Omara Layne

I have now known the entire spectrum of birth experiences possible! From C-section to natural birth, from precipitous labor to failure-to-progress, from medication-free to an epidural that didn’t work. I haven’t decided why it was necessary for me to experiences all the options, but I’ve ended up with a healthy baby each time, so I know I shouldn’t complain.
After Isaac’s rapid (3 hour!) entrance into the world, my OB told me to come in the minute contractions started. I thought I was being daring but reasonable by waiting until they were steadily 8-10 minutes apart for 2 ½ hours first, and then we drove to the hospital at midnight. I was quite discouraged when the nurse told me baby wasn’t fully engaged and I was only 2cm! So I made Chad try to get some rest while I walked up and down the stairs the rest of the night until my thighs couldn’t take the burn anymore. The contractions were strong enough I couldn’t sleep anyway. But nothing increased except in intensity—and imagine my horror to find I had only progressed to 3cm by 5am the next morning.

I’ll spare you the gory details of the rest of the day, but it was not pretty. Eventually the contractions picked up and hit me every 1 ½ - 2 minutes, but still I wasn’t progressing like I expected to. I was determined to do it without pain medication, as I did the last 2 births, but the psychological stress of the contractions not ‘working’ the way they were supposed to took its toll. I could handle the pain when it was doing something, but to feel as if they were useless? Horrible. I started to worry that maybe I was getting so exhausted and stressed that maybe I was fighting my own body, so I finally broke down and agreed to an epidural in hopes of being able to relax. But the anesthesiologist took 2 hours to get to me, during which my efforts at telling myself “just a few more contractions” lost all effectiveness. When I finally got the epidural, it only numbed one side, so with every contraction I felt all the same pain, only localized in one hip, and I was confined to bed. It was my worst nightmare! Again, I’ll spare the details, but I got to 10cm and ready to push after just a few minutes of that agony, and Omara was born with very little effort after that. Start to finish, it was 16 hours. Rediculous!!!

When it was all over, I decided it was like planning a big party and expecting to have fun, only to look back and realize it was too much work to have been any fun at all. I actually enjoyed the last 2 births, but this one was too much. But again, Omara is healthy, I’m healthy, and she’s eating like a champ. It’s just not an experience I ever plan on having again! I’ve covered all my bases, I’ve experienced all the options, and I’m quite content being done. We have our A, E, I, and O…U can be the urologist!