Madeleine's Birth Story

On Friday November 7, 2014, I went to bed early-ish like most Fridays of late.  I woke up in the middle of the night to an unusual feeling of dampness, but was tired, didn’t think much of it, and decided to get more sleep. I ended up sleeping until 11:30am! I think my body knew it would be the last time I would get 11 hours of sleep in a while!

Joseph made breakfast and we were going to go on a walk later that afternoon because we thought the baby would be late (I actually had an appointment to be induced on Friday the 14^th).   Since waking up, I had felt normal.  However, I could not shake the feeling that my water bag might have ruptured.  I called the doctor’s office and she suggested I go to the hospital to get checked out just to be safe. We quickly cleaned up and packed the last remaining necessities into our bags.  Below is a picture of me looking somewhat confident that I'd be sent back home from the hospital with a false alarm.

We made our way to Prentice and checked into triage around 3:30pm.  A nurse took a few samples and said she’d be back in about 15 minutes.  She was going to check things under a microscope to determine if amniotic fluid was present. If so, I would get admitted as my water would have broken.  15 minutes turned into about an hour and a half!  A resident doctor then arrived with a portable ultrasound machine to check the position of the baby. She was still head down.  After she left, we thought that was a bit suspicious… why would they check the position of the baby if I wasn’t going to be admitted??  About 30 minutes later, another nurse came in and confirmed it – there was amniotic fluid present, my bag had a small tear and I was slowly leaking fluid, and was going to be admitted upstairs to Labor & Delivery!  She left to get some items and we made some calls to share the good news.  The nurse came back to put in an IV port in my left arm, I got into a wheelchair and they wheeled me to the 8^th floor to Labor & Delivery.

We got to our room around 7:30pm, and after answering a bunch of questions they hooked me up to receive fluids and Pitocin. Since I also had gestational diabetes during the pregnancy (it was diet controlled), they also hooked me up to D10 which is a sugary liquid to keep my blood sugars stabilized – so I had 3 bags of fluid going into me.  They started the Pitocin at 2 in the first hour and would increase by 2 every hour until I started to feel the effects. FYI the highest Pitocin level goes up to 20. 

I had 2 monitors on my belly; one to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and one to measure when I was getting a contraction.  

I really did not feel any contractions at the Pitocin drips of 2, 4 or 6 despite them telling me I was having them!  I would see the contractions come on the monitor and feel my tummy get hard, but really didn’t feel anything. I thought for a split second that if all contractions felt this way, maybe I could do this naturally.  I was so wrong!  See how happy I am in the picture below?

Labor really started going once they increased the Pitocin to 8!  I had a contraction which released a large gush of water.  After that, I started to feel small contractions which felt like small menstrual cramps.  The contractions would come and go, some felt long, some felt short, and there was no steady pattern.  The contractions got stronger and stronger where I couldn’t talk through them anymore and had to work on my breathing.  I took long deep even breaths in and out.  Joseph asked what they felt like, and I said they felt like this: “Imagine you just lunch at a greasy Indian buffet, and your stomach starts hurting but you are in traffic and nowhere near a bathroom, and the pain just gets worse and worse”  THAT is how bad they felt and the only way I could describe them at the time.   I felt Joseph would understand that analogy.  (Joseph's Sidenote Comment on Vickie's Indian Food Analogy:  I didn't really understand the analogy as I'd probably just crap myself and worry about the repercussions later).  

By around 1:00am, the pain was getting unbearable for me.  I told them the pain level was 8 on a scale of 10.  I was still breathing through them and by now had asked Joseph to rub my back during the contractions, just to take my mind off of them. I definitely felt a sensation to push.  I forgot to mention earlier that all the while I had no idea how far I was dilated!  Normally a woman gets checked often how dilated & effaced they are. Since my water broke, they do not check as they do not want to risk introducing bacteria into the birth canal and to the baby.

