Simon Says...: Part 4: I Guess since we are only doing it once, we may as well do it all!

Hospital Help

I immediately made the decision to transfer to Providence. I decided I needed an epidural for rest and a lot of pitocin to get a vaginal delivery out of the situation. I had worked there as a nurse and felt they were very baby friendly and would be flexible with the transfer from home. Within minutes of the decision, I was dressed and heading for the door. Markus apparently put on a valiant face and seemed totally fine with this turn of events. It wasn’t until afterward that I learned he was really nervous about this change. My support team was totally on board and supportive of the change of plans. Catherine came in our car and Markus drove.

We were shown to our room and introduced to the physician that Catherine has as backup at the hospital. He agreed with the plan, especially after assessing the baby’s position. Simon was indeed posterior, though I’d had no classical back labor pain, and asynclitic-meaning the baby’s head was cocked to the side (like the RCA puppy, listening to the Victrola). He also felt I was 8cm at that time. There was also some light meconium, my tough little guy was also showing some evidence of pooping (ha-ha) out, even though his heart rate was still super strong and regular. This reinforced to me that our transfer had been a good call.

All of the medical interventions were set into motion and the nurses were kind and skilled. What occurred to me while all this was going on and the few contractions I had to deal with while I was there, was how incredibly hard it would be for me to have had natural labor in the hospital. I knew my contractions were weaker (I had an internal monitor that registered my contractions on par with a speed bump when they should have resembled mountains!) but having to interact with staff and be present, etc seemed to make the pain more intense and hard to deal with. Imagining dealing with the contractions brought on by pitocin in the hospital setting, without pain meds made me shake my head in wonder at the women I knew that did manage to accomplish this.

The epidural provided me with rest. I won’t pretend that it wasn’t a relief after all the hours of intense pain and more importantly I was able to sleep! I rested for three hours after the epidural at which point I was complete and feeling a bit of pressure.

The epidural was turned down to ½ and I started pushing. I wanted to push in a totally flat position, pulling my legs way up because I’ve always felt that for someone that has to be in bed and has a posterior positioned baby this can open up the pelvis really well. In Samoa, I would get a woman in this position and the baby would nearly fly out every time….perhaps I hoped that would happen for me! Simon didn’t fly out but I felt it worked well for me. I got feedback that I was a good pusher and I worked really hard at it. I’d always felt that pushing would be my “forte” in labor and I feel it was. I remember saying, “It feels so good to have my hard work pay off.” With the pushing I could feel the satisfaction of progress that had been so hard won during labor. As the baby descended the physician was able to manually straighten his head and he came very quickly after that. In all, I had two hours of pushing.

I was able to see Simon born in the mirror and even though he had meconium he was vigorous and crying upon delivery and I was able to pull him from me after his shoulders were delivered and up onto my abdomen.

It was an incredible moment. I was crying and so very happy. Markus was laughing/crying and welcomed our son with a characteristic, “Hi, buddy!” We kissed and stroked our new baby and a feeling of joy was evident in the room. Our team had hung in there for about 33 hours of labor. They welcomed Simon and then left for rest.

Catherine, Kit with Us

We too rested and in the morning we were able to negotiate early discharge and we were back home by 10:30 am. My sister was there with a clean house and food for us as she would be for the next several days.

It was an amazing experience and I think everything went as well as it could have under the circumstances that we had been dealt. Everyone was wonderful and supportive in all our decision-making junctures. I loved laboring at home and was grateful for the care I received when it became evident we needed extra help to have a vaginal delivery.

I guess we just needed to do it all, since we are only doing it once.