Everything started on Wednesday the 2nd of August. I started feeling a lot more pressure, loosing bloody (started brown then turned to red strings of blood) plug, & getting a feeling of URGENCY that I was going to be birthing soon. I had an OB checkup that Thursday & the doc told me she didn’t trust me to make it until my next appointment. Everything progressed further into the week & that weekend I had an insane nesting spurt. I cleaned my house & organized rooms & baby things. I knew labor would be starting in earnest by the time Sunday (the 6th) night came around. By Monday night, I had LOTS of bright red, bloody show & tons of contractions (which pretty much lasted all day, so I continued activity, just gave myself many breaks). I was determined to labor at home for as long as possible to help avoid getting pitocin. I was hoping to do it all natural this time, but I’ll get into that later.

I didn’t get much sleep between contractions (not painful- but uncomfortable) Monday or Tuesday (the 7th & 8th) & pretty much all I was able to do Tuesday was lay around & take care of the kids. The morning of the 9th was odd. It was a full moon phase. Everything that day from waking on, seemed otherworldly. Usually, I manage to sleep in Wed. mornings because Kenan has the mornings off. Not so that day! I woke up around 8:40 having to pee so bad I couldn’t be sure I’d even make it to the bathroom. Baby felt LOW & heavy. I went back to lay down after I got up to get a bowl of cereal. I got up again around 9:20 to pee again & thought I had to move my bowels. It felt strange to strain, so after a few tries- I quit. I went to wipe & after I did, I felt a large gush of something & it sounded like it POURED into the toilet. Kenan could hear me from the couch, so he asked “what was that?”. I told him to come in the bathroom & help me figure out if my water just broke. Every time I’d move a bit- or Baby- more fluid would gush out. He said it looked like it to him & that there was splashes of light red fluid on the floor. I was thinking “holy crap, holy crap” about then.

It was a mad rush to get the labor bag & the kids packed for going to Mom & Dads’. We put the bags & kids in the car & I went back in to change my pad to a prefold. I was loosing SO much fluid! Kenan dropped me off at the hospital. I talked to a lady who was waiting for her granddaughter to be born & we wished each other luck. It seemed like FORever before a nurse came to take me to triage. She asked which number pregnancy this was & I replied. Her eyes got bigger & she said we would just swipe the fluid on the prefold with the paper strip- she was very believing when I told her my water broke. It was also pretty obvious when I had soaked through the prefold (it was hemp!) so even my underwear & dress was soaked. It just kept coming. She looked at the paper & told me she was putting me in a labor room. About once I got settled & as comfortable as I could (those beds suck), Kenan got there. After about another hour, I was given my first dose of penicillan (which BURNED the insides of my veins, the bruising was so nasty) because I was Group B Strep positive. This of course set more things off when the perinatologist came in. At least he knew my history well, so the game plan was clear & concise (unlike the last two times I delivered there) that if I didn’t progress quickly, labor would be augmented. Fuck. I needed to have at least one more dose of penicillan before I delivered not only because of the GBS, but it was thought by him that given my past history that my early labors & rupture of membranes was due to the onset of an infection. Which was highly likely, I will admit, given so many of my symptoms. The midwife also came in & agreed this was the best course of action for both the health of myself & the baby. I was then hooked up to pitocin. Oh joy.

Given that pitocin augmented labor is NOT a thing I would put upon my worst enemy, I informed them I’d be having another epidural. I’ve felt it before & I was not about to put myself through that again. I did say that I would wait it out some, though- just in case I went fast. But NOOOO, I was 4-5cm upon arrival & that evening was only another centimeter. I get ahead of myself though..

