Eliza’s Birth: Home vs. Hospital

[continued from part 1]

Part 2

Even though my midwife had told me it was okay to come in and get checked out, I wasn’t ready yet. Only a few of my contractions had been 5 minutes apart or less. I decided to lie down and they spread out to 7-10 minutes apart again.

They were much too painful to talk through, and at this point I just wanted to work through them alone, which surprised me because I never felt that way during my first labor. So A.J. rested on the couch and I stayed in bed between contractions. During them, kneeling over the exercise ball was very helpful to deal with the pain.

For this labor, I really wanted to intentionally relax and give my body a chance to progress. I was incredibly tense during Christian’s labor. Even after several hours of excruciating contractions 2-3 minutes apart, I was barely dilated and was augmented with Pitocin for the rest of my labor.

Exercising throughout this pregnancy helped amazingly with my physical awareness, and I was trying very hard to breathe through each contraction instead of fighting the pain. As difficult as it was, I felt like I was succeeding so far.

I made it through the next couple hours until Christian woke up and we could use our daytime plan. Our friends from church with three little boys would be watching him. We wanted him to be taken care of before they left for church, so A.J. fed him, got him dressed and packed, and dropped him off while I continued to labor at home.

After he got back, I tried to decide with him whether I should just go in to labor and delivery and get checked out. I was so weary of the pain. My contractions were still 7-10 minutes apart, but I couldn’t imagine dealing with the trip to the hospital while they were closer together. I’d been in labor for about 10 hours. I decided to go in.

It was a perfect, beautiful morning. A.J. dropped me off at registration and went to park. The nurse said she hoped they would keep me since I’d been in labor for so long and was already five days past my due date. Theoretically I wanted to avoid Pitocin, but secretly I thought I wouldn’t mind a little kick start, accompanied by a nice, soothing epidural. It’s funny what pain can do…

We got settled in a room and the nurse hooked me up to monitor my contractions. Then she checked me and to my dismay told me I was only at 2 cm – the same I’d been at my appointment 3 days ago. After 11 hours of labor, this was a huge blow. When she left I tearfully told A.J. that my body didn’t work and I would never progress.

We talked and waited and after awhile A.J. left to find something to eat. While he was gone, the nurse came back to tell me they were sending me home. I wasn’t surprised, but I was very disappointed. I’d told myself I wouldn’t be “one of those people” who assumes they should be in the hospital before it’s time.

I sort of pleaded with my nurse to keep me. She was very nice. One of my doctors had made the decision, of course, but the nurse said if my contractions stayed this painful but didn’t get closer together over the next few hours, I should still come back in and she’d make sure they kept me. Then she gave me a sleep aid. I didn’t want to take it, but those pills ended up being worth the hospital trip to me. They helped me make it through the next few hours.

[continued in part 3]