Cooper's Birth Story
This is definitely long overdue (maybe because it's such a long story and process that I went through to get this sweet boy into the world)
First I'll preface by saying--babies really come into the world how they want (or maybe don't want haha) NOT how their mother's want :)
Pregnancy & "Plan"
I had a really easy pregnancy. Seriously, didn't really even know/think I was pregnant until I went to the doctor. I mean I had an idea, but Alex and I weren't planning on getting pregnant yet so it did come as a surprise (a good one!!). Alex kept saying "I think you're pregnant" and I would just deny it. Well, lo and behold, Dr. Shulina (the BEST OB EVER IF YOU'RE IN NYC) showed us our little cutie on the screen and I finally believed everyone ha. I didn't have any symptoms at first. After about 10 weeks I would feel a little queasy if I wasn't eating every two hours but that's about it. At about 20 weeks, my back/ribs hurt extremely bad for a couple of weeks when I started to pop. Towards the end, I had BAD heartburn that would wake me up in the night (hello, hair myth is true). But ya, that was the extent of my pregnancy. Pretty easy.
I had read books and blogs about birth and ultimately decided I wanted a natural unmedicated birth. I saw a chiropractor through the last half of my pregnancy and she was the one that originally put the idea in my head. Why couldn't I do something that women had been doing for centuries? I wanted to feel empowered and use my body how it was created. After all, it is natural. I hired a doula, Sarah Smoke, who was amazing through this whole process. Her thoughts and ideas aligned with my own so I was feeling great about everything. I felt excited for labor as crazy as that sounds.
Thursday
It was 4am on November 21, 2019. I was used to waking up in the night to pee a million times but this time was different. There was definitely water coming out of somewhere else and I immediately knew. I went to the bathroom to see if more would come out. Obviously women who have had their water break know that it doesn't just gush. It comes out in spurts like you peed your pants but happens like 10 more times. That's exactly what happened. So I texted my doula and called my doctor and both of them responded. My doctor wanted me to go in to the hospital within the next couple of hours because there is a risk of infection the longer you wait. I was a little bummed because I wanted to labor as much as I could at home. But Alex and I got our stuff ready and headed out around 6am to the hospital. This was definitely a good choice because apparently a bunch of people came into the hospital right after us and had to wait in triage longer than we did. I was admitted from triage about an hour after we got there.
Usually when your water breaks, contractions start to begin. Well, mine never really did. I brought my birth ball to bounce and sit on, walked up and down the halls, did squats, even did some Zumba. I was having very *minor* contractions throughout the day but nothing that really hurt more than period cramps. The doctor checked on me a couple times throughout the day and around 3pm when she was leaving, I was only dilated to 1cm, which is practically nothing. This was frustrating because I had already been there for a while. The doctor recommended I start on pitocin after it had been 12 hours since my water breaking. This was their policy because the risk of infection and distress of the baby keeps going up, especially after it's already been 12 hours. I really didn't want to get pitocin but felt like it was the right thing to do since nothing was sending me into labor. I took a shower and ate a little bit before they started pitocin around 5pm when the midwife who was on call came to the hospital.
Friday
Despite all of the pitocin I was receiving, the labor was still moving extremely slow. I labored naturally for about 8 hours. The midwife checked me and I was at 3cm. She was very positive and kept reassuring me that 3cm is still progress. But for me this was again frustrating because it was taking so much time. It was about 1:30am and I was exhausted. Sarah was helping me through contractions and could sense that I was getting pretty tired. I had been up for almost 24 hours at this point. Finally about 20 min later I asked to get an epidural. I didn't know how I was going to be able to have strength to push if I didn't get some rest. So I got an epidural around 2:15am and immediately felt relief. I took maybe a 2 -3 hour nap which helped but also was very shaky through some of the labor and that would wake me up. It was weird. I couldn't stop shaking for like 20 min at a time (maybe longer/shorter? time isn't really a thing when you're in labor). I probably took another nap a little later but really still didn't sleep much. Dr. Rhee, my OB's colleague, was working at the hospital that weekend so she would be delivering my baby. She came back around 1pm after the midwife had left and I was at 6cm. Crazy, considering they were giving me so much pitocin and it had been about 20 hours since the original dose at 5pm the evening before. But this was more progress. Good. She wanted things to progress even more so she had me put my leg up in a stirrup and turn on my side then do the same thing on the other side.
