Madilyn's Birth

On January 25^th, we had our final doctor’s appointment. Madi was already 5 days overdue and the plan was that I would be induced. When we were at the doctor’s office I told him I would like to be induced as soon as possible since my parents would be here on Wednesday. He called the hospital to see when they had room for me to come in. They said if I wanted to I could come in that night at 5. We were so excited and nervous that the moment had finally come!

We checked in at 5 and I got hooked up to the monitors to monitor the baby’s heart rate and any contractions that I had. The nurse gave me a medication called Cervidil to help soften my cervix up then I would be started on Pitocin in the morning. I had heard that Pitocin caused contractions to be much stronger and more painful, but I was okay with that since the only thing I wanted for my birth plan was an epidural. The nurse also checked how dilated I was and I was still only 1.5 cm and 50% effaced. That night Michael and I got hardly any sleep! I maybe got a full hour. I was so anxious for the next day to get here.

At 7 AM the nurse took the Cervidil out and rechecked me. I was the exact same, 1.5 cm. She then said we would be starting Pitocin after breakfast. We got moved over to our delivery room and ended up starting the Pitocin at 8 AM. About 15 minutes later, Dr. Minudri came in to let us know the plan for the day. He explained all that would happen and said he would be checking in with us later on in the day. Before he left, Madi’s heart rate dropped significantly and was not coming back up. My nurse came running in to check the monitor and see what was going on. She had me lay on my side, gave me a bolus of fluids, and put oxygen on me. The heart rate stayed low and the doctor said to shut off the Pitocin and wait a while before restarting it. Of course, at this point I was getting a little nervous that her heart rate had stayed low for so long! But after a few minutes she was back up to the 110’s. Which was low for her since she had been in the 130-140s. The nurse said she would continue to watch the heart rate and once it got back up to Madi’s baseline we could restart the Pitocin.

Around 9:30 AM we were able to restart the Pitocin. At this point, I was already having contractions every 3-5 minutes that lasted a minute. So far they were not too painful, but the Pitocin was also only going at 2 ml/hr. About every 30 minutes the nurse would come in and bump the Pitocin up and at around 11 AM my contractions were becoming much more painful. At this point, I could breath through them, but I let the nurse know that I wanted an epidural sooner rather than later. She checked how dilated I was and she said I was barely 2 cm! I couldn’t believe that I was still about the same after all the contractions I had been having all morning! She said she would still call the doctor and let him know I wanted an epidural soon. She came back in after talking with Dr. Minudri and said that the doctor wanted to wait until I started to dilate before letting me have an epidural. I understood the reasoning for this and even though the contractions were becoming more and more painful, I was hopeful that I would dilate soon.

Shortly after this time, my contractions were becoming incredibly painful to the point that I was starting to hyperventilate during contractions. At one point, the nurse said my oxygen saturations got down to 70%. But who knows how accurate that was since during each contractions I would move around a lot in bed to try to ease the pain. Michael was amazing during all of this and would massage my lower back during each contraction which helped ease the pain. I asked the nurse to recheck me because I needed that epidural! She rechecked and I was praying that I dilated even just a little! She said I was now 4 cm and 100% effaced! She ran to call the doctor and I was so relieved that I would be able to get an epidural soon! She shortly came back in and said that in the last few hours the baby had been having several late decelerations meaning the baby’s heart rate would drop in the middle of a contraction. She said the doctor was very nervous that if I had an epidural it would cause my blood pressure to drop which would in turn effect the baby’s heart rate even more. He was afraid I would need an emergency C-section if I did get an epidural. She said I could always still get the epidural and that it was up to me. After hearing the risk that this could cause me and my baby, I knew I would have to wait. The nurse said that she could give my a few IV pain meds to help take the edge off though, which I was all for!

I was now having contractions every 3 minutes and there was a period of time that I was actually having 4 or 5 contractions in a row with only 30 seconds of time in between each one. I don’t remember a lot that happened during this time. Michael said I was getting pretty delusional and was very out of it. All I remember was crying each time a contraction started and just trying to breath my way through it. The nurse said if we could the get the baby in a different position that maybe her heart rate would stop dropping during contractions. She put a peanut shaped ball in between my legs and said that this could help get the baby to turn. Around 3 PM, the nurse said I could try getting in the Jacuzzi tub and seeing if this helped ease the pain. I was all for anything that would help decrease my pain! I got in and it the warm water felt great! But once a contraction hit there was no relief. I stayed in for only a short time then got back in bed.

