The Birth Story - Part 2

We left off that JP STILL wasn't back from getting his wallet.  They were ready to administer the epidural and rupture the bag of waters.

One of many.

JP did make it back and promptly put on his scrubs. He looks pretty good in them, maybe he's in the wrong profession ;) The anaesthetist came (whom I think is GREAT!) and placed the epidural. To be honest, I was more afraid of the epidural and the giant needle than I was of birthing twins. I'd done the birth thing before, but I'd never had an epidural and I'm not that fond of needles. Anyways, he explained everything he was doing and although there was some pain, it wasn't from the epidural being placed, it was the needle that administered the local anaesthetic. Yikes! It burned. The epidural was taped into place and more tubes were added to my collection. Oh yes, now that I had an epidural, I needed a catheter. There's a first time for everything, right? Ugh. That upped my tube count to three (with the hand IV doing double duty with the antibiotic and a pitocin drip to keep the contractions building).

Louisa arrived while I was getting the epidural and they had her wait until it was done. Then she came in and kept us company and took a lot of photos. It was really nice having another person there to help with things or just to keep us company. 

With the epidural in place, it was time to "break my water".  The sweet OBGYN on call came back in and got her gear together. I had this done with Lucia so I knew what to expect. They have this long thing like a crochet needle with a little hook on the end. They find the bag and then just puncture a hole in it. I don't think they anticipated how much water would come out. The OBGYN and the nurses commented on how much water there was. It was like someone left the bathtub running and water was pouring out on the floor. It just kept coming and coming. The entire floor was covered. And that was only Baby A's bag! I was drenched too so the nurses clumsily changed me and my sheets (I'm not sure if they were clumsy or I was clumsy - remember I have a ton of tubes and that was making it difficult to do anything as everyone was getting tangled up in them.) To keep better track of Baby A, the OBGYN inserted a scalp monitor on her. This was great, but was one.more.tube. (Tube count 4)

Asking about my contractions

mid contraction

I was hopeful that the epidural would mean pain free, but that wasn't the case. It only took on the right side of my body so that left side, where sweet baby A lovingly had her feet jammed up under my ribs, was completely PAINFUL! I think it would have been more bearable to feel my whole abdomen contracting rather than only having half of it. The pain was all located in two places - up under my ribs and right low down in my tummy between my hip and belly button. The contractions were getting really intense and I was breathing pretty heavily from what I remember. Now that I had the epidural, I wasn't allowed to have much in the way of fluids. I was allowed "small sips" of water now and then. I was SO thirsty though I just wanted to down a 10 gallon! To make matters worse, my thoughtful but somewhat clueless husband was sitting beside my bed drinking a cup of juice with ice and CRUNCHING. Adding insult to injury. He was also bouncing his knee which was resting on my bed and it.drove.me.insane. I was trying to hold it together and then Louisa (who was with us for moral support/photos/help) said, "Is JP's crunching on the ice bothering you?" To which I replied, "YES!". So he went out in the hall where he guzzled and crunched it all in a hurry. It was still annoying but at least I wasn't boring holes into his head with laser beams from my eyes! Whenever the nurse wasn't looking, I'd ask Louisa to pass me my cup where I would put as much in my mouth as I could fit and swallow before she noticed again.


What time is it?  I'm not sure where we are in the timeline of things. Things were picking up. I'm in a lot of pain so they consult the anesthetist again. The nice one who placed it is now in a surgery (with one of the surgeons from the office I work at! Weird. I'll tell that story next time! so they send a new one in. He's young. He pulls the tape off my back and fiddles with the epidural, then leaves. The nurses come in and look at me. There's blood everywhere so they take all the tape off again, clean me up, and put more tape on. I didn't need my back waxed, but I guess it's complementary with an epidural ;) And I'm having mountain sized contractions through this process.

Uh Oh! Baby A's monitor starts beeping sending friend Louisa into a mild anxiety attack as she goes to get a nurse (while not wanting to alarm me). Scalp monitor slipped off in all the excitement I guess. OBGYN comes back to reinsert. All is well again. Except...

(Just a warning, I'm typing this next section with a fair bit of sarcasm. If it sounds like I'm ticked off at the world which I was in the moment, but now as I'm typing it, I find it humorous).

Still.not.working. The epidural that is. I'm still in pain. I should be getting close now. They tell me to let them know if I feel the urge to push.I think about it for a while. Have a few more contractions and yep, I need to push. The nurse calls the OBGYN to come check (and with her comes my GP, a med student/resident? and a few other people). I'm at 9cm! Woo Hoo and Boo Hoo. I'm at 9cm, but I'm not ready to push until we get to 10! Everyone leaves. 5 or 10 minutes go by. "I NEED TO PUSH!" Entourage re-enters the room, I get checked. Nope, still 9cm. Apparently the baby is posterior so my body is having a rough time with that last centimeter. Then came my least favorite part of this process..they have me roll from side to side through the contractions. I could hardly roll side to side when I WASN'T in labour and half of my body numb from an epidural with a bunch of tubes around me. Roll. Ouch. Roll. Ouch. Roll. Ouch. It must have been humorous to Louisa and JP, or maybe it was just uncomfortable. Remember I'm almost as big as beluga, I'm numb on my right side from my ribs to my toes, I'm in excruciating pain on my left side, and I'm thirsty and not allowed to drink. I can't roll anymore. Check me. 9! I thought it couldn't get worse. I was wrong :) Since the rolling side to side isn't working, I have to get up on my hands and knees and labour like that to try to get baby to turn and reach the 10cm mark. (You still remember that half my body is numb, right?) Yep.  
On my hands and knees like a dog. In a hospital gown with my rear end facing the door. I pity anyone who walked by my room in those moments. (Thank you to whomever put the blankets up on me)








I think I only had 3 contractions before I was shaking so bad I could hardly hold myself up anymore. They eased me down (as carefully as you can ease a beluga out of water) and then I really felt the urge to push. For reals. I felt like I was crying wolf a bit, but they humored me and had the OBGYN and groupies come back in. Da da da!!! I was 10cm! Yahoo! Let's get this show on the road!

Moving to the OR

All of a sudden there was a flurry of commotion as nurses and people pour in from everywhere. We need to move from the normal labour and delivery room to the Operating Room (in case there's a need for an emergent c-section if something isn't right). Louisa isn't allowed to come with us so she stays behind in the room to wait for us to return not as two (JP and I) but as 4!

To be continued!

The time we left for the OR

Blessings,

Tamara