At 4 am on September 30th, 2008 I started leaking
amniotic fluid. I woke Matt up and we
headed to the hospital expecting them to take a look at me and then send us
home; after all my due date was nearly 3 weeks away and I wasn’t in labor. We quickly found out that our first baby was
indeed going to be born! My doctor knew
my desire was to have an all-natural delivery, and while she thought I was a
little crazy (quote “once you feel those labor pains, you’ll change your
mind!”), she was supportive. She said I
could walk around the hospital and try to get things moving on my own – up
until 4 pm. She didn’t want to me to go
more then 12 hours before inducing due to the risk of infection. My body & baby Lukas decided to cooperate
and I started having contractions around 12 pm.
The contractions, once they started, did not stop. I never had 10 minutes or 5 minutes or even 3
minutes between contractions. They were
about 30 – 60 seconds apart and yes, they hurt.
It was all back labor, so I found relief in a hot shower and counter pressure
on my back and was able to breathe through them ok. At one point I told Matt I thought I needed
an epidural because the pain was getting pretty intense, but it turned out I
was transitioning and it was time to push.
Luke was born at 3:15 pm after about 15 minutes of pushing. Since it was my first baby with only about 3
hours of active labor, it was considered a precipitous labor. It was intense and fast, but I didn’t know
any better.
Fast-forward about 3 and a half years to 6:30 pm on May 12, 2012,
just 8 days away from my due date with baby #2, I was sitting on the coach and
wondering how I was still pregnant and “pop” – my water broke! Expecting a
similar situation to Luke’s birth, I was disappointed I would have to wonder
around a hospital all night waiting to labor to start. We needed my mother-in-law to come watch
Luke, so I drove myself to the hospital and checked in around 8 pm. I had a few contractions, but they were
irregular. The nurses got my IV started
(positive GBS test, so I needed a round of antibiotics) and collected all my
information. I had a few more contractions, but nothing regular yet. Luke, Matt and Linda
arrived around 9 pm and after my antibiotics were all in, I was disconnected
from everything so I could walk them down the hallway and say goodbye to Luke
& Linda. As soon as I got up and started walking down the hall, the real
contractions started. I managed to say
goodbye to Luke without letting on, but then could barely make it back to the
room. The contractions were so strong
and so closely spaced, with Matt’s help I was moving about a foot every five
minutes! At 10 pm the nurse checked me
and I was almost fully dilated. I had
gone from 3 cm to 9 cm in less then an hour.
A few minutes later I was ready to push and Persephone was born in just
2 pushes – one for the head and one for the body – at 10:15 pm. A second precipitous labor, much worse then
the first. It was so fast and intense
that I mentally did not have time to adjust to everything that was happening. After it was over, I felt like I had just
sprinted a 5K, I was so out of breath!
With Luke, I had felt more like I ran a half-marathon – I was tired and
hungry, but not exhausted. I was glad
that I had already been through a natural delivery and wanted to do it again,
because even if I had wanted an epidural there wouldn’t have been enough
time. After the delivery, I started bleeding
pretty heavily, which rattled both the nurses and me. It was considered a primary postpartum
hemorrhage and I was put on Pitocin and Methergine to get my uterus to contract
and control the bleeding, so I continued to have contractions the rest of the
night (not fun). I later learned from
the doctor and nurses that it’s not uncommon after very fast deliveries.
February 2016 – along comes my third positive pregnancy
test. Baby #3. It wasn’t a surprise, but the reality of
seeing the pink line was startling. Our
kids are quite spirited after all, were we really ready to add to the
chaos?! Well, ready or not, we were going
to!! A week later, the nausea and
exhaustion set in: morning sickness, my archenemy! How can a hormone make everything smell so
badly? How can I puke but feel just as
nauseous as before? I muddled through
life for the next 6 weeks until week 12 of pregnancy when I woke up in the
middle of the night bleeding. If you
know me, you might know that I don’t do well with blood – especially unexpected
blood, so, of course, I almost passed out.
We debated on whether or not to wake up the kids so Matt could take me
to the ER and ultimately decided to call for an ambulance (my first ambulance ride). The ER was swamped that night, so I spent the
night laying there trying to stay calm and process the reality that I could be having a miscarriage. The bleeding
had subsided and I wasn’t in any pain, though.
Finally at 7 am they took me to get an ultrasound and there was baby Czegan kicking and
swimming around (what a beautiful sight to see). It turned out I had a
subchorionic hemorrhage and was put on pelvic rest until it resolved (as if sex
was even on my radar with the incessant nausea). This baby was certainly turning into an
adventure.
