The weekend before McKinley was born, Brad and I took a natural childbirth class together. I had been told that I may be unable to have an epidural due to previous spinal surgery and we wanted to be prepared, just as a precaution. We never thought that we would have to use the techniques we learned so soon.
I went to my regular doctor's appointment after school on Wednesday, January 11th. I was 37 weeks + 6 days for this appointment. I didn't really have any new concerns other than the swelling I was having in my feet, ankles, and legs. I had started having mild swelling right before Christmas at 35 weeks. However, that swelling would typically go away overnight with lots of water and with propping up my feet. By this appointment, the swelling pretty much stuck around constantly. This was also the first appointment where my blood pressure was high. It had been low or normal the entire pregnancy, falling in the 100/60 to 110/70 range at every appointment. Hearing that at the beginning of my visit was pretty scary, but besides the swollen feet, I didn't think I had any other symptoms that would indicate preeclampsia. The rest of the visit was normal. McKinley's heart rate was good and I was still only 1 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. It definitely didn't seem like she wanted to show up soon. But, when they checked my BP at the end of the appointment, it was lower, but still elevated. As a precaution, my midwife decided to send me to the hospital for monitoring, telling me that I would probably only be there for a few hours since everything seemed to be improving.
One of my last baby belly pictures.
I got to the hospital around 4:30 PM on Wednesday. I called Brad first and then my mom to let them know I was going to be having my blood pressure monitored. Because I really thought I'd be going home later that evening, I told both of them not to worry about joining me. I checked into the Family Birthing Center and was sent to a triage room for monitoring and testing. What I thought would be a quick experience before going home and waiting for my baby to be full term, proved not to be. I waited at the hospital for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours before finally telling Brad I didn't think I would be coming home soon. Luckily we already had our hospital bags packed and in my car, so Brad only had to grab my exercise ball (to use just in case I ended up going into labor and staying there) before he headed to Athens and the hospital.
While I was waiting for Brad to arrive, my BP improved. It finally went back down to a normal, healthy range. However, during this time, I started having regular contractions that indicated I was at the beginnings of labor. Brad arrived at the hospital around 8:00 PM, just in time for the nurses to tell me a midwife from my practice would be coming to talk to us soon. At this point, we realized we probably weren't going home. When the midwife got to my triage room around 9:30 PM that night, she let us know that my visit that day showed I had protein in my urine and combined with the recently elevated BP, I was officially diagnosed with preeclampsia and the recommendation was that I have a baby the next day.
After that, everything started happening quickly! I was moved from the triage room to a delivery room, which was actually a c-section recovery room since the hospital was so crowded. I called my mom and she and my sister decided to drive over from Canton that night to be at the hospital. My dad came over the next day. Once I got into my room, I was hooked up to a blood pressure monitor, a fetal heart rate monitor, and given Cervidil to soften my cervix. My mom and sister arrived at the hospital between midnight and 1 AM and we were able to give them keys to our house and have my sister drive Brad's car back home. After that, Brad brought our hospital bags up from the car and we settled in to hopefully get a good night's sleep before things really started the next morning.
I would say my labor officially started on Thursday, January 12th at 7 AM. I was allowed to eat a small breakfast (an English muffin and banana) before my midwife returned to place the Foley balloon catheter to start my labor/induction. Not much had changed since the appointment yesterday. I was maybe 2 cm dilated and this was by far the most painful part of the induction. However, having the catheter didn't last long as it fell out around 8 AM and my water broke on its own immediately afterward. At this point, I was about 4/5 cm dilated. The rest of the day seemed to go by quickly. I wasn't given Pitocin since I was trying for an unmedicated birth and that would've made my contractions too intense too quickly.
Around lunch time, I started to hit the dreaded transition contractions and this is where the childbirth class came in really handy. Brad was the best birthing partner around. He is normally really queasy, but that day he was there to hold my hand through the Foley insertion, every contraction, and even held a bucket while I threw up on him. He helped me focus on breathing instead of the contractions, helped me in and out of the bath, and set up the meditations on my phone for me to listen to that we had learned in class. Some of the things we learned at our childbirth class seemed so silly, but y'all, they actually really helped.
