[Motu's] Jason's Birth Story, Part II
At the hospital, the check-in process was pretty quick, since I'd pre-registered. I refused the wheelchair, and we headed up, bloguser festooned with bags and baglets. They strapped me down, stuck on the fetal monitors, and checked the dilation. It wasn't much, 1.5, which was slightly better than the barely 1 I'd gotten at the office a week ago. I was somewhat disappointed, but eventually they let me have the mobile monitors, and we started walking. We visited all the highlights of the ward - the jacuzzi room they wouldn't let me use, the operating room I'd been in last time, and the silly posters about what contractions are like, which seemed a bit late for the stage of the process. After a while, I think, I got back into bed, then walked some more. The doc, whom I didn't know - he must have been from another practice - wasn't particularly helpful or hopeful about the VBAC, but I didn't care.
After a few hours, and a few checks, it was clear that nothing much was moving in terms of dilation. It was past midnight, and we were given the option to go home. On the one hand, I was getting pretty hungry, and the staff made it clear I wouldn't be getting anything at the hospital due to the possibility of a C-section. On the other hand, the contractions were still relatively close together and strong enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep. I wound up getting Tylenol with Codeine, and we packed up and left. daradara went home. There was practically no food at home, since we'd barely been there the last couple days and didn't stock up for the weekend. I was hungry, but very picky - I wanted something carby and relatively neutral, but not too chewy, and after some driving and looking for something open at 12:30AM we wound up at the Dunkin Donuts, where we got four plain donuts. Then, at the convenience store, we got a loaf of plain bread. We got home, ate and drank, and went to sleep. The codeine didn't keep me from waking up, but it made me fall back asleep right afterwards. This turned out to be a great idea, since I hadn't slept much the night before either and had a stressful day, and it would be while yet...
Tuesday morning we woke up quietly, and had my parents take Ali outside before we came down - I didn't want to deal with her seeing me in labor or making a fuss at us leaving, as she recently began asking "Что такое, мама?" at every pregnant groan and frustrated oy. We ate some more donuts, I decided to bring them back up, and my contractions became more irregular, slowing down, then speeding up, before settling back into the familiar 6-7 minute interval. I ate some bread instead, and off we went again. daradara returned our call in the hospital, saying she was pretty close with another baby, and would finish with them first. I felt like Rachel from Friends. Throughout Tuesday, the contractions kept getting stronger and longer, but dilation progress was minimal, to just barely 3, though effacement was around 80%. At some point, the doc gave me stadol to help me sleep a bit, but like the codeine, it only worked for the brief stretches in between contractions. By the time my labor had reached the 24 hour mark, around 4-5PM, I gave up on toughing it out and asked for an epi. I was getting tired, and lack of progress is extremely demoralizing. The contractions felt worse (breathing wasn't helping much anymore), but weren't really - it was still the first phase of labor.
After a few hours, and a few checks, it was clear that nothing much was moving in terms of dilation. It was past midnight, and we were given the option to go home. On the one hand, I was getting pretty hungry, and the staff made it clear I wouldn't be getting anything at the hospital due to the possibility of a C-section. On the other hand, the contractions were still relatively close together and strong enough that I wouldn't be able to sleep. I wound up getting Tylenol with Codeine, and we packed up and left. daradara went home. There was practically no food at home, since we'd barely been there the last couple days and didn't stock up for the weekend. I was hungry, but very picky - I wanted something carby and relatively neutral, but not too chewy, and after some driving and looking for something open at 12:30AM we wound up at the Dunkin Donuts, where we got four plain donuts. Then, at the convenience store, we got a loaf of plain bread. We got home, ate and drank, and went to sleep. The codeine didn't keep me from waking up, but it made me fall back asleep right afterwards. This turned out to be a great idea, since I hadn't slept much the night before either and had a stressful day, and it would be while yet...
Tuesday morning we woke up quietly, and had my parents take Ali outside before we came down - I didn't want to deal with her seeing me in labor or making a fuss at us leaving, as she recently began asking "Что такое, мама?" at every pregnant groan and frustrated oy. We ate some more donuts, I decided to bring them back up, and my contractions became more irregular, slowing down, then speeding up, before settling back into the familiar 6-7 minute interval. I ate some bread instead, and off we went again. daradara returned our call in the hospital, saying she was pretty close with another baby, and would finish with them first. I felt like Rachel from Friends. Throughout Tuesday, the contractions kept getting stronger and longer, but dilation progress was minimal, to just barely 3, though effacement was around 80%. At some point, the doc gave me stadol to help me sleep a bit, but like the codeine, it only worked for the brief stretches in between contractions. By the time my labor had reached the 24 hour mark, around 4-5PM, I gave up on toughing it out and asked for an epi. I was getting tired, and lack of progress is extremely demoralizing. The contractions felt worse (breathing wasn't helping much anymore), but weren't really - it was still the first phase of labor.