Monday 5 September 2011

Baby Baby Don't Be Late World Is Ending I Can't Change The Way I Feel About You Now - Part 1

I woke up on July 25th feeling crampy and annoyed. I'd been feeling crampy and annoyed all week though, so I just got up and carried on with my morning. I had a doctor's appointment at 10 and since my doctor wanted to discuss induction, Shawn had taken the morning off work to go with me.

I had no idea what contractions were going to feel like. I mean, I knew that active labour would be painful but I didn't know what to expect with early labour. It wasn't until we left for the doctor and I had to sit still in the car for 15 minutes that I realized that I was in labour. Those 15 minutes were torture (which is laughable now, considering just how intense and painful real labour ended up being.)

My doctor confirmed that I was in labour and told me I was 2cm dilated. She recommended that we go for a walk because her office is right across the street from the hospital and she predicted that I'd want some pain relief pretty quickly. Being a stubborn asshole, I asked Shawn to take me home. I didn't want to go to the hospital at 2cm dilated. I knew that I wouldn't be admitted until I was at least 3cm and I didn't want to be the wimp who showed up begging for drugs before I could even be admitted.

So Shawn took me home and made me chicken noodle soup while I tried to watch television to take my mind off the pain. I lasted an hour before I was begging Shawn to take me to the hospital.

Shawn and I took a childbirth class a few weeks before Grady was born. The midwife who ran the class drilled into us that we couldn't go to the hospital before we reached 4-1-1: contractions that were 4 minutes apart, were 1 minute in duration, and had followed that pattern for 1 hour. She even gave us a magnet with the 4-1-1 information on it to hang on our fridge as a reminder. Which would have been really helpful and great, had my labour even remotely resembled that. My contractions came fast and hard with only 45 - 90 seconds separating them. Also, they didn't hit a minute in duration until I was well into active labour. I was so focused on the 4-1-1 rule that I started panicking on the way to the hospital, convinced that the short space separating my contractions meant that I was further along than we expected and I would end up having a baby on the side of the road.

And then we got to the hospital and learned that I was still only 2cm dilated.

I felt defeated. I'd been labouring hard (or rather, I thought I'd been labouring hard because I had no idea how hard labour would become) for over an hour since leaving my doctor's office and I was no further along. A nurse offered me a morphine shot and even though I felt like a failure for accepting it, I did. It turned out to be a wise decision. After being monitored for a short while to make sure I reacted well to the morphine, I was allowed to go back home. The morphine didn't take away the pain but it took the edge off and allowed me to sleep for three glorious hours.

More to come...

10 comments:

  1. Ach. I love these posts for two reasons: I love reading about the incredible physical and emotional journey that ends with the greatest prize of all, and they remind me that I never want children. Can't wait to hear the rest!

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  2. Every labour story I've ever been told or read has been another nail in the coffin of "I never want kids".

    It just sounds awful.

    Luckily your story (so far) is not the worst I've heard :P So yay!

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  3. Hurrah! for birth stories. There was a span of 24 hours where Theresa couldn't get beyond a 3.5 and so had to be sent home (which of course she preferred), but yeah, she definitely wasn't expecting Mer to take as long as she did in arriving. (Though of course the rest of her experience was pretty magic. I mean, as magic as that sort of crazy beautiful pain (that I can only imagine, and maybe not even because YIKES) can be.)

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  4. Yay! I was wondering if you were going to write a birth story.

    I've been discussing kids with Vahid and we agree on all major points but when I actually think about having kids I kind of freak out and go OMG IT'S GOING TO HURT!?!? Then get kind of mad that he will never experience pain like that.

    Also I totally lost where this was going.

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  5. Why oh why do we love birth stories so much? I don't know, but I do. Glad you're writing this.

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  6. I'm left in anticipation!! Can't wait to read the rest :)

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  7. BIRTH STORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! (love it.)

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  8. i can't explain why, as someone without kids, i am SO INTERESTED in birth stories, but maaaaan am i ever. can't wait to read part 2!

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  9. The start to your birth story - yay! Oh, I hate that they let you feel defeated for having the same measurement at the hospital as at the doctor's office. Because you know what? Two different people measuring when they are only using their hands as a guide ... well, you can probably guess measurements can be off. You probably had made progress after all those intense feelings, but no one let you feel like you made progress. Boo. But, yay for morphine and sleeping a bit.

    Oh, and to give you perspective. I labored fast and hard for 30 minutes and went from 0-10 cm dilation. It was my own form of crazy, intense pain!

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  10. I love birth stories. And you guys. :)

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