The Birth of Piper Elizabeth

I had had this idea of a natural birth planned out from the moment I saw the positive sign on the pregnancy stick.  What I didn’t account for is that no matter what “natural” induction method I tried… and no matter how many times… I would still have to have a medical intervention to have my baby. 

At my 40 week appointment with Dr. Trent; he checked me and I was still not dilating, and I was not effaced at all.  We talked about induction, and decided on Tuesday May 8^th 2012.  Dave has been working at the Sinclair Oil Refinery 7 days a week, 12 hour shifts.  We decided he would work his full shift then he would come to the hospital to be with me while we waited for labor to start.

My mom went with me to check in and just to be with me while I waited for Dave to arrive.  At 2:30pm Dr. Trent inserted 24mg of Cytotec told me it may or may not work.  So we took walks around the labor and delivery department, and just passed the time.  At 6:30 that night Dr. Trent came to check me again and I had no progression.  So he inserted another dose of Cytotec, only this time it was 50mgs.  Dr. Trent told me not to expect much to happen, and gave me ambien to sleep.  Dave arrived at the hospital around 7 that night.  My dad showed up as well just to say hi and to see how things were going. 

When my parents left Dave and I took a couple walks around the labor and delivery, and I noticed that I started to have some contractions.  They were very low, and started pretty sudden.  Every time one would come on, I would have to take a second to breathe through it, but I was still confident that I could pull off a natural birth at this point. 

9 o-clock rolled around and the nurse wanted me to lay down for a while to monitor the baby, and my contractions.  That’s when they got worse.  When I was on my back (so they could find the baby’s heart beat) my contractions hurt worse than when I was standing.  So I had the nurse sit me up a bit so I could deal better.  At about 10 o-clock my contractions were steadily getting closer together, harder, and more painful.  They (in my opinion) were extremely low, and still at this point did not wrap around my back (like I had been told they would/should). 

The nurse came in around this time to time my contractions and the severity.  She never left my room until her shift was completed after this.  Sometimes the monitor was picking up my contractions, and sometimes they weren’t.  By midnight I could swear I had to go to the bathroom, and the nurse let me up a few times to try but nothing.  While there I would have 2 or 3 contractions, then another one on the walk back to the bed.  At this point they were so hard and painful that I couldn’t stand.  I rolled back into the bed, and prayed I could go to sleep, I kept thinking if I could sleep maybe they wouldn’t be so bad.

By this time the Ambien had kicked in and I was EXHAUSTED.  But my contractions were now 3 on top of each other with only 1 to 1 ½ minutes break, and each contraction was a minute long.  So I was basically having 3 minute contractions w/ half the time for a break.  The nurse checked me at this point and said I was 7cm dilated.  And with each contraction she and Dave had to remind me to breathe through the contractions.  Only I lost all ability to breathe.  I was now shaking, and dang near breaking off the rail to the bed.  I was losing control, and was now sobbing from the pain.

Dave was doing everything he could to try and keep me calm, and help me through the contractions so I would continue with my original plan in not getting an epidural.  The nurse asked me if I wanted something to take the edge off of the pain, or if I wanted an epidural.  I knew the drug to “take the edge off” wasn’t going to work, because they gave me two shots in my shoulder to try and slow my contractions, and those didn’t work.  My contractions got worse after those stupid shots…

So I decided to give in, and get the epidural.  It is not my proudest moment, but I knew I couldn’t go on in that much pain.  The nurse advised that if I got the epidural that it would slow labor, and I didn’t care at that point, I just wanted the pain to subside, at least to tolerable levels.  When the anesthetist came in, I sat up on the edge of the bed, and he got things going for the epidural.  About half way through I could still feel my contractions, but I was also passing out.  I’m not sure if it was from the Ambien, or if it was from the pain, but the nurse and Dave had to catch me a couple times, and tell me to focus on waking up.

About 5 minutes after the anesthetist left; sweet relief came upon me, and I was finally able to sleep.  I slept until about 4am when I started feeling pressure again.  I told the nurse what I was feeling, and she checked me.  I was at a 10!  And I was almost completely thinned out which meant that soon I’d be having a baby!  They called Dr. Trent, he came and checked me, and said baby’s head was not quite engaged yet and I would need to wait to push, but that with every contraction she would get pushed down a little further, and soon I would be pushing. 

He left to go sleep until I was ready to push.  At 6am I told the nurse that it felt like her head was going to come out; so she checked, and baby’s head was very much engaged.  I could feel where she was and her head was dang close!  So Dr. Trent came in, checked, and we were ready to go!  They told me to push every time I felt a contraction, so I pushed.  I wanted to see my heavenly gift so bad I pushed with everything I had.  3 pushes per contraction, which the contractions were pretty sporadic in timing. 

At 6:45am little Piper Elizabeth Creason was born into the world.  Dave cut the cord and was splashed w/ the cord blood.  Then they placed her on me, and I was filled with such euphoria that I couldn’t remember for a minute what I had been going through.  She was quiet but alert when she came out.  They took her to where they wipe her off, weigh her and measure her.  She came out weighing 6lbs 15.6oz, measuring 19 ¾ inches, her head was 12 ¾ inches around.

I got a 2^nd degree tear from her birth, and had to get stitches.  But I didn’t care.  I just wanted my baby.  She was born with a full head of hair which I so wanted her to have hair!  We spent 24 more hours in the hospital, then we were released to go home.  We left the hospital about 9am 5/11/2012. 

When people ask me what it’s like to be a mommy now, I always think of how lucky I am.  Heavenly Father trusts me (ME!) enough with one of his special spirits to raise and nurture in this world.  I just hope I can live up his expectations for me with this spirit, and I do the right things.  I hope He is proud of the way that I choose to raise this little girl.  Because I couldn’t be happier to have received such a wonderful gift.