My nurse had asked how my last delivery was and said she thought I’d go much faster than the two and a half hours of pushing I had the first time around. Last time, if you remember, I was induced and progressed slowly. But I went from 5-10 cm in half an hour before the long stretch of pushing. I was expecting it to be not as long, but still take a while. I was also expecting the rapid dilation.
Going into labor on my own was so different. I took a while to get to 8. Mark got back from getting dinner and that’s where I was. He wasn’t back very long before I started feeling that familiar “you need to shit” pressure.
Haha how could I forget? A little before this point in labor, I felt a blurp. I don’t know how else to describe it. But there was definitely wetness. I called the nurse and told her I thought my water broke. She checked and said no, it seemed like it was just the rest of the mucus plug.
So how big is a damned mucus plug? I never was aware of losing it the first time around. I definitely saw it earlier that morning. I was still encountering some of it when I was in the observation room before going to my L and D room. How the hell was it still coming out? Ugh.
We called the nurse to tell her I had a lot of pressure. Last time, they topped off my IV with some pain meds but this time, they didn’t know if there would be time. When the nurse came, she checked me. In the process of doing this, she said, “I can feel yo-“ and all of a sudden, I felt a gush of wet. The nurse was trying to say that the sac was bulging into my birth canal and was almost done. But when she reached in to see how dilated I was, she popped the bag and got covered in amniotic fluid.
I was mortified. I mean I know it probably happens fairly often enough, but I was still mortified. I apologized profusely and she laughed at me. She was a little disgusted, I think, but was so nice about it. As she was going to change the padding under me, though, she noticed there was meconium in the fluids.
I knew this could be bad. They called for a nurse practitioner to be present.
I was just about to 10 cm, so they called my doctor, who lives downtown. It took a bit for her to make it to Metairie.
In the meantime, the pressure and poop urge were getting intense. Because I was so close and because my doctor was coming and my water had broken and the anesthesiologist would take a while to come back, I didn’t get anything to take the edge off.
I needed to push. Like ten minutes ago. But they wouldn’t let me because my doctor wasn’t there yet. We had been watching a “Married...With Children” marathon but now “Blades of Glory” was on. A nurse I hadn’t met yet was part of the delivery team and she was pretty into the movie. I was in pretty serious pain from the pressure. I don’t know how nice I was because I wanted to push but not only were they refusing to let me do it yet, they just wanted me to breathe. No. Screw You. Haha.
I was so miserable that the nurse wanted to check me again. I was afraid to open my legs for her. I waited for the contraction/pressure to subside and she took a look.
What I didn’t see but Mark saw was that when she looked, she shot a “yeeesh” look at one of the other nurses.
After what felt like an eternity, my doctor made it. She walked in and said “Why is she in pain? She didn’t get the epidural?” They explained it was just serious pressure. It felt like forever before they had her in her splash gear (for lack of the actual name of what they wear for a vaginal delivery). They weren’t sure how to work the stirrups on the bed because it was apparently new and was different from the rest of the beds and none of them had really had to fool with it yet. Seriously? The contractions/pressure were almost constant so they decided to just lift my legs. I made them wait until the latest contraction/pressure ended and up they went. I felt the next one start. I took a breath to push. I didn’t have to push. I felt serious pain and screamed, then realized what my doctor was saying. I opened my eyes and she had my daughter in the air. It was 10:39 p.m. when my fierce little girl entered the world fast and furious.
“Wait, that’s it?”
They laughed. The nurse said “I told you it was going to be quick!”
They immediately got her to the nurse practitioner since she was covered in meconium. He checked her out and she was fine. They cleaned the bulk of it off of her.
The intense pain I felt was a second degree tear. It only took a couple of stitches, but since she came so quickly, there wasn’t really anything to be done to prevent it.
“Good thing you had your legs clamped shut like that; she would have rocketed across the room if you hadn’t been like that!” my crazy doctor said.
As Mark put it, it took longer for Doc to suit up than it took to deliver.
At 18.5” and 6.8 pounds, she was much smaller than her brother. She also had a very full head of dark hair (which I saw in one of my last MFM ultrasounds) and very deep dimples. Despite all of the prenatal scares, the accident, and the meconium, she was perfectly healthy.
