Aubrey's Birth Story

For the record, it has already been 6 weeks since I gave birth to her. I'm pretty sure I wrote down my birth story with Anderson within about 6 hours. Oh well.

This story actually should start at my 36 week appointment. It was the first time that my OB did a cervical check. To my surprise I was effaced and 2cm dilated! I never made any progress with Anderson before I was in labor. Since i had Anderson 4 days early, we all became SURE that I would have her early, or at least around the same time I had Anderson. Then 37 weeks came, 38, 39, and 40 weeks all came and went. Every week there was no change and although I had every pre labor symptom in the book and nights of endless contractions. Nothing.
At my 39 week appointment my blood pressure was high, but not so high that my OB wanted to induce me. Since I very much did not want to be induced and my BP was not "critical" she gave me one more week. Monday January 26, 2015 was my 40 week appointment. I was 2 days past my due date and, well, frustrated. Thankfully, my parents came in town the Friday night before that appointment. We hoped I'd go into labor over the weekend, but if not they would be here to watch Anderson while Todd and I went to that appointment since we knew we'd be talking about an induction. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was too high. Really high actually. Like 158/95 high. I don't even treat my own patients when its much higher than that. So, needless to say, there was no more waiting it out. It was time to have a baby. I was not happy at all and cried quite a bit. My OB was very understanding, but with my best interest at heart, she was doing what needed to be done. I went into labor spontaneously with Anderson, and had a drug free birth. Of course I wanted the same thing again with Aubrey. And yes, I know "at the end of the day you have a healthy baby" blah blah blah. I know. But I was still entitled to be disappointed with the situation.
Around 11:00am I was admitted to the Labor and Delivery Unit. My OB didn't let me go home first. Todd went to get our stuff and make sure Anderson was good once I was settled. After about an hour of paperwork, blood work, IVs, etc I was started on the pitocin. The plan was to increased as slowly as possible so that I could still try to have a natural delivery. An hour later, around 1:00pm my OB came and broke my water and inserted an internal monitor on Aubrey so they could better monitor the contractions. I was 3cm dilated at this point. Todd made it back and we watched TV and talked. For someone who labored at home for the majority of my labor with Anderson, sitting in a hospital bed, in amniotic fluid, watching Food Network while being starving was not at all how I imagined this birth to go. About 4:00pm I was only 4cm dilated and now getting frustrated with the process. Only 1 more cm?!? Pitocin contractions are no joke. They are irregular, unnatural, and when you can't do anything to really help alleviate the pain, it takes over you fast. Around 5:30pm I was at my breaking point. I started crying and telling Todd that I couldn't keep this up for much longer but I really didn't want an epidural. As with Anderson, he suggested I get checked one more time then we'd talk about the epidural. And, as with Anderson, in one hour I went from 4cm to 10cm dilated. My breaking point, I should have known, was transition.
At that point I was honestly surprised, I didn't feel the need to push. My nurse said she'd go get stuff ready and we'd let a few more contractions happen to get her to drop lower. After 2 more really hard contractions she came back and asked me to push....which quickly ended with a "STOP!  I need to call the doctor!" Miss Aubrey went from not ready to really ready very quickly.  Unfortunately, at this point I was having one contraction after another, my whole body was shaking, and the only relief was to push. I pushed one more time and out came her head... on the bed... and it was just me and Todd (and now Aubrey) in the room. Todd really has the better story for this part. In the two seconds before he was about to reach down and get her about 4 nurses ran into the room, scrambled for gloves, and yelled at me to stop pushing (like is that even possible?!?). One nurse finally caught her just as she came the rest of the way out, my doctor did not make it in time. And at 6:33pm Aubrey Nicole entered the world. She weighed 6#9oz and stole our hearts with her first breath.