Rhys’ Labor and Birth Story

On Monday, October 19,  I went in for what would hopefully be my last pregnancy check-up.  It was the day before his October 20th due date.  In the two weeks previous, I had dilated to 1cm.  Over the course of the next week I doubled my efforts by getting to 2 cm!  Based on my size and an eerie suspicion I knew full well when I went in I was going to be dilated to at least 5 cm.

You can imagine my shock when my Doc told me “it was the oddest thing,” but not only could she barely feel his head anymore but I may be only dilated to 1cm!  How on earth does one un-dilate?  Only me.  She suggested I schedule an ultra-sound either that day or within the next 2 days to see why his head was no longer in the pelvis area.

As it turned out I was in labor but didn’t know it.  Thankfully, I was scheduled for a 12:45pm ultra-sound that very day.  Even the though the evidence pointed to the contrary, when I got home I had this weird feeling that I should just get everything together & leave it out by the door for Dave to grab later,  just in case.  I figured until then I may as well go about my business of the day.  I headed up to campus, grabbed some Subway and did a little work there.  You should have seen the looks I got in the student center!  Boy oh boy, you’d have thought I was a celebrity the way students were staring at me, but trying not to stare.  One student I knew was rendered speechless when he saw me.

This picture was from the evening before and you can see just how big I had gotten…

As the ultra-sound got under way two things became clear right away.  First, we were dealing with a big baby.  The tech thought maybe he was 9 lbs. 13 oz. or 10 lbs. even!  Second, I had some sort of large anomaly blocking the path of Rhys’ head down into my pelvis.  My Doc was brought in to take a closer look through a vaginal ultra-sound.  As they began discussing options it became more & more worrisome.

The first and most troubling option was that the anomaly was a blood clot, in which case they’d need to schedule an immediate c-section.  The second option was that I simply had a lot of amniotic fluid built up.  So much that the baby’s head couldn’t drop properly.  Finally, my Doc brought in another Dr. to examine the ultra-sound results.  Both decided to do yet another pelvic exam to get a good feel on what the anomaly may be.

Another 20 minutes of discussing and feeling around up there, my Doc finally declared that she was positive I was dilated to 6cm and that I had a large amount of amniotic fluid making it potentially dangerous for my very large baby if my water were to break spontaneously.  She suggested we either a) schedule a c-section within the next two days or b) induce my labor that day to reduce the risk of the cord getting around the neck and suffocating the baby if and when my water broke and his head essentially fell into my pelvis.

We decided that I’d be admitted immediately and when my husband arrived she’d start by breaking my water.  Just before I left the office she asked if I needed a wheel chair given that I was at 6cm.  I felt completely fine and declined.  I hadn’t felt a single contraction yet.  Odd, very odd.  Not that I’m complaining! 🙂

Within an hour or so, my good friend, Jessica showed up before my husband even though she was coming from 45 minutes away and he from less than 10 minutes away.  When I told him I was being admitted his first question was, “do I have time to finish this email?”  I agreed to let him finish his email, pack his stuff, get the house secure, load up the car with all of our stuff & stop and get lunch.  Little did I know he wouldn’t end up arriving for another 1 hr. & 45 min.’s.  I was only mildly frustrated that my Doc wouldn’t do anything until he got there.  At one point, I made a joke to her, “we don’t need him, let’s just get this show on the road!” 🙂

While we waited Jess & I talked and relaxed.  I still wasn’t feeling the contractions though the monitor was showing them getting stronger, more intense and closer together.  The nurse kept asking, “are you feeling anything at all?”  It was just bizarre, I could not feel them.  In the time we waited for Dave I had progressed to 8cm.  My Doc suggested to give me the epidural now and then break my water which felt like a great idea.

Once Dave arrived, I received the epidural completely calm and having had no pain whatsoever.  My Doc broke my water to what she said was an abnormal amount of gushing amniotic fluid.  She reiterated how dangerous it would have been for me to be on campus that day not knowing I was laboring and the risk to the baby if my water had broken on it’s own.  We thank God I was able to get that ultra-sound that day, because I had planned to be up and on feet on campus until at least 4:30pm.