The Final Stretch
After another couple of hours, at about 3pm, I progressed to 8-9cm. The biggest problem was that baby was sunny-side up and had been this whole time. Babies can be faced the wrong way and turn and move throughout the labor but he was faced up the entire time and still hadn't turned. This explains why my labor didn't really start in the first place after my water broke, because the baby wasn’t contacting the cervix consistently to progress contractions and delivery. Dr. Rhee wanted me to turn over (which was difficult since I had an epidural) and go into a downward dog pose for an hour to try to get baby to flip. This was definitely one of the hardest parts about the labor. My arms were falling asleep, I could feel the contractions through my epidural, I was tired, and super thirsty. Alex or Sarah would give me water or talk me through the discomfort. Finally after this hour, I turned back over and told the nurse I maybe could feel the baby coming down. Dr. Rhee checked me and sure enough I was at a 10 and ready to push. I pushed for about an hour and made very little progress in getting him down past my pelvis. Alex and Sarah were holding my legs while I would push and Dr. Rhee would count really effin' slow to 10 while I pushed. Three consecutive sets of 10-second pushes per contraction. I swear holding my breath for those long 10 seconds was the hardest part about pushing. She was confident he would come out and told me I was doing a great job of pushing. Luckily, the ultrasound tech was right outside so she had him come in to see what was really going on. Sure enough, the baby's head was hitting my pelvis over and over as I was trying to push him out. She had me turn on my side to push and that didn't get him to budge either. She even had a couple other doctors come in to see if they could help get the baby out. After about an hour and a half of pushing, Dr. Rhee told me I could keep pushing for another 30-40 minutes, but ultimately suggested getting a cesarean section. I told her I wanted to push a few more times and did, but honestly, he wasn't going to come out that way. I gave it my all up to that point and was so tired. Alex looked at me and started to tear up, telling me how proud he was of me. That was a special moment.
Around 6pm, they got me ready for my c-section and took me into the operating room. They upped my dose on the epidural since they lowered it when I was pushing and gave me other medications that were horrible because it made my mouth SO dry. Also the other worst part of the whole labor. I couldn't swallow and it was so uncomfortable to have my mouth be that dry. I kept asking for water and everyone said no. Getting a c-section was weird because I could still kind of feel a tugging sensation but was also super out of it because of the meds. I also threw up a couple of times.
Baby
FINALLY after an eternity of being at the hospital and more juice and jello than I ever wanted, our sweet baby was born at 6:58pm, 8lbs 9oz. At first I didn't hear him cry and started freaking out a little bit. Apparently he was in distress and shock because of the long labor and they had to work a bit harder to get some fluid out of his lungs and warm him up. Once I heard him cry, I felt so much peace. They brought him over to me and I had so much joy seeing his face. I was still out of it, and threw up one more time after meeting him ha, but it was so sweet to just finally lay eyes on this active boy that had been a part of me for 9 months. After meeting him, they took him to the nursery to get his measurements and tests done. They sewed me up and took me back into the c-section recovery room for another couple hours (NYC hospitals are so crowded). Finally around 9:30pm they wheeled me up to my post-partum room where Alex and baby were waiting for me. I wanted to do skin to skin with him since that is so important and honestly, that was the best feeling in the entire world. Finally. Just me and my baby boy.
Do things go as planned? Hardly ever. Was this labor way longer than I wanted it to be? Yes. In fact, from the time my water broke to the time Cooper was born it was 39 hours. 26 hours of active labor. Was it worth it? YES. I'm so happy with our sweet baby. He really is a great baby. Doesn't cry much--just when he's cold, hungry, or really tired. He has brought us so much joy and we love him more than we could have anticipated! My recovery has been great and I feel really happy. I'm around-the-clock feeding or changing a diaper but would not have it any other way. We're all he knows and his whole world. Hopefully we'll make it count!
xoxo,
kay
