with a need to push. I screamed for Dan to get her back and they all scrambled to find the doctor and get things set up. Now this was familiar to me. What would labor be like without the nurses telling me not to push yet because there was no doctor to catch her?
Luckily the doctor was found and I was able to push. I literally pushed through 3 contractions and her head was out. At this point the doctor told me to stop pushing because I had a double helix. I asked what that meant and the nurse told me it meant that the umbilical chord was wrapped around her neck twice. Now I didn't see it, but I was told that the doctor shot daggers at the nurse with his glare. I guess he didn't feel I needed that much information. So I stopped pushing while he unwrapped her neck. Then 1 more push and she was out. Sadie was born at 1:49. In only 49 minutes I progressed from a 4 to birth. The doctor said in his entire career he'd never seen anyone make that much progression that quickly.
While I really have no way of knowing how I might have progressed had I not been induced, I'm really glad that I was because there was definitely a potential that I might not have made it. So all went well. Sadie was a healthy 6 pounds and 6 ounces and 19 inches long.