Midnight Special: The Birth Story

This could be a realllllllly long blog, but I'm going to try and keep it short and to the point. Also, to some this might seem like a negative story about birth, but be sure that the parents do not view it that way. There are parts of this story that were not fun, but if there is no struggle the victory is an empty one. The story might not interest everyone, so the cute pics come first.

FRIDAY
4 a.m. -- Megan starts laboring. Her contractions are ten minutes apart and seem to be getting closer.
7:30 a.m. -- I call off work so I can help Megan and drive her to the hospital if it comes to that.
3 p.m. -- Megan's contractions are still 10 minutes apart. After some internet research we think it might be prodromal labor (different kind of labor, same painful contractions). Megan takes a bath.
5 p.m. -- Megan's contractions persisted through the bath and are now 4-5 minutes apart.
11 p.m. -- Megan's contractions are 3-4 minutes apart. I'm sure that this is it, so I say we should call the midwife. Megan's contractions stop as soon as we go to call. We sleep for two hours.

SATURDAY
1 a.m. -- Megan starts having contractions again, but they are shorter ad 30 minutes apart... textbook real labor.
7 a.m. -- Megan's contractions have increased in ferocity and are 10 minutes apart again.
1 p.m. -- Contractions are 3-4 minutes apart. We are sure THIS is it. But I suggest we start timing and they drop back to every 10 minutes
7.p.m. -- Still contracting every ten minutes. Megan has tried showers, baths, walking, hip swivels and horse back riding. Nothing stops the contractions or makes them speed up. We are weary.
11:30 p.m. -- Megan tells me to go to bed, she is going to try and rest comfortably on the rocking chair. I begrudgingly (happily) agree. I sleep about 2 hours.

SUNDAY (note: the rest of this timeline is more dicey. We were pretty out of it.)
1:30 a.m. -- Megan wakes me up and says she called the midwife, it's time to go to the hospital. I grab everything I can think of and head to the car (thanks Colin) and we leave.
2 a.m. -- We arrive at the hospital. Megan obstinately refuses a wheelchair and we walk half a block to the triage room.
2:30 a.m. -- We start fetal heart monitoring.
3 a.m. -- Baby looks good, but Megan is only dilated to 3 cm. To get in to the birth center we had been working toward she had to be 4. The midwife suggests Megan take something to sleep, because at this rate she'll never have enough energy to push..
[I don't know where I am off on the above, but somehow we got home at 6 a.m.]
6 a.m. -- We get back home tired and disappointed. Megan takes the sleeping pill (6-8 hour effectiveness). We go to sleep. Megan zonks, waking periodically and having a contraction, then passing right back out. I sleep not at all because the pill makes Megan snore, and because she's hurting and tired she needs to cuddle.
9 a.m. -- Megan's water breaks, movie style. She is right in the middle of the pill's duration, and recognizes that it's happened, but then sits there looking a bit stunned. I call the midwife for advice and draw a bath for Meg. She gets in and sits looking a bit zombified. I make her food and keep her awake and comfortable. We wait.
11 a.m. -- The bath finishes. Megan's contractions have been getting stronger and we're sure this HAS to be it. While she gets ready for the day, she contracts and has another gush of fluid, but this time it's greenish. That is not a good sign. It means there is meconium in the amniotic fluid. We forgo waiting for the contractions to be spaced close and head to the hospital in case the baby is in distress.
12 p.m. -- We get to the hospital, find out that the baby is ok, and that Megan is still at 3. Crushing. We decide to go to a labor and delivery room to labor until maybe she dialates and we can go to the birthing center.
6 p.m. -- After laboring intensely for 6 hours, Megan's labor stops and she gets checked again. Still 3, and it's a body blow. Megan is looking like a champion still, somehow ready to keep going, but the clock is ticking now that the water is broken and we can't wait for it to happen. The midwife suggests pitocin, a scary word to someone trying to have a natural birth. Megan didn't want drugs, but she wanted a healthy baby more, so she agreed to the pitocin.
7 p.m. -- Megan is hooked up to an IV and the baby is put on constant monitoring. We are doing all the things our natural labor guides swear on bibles against. The pitocin starts and Megan's second wind is swiftly knocked out of her as the contractions get very intense. She wants to try to have this kid, but is so tired she can barely keep herself together. Megan is still 3. We stop the pitocin drip.
8 p.m. -- The midwife suggests an epidural and Megan feels like all is lost. To her an epidural meant cesarean, and she had worked so hard to avoid one. The midwife explains that if Megan can sleep through her contractions she might be able to get there and have enough energy to push. They give her and I some time to talk about it and eventually we see the reasoning for it and Megan throws her plans in the garbage to hopefully get this kid out.
[again, the times must be off because now it's like midnight, but there wasn't a 4 hour gap]

MONDAY (B-DAY)
12 a.m. -- Megan gets the epidural and remarks how totally weird not feeling her abdomen and below is. I tell her to stop thinking about it and get some sleep. She does. I doze on and off on a folt out chair/cot.
5 a.m. -- Megan is feeling some pressure, which means the baby is lower. She gets checked and is at 7 cm! She is overwhelmed with relief that this is actually working. Her epidural is wearing off on one side so she changes positions and gets a little bit of a re-up and goes back to sleep. I nap with one eye open.
7:30 a.m. -- The baby is showing signs that it's moved even lower. Megan gets checked and she is at 10!!! She and I are laughing because her body did it, and because we'll be having a kid any minute now... and we've been working at t his for over three days!
8 a.m. -- Megan starts pushing.
8:28 a.m. -- Penelope Edwards Smith is born. We are both overcome with joy. The feeling you get when you see your own child born is both indescribable and unforgettable. Everything up to this point in the process is completely overshadowed by how awesome this moment is. Megan doesn't even remember a lot of this happening, but both of us will remember first seeing our little girl.

Luckily she won't remember seeing me. After 77 hours of labor I looked like this:

Gary Busy, eat your heart out.