Well, it has been almost 2 months since I have posted… sorry about that! This whole baby thing is a whole load of work. So here we are again, I will try and post some of the experiences that have taken place in the past two months, but frankly it has been a whirlwind.
Anyway, I think I left off at the destroyed, dejected, distraught, hopeless, and just straight depressed part. After 2.5 days of painful contractions, HJ and I just found out that we went that distance and had been dilated only one centimeter the whole time!
HJ was wrecked and I was speechless. At this point it was about 7 pm on Thursday. The nurse at Women and Babies set her up for a non-stress test. And there HJ laid, contracting and not being able to move from the bed. Finally the nurse came back in at 10 and gave us a choice…walk or shower.
It wasn’t much of a choice, HJ was exhausted (duh), so we hit the shower. Now, I didn’t do a lot of research for this whole thing, but I never heard that showering helps with contractions, pain or anything for that matter. Let me tell you what though, it worked. Within 2 contractions, they were consistent and around ninety seconds apart.
So, needless to say, my advice is that if you ever have the choice, do the shower. It relaxed me (like that is important at all), it made HJ’s contractions consistent, it was awesome. After an hour of that, I was a bit refreshed, HJ was contracting consistently and it was 11 pm. We went back to the triage room and got HJ checked again.
The nurses were about to switch shifts, but our nurse decided to stay on till we got sent home or sent to a delivery room. The nurse took her time checking and had a bit of a puzzled look on her face. Amazingly, no miraculously, she looked at us a told us that HJ was dilated a full 4 cm in those 4 hours.
At this point HJ was relieved, but still exhausted. This is about the time I started to feel completely helpless. The pain and exhaustion were unbearable for HJ and it was unbearable for me to watch and know I could do nothing. The new nurse asked if she was going to have an epidural, and at this point the answer had to be a yes. This wasn’t part of our birth plan originally, but the thing about the birthing process, as we found out, is that nothing can really truly be planned. My advice to anyone else is make an optimal situation up in your mind. Don’t call it a plan, just let your partner know what you optimally want to do. After that be ready to communicate throughout the entire process to make the best decision you can.
So from the triage area to the delivery room we went. The time spent here was a complete blur. As soon as the epidural was in, HJ started to feel better and excited to meet our baby. It didn’t last long though.
Just as we got settled in to try for a few hours of sleep the baby’s heart rate started dropped dramatically and about 15 nurses came in and moved HJ all around. In the end, they found a spot that worked and kept the baby happy and his heart rate in a good range. It was 3 am and we finally got calmed down.
At 5 am after a bit of rest and a report to our mothers, HJ was dilated and ready to go. Check out next time when I finally get to the good part!
For now that’s it.
Doplic Daddy
