amanda brooke's bump: birthday

I can officially say that I had the Labor & Delivery experience exactly the way I would have wanted it had I been able to plan the whole thing. And amazingly enough, I'd kept forgetting to print out my Birth Plan {yes, the one I'd had figured out for months}- perhaps not having one was the trick. Thank God this time I had an incredible nurse, an *easy* labor, my favorite OB, and a wonderful delivery!

Now, here's Baby Dakota's very detailed Birth Story...

May 8th- Mother's Day

10:30pm- I thought I was having some labor pains, but after the false labor scare in March {HERE}, I decided that if they were real labor contractions then I wouldn't be able to sleep through them. So I dozed off.

May 9th- Monday

3:30am- I woke up to the same cramping and just couldn't sleep because I'd taken a 6-hour nap Mother's Day afternoon and messed up my night-sleeping pattern. I didn't want to keep Scott from sleeping as he had an early meeting that morning so I started to sneak into the nursery to rock on the glider. Mason just happened to walk out of his bedroom as I was in the hall and had woken up from a bad dream so I figured it was a perfectly sweet mother-son moment to rock with him on the glider. Looking back, this sweet time was an incredible blessing as it was our last one-on-one before the baby arrived.
Scott gave me a new iPhone for Mother's Day and I downloaded an "app" for timing contractions. I began to time them to see if there were any patterns and by 4:30am they were vacillating somewhere between 5-8 min intervals with 45 sec-90 sec in duration. I also found some "bloody show", there was another "labor" sign experienced {unnamed} and I passed my mucous plug...all at once. I took a shower in-case it was the "real deal" so I could feel clean and to help ease the cramping. I still wasn't convinced it was time though because the cramping was the same level I'd had with false labor and I thought that all the labor "signs" I'd just experienced were spaced too closely together and may have just been my body preparing for labor in the upcoming next few days.
5:30am- My contractions were down to 3-5 min intervals and I phoned my OB practice's on-call OB. The on-call Dr. told me that they'd be expecting me at Labor & Delivery. By this point the contractions were strong enough that I was vocalizing and bending over through the pain.
6:10am- I finally had all of the packed essentials...and then some. Mason was happily hanging out with Gigi and Scott was ready to get on the road. While we were driving on the Interstate, my contractions were coming very quickly at 2-3 min intervals and were painful- I remember telling Scott that if we hit backed-up traffic that this was one time where he legitimately should turn on the flashers and drive on the emergency lane because the baby was coming SOON!
6:30am- We drove up to the after-hours L&D entrance and just happened to be behind my OB's truck as he was going into the hospital. Perfect timing!
6:35am- I was admitted and escorted to my L&D room while Scott had to re-park the car. The admitting nurse prepared things for delivery and my OB peeked his head into the room. For this pregnancy, they found me colonized for Group B Strep so it was important that I get my antibiotics in at least 4 hours prior to delivery...although my OB didn't think it would happen {he had also advised me that this was hospital policy and shared his personal medical opinion and the research he'd participated in at the hospital regarding GBS and the risk to newborns- I wasn't worried at all but did understand why they wanted the antibiotics as a precautionary measure}.
Oh and I was already 5cm dilated upon hospital admittance!
7:00am- Meet NURSE WENDY! She was an on-call nurse and I was very blessed to have her as my L&D nurse. I had shared that I'd like to labor as long as possible without an epidural, but that I had no intentions of "going natural." I simply wanted to avoid the risk of additional interventions {i.e. unnecessary Pitocin as it led to Mason going into distress 3 times and also increased the risk of C-section as the interventions also delayed his descent and dilation}. At this point, I decided I might be able to go until 8am without an epidural. HA! What did I know though-I started having contractions one upon another lasting 1.5 min to 2 min long each---at one point I remember having 3 contractions together lasting 7 min long! I think I pleaded for the epidural somewhere around 7:15am.
7:50am- I had to get IV fluids before they administered the epidural so thankfully the anesthesiologist came in to relieve me of the pain. As soon as Dr N completed the insertion and began taping me, I told Nurse Wendy, "I really feel the need to push...what do I do?" She checked me and apparently I received the epidural in the nick of time because I was 9.5 cm dilated already! Wendy had delivered her son naturally and was very pro-natural childbirth---she was a huge cheerleader and coach and advised me that I'd done so well and basically could have delivered med-free since I'd already made it through this far. However, I reminded her that I had no desire to feel the "burning ring of fire" =) My water broke naturally although it wasn't the sudden gush like I'd expected {as I'd had with Mason's delivery}, but Nurse Wendy advised that Dakota's head placement was likely causing my waters to slowly leak rather than gush. There was some concern as meconium was detected in my fluids and so the Respiratory Nurses were alerted and Wendy advised that Dakota would need to be immediately suctioned upon delivery. Dakota's gestational age was right at 40 weeks and I'm thankful she hadn't baked too much longer and increased the meconium level.
The epidural kicked-in and began to delay labor; and as much as it sounds silly, we wanted to see if delayed labor would help so that the antibiotics could be effective {we needed the 4-hour window before her arrival if possible}. Had I not had the epidural at that particular time, it would have been the beginning of the 2nd stage of labor {aka time to PUSH!} because my body was already telling me to push. Dakota Kate also wasn't fully engaged and was still at 2 station, so my labor could have been longer and tougher {I have a narrow pelvis}. Nurse Wendy was very patient and advised me to wait to push until she was stationed lower so we could 1)try to allow more time for the antibiotics and 2)have a shorter and easier 2nd stage of labor/pushing phase. So it became a waiting game...well comparatively since it had only been a couple of hours since I'd even realized I was in labor.
~9:45am- Pushing began. I remember that I'd expected the 2nd stage of labor to be easier since it was a second baby...but I'd have to say that it's still LABOR and it was still exhausting.
10:32am- Dr F had been in the room for a few minutes and with a couple more pushes, Dakota Kate was delivered safely! The Respiratory Nurses immediately suctioned her, although she cried immediately, but thankfully she didn't have any respiratory issues. They cleaned and weighed her. Apgar scores were 8, 9. I had a "slight laceration" which Dr F said didn't even count as a 1st degree tear, but he gave me 1 stitch anyway {Nurse Wendy advised it was probably unnecessary but good just-in-case so that I wouldn't burn while peeing}
Scott did really well and didn't pass out nor did he get sick during the whole process! He did get slightly traumatized after glancing some after-birth when I reminded him to take pictures of Dakota {I'm guessing he saw when Dr F threw the placenta on the ground-apparently the nurses were surprised at his "mess" too...ha!}
I was able to hold Dakota Kate fairly quickly and so was Scott. Our first nursing session went well and lasted 45 minutes.

{I know this is terribly detailed, but I'm going to guess that should Dakota Kate have biological children, that she may want to know about her own birth for reference}

PRAISE GOD for a wonderful labor and delivery, healthy baby, and quick recovery!!!