my birth plan not only went out the window, it was shredded and stomped on as well. [part 1]

I know that births don't usually happen according to your birth plan, but I still feel that creating a birth plan can be beneficial, however I could not have imagined my birth deviating so far from my plan. Although the plan deviated so much, I don't regret any decision I made throughout my labor process.

***This is the story about my chunky monkey Avielle's birth on January 10th (3 days past due date). I leave no details to the imagination and have included some pictures. If you don't want to read all about birth, I suggest you go look on Buzzfeed for adorable puppies instead. ***

My birth was such a long process that I need to break it down in a timeline fashion. Yes, that's right, my labor was 4 days long plus 3 days of "false" labor.... totaling 7 days filled with contracting fun.

Saturday January 4th- Early in the morning I started having period type cramps and knew that this was the start of things. My previous blog entry accounts the details about my prodromal or "false labor." This prodromal labor started saturday morning and went through Monday the 6th.

Monday January 6th- Went to work despite having contractions. The contractions were varied in length and not great in intensity, but was still probably a bad idea to go to work...

Tuesday January 7th-  Woke up at 3am with stronger contractions that were about 8 minutes apart and lasting about 30-40 seconds. Doula said she would come to the house when they were closer to 4-5 minutes apart. I took baths and showers and napped when I could. Around 2pm, contractions increased again in intensity getting harder to work through on my own (oh man, little did I know what I was in for). These contractions slowly gained in intensity through the day, but never closer than 7 minutes apart. I had a little bit of my bloody show at one point, which got me more excited.

Braving the cold and contractions during one of Chicago's coldest days

Wednesday January 8th- Was up much of Tuesday night with diarrhea and contractions still 7 minutes apart, at some point I also lost my mucous plug. I wanted the hubs to get sleep, so Tuesday he slept in the guest room, while I spent a lot of time napping in the bath. At this point I had not gotten much sleep since Monday night and it was just beginning to take a toll on my body. The contractions were now pretty pronounced in my back, which I knew was a bad sign of a posterior baby. Shit, I had to flip her anterior if I wanted less pain with every contraction. My doula sent me some positions to try to flip her, these felt miserable, especially during contractions, but I did my best. When the contractions would come I would close my eyes and deep breathe. A friend told me to just let your body go, let the contractions sweep over you like the ocean. I would picture swimming in the waves during our vacation in Brazil years ago. This would help some, but this was only the beginning...

Wednesday afternoon/evening I began to feel a little desperate. I was frustrated that the contractions were consistent, but still only 7-8 minutes apart. This means I had been having consistent contractions every 7 minutes since Tuesday. I wanted to progress. I wanted something to happen. I called the midwife to ask what my options were and they decided that my sleep deprivation was taking a toll and preventing my body from progressing. What I needed at this point was sleep, and then once well rested could work with the doula to flip the baby and hopefully labor would fly. The midwife said I had three options for sleep: Tylenol PM, Ambien, or Morphine sleep. I am not a huge fan of drugs and feel Ambien is a dirty drug, so I opted for Tylenol PM. 

At this point I couldn't get comfortable and during contractions I became more vocal, a deep moaning sound was all that could get me through the pain. The Tylenol PM obviously didn't touch this, I got no sleep, not even rest. I moved all over the house trying to find a position that would give me some break from the pain. No luck. Late in the evening I got in the shower and had a full on panic attack. The contractions seemed to come on furiously with no break, plus I was exhausted and emotionally drained. I couldn't catch my breath. I needed my husband but couldn't get to my phone. I was panicking. Finally I made it out to get my phone to tell him to come upstairs. I was on all fours on the ground at this point hyperventilating. S talked to the doula and she suggested we go to the hospital and at least get checked to see if I was progressing.

On the drive to the hospital, I had calmed down and once again my contractions spaced out to 8-10 minutes apart. The midwife checked me, I was 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. This was the first time I had been checked, so was glad to know my body was at least doing something, but still not enough to admit me. Again, my options were more Tylenol PM, Ambien or Morphine. We decided to go home and discuss and continue on.

Little did we know how this would all take a turn...