Jocelyn's Birth Story Part Two
You can read Part One here, if you need some back story. But really, this post is where all the action is anyway!
(and LOL to you guys who compared my cliff hanging Part One to the Twilight series! )
Okay, where was I?
Oh, the birth center. 4:00 PM.
It might be prudent to mention that my cervix had NOT been checked at this point. The back up midwife did not feel comfortable doing an internal exam after my water had broken. I do understand her cautious philosophy of not wanting to introduce more bacteria into the mix, but still... very frustrating to not know how many centimeters dilated I was, nor how much effacement has happened.
We briefly talked about castor oil (YUCK!) or even trying some black and blue cohosh. I was uncomfortable with either of these options. They can both have some serious side effects and possibly may not even put me into labor. And let's say they worked.... it takes about 4 hours for that stuff to kick in. Now we're talking going into labor at 8:00 PM and having ANOTHER night of crazy contractions. No thank you.
I was done. It was at that moment that I released all my preconceived notions of having the natural water birth that I wanted. Now I just wanted the baby out.
So, here I am, stuck at the birth center with no midwives around. My mom has my van and Jayce is already an hour into his ABA therapy. I called Brian and asked if he wanted to pick me up and take me to the hospital.
"Nope." was his answer.
Now, before you start getting out your stale loaves of bread to come and smack my husband on the back of the head with, let me tell you his reasoning.
1. He hates the hospital I would be transferring to.
2. We've never had a good experience there.
3. Any time we go, we wait for HOURS before being seen.
He knew that the second I walked in that hospital, it would be hours before I was seen in Triage or put into a room. He said to call him when all that happened and he'd be happy to meet me at the hospital.
So I called my friend Angie, my doula, and asked if she'd take me in. She had been following my progress all day through text and FB, so she knew what was going on. Her fiance was nice enough to take us both to the hospital.
We arrived sometime between 4:30-5:00 PM. I had had several small contractions by this point and I remember thinking, "Wouldn't it be ironic for my labor to kick in now??"
Because my midwife's birth center has a transfer agreement with this particular hospital, it was smooth sailing for me. We went straight to Labor and Delivery and right into a room they had ready for me. A resident came in immediately with my file in her hand.
"Your baby is breech?" she asked, looking at my file.
"No, no, no... my baby was breech, for like two weeks (thanks to my friend Jessica, lol!! just kidding Jess!) but its head is down now," I answered.
She got out the u/s wand and proceeded to confirm that the baby was indeed in the proper birthing position. I was concerned about low amniotic fluid by this point, so I asked her if she could check the fluid levels with this particular u/s machine.
"Oh, I don't know how to do that," she answers.
ooookaaaay......
"Well, my husband and I are keeping the gender a secret, so if you happen to see anything on u/s, please don't tell us, okay?" I ask.
"I don't think I could tell anyway," was her reply.
Hmmm... not really knowing what to think at this point. Normally I'm used to very overconfident residents at this particular hospital so I'm not sure how to respond to one that is completely unsure of what she is doing.
She starts the scan.
"I can't find the head," she says.
I'm sorry, but Angie and I can't help but giggle. Really? I have a headless baby? I'm pretty sure he/she had a head at the 22 week u/s I had at Maternal Fetal medicine, so I'm not really upset by her news. I knew that my baby probably still had a head.
She spends a long time scanning, but cannot locate the head. One of the nurses, trying to be helpful, pointed out on the screen that she thinks she sees a face with a nose and two eyes. This is when the wand was pretty far down near my pelvis.
"No, I think the baby is transverse breech," was what she said. "You are going to need a c-section."
Now, I need to interject with something right here. Brian's best friend Thad and his wife Danielle had given birth to their baby boy just the day before and they were still at the hospital recovering. Angie is friends with them, too, so she let them know where we were. Thad chose this exact moment to walk into my room. All he heard was "c-section".
"Where's Brian??" he demands.
I shrug. "Still at work. I haven't called him to come over here yet."
The next thing I know, Thad's on the phone with Brian. "Dude, get over here now. Your wife has to have a c-section."
Its at this point as well that Angie calls my mom at home to update her on what's been going on. Angie is not an alarmist, but does mention to my mom that a doctor did mention the dreaded c-section word. My mom relays the info to the two ABA therapists at our house and now we have THREE people at home freaking out about a possible c-section.
