Joshua's Birth: An Induction After Two Cesareans

Well, I finally finished Jessica's birth story, so I suppose I can write the next child's birth story now that he's over 17 months old... I don't remember as much as with my first stories since I was able to write them sooner, but I'll share what I do remember!

Just to set the scene of this birth, this was probably the hardest pregnancy I've had emotionally, and maybe even physically. (Yes, harder emotionally than even Danielle's pregnancy.) We found out we were expecting a baby two weeks before the pandemic shut down the entire country. (We managed to purchase a 12-passenger van the following week.) One of my friends was about a month ahead of me with twin girls and planning a c-section for their delivery. She had her c-section several weeks early, and something went wrong that still has the doctors a little puzzled. It nearly killed her. I was delivering with that same group of doctors (the same health system that did Danielle's c-section), and because I had placenta previa, for most of my pregnancy, they were telling me I would also need a c-section. To say I was terrified between my past experience of a c-section with them, and watching my friend go through all that she went through, would be an understatement. Because of the pandemic, I couldn't get together with my other mom friends and process the whole thing with them. My doctor, Dr. Amy Fisher, told me I needed to see a therapist when she realized that she knew who my friend was that was lying in her hospital and knew her whole health story. I believe it was around 36 weeks that I had my final ultrasound to see if my placenta had moved enough to make a vaginal birth safe. Thank the Lord God, it had! But, there were a few concerns about some rather large blood vessels left behind as it moved that were very close to my cervix. 

And with that, I will begin the story of Josh's birth... As pretty much any pregnant woman will tell you, we get up often throughout the night to pee. And, as usual on the night of October 28th, I did. In the wee hours of the morning from the little bit of light that came through the window, I thought I had seen something in the toilet other than just pee. I was tired though, and went back to bed. I thought it might be a small blood clot, but as it was very small and not the size that concerned doctors when you're postpartum. Closer to morning, I again got up to pee. This time I realized I was bleeding lightly and figured that we should probably go into the hospital now that I was awake enough to actually process what was going on. I was having absolutely no contractions though. 

My mom came over to watch the rest of the kids and off we went around 8am. They originally put in me triage and the doctor on call, Dr. Kim Fischer, was great! I was concerned about being induced, since I was a VBA2C, but she assured me that my Bishop score of 9 meant I would be just fine. She also knew that I did not do well with needles and wanted to negotiate (they wanted to do a blood draw and place two IV ports, I was only willing to do one IV port with a blood draw from that port (which they told me that they can't do, but in reality they can). She wanted one IV port placed, then a blood draw, then the second IV port placed. I said she could have the first, and if it went well, she could have the second, and if they both went well, she could have the third. With the bleeding, even though it was very light, she said that I "would be having this baby today," so I was admitted.

This picture doesn't even show the entire room.

I was told that I had the biggest room in the Mother Baby Center, and if it wasn't, then the size of the other rooms is even more ridiculous than the size of my room! Once I got settled in, we figured out a plan for how to get IVs placed and blood drawn. They had a specialist from the NICU come with an ultrasound to find my veins to place an IV in each arm. She marked the spot and put numbing cream on, and said that she used to work in the ER where they would draw blood from IVs that they had just placed. So, I had gotten the right lady for the job! She got the first IV placed without too much problem, and drew blood from it, so I let her do the second one as well. We did decide though that on top of the numbing cream, giving it a shot of lidocaine might be a good idea for next time as well. I think not being in labor helped a lot with getting the IVs placed so well too. 

With the IVs placed they were able to start me on Pitocin to try to start labor. They increased the dose every so often to get bigger contractions that were closer together. I remember in the early stages we asked the nurse if there was a deck of cards that we could play to pass some time. She managed to find some for us and we played a couple games of cribbage using the bed as a table while I sat on the birth ball. Eventually the contractions got to the point where I couldn't focus enough to play cards. I remember standing and swaying with my arms wrapped around Adam for support, but I found that my legs were really feeling crampy and I wanted to just sit or lay down. I don't remember this from naturally induced labor, so in hind sight, I'm blaming the Pitocin, but I don't think I had the mental capacity at the time to realize that that was probably what was causing it. 

The nurses would come in to check my cervix periodically. And at one point, a nurse came in and unwrapped all the things in the baby warmer. When I saw that happening, I knew we were getting close to meeting our little man! I could keep up with the contractions and crampy legs for a little while longer. It would be over soon and I would be holding my baby! Whenever I needed encouraging thoughts between contractions, I would look over at that warmer just waiting for him. 

Then a nurse came in to check my cervix. I was at 5 cm. Not much farther along than the last time I was checked. I felt utterly defeated. Not only was I not laboring on my own, but I wasn't progressing as fast as I was hoping. Dr. Fischer had promised that I would have my baby today! I told Adam that I wanted the epidural. The contractions weren't any worse than they had been with Jessica when I only used the nitrous oxide, but emotionally, I was done. 