After getting back in bed, I still was struggling with hyperventilating during contractions. I became extremely light headed and my ears started to ring. I knew that if I didn’t get my breathing under control, I was going to cause myself to pass out. At this point, I remembered a part of the blessing that Michael had given me about a week before. The blessing said to listen to the signs my body was giving me. I knew at this point if I continued this same pattern that I would pass out which would be just as bad for me and the baby. I told the nurse I either needed an epidural or that I wanted a C-section. She let the doctor know and he said that I could now have the epidural. It was now 4 PM. She rechecked me to see where I was at and I was now 7 cm dilated! I was proud of myself that for not wanting a natural labor I had made it to 7 cm on Pitocin! When the anesthesiologist came in I could not be more relieved! He had me sit on the side of the bed and lean over. Of course right when he was going to place the epidural I had another contraction! It was so hard trying to sit still during the contraction and I’m pretty sure I almost squeezed Michael’s hand right off!

It only took a few minutes for him to get the epidural in. I layed back down and he asked how my pain was. I said I wasn’t having any now, but said to see how I felt during a contraction. The nurse told me I had had several contractions already. I was so relieved to know that I could no longer even feel the contractions! The nurse also turned off the Pitocin since I was now contracting on my own. A little while later the nurse came in and said that the baby was doing great. She said that since I received the epidural her heart rate had not dropped down at all! After dinner, the doctor came in and checked on me. He told me that we were getting close! At around 8 PM, the nurse rechecked me and I was a 9! She told me to let her know once I felt pressure. There were a few times I called her in because I thought I was feeling pressure, but when she rechecked me I was still 9 cm dilated so I couldn’t start pushing yet. By this point, my water had still not broken yet! But when the nurse rechecked me, it caused my water to break. I heard a huge gush of fluid when it did. The nurse told me that there was some meconium in the water. I knew this was not a good thing and usually meant the baby was under stress. But the nurse told me that this was normal for baby’s that were overdue. She said that because there was meconium, she would have the respiratory therapist here for delivery just in case she needed to have Madi suctioned. She also said that the pediatrician would be called in as well.

Around 8:30 or 9 PM, I was able to start feeling contractions again on my right side.  At this point, it wasn’t even close to the pain I had experienced earlier, but was becoming more painful with each contraction. I let the nurse know and she called the anesthesiologist. He came and made sure the epidural was working okay and gave me a bolus of pain mediation. This did nothing and the pain continued to increase in my right lower back. He gave me another bolus to see if that would help. This time it did help a little, but I still was pretty uncomfortable. The anesthesiologist said he could give me one more bolus, but that if he did it would probably make my legs go completely numb which would make pushing extremely difficult. So we held off on the bolus. Shortly after that the nurse rechecked me and I was now fully dilated! She said I could start pushing now, or I could wait and let my body do the work to get Madi’s head lower so I wouldn’t have to push as long. I said I would rather start pushing since the epidural was wearing off and I would rather have at least some pain control now, rather than none later on.

I started pushing at 11:30 PM. The nurse told me to lift my legs up to push during contractions. I realized that I could hardly even wiggle my toes and definitely could not move my legs on my own. It was a good thing I didn’t get that last bolus of pain meds or I would have been completely numb from the waist down! So the nurse held up my left leg and Michael held up my right. Pushing definitely felt weird since I was so numb I had no idea if I was actually pushing or not! Dr. Minudri got to the hospital around midnight and was in and out of my room checking on how things were going. Michael said he could see the baby’s head and I was hopeful that meant I was close to being done pushing, but the nurse said I still had a while. She said some people push 2-3 hours! At 1 AM on the 27^th, they called in the pediatrician since I was now close to delivering the baby. Dr. Minudri could tell I was getting tired from pushing and said that we could use a vacuum to help get the baby out. He said that he would attach the vacuum to the baby’s head and that when I was pushing, he would pull. I was all for anything that would help speed the process along! I had only had 2 or 3 contractions since the doctor had started using the vacuum and he said one more push and I would be done. He said I just needed to get one of the shoulders out then he could do the rest! Our precious baby was born at 1:36 AM and I was relieved to hear her cry right when she came out! They let Michael cut the cord then had the pediatrician take her right away and make sure she was doing all right. He looked her over and said everything was perfect! They put Madi on my chest and I could not believe that this was my baby! Michael and I were both crying! It was an amazing moment! Madilyn was absolutely perfect and was beautiful! The doctor said that when Madi came out, the cord was around her neck. He said this was probably why the baby’s heart rate was dropping earlier.

It sure did take a long time for Madilyn to get her, but we are so glad that she finally decided to come! We love her so much! The labor and delivery was rough, but all the pain was worth it! Madilyn Lois was 7 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches long. She’s not even a week old and already has blessed our lives more than we ever would have guessed. Watching Michael care for Madi makes me love him even more. He is already the best daddy and he is so good with her. Becoming parents has been one of the best things that has happened to us. We are excited to see what the future holds and to raise Madi together.