They turned off the pitocin about an hour after they started it so I could get another dose of the penicillan. This second bag is the one that REALLY burned- it was SO painful. About that time, Baby’s heartbeat started to decelerate a little too much with my contractions. The cord was likely being compressed due to lack of much fluid. I was given an amnio-infusion & the heartbeat pattern greatly improved. The pitocin was started again & soon I was at 20mg per unit (or hour)- which is the max amount you can get at that hospital. My epidural was started & I focused on resting & envisioning the baby moving into position & sliding out. It sure didn’t work for some time. Not until I started dozing in between contractions. I remained at a 5-6 until around one (I panicked thinking everything would end in a section), then I finally made it to transition. I puked. That really brought Baby down. About this time half my body became un-numb. I was able to breathe through each contraction if I remained focused (which I did!). This is where I really started to realize if I would have gone fullterm, I would have easily been able to have a successful homebirth.
I was 8 cm around 2:40am on the 10th. We told them to get ready & call NICU staff- because it wouldn’t be long! Around 2:50 I was told I could start pushing- big relief from panting, breathing, & trying my hardest to NOT push. This part of the birth was so amazing to me, I was had full control over my body, how I pushed, how much I pushed & was even told how controlled I was with my pushing. This made me feel fabulous! When I felt the baby slide out, I was trying so hard get a good view, but could only see an arm & bit of leg. All of a sudden, I came back to myself because I heard Kenan saying “It’s a BOY!! A BOY!” It was odd because the gender was not even on my mind at the time, I just wanted to snuggle my baby!

Dana wasn’t breathing well on his own & the NICU staff told me they were going to be taking him upstairs. I remember thinking that he didn’t even look quite yet 33 weeks to me. Not sure why I thought this, but I did. I was moved to the antepartum ward on the other side of L & D. I’m guessing because I didn’t have my baby with me & because on the 10th, there were like 12 births (I think they average about 3-7 a day normally). I slept for a bit, then was woken by a NICU nurse who told me Dana may have to be intubated & given surfactant to help his breathing. I wasn’t allowed to go up & see him myself. Someone had to wheel me upstairs. I waited around until 9a, then called the house to wake Kenan up. I told him I needed him to take me to see the baby. You have to understand how hard it was for me not to be able to go up myself to see him- it was awful. When he did get there & took me up, they told us to come back in an hour because they were doing rounds. Ugh. So he took me to the cafeteria & I got a salad, which I had been craving since he ate one when I was laboring

When I got back to my room, the LC came & hooked me up with a pump. I also got info on where to get a rental in case Dana needed to stay in the NICU awhile. I pumped & actually got about 2cc of colostrum! Finally, I was able to see my sweet boy & give him the liquid gold. Kenan took some pictures of him & I kind of sat there stunned while the nurse told me about the “rules” of the NICU (& let me just say- it is NOTHING like Children’s in Mpls!!) which overwhelmed me & made me bawl like a baby. We sat & looked at Dana for awhile. We both talked to him a lot. Then we left to go back to my room.
Later that evening, he was taken off CPAP & all he had left was his IVs & the tube going to his belly. The nurse said if I could get him to nurse every three hours, the tube & IVs would come out & he could get out of there. I got to hold him for the first time & Kenan took pictures. Kenan left me that night holding my baby in my arms, he was tired. I was just happy to be holding my boy!

That night was filled with odd dreams, drug induced weirdness (yay, vicodin), & me getting up every three hours to go up & feed Dana. I had to rouse him much of the time & got frustrated more than a few times. We still managed though. On Friday, he nursed wonderfully! His latch was improved & his sucking much stronger. I was moved to the second floor (postpartum ward) that evening & D-man was able to room in with me. The next few days were pretty mundane. He was still under the care of the NICU docs, so no one ever knew what was going on or when we were going home. It was always something new/different. First he was out under bili-blanket lights for his jaundice, his results were slow on his last bilirubin level, then we had to wait on “Dr. such & such” a few times, then when he was finally discharged on Monday- we didn’t get out until after 10:30 pm because of lost paperwork (the indentifying footprints taken at birth- it is hospital policy to match the numbers up with the bracelets- kind of an IMPORTANT thing to loose), needing to do a carseat test & watch some lame ass video on carseats (hello, third time around?) which had NO info about preemies & carseats- just stuff we knew. Kenan was pissed, I wanted out & to get my child out of their system. When we talked shit about watching the stupid video, a nurse had the balls to say “you should be happy your baby is ABLE to go home!” That pissed me off so I told her that had I gone fullterm, I would not have even been delivering at the hospital- I would have done it at home. (& let me tell you- I would have, no question after this go ’round.) The look on her face was SO worth it ;D
We ended up leaving with the nurse carrying Dana to the car & she was apologizing PROFUSELY the whole time we walked to the car, lol.

Dana Mitchell
5 pounds
18 & one half inches
born 8.10.2006
white blonde hair & dark blue eyes

Posted in birthing, the team & written by Niki —