At this point I had had three other epidurals. With Nora, I could feel absolutely nothing and needed to be coached by a nurse watching the monitors as to when to push. With Sam I could feel pressure on my cervix, so I knew that I needed to start pushing and I could feel the contractions enough to know when to push. With Lily, I could feel the contractions, but didn't know when I was ready to start pushing. This time, however, I felt like I needed to push, but when the nurse checked me, she told me I was only at 9cm, and she had me adjust how I was laying to try to thin out the last of my cervix. Not more than 10 minutes later, I pushed the nurse call button again, and told her that I really thought I needed to push. So, she checked me again, but told me I was still 9cm and adjusted how I was laying again. Again, not more than 5 minutes later, I really, really felt that I needed to push. By the time she got there and asked if she could check me, I was feeling enough pressure and need to push and I almost yelled at her, "No!" but, I managed to say it at least without completely yelling. She called the doctor on call to let her know I was ready to deliver. She took me seriously and helped me roll to my back, and I started pushing. With the first push, my water broke. Nope, sorry, let me explain that again. My water exploded all over the poor nurse. I've never wanted to laugh in labor before, but I sure did then. My brain was laughing while my body was dealing with labor. With that first push, once she saw what was happening, she quickly went to the phone again and called the doctor to get there now. With the second push, she stood at the end of the bed, waiting to catch the baby, but, I think to her relief, the baby wasn't out yet. Between that push and the next, the doctor walked in the room and was suiting up on the way to my bed. The doctor made it to my bed for the third and final push at 10:42pm, when Joshua Michael entered the world. 

Now, let me give you a little background again. With Jessica's birth, the doctor that was on-call, was actually the back up to the on-call doctor. His name was Dr. Chang, not that he introduced himself. He walked in the room, starred at the contraction/heart rate monitor and told me my baby was going to die if we didn't do a c-section. No one else in the room was panicky, so I tried to ignore him until he left. When my nurse came back later, she asked how we liked this doctor that we had never met. We both said we hated him. She said we could switch doctors, and so we did, and had a beautiful birth with her. 

Now back to Josh's birth. The doctor that showed up at the very last minute to catch him was his wife, Mrs. Dr. Chang, as we've come to refer to her as. My doctor had given me a heads up after I told her that we had kicked the last doctor out, that his wife worked with them. I would love to be able to tell you that she was the complete opposite and was absolutely wonderful. But, she was there for such a brief period of time that I really don't have an opinion of her one way or the other. She caught my baby just fine and didn't threaten a c-section or death like her husband, so she has a one-up on him there. Though, she didn't introduce herself, like her husband either, but, at least for her, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that if she actually had time for niceties, she probably would have. 

Once Josh entered the world, he was placed right on my chest. I wasn't super focused on what was going on with birthing the placenta and whatnot, but it seemed that the doctor was getting annoyed or something (since she was wearing a mask, it was hard to get an actual read on facial expressions & emotions) with what was going on. Because this was my seventh kid and because there were a few pesky larger veins that were still hanging out around my cervix from when the placenta had moved out of the way, my doctor had told me that they were more worried about hemorrhaging this time. That must have been what she was annoyed with, because they ended up giving me two other drugs, on top of the Pitocin, to stop the bleeding. The first went into the second IV port in my other arm. But the third needed to be stabbed into my leg. When the nurse told me that she was going to give me a shot, this time I did yell at her, "WHAT!?!" She took a step back and kind of looked a little stunned that that would be my reaction. (She wasn't around for the negotiations with the IVs and whatnot, so maybe she missed the part of my record that says I don't do well with needles.) I did consent and she stabbed me in the leg. Lucky for her I had an epidural, and while I could still  feel and move my legs a little, I didn't end up screaming at her again. It didn't take them too long to get the bleeding to stop. Then I just got to enjoy the cuddles and let Adam have some time meeting his new son. 

We were eventually ready to call it a night around 2am and Adam was looking to get settled in on the couch. But, the nurse stopped him from looking for sheets. It was time to move down the hall out of the poorly named "Mother Baby Center" (it should really be called a birth center, since the kick the mothers and their babies out when they're most exhausted). We went from this over-sized gigantic birthing suite to a literal closet where Adam was shoved in a little jut-out on a chair-bed that barely fit in the space. We were all exhausted though, and settled in for the night. 

With Nora's birth story, I was able to tell you about all the visitors we had the next day that came to meet her, and with the others after her I was able to show you pictures of the older siblings all meeting their newest sibling in the hospital all gathered around me (still looking tired, of course) sitting on the hospital bed with me. But instead, no one came to see us, since there were visitor restrictions due to the pandemic. Since he was born before a little more than an hour before midnight, I only had one whole day to stay at the hospital. The next day was all the paperwork to get me out of there as fast as they could. But, what I do have is a picture of us leaving the hospital with only one of our children while wearing our masks. 

Afterward: Adam tells me that at some point I did use the nitrous oxide with this delivery. I didn't believe him, because during those early months of the pandemic, they wouldn't allow you to use it. But, he showed me a picture on his phone as proof. I think I vaguely remember being told that they had just started allowing its use again.