I must admit it was pretty awesome to not have felt contractions at all.  It was almost surreal, and hard to believe I was actually in labor.  We went with it.  Dave, Jess & I got a raucous round of Bohnanza (a really fun German, bean planting card game) going.  About an hour or so later, she checked me again and declared I was at 10cm.

At this point I was feeling nothing but thankful.  First of all, I was “laboring” during the day as opposed to overnight like I did with Ransom which left me downright exhausted for days.  Second of all, it was a beautiful Fall day with the sun shining and I had a great room with a view.  Third, I was totally relaxed and calm because somehow I’d gotten to 10cm without using any energy devoted to getting through contractions.  Everything seemed extremely ideal and there was no doubt God was answering so many of my very specific prayers.  I had been really worried about labor for the past few months.

When my Doc came in to prep for pushing Dave & Jess had gone out to get Burger King. I wonder if at this point she was getting frustrated at having to wait on Dave again.  She was adamant that the baby would come quickly and didn’t want them to miss it.

I, on the other hand, kept thinking we had plenty of time.  All I knew is that when I had Ransom his head was stuck for a good 40 minutes.  Of course, my Doc knew better.  From the time I started pushing until he was born about 27 minutes elapsed.

I did a few pushes without them in the room but they were mostly unproductive.  We took a 20 minute break which allowed them to have dinner.  When I got started again, Dave was sitting watching me push while eating his french fries.  At one point he said “I don’t know what’s more gross: what I’m looking at or the fact that I’m sitting here watching it eating french fries with ketchup.”  At the time it actually made Jess & I laugh pretty hard.

A timeline…

I came for the ultra-sound at 12:45pm.  I call Dave, Jess, my mother’n’law & our day care provider, Marilyn declaring: “It’s Time!”

I was admitted into my room at about 1:45pm, at 6cm.

Jess arrived at about 2:00pm.

Dave arrived at 2:30pm.

At 3:15pm am at 8cm.

Received epidural at 4:00pm.

Water was manually broke at 4:30pm, 9cm at 5pm, 9.5 cm by 6pm.

Achieved 10cm dilation at about 6:15pm.

Pushing becomes unproductive & we start again at 6:35pm.

Up until this point I had no pain and then all of a sudden WHAM!  I went from zero pain to about 10 in intensity when Rhys’ head began to crown.  This is a look of focus right here…

At 7:00pm, with a large grunt & push Rhy’s head comes out.  I look up in the mirror and see what looks like a dead baby’s head.  He was completely purple, lifeless & quiet.  He was so big his shoulders were stuck.  I noticed my Doc moving his head from side to side.  I thought maybe she was trying to revive him.  I didn’t get entirely worried until I saw her look at the nurse very seriously and say “push him out, now!” as the nurse put an insane amount of pressure on my upper belly.

This was followed by the nurse telling Jessica to turn the camera off.  For one split second I thought he had died and the nurse was trying to save us the pain of having it on video.  At the same time I was wondering how on earth he could have died in the last two minutes since we could hear him on the heart rate monitor.  Before I allowed myself to mourn I started thinking about the incompetence of the hospital staff.  Seriously, how could they let this happen?  My mind was adrift…

Thankfully, he sprung out at 7:02pm with a gag and a cry –he was alive!  I was both relieved, over-joyed, and overwhelmed with emotions and began whimpering out cries and tears along with my boy.  He was purple, yet beautiful and perfect.  More than that, he was mine.

Immediately after he was born…

There really are few words that could adequately describe the love you feel for your child when you come face to face for the 1st time…

Suffice it to say, I love Rhys with all my heart.  He is such an answer to prayer after many months of trying and praying we’d conceive again.  In these last 8 days I have been continuously amazed at how much love I have for him.  It may seem crazy, but after Ransom I foolishly believed I could never love another child as much as I did my first-born.  And then little Reesey-Bear came and stole my heart!

Two of my favorite faces…