Once I was about 7/8 cm, I started to feel like I couldn't continue with an unmedicated birth and asked to talk to the anesthesiologist about getting an epidural. However, when he arrived I found out for sure that I was not able to have an epidural. Due to the amount of scar tissue I have and the point at which my spinal cord terminates (lower than most peoples), giving me an epidural ran a huge risk of paralysis. So, I elected to have a dose of Fentanyl, an IV pain medication, and try to sleep through some of my contractions.
When I woke up, the midwife came back to check me and decided I was 10 cm dilated and could begin pushing. This was a little before 7 PM. I pushed, with just my nurse, Brad, and my mom being present for about two hours before another midwife came back to check me. McKinley was dropping but wasn't make much progress in actually entering the birth canal. She was posterior or sunny side up, which meant her face was facing my belly and her head was pressing on my spine. By this point, my body was so tired that my nurse was having to wake me up to push because I falling asleep between contractions.
The new midwife on call felt that I was only about 9.5 cm dilated and was beginning to progress backward. I was also having terrible back labor due to McKinley's position and the contractions that I was having were no longer strong enough to push out a baby. They definitely felt strong enough though, due to all the stress on my body, these itty bitty contractions felt worse than any transitional contraction I had. McKinley wasn't turning into the correct birthing position, so around 9 PM we were given two options.
The first option was to give me more IV pain medication and try to get some sleep to allow my body to rest. With this option we had to hope that my contractions would pick back up and I would reprogress to 10 cm dilated before 8 AM the next morning. At that point if she had not been born I would have been forced to have a c-section since it would have been 24 hours since my water broke.
The second option was to be given an official diagnosis of "failure to progress" and deliver via c-section that night.
Because the first option had so many variables that could end in an emergency c-section, Brad and I decided to go with the second option and have the c-section that night. The anesthesiologist came back and explained how the procedure would go for me since I had not had an epidural. I was going to be given a spinal, which is a much smaller needle, that carried less risk. I had been so scared of a c-section because I thought I would have to undergo general anesthesia and not be awake for the birth of my daughter, so hearing that I would still get to see her immediately following birth was a huge relief.
Once we decided to have the c-section, things moved so quickly. I really only had a few minutes to process that we were about to meet our daughter, and not the way we had planned. I felt like they immediately started prep for the c-section. My bed was rolled across the hall (totally foreshadowing that we would end up in an OR since we were set up in a c-section room) and I received my spinal. It was so strange that I had been in so much pain and after that injection, I felt nothing. While I was being prepped for surgery, Brad was scrubbing up and changing into scrubs so that he could be in the OR with me. After they made the first cut, Brad was brought into the room and sat beside me while McKinley was delivered. We elected to keep the blue screen up the entire time and not see her as she was coming out.
At 10:11 PM on January 12, 2017, two weeks early and via c-section, our little girl entered the world. She was 19 1/4 inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces. I actually didn't cry when she was born, but as I'm typing this and McKinley is snuggled up on my chest, I definitely am. I'll never forget the day I became a momma. We are so blessed to be her parents. Brad was able to take some pictures as she was being cleaned up and once he went with her to the nursery. However, I got to "hold" her first as the nurses laid her on my chest after she was born.
I am also so grateful for the miracle of modern medicine. When McKinley was born, she had a pretty significant conehead from me attempting to push her out. Both my midwife and OB/GYN agreed that I never would have been able to deliver her. As ready as I was for an unmedicated vaginal birth, that was not in the cards for me. After 15 hours of drugfree labor, I had a c-section and I have had to learn to be okay with that. Luckily, my recovery has been SO easy and relatively painfree.
Brad was able to show McKinley to our family while she was in the nursery and then many of them came to visit at the hospital while we were there. We ended up staying a total of 5 days. One day without McKinley when we were originally admitted and then an extra fourth day with her because she had jaundice.
I think this is my favorite picture of all time.
We have officially been home for a little over 2 weeks and they've been the hardest and best two weeks of our lives. Learning to keep our little girl alive and learning her needs has been tough, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
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