Charlotte is now 2 months old and I’m just getting around to part 2. And, to be quite honest, the details aren’t nearly as clear as they were 2 months ago but I’m going to try and write them down anyways.
After being checked for head positioning in triage, and finding that yes the head was down, they moved us to labor and delivery. I will add that before we officially found out the position of the baby’s head I was asked twice if I wanted to go ahead and deliver vaginally even thought the baby was breech. I said yes and they said they would have MFM come and see me. I thought that was interesting that it was even a consideration.
It was around 10am when we arrived back at labor and delivery. We got settled and a bit later my doc came in to see me. He said since it was my 7th he would mostly just defer to me and be pretty hands off. The contractions were coming about every 5 mins and I was amazed because my body was doing it without pitocin. Around 11:00, my doctor and the doctor he was working with, came in with the ultrasound machine b/c my doctors office noticed that I had been moved to labor and delivery and freaked out b/c my baby was breech and I was supposed to be having a csection. So in they wheeled the ultrasound machine. Yes. Most definitely this babies head is down. The contractions were getting stronger and around noon I asked for the epidural. I explained to the nurse that I had to use the restroom and she said after the epidural started to work she would be back in and cath me. Around 1:00 I mentioned to the nurse again that I had needed to go to the bathroom before they started my epi and it had been a while and I probably needed to have that checked. Around 1:30, the doc who was working with my doc came in to check my progress. After she was done she said she wasn’t sure the head was down anymore. She said it could be but also may be presenting with the hand up at the face. She left and both she and my doc came back in with the ultrasound machine. Again. They checked and the baby was completely head down and was presenting just fine. After another internal it was determined that I was still at 6 and my bladder had been so full it was keeping the baby from engaging. So finally around 2:15 they emptied my bladder and started a tiny amount of pitocin. Around 5:00 I realized I was breathing through my contractions again and mentioned this to the nurse. She asked if I was pushing my button. I said I hadn’t been given a button. They realized that they had it tied up to the back wall and forgot to give it to me. After all this I pushed the button but the pain wasn’t really going away. At 5:30 I said that even with the epi I was still feeling a lot of everything. The midwife on call, Dr. Rawson, came in and checked and said I was at 10 but the baby was still a bit high. She said we would start pushing before I really had the urge to push so that it would be slow and steady. I started pushing at 5:37 and 11 mins later a big healthy baby came out. It’s a girl!! Born at 5:48pm. All 9 pounds 3 ounces of her! Perfect. It felt like I had been pushing forever. My last 2 were literally pushed out in 2 contractions so this seemed to me like an eternity. I found out that it was only 11 minutes. Ha! It seemed like forever. My recovery was great. I felt so good. She latched on and was a great nurser. Up until she was born we were still going back and forth between Macie Isabelle and Charlotte Isabelle. When they were cleaning her up, Tim said that he loved both names and it was totally up to me which first name we went with. So, without hesitation, she just looked like a Charlotte our Charlotte Isabelle was named!
Ross Ramblings 