Labor & Delivery

So if you have been following my post you know that I was concerned that Olivia was breech and I thought she had turned last week which was a great relief. Tuesday morning about 6 in the morning I started experiencing the most excruciating pain (felt like a menstrual cramp times 100). I wasn't sure it was a contraction but then they started coming every 12 minutes and I tried to labor on the ball and I finally woke up Mike. Around 7 AM Mike called our doula because the contractions were starting to get really intense.

I was expecting labor to be a slow process like a contraction here and a contraction there. I thought it was going to slowly build up from 3-4 contractions an hour eventually turning into 5 minutes apart. Boy was I wrong. Mine started without a warning and were so close together.

Around 7:30 AM our doula arrived and she was helping Mike and I try different laboring positions. I was having back labor and we were able to get Olivia to move so that went away eventually. I ate some toast and Mike made me a smoothie while I was laboring. Around 10:30 AM my contractions were 5 minutes apart and I felt like I needed to push so we went to the hospital.

When I checked in I was ready to continue the labor in the hot tub. The nurse checked me and I was 100% effaced but not dilated at all. Then she did an ultrasound and saw that Olivia was breech and the environment in the laboring room totally changed. I felt like a piece of dead meat being attacked by vultures. All these people came in and my doctor showed up and I was being prepped for a c-section.

I decided to do a c-section instead of asking to do a vaginal breech birth. Personally I thought the risks for Olivia were too high especially since it was my first baby. While being prepped and waiting to get a spinal block, I was laying on the bed and my back labor returned. FYI: Laying down in the bed is not a great way to labor.

Since I had labored at home for so long, they were worried that Olivia would come vaginally so my c-section ended up bumping everyone else who had a scheduled c-section. I went in for surgery around 11:30 AM. The morphine made me sick and I started vomiting during the surgery and all that wonderful strawberry smoothie came back up. Mike kept me company during the surgery and my doula took pictures.

Olivia was born at 12:01 PM. It was great to finally hear her cry. The surgery took longer than expected because the doctor had a difficult time stopping my bleeding. Afterwards I was so exhausted. I stayed in the hospital until Friday afternoon. I was a little disappointed that I had a c-section but I would rather play it safe. It was rough because I wasn't expecting to have a c-section and I didn't know recovery would be so difficult the first few days.

In the end I am glad that I was able to labor until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. I am glad that Mike and I hired a doula. Her knowledge was so extremely helpful and next time we will know what to expect and have a bunch of laboring techniques to use.