Full disclosure: Beckett's Birth Story, Part I

Beckett is two weeks old now (almost three!). I figured it was as good a time as any to share his birth story. My husband actually did most of the writing here in order to share our story with our Bradley classmates. I'll add back in all the dirty details that I know you're hoping for though, :). The text below is what we sent to our group. My additional comments will be in italics.

We've known for several months now that there was a very real possibility of our little bundle being not so little. Mom had been measuring ahead for months and an early ultrasound indicated we could have a big baby on our hands. At week 38, Mom was measuring 42 weeks and the doctor recommended another ultrasound. This one predicted a 9 lb 14 oz baby with a possible 2+ weeks to go. Our doctor did warn us about the possibility of shoulder dystocia being an issue with a big baby, but they also knew about our plans for natural birth and were fine with us continuing to wait for our boy to make his arrival on his own time. Due to the size prediction by the ultrasound our doctor actually told us that we could schedule a c-section right then and there. Something I definitely didn't want to do, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the thought of delivering such a large baby didn't scare me a little. There was now the very real possibility of facing complications and/or our plan not working out. Of course, we always knew that could happen. We did have some serious discussions, but, in the end, decided to wait it out. I stood by the fact that at the very least I wanted to try to let our boy choose the time of his arrival. From all our classes I knew that just going through the labor process would be beneficial to our baby.

On Saturday, November 26th, Dad awoke around 7:30am and Mom indicated that she had had several contractions since about 7am and that they were about fifteen minutes apart. While we had had our bags packed for weeks, Dad started doing final preparations around the house, getting the car packed up and such. Because I don't think he had any idea what to do with himself. Within a couple hours, Mom's contractions had already shrunk down to about every 6-7 minutes apart and it seemed that we were on our way to a quick delivery. Oh, if that had only been true. :) Over the next several hours Mom took a couple showers and we executed all of the training that Bradley Classes had provided by changing positions and trying to work through each contraction one by one. Once the contractions had reached the 4-5 minute range they held there for quite a while. Around 5pm, now ten hours into labor, the contractions had gotten down to the 2 minute range and Dad contacted Mom's doctor to inform her that we were headed into Highland Park Hospital. The doctor was surprised that we had already endured so much of the labor process at home and agreed that it was a good time to go in.

So... Contractions. For most of the day they were manageable. I had heard before that they felt like strong period cramps. And I would say that is a pretty accurate description, again, early on. I worried for a long time that since I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions so frequently during my pregnancy, that I would not be able to tell when I was actually have labor contractions. I should not have worried about that. There is definitely a difference.

We were at the hospital and pretty well settled in by around 6pm. Mom's contractions were still around the 2-3 minute range but were of a fairly high intensity. Mom had a heplock put in and was put on a monitor just to see where we stood at the beginning. All signs came up fine and mom was taken off the monitor within half an hour. At that point, we were told she was around 4 cm dilated. Ugh. After nearly 12 hours of labor I was hoping that I was further along. Several more hours passed and mom continued to shower and go through a series of positions to try and advance the labor process. By this point, the shower was the only place I felt comfortable. Chris was trying his hardest to help me through things, but there's really only so much that someone else can do. He did a good job of reminding me to breathe though. We thought we were making good progress since the contractions continued to increase in intensity and frequency. By midnight the contractions were lasting 30 seconds and were only a minute apart. Mom was hoping that this was transition! But another check revealed that we had only progressed another centimeter or so to a six, but mom was allowed to continue. By now I was telling Chris that I wasn't sure how much longer I could do this. I felt very discouraged to not be making faster progress. The shower was no longer comforting. I think I could have handled things better if the contractions weren't so close together, but I had very little respite. Within the next hour contractions started occasionally double peaking. With very little relief between contractions now and having been in labor for 17 hours already, we requested an epidural. It was our hope that if we could alleviate some of the pain over the next couple of hours that the labor could progress and mom would have the necessary energy to endure the latter stages of labor. I was begging Chris now. I had told him in advance that there would probably come a point where I would ask, but I expected to be further along by then. I was feeling defeated. But I was SO tired. I just wanted it to stop for a little while. I knew there was a chance that the epidural would slow my progress even more, but the opposite could also be true. Being able to relax a little while could also speed things along. Either way, I knew I couldn't take much more. Within 30 minutes the drug doctor arrived. The worst part of the whole epi administration was being forced to hunch over on the bed 'like a "C."'. My belly was so big that this was nearly impossible. But I bent just enough and the relief came quickly.

At this point I was put on the monitors full time and had a catheter put in since I would no longer be allowed to get out of bed. My legs were totally numb by now so that would have been impossible anyway.

We managed to get a bit of sleep. By about 6am, now on Sunday the 27th, we had still only progressed to 7cm and baby was still at -2 station. In other words, he was not progressing down the birth canal, which explains why my dilation was so slow. The staff suggested that we start a slow drip of pitocin to see if we could get things going. I hesitated, but since I already had the epidural, finally agreed. Ugh. This is exactly the path of interventions that I was looking to avoid by taking the Bradley classes. :(

Mom's doctor arrived around 8am and conducted a vaginal exam. Little had changed. Except that I now had a fever and was given a Tylenol suppository (yahoo!) to bring it back down. The doc indicated that she wanted to return about an hour later to see if we could make more progress. Upon her visit at 9am, mom had reached 8cm dilation, but to this point her water still not broken. We agreed to allow the doctor to break her bag of waters (again in the hopes of speeding things up) and, unfortunately, we were informed that meconium was present in the waters. Meconium is a newborn's first poops. The fact that there was meconium present indicates that the baby was under some degree of stress. The doctor and hospital staff did not signal an immediate alarm, but stated that it was now important to monitor the situation to determine where we wanted to go from there. Over the course of the next hour, the baby's heart rate started to fluctuate on the monitor periodically. At 10am, we had a visit with the doctor where the progress or lack thereof was discussed, along with the existing concerns over mom and baby's health. Given all of what we knew from ultrasounds, there was also a fair confidence that this was a large baby inside of a small-framed mom and that the pushing stage of labor could go on for quite some time. Taking all of what we knew, after 27 hours of labor, we executed the most important aspect of our Bradley training and made a tough decision as "educated consumers". We accepted the fact that a Cesarean Section was now likely the best course of action. Shit. I was terrified to say the least but also very disappointed at the direction that things had gone. I knew however, given his predicted size, failure to descend, heart rate decelerations, the presence of meconium and my own fever that this really was the best option.

To be continued...