At week 20, my morning sickness finally subsided and an
ultrasound showed the subchorionic hemorrhage had cleared up. I then turned into a hot (is there a
refrigerator somewhere I can just live in?), hangry (MUST EAT NOW! EAT ALL THE
FRUIT, ICE CREAM AND THAI FOOD!!!) beast for the rest of the summer and
pregnancy. By 30 weeks of pregnancy, I
passed up my heaviest ever pregnancy weight (150 lbs) and was quite honestly
miserable. I tried to keep exercising,
but was so short of breath and it made the hanger worse. Plus, this baby was low and there was so much
pressure on my pelvic floor and bladder.
I was sure the baby was going to come early and wasn’t surprised at all
when the 35 week ultrasound showed the head was down and very low. Then at the 36 week appointment I was already
2 cm dilated, but I was hoping to make it through September 16th
when my maternity leave was planned to start. On September 10th I started having sharp pains in
my pelvis, but were not associated with any contractions. I called the doctor who suggested it was
probably just the baby’s head dropping lower and pushing on nerves. She said I should try putting my feet up and
relaxing; which did give me relief. That
night, before I went to sleep, I thought a few things:
- I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over…
- But not tonight, I don’t want a September 11th birthday…
- And I just got the flu shot, this baby needs to stay in a few more weeks…
- It’s too early…
- But, seriously, I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over!
As ready as I was to be done with this pregnancy and meet my
baby, a baby that 24 weeks before I thought I had lost, I was also getting
quite nervous and anxious about the delivery.
I was going to need to go to Forbes Hospital this time, which was 45
minutes away, due to my OB joining Allegheny Health Network. My labor with Persephone had been so quick; I
was concerned about the very real possibility of not making it to the
hospital. I was worried about having another
postpartum hemorrhage, and certainly did not want to end up hemorrhaging in a
car on the turnpike!! There was no going
back, though, as the baby was in my belly and had to come out one way or
another. I clung to the Maya Angelou
quote “Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space. Invite one to stay.”
At 5 am on September 11th, I had a dream that
Matt’s brother was at our house helping us paint and was outside our room when my
water broke. I asked Jim to go get Matt,
who was also painting on the other side of the house. [Did I mention that we have been painting our
house all summer!?] Then I woke up and
realized that my water had actually broken!
Ready or not… here we go! I woke
up Matt and we loaded the bags and kids into the car (thank goodness for
nesting, I had everything ready to go).
Matt’s parents were going to meet us at the hospital to take the
kids. Supposedly there is only a 10%
chance that the water will break before labor starts; I am now 3 for 3! We overcame hurdle one and made it to the
hospital before the baby was born. In
fact, we made it to the hospital before I was even had a single contraction.
By 7 am I was all set up in labor and delivery. The results from the GBS test were not back
yet, so my doctor wanted me to do a round of antibiotics just in case. At 8 am, the antibiotics were in and I was
still not in labor – my doctor suggested Pitocin and I asked if I could please
walk around and wait a while to see if things would progress on their own. Given my history, I was sure they would.
They did not. I
walked and walked and walked and walked – over 3,000 steps according to my
VivoFit. No contractions. The nurse said the doctor had ordered Pitocin
for me; I asked for a little bit longer and was really dreading the idea of
being induced. I had heard that labor
was worse when induced than when it happened on its own and I knew from
experience that natural labor wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. Baby Czegan; however, had no intentions of
coming out and they started me on Pitocin around 11:30 am. I probably could have protested and asked for
a little more time, but as much as I didn’t want to be induced, I didn’t want
to be pregnant anymore. Plus I was really,
really hungry and I knew I couldn’t eat until after delivery (my relationship with food might be unhealthy).
Being on Pitocin meant I couldn’t walk around any more
because they had to monitor the baby, so I could only stand next to the bed. When the contractions started, they were not
at all strong and very irregular. If I
sat down or laid down, they went away. So,
I stood there awkwardly pacing in place with a towel between my legs because
the endless flow of amniotic fluid.
Glamorous, right? That my husband
still loves me is a testament of true love.
The nurse kept turning up the Pitocin, but the contractions stayed
irregular. After a few hours, around 1:30 – 2:00 pm, the contractions finally
got real and I decided it was finally time to sit down. OH MY HEAVENLY FATHER, Pitocin contractions
are worse then natural ones. I get why
they are called “jackhammer contractions.”