Stay tuned for Part 3 :)
(and LOL to you guys who compared my cliff hanging Part One to the Twilight series! )
Okay, where was I?
Oh, the birth center. 4:00 PM.
It might be prudent to mention that my cervix had NOT been checked at this point. The back up midwife did not feel comfortable doing an internal exam after my water had broken. I do understand her cautious philosophy of not wanting to introduce more bacteria into the mix, but still... very frustrating to not know how many centimeters dilated I was, nor how much effacement has happened.
We briefly talked about castor oil (YUCK!) or even trying some black and blue cohosh. I was uncomfortable with either of these options. They can both have some serious side effects and possibly may not even put me into labor. And let's say they worked.... it takes about 4 hours for that stuff to kick in. Now we're talking going into labor at 8:00 PM and having ANOTHER night of crazy contractions. No thank you.
I was done. It was at that moment that I released all my preconceived notions of having the natural water birth that I wanted. Now I just wanted the baby out.
So, here I am, stuck at the birth center with no midwives around. My mom has my van and Jayce is already an hour into his ABA therapy. I called Brian and asked if he wanted to pick me up and take me to the hospital.
"Nope." was his answer.
Now, before you start getting out your stale loaves of bread to come and smack my husband on the back of the head with, let me tell you his reasoning.
1. He hates the hospital I would be transferring to.
2. We've never had a good experience there.
3. Any time we go, we wait for HOURS before being seen.
He knew that the second I walked in that hospital, it would be hours before I was seen in Triage or put into a room. He said to call him when all that happened and he'd be happy to meet me at the hospital.
So I called my friend Angie, my doula, and asked if she'd take me in. She had been following my progress all day through text and FB, so she knew what was going on. Her fiance was nice enough to take us both to the hospital.
We arrived sometime between 4:30-5:00 PM. I had had several small contractions by this point and I remember thinking, "Wouldn't it be ironic for my labor to kick in now??"
Because my midwife's birth center has a transfer agreement with this particular hospital, it was smooth sailing for me. We went straight to Labor and Delivery and right into a room they had ready for me. A resident came in immediately with my file in her hand.
"Your baby is breech?" she asked, looking at my file.
"No, no, no... my baby was breech, for like two weeks (thanks to my friend Jessica, lol!! just kidding Jess!) but its head is down now," I answered.
She got out the u/s wand and proceeded to confirm that the baby was indeed in the proper birthing position. I was concerned about low amniotic fluid by this point, so I asked her if she could check the fluid levels with this particular u/s machine.
"Oh, I don't know how to do that," she answers.
ooookaaaay......
"Well, my husband and I are keeping the gender a secret, so if you happen to see anything on u/s, please don't tell us, okay?" I ask.
"I don't think I could tell anyway," was her reply.
Hmmm... not really knowing what to think at this point. Normally I'm used to very overconfident residents at this particular hospital so I'm not sure how to respond to one that is completely unsure of what she is doing.
She starts the scan.
"I can't find the head," she says.
I'm sorry, but Angie and I can't help but giggle. Really? I have a headless baby? I'm pretty sure he/she had a head at the 22 week u/s I had at Maternal Fetal medicine, so I'm not really upset by her news. I knew that my baby probably still had a head.
She spends a long time scanning, but cannot locate the head. One of the nurses, trying to be helpful, pointed out on the screen that she thinks she sees a face with a nose and two eyes. This is when the wand was pretty far down near my pelvis.
"No, I think the baby is transverse breech," was what she said. "You are going to need a c-section."
Now, I need to interject with something right here. Brian's best friend Thad and his wife Danielle had given birth to their baby boy just the day before and they were still at the hospital recovering. Angie is friends with them, too, so she let them know where we were. Thad chose this exact moment to walk into my room. All he heard was "c-section".
"Where's Brian??" he demands.
I shrug. "Still at work. I haven't called him to come over here yet."
The next thing I know, Thad's on the phone with Brian. "Dude, get over here now. Your wife has to have a c-section."
Its at this point as well that Angie calls my mom at home to update her on what's been going on. Angie is not an alarmist, but does mention to my mom that a doctor did mention the dreaded c-section word. My mom relays the info to the two ABA therapists at our house and now we have THREE people at home freaking out about a possible c-section.
Stay tuned for Part 3 :)
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