To start where I left off in this post, I didn't wait too much longer to get the nubain. However much we liked our nurse, it was easy to tell she was a little anti-drugs and was all about trying different positions, etc. (at one time she said "I almost wanted to have a fourth child just to see what these epidurals were like", yes, I wanted to punch her). I would not have been so willing to try a few of those things, had I known the end was only 6ish hours away as I was still thinking there was a possibility we could be in it for the long haul like Connor and I just was fearful the drugs would wear off for the worst of it. So, tried a few positional things truly just to appease the nurse but then got nubain, did absolutely nothing for the contraction pain. I think maybe around 11 as I was a crying, blubbering fool through the contractions, I told her to get the epidural process happening. Again, had I known the end wasn't that far away, I would have asked for the epidural earlier. (as always, kudos to the many women that do this drug free, I just think you're crazy, in the best way possible :))
So the anesthesiologist came and did his magic, went very smoothly. The pain subsided for about 10-15 minutes, then it came back, not as bad as it was, but back. This was probably around noon-ish? Wasn't awful, but I was hoping for total pain-free relaxation (ha), which I did have when I had one with Connor, before it wore off at least. I think I was about a 5 when they administered the epidural, 1.5 hours later, a 9. WHOOT was all I could say to that (since I progressed about 1 cm an hour MAX during Connor's labor) So, we knew it was soon going to be push time.
Like I said, we liked the nurse, but we started getting a little annoyed at this point. She was ALWAYS messing with the two monitors, baby's heartbeat and my contractions, and when we were ready to start pushing (2 pm) she seemed more concerned with the monitors and their position than catching my contraction at the right time to help me push. I get it, very important to keep monitoring the baby, but it was annoying. There were at least two contractions (after we had started pushing already) that I had to ask her if she wanted me to push through them, because she was just standing at the monitors, and she was responsible for holding my leg on that side. I will say, pushing was harder with the epidural. I remember with Connor I could just feel that I was at least doing something productive, versus I wasn't sure I was doing any good at all this time. We pushed until 3:20 or so, then they called Dr. Taylor to see if he wanted to come up and see if he could help. Baby was close, but they thought it was maybe looking towards the ceiling, instead of down, and apparently it's easier to come out face down.
He arrived about 3:30 and apparently has a gift for turning babies. I would have to agree, as after the fact, knowing that he completely flipped a 10 pounder inside of me and it wasn't an uncomfortable experience at all, seems pretty amazing. He flipped him, then next contraction he applied the vacuum, and out he came at 3:48. So, nearly two hours of pushing, fairly pain free, versus 45 minutes of pushing with Connor, full of pain, not sure which was less fun :)
Overall, not too bad, and thankfully far shorter than with Connor. I still envy these women (you know who you are) that go on their own, have these amazingly short, fast labors, I just don't think that's ever going to be in the cards for me. However if we DO have a third...I think I'm going to walk in and tell them to give me the epidural immediately. :)
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| Photo courtesy Anne Wolff :) |
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