I felt them everywhere: my abdomen, my back, my pelvis, my inner thighs,
as if my uterus was pulling on anything and everything connected to it. It was not because they were faster or closer
together, because my natural labors were much faster. It is probably because they are not
accompanied by the natural release of endorphins that are converted into morphine by
the body. I conclude that Pitocin drips
should include morphine. The only saving
grace was that they were further apart then my natural contractions, so I could
kind of catch my breath between contractions.
But only kind of. It turns out
that I am sensitive to high doses of oxytocin and react by shivering
uncontrollably as if I freezing cold and out in a blizzard without a coat. So, between contractions, I shook.
Around 3 pm the doctor checked me and I was 6/7 cm
dilated. I was sitting there trying to
process the fact that it had taken me several hours to dilate just 3 cm. That meant I had about 3 more cm to go, which
I assumed meant I had several more hours.
I had never been in labor so long; could I possibly endure several more
hours of these extreme contractions???
Then another contraction hit and I, most regrettably, shouted “I want an
epidural.” The doctor was shocked that I
had never gotten one before, but reminded me that every pregnancy and every
delivery is different and said they would see what they could do. With hope of relief in the horizon, I
continued to endure contractions for about 20 – 30 more minutes while waiting
for the anesthesiologist who had been called to an emergency in another area of the
hospital. The contractions were so
strong, I could barely breathe through them and started hyperventilating,
causing my arms and hands to go numb – it was horrible. I felt absolutely pathetic.
When the anesthesiologist finally arrived, Matt had to leave
the room (he later confessed that he was pretty relieved to get a break from witnessing the intensity of my contractions!) and I could barely get out that I have scoliosis and had no issues
with anesthesia when my wisdom teeth came out.
My signature must have been illegible because I couldn’t even feel the
pen in my hand and I was shaking so much. The nurse helped me sit
up so they could get to my back, a position that was extremely uncomfortable to
be in for breathing through contractions – which kept getting stronger, in
fact, I was transitioning!! While they
numbed my back and got the needle in the place, I started to need to push. All the anesthesiologist could do was give me
a shot of Lidocaine to “take the edge off while I was pushing.” I was super frustrated that I had to endure
the worst of the labor while someone was trying to put a needle in spine
without Matt, my support system. I
really wish I had known how close I was to delivery; I wouldn’t have bothered
asking for the epidural in the first place.
The OB and nurses got the bed switched out for delivery and helped me
lay down and get my feet up. Matt came
back in the room and I started pushing.
It took me two pushes to get the head out and one more for the
body. When I delivered Luke and
Persephone, I could feel a lot of pressure and was aware that they were being
born but couldn’t really feel it. This
time, I felt it and it burned something fierce, as if someone had poured atomic
hot sauce all over my birth canal. It
burned so bad that the first push stunned me and I stopped pushing. I had to really focus to push through the
next two pushes to get the baby out.
Then the thing that most amazes me about childbirth, as soon as the feet
were out, TOTAL RELIEF!!!
I had a small tear and needed one stitch; the OB actually
stitched me up before the novacaine shot kicked in & I could feel it, but compared
to the contractions and burn of delivery, it didn’t even register. I delivered the placenta and they monitored
my bleeding closely with extra “massaging” (aka, beating on my abdomen). There was no heavy bleeding this time; which
was another big relief. The Lodicaine
finally kicked in and my legs started to go numb. They gave me the baby to
nurse, but since I was kept on Pitocin, as a precaution for another hour and a
half after delivery to make sure my uterus kept contracting, I was still
shaking so badly I could barely hold him.
Then, I had to get a catheter because my numb legs couldn’t get up to go
to the bathroom (at least I couldn’t feel the catheter!). They took the baby back to monitor his
temperature and breathing (since he was early) and I finally got to eat
something – the best turkey sandwich of my life. By 6 pm, the Pitocin was finally done and the
shaking subsided, the Lidocaine had worn off, and we were transferred to a
postpartum recovery room.
So, at the end of the day and the delivery – I ended up with
an induced, unmedicated delivery after all; just followed by an hour or so of
numb legs. I also ended up with a most
adorable and wonderful baby boy we would eventually name Leonidas John David; he
was 6 lbs, 7 oz and 20 inches. Although
he was a bit premature, he has done wonderfully and there have been no
complications. It was a rough 36 & 1/2 weeks, but I would do it all again in a heartbeat to have this little man in our lives.
