Emma's Birth Story

So I know that I eagerly await hearing birth stories after a sweet baby comes. I am not sure why they are so exciting to read, but they are, and I wanted to share my sweet Emma Lee's birth story.

The adventure began Tuesday April 10th in the afternoon I started getting really bad cramping and an upset tummy, not fun but didn't think too much of it. Well around 10:30 it changed from cramping to contractions, very distinct, and rather strong. So we waited, moved around, timed them. By 12:30 they had been coming solid strong and about 2-4 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds each. We waited another half hour and they were still coming strong so we called my friend Liz in Spokane and she loaded up her two kiddo's in the car and drove to Pullman. When she arrived we called my Doctor and gave him an update of what had been going on. He said it sounded like it was time to head to the hospital and have a baby. I was so excited she was going to come on her due date, also so excited that she was coming naturally and I was not going to have to be induced.

We arrived at the hospital they hooked me up to monitors and then watched them for about 45 minutes before they came to check me. They came in and said contractions looked good, baby looked good, now we just needed to see if I was making good progress. They were busy so if I was still pretty early in the process they were going to send me home for a few hours. Well they checked and I was only at a 2 and not even close to being ready. With the contractions coming how they were they wanted to monitor for another couple hours and see how fast we were progressing. After 2 hours I was about a 3 but not much closer to ready. The doctor stripped my membranes sent me home and said to call or come back when things picked up.

However they never picked up they stayed constant and non productive, yet enough to make me uncomfortable and unable to sleep or relax for long. I had a doctors appointment that afternoon at 3:30 so I went to that and he checked me again and there was maybe a half a centimeter. He did his best to irritate things and hopefully get things to jumpstart. However he also said that it looked to him like this was going to continue at this pace for a few days to weeks so it may be a long time before we make enough progress to have the baby. That was really not what I wanted to hear, which he knew, but he also had a plan. He was going to call the hospital and get me in and they would augment my labor enough to get my body to take over and then take me off the pitocen. I was alright with this plan because I really did not want to be laboring for days up to a couple of weeks, sleep and rest are important to me. So we left his office and were waiting on the hospital who said we should be able to come in around 9:30 that night (the 11th).

The hospital called at 8:00pm and said that we couldn't come in that night and to call at 6:00am and we should be able to come in at 7:00am. They then called at midnight and told us to call at 8:30am and they would let us know when we could come in. I called at 8:30am after another restless night of contractions and they told me that they might be able to get me in that evening but possibly not until Friday morning. Lets just say I was not dealing well with that being the answer, I really thought it was ridiculous that they could not get me into the hospital to be on pitocen for a few hours for days and days. Plus I was already getting so exhausted from not be able to rest that I worried about how well I would be able to handle labor if we had to wait till Friday to go in. I also wondered if I really wanted to go to a hospital that was short staffed and full of exhausted nurses.

Chris called Dr. Adkins and gave him an update and told him that something needed to be figured out. Dr. Adkins asked us to come in that morning. He checked me again I was at about a 3.5 but still had a long way to go on every other front. We talked about options, we told him we had called Gritman and they had room and could get me in there, but we didn't want to have to switch doctors because we really really liked and trusted Dr. Adkins. He then said there was another option, we could go to the hospital in Colfax because he already had rights there. So we agreed and he said he would have his nurse call and set everything up. They called us an hour later and told us it was all set and we should be at the hospital at 1pm. So Thursday the 12th we headed to Whitman Hospital and Medical Center in Colfax to have my labor augmented, I was so relived and ready to kick start this process.

They started the Pitocen just after 1pm at the amazing hospital in Colfax. It was beautiful, the nurses and staff were great, and we were completely spoiled our whole stay. After a few hours of Pitocen I was in active labor again I progressed to a little more than a five and the doctor broke my water. Things were going really well and it looked like baby was going to come by 8:30 or 9 at the latest. So they started to back off the pitocen and my contractions stayed strong and regular so they kept the pitocen off. Well the contractions slowed a little bit a couple hours later but it didn't seem to be an issue. I started to feel lots of pressure and like it was time to get baby out. So they checked again and I was dilating really abnormally because side to side one way I was ready to go, but the other way I was only at a 6 or 7, not what I wanted to hear. Waiting to push is the worst part of labor for me, it is definitely the most painful part. So I go back up and we worked through the contractions which were getting worse and worse but still pretty far apart. After another little while they checked again and not much progress was being made. The doctor suggested that we turn the pitocen back on, I was not really happy about that suggestion because it meant the contractions would hurt more and I was having a hard time with the contractions already. He waited a few minutes and talked to Chris about it again and Chris told him to do it.

Finally at about 10:00pm I started throwing up and the nurses were so happy about it, my Mom was ready to hit them all I think at that point, she really didn't like that they were so happy about that. At 10:10 or 10:15 we were close enough that I was allowed to push. What a relief pushing is, however still pretty painful this time. I was so exhausted from all the hours of labor and hours of being stuck in transition. However at 10:30 on the nose I heard my sweet baby girl cry for the first time, they put her on my tummy and cleaned her up. They left her on me and did all the checks they could while she was on me. Chris stayed with me while we delivered the placenta and I got a few stitches, he was so distracted by Matthew last time that he left me while they were finishing everything else, he felt so bad because he realized afterwards that there is still some painful steps before I can relax after the baby is born.

She was beautiful, 7 lbs 11oz 21 inches long, lots of dark hair. Completely healthy and I felt so blessed to have another beautiful healthy baby. I made it through without any medications again although I was pretty sure I couldn't do it in the middle of the 1.5 hours I was stuck in transition.  

We can't say enough good about Dr. Adkins or Whitman Hospital in Colfax. We were completely happy and well taken care of, in fact we left feeling rested and spoiled. If I had a choice in the future between going to Pullman Regional or Whitman Hospital I would choose Whitman Hospital. I might have to write another post just to talk about the Doctor and nurses who took care of us, and my wonderful hospital experience. There you have it my sweet Emma Lee's birth story in all its glory :)