At around 1:50am we asked for a doctor to come see us to potentially give us some drugs/epidural.    I was ready for an epidural!  I didn’t want to get one unless I was far enough along as it could slow down labor.  The nurses said the resident doctor would come around on the next cycle of their rotation to check the dilation/effacement and whether we were ready for the epidural.  However, 30 minutes later and still no doctor.  Finally at 2:20am, the resident doctor came to examine me and said I was about 5 centimeters and 90% effaced!  At my appointment the Tuesday prior, I was still only at 1cm and 70% effaced.   I decided then and there to definitely get my epidural!  I was in too much pain to wait to 10 centimeters, plus I was SO tired, and wish pushing around the corner, I needed to get some rest. 

Another 30 minutes and still no epidural.  At 2:45am our OBGYN made an appearance and at that point we complained about no drugs/epidural.  She took charge and by 3am, the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. Joseph had to leave at this point, but my OBGYN came in and sat with me the entire time which was great.  I had concerns I wouldn’t be able to sit still as the contractions were so strong.  The contractions did not feel as strong while I was getting the epidural, which I’m grateful for!   He warned me the most painful part of the epidural was the numbing shot.  I just felt a few pricks of a needle on either side of my spine.  The pain really was not bad at all, and I actually thought “that was it?”  The anesthesiologist commented I was one of the most stoic patients he had ever had getting the procedure done, and they also commented that labor must be pretty bad for me not to have a reaction to it.  All I felt later was light pressure of what felt like fingertips on either side of spine on my lower back as they inserted the catheter which would release the medicine.

Slowly I felt my right leg, and then my left leg start to fall asleep, but they never really fully fell asleep.  My calves and feet were tingly the entire time and my upper body was itchy, which is a very normal reaction to the procedure.  They laid me on my left side and after about 10 minutes, my entire midsection was numb.  I tried to squeeze my vaginal muscles and couldn’t feel anything.  I felt great!  They dimmed the lights and Joseph and I got some much needed sleep. About 30 minutes later they inserted a foley catheter and turned me to the other side.  Below is a picture of me sleeping after my epidural (90 minutes until the arrival of Madeleine).

Around 4am, my OBGYN came in to examine me as the monitors were showing my contractions were strong and more even.  I still felt nothing and silently wished I hadn’t progressed much so I could get more sleep!  She examined me and asked if I was “ready to have the baby” because her head was “right there.” We would have our baby soon, and that she could be out in “just a few pushes.”  I can’t believe I progressed so quickly!  I went from 1cm at 3:30pm to 10cm at 4:00am!

I still could not feel anything “down there” and was really concerned about pushing and knowing what to do.  She said they would let me know when I was having a contraction by watching the monitor. I was to put my head to my chin, and push for 10 seconds, and repeat 3 times per contraction.  Joseph held up one leg while the nurse held the other, and the OBGYN checked the baby’s progress.  The OBGYN and nurse coached me during each contraction and were very encouraging. Eventually they brought out a mirror so I could view the progress.

I progressed with contractions.  Eventually I pushed enough where the baby’s head did not go back in and instead was “stuck.”  At this point, the doctor and nurse started to prep the area with the tools needed.  Our baby was RIGHT THERE.  A few pushes later, I heard the doctor say her entire head had been delivered and to stop pushing!  The OBGYN then attempted to turn her head and shoulders to guide her out. 

I looked down and saw our baby girl come out head first.  Her head was very blue and after a few seconds, she screamed and I breathed the sigh of relief as all moms do after hearing her scream.  Then her shoulders and the rest of her came out!  The OBGYN quickly cleaned her up and Joseph cut the umbilical cord. They placed her on my chest for a few minutes of skin to skin contact before taking her to the side table to get cleaned, weighed, measured and checked out. 

So at 4:58am, on Sunday November 9, 2014, after about 40 minutes of active pushing, our beautiful baby girl Madeleine Grace Wagner was born one day “early”!  She weighed in at 7 lbs, 9 oz and was 21.25” long. She scored 9/10 on both her 1 minute and 5 minute Apgar scores only missing perfection because of her slightly blue feet!  She’s perfect and we agree she looks a lot like me when I was a baby.