Haylie's Birth Story

At my 38 week appointment, my doctor (Linda Sewell) convinced me to be induced on June 11th since I wasn't contracting at all yet and because in three weeks I had gone from being dilated to a 1 to progressing to a 3 and stayed there. I was scheduled to be induced at 5 a.m. but at 4:30 that morning the hospital called and said that their rooms were full and they didn't know when one would be available. I was too anxious and afraid to go back to bed so I just stayed up.

My doctor had told me not to eat before hand so I didn't eat a thing until I got the phone call at 4:30 p.m. that a room had opened up. I was all set up in the hospital with the pitocin at 5 p.m. Labor started not much longer after that, but since it was going slow (by my doctor's standards) Linda broke my water to speed things along. This literally did nothing, so they upped the pitocin, which caused problems so they lowered it again, which made the contractions slow to a crawl so they upped it again, which once again caused problems so they lowered it and this kept going on for hours. It was also discovered that Haylie, though head down, was facing the wrong direction so I had to use the large medicine ball to encourage her to flip. It worked.

The contractions were getting stronger to the point where I thought I would implode. I don't remember much after that since I was so out of it due to the pain, but I do remember that it was easier for me to grip Brandon's shoulder instead of squeeze his hand and that every time I bared down on his shoulder to keep from pushing I apologized. I also remember that every so often Linda would ask if I were ready for the epidural (which I had previously told her I WOULD NOT be getting no matter what.) Finally at about 3 a.m. Linda said that it was my last chance to talk to the anesthesiologist because he was off for the night, so we brought him in and through gritted teeth I asked him about the epidural, side effects, pros/cons all of that. He honestly made me terrified of the epidural so I said, no, I could have her without it.

By this point the contractions started to merge together to the point where I couldn't tell when one stopped and the next began. But I still wasn't crying. I don't know when I  was finally able to start pushing. Like I said before, I was a little out of it. At some point Linda told me she had to give me an episiotomy because I was swelling and Haylie's head could get stuck. I didn't fight it because I just wanted Haylie out and because I was SO VERY uneducated about the birthing process. Shortly after the episiotomy I suffered a fourth degree tear.

At about 7:50 Haylie was in the birth canal and ready to be born, but she was broad shouldered and my pelvis was too small. My doctor kept telling me "This is it! One more push! I see her head!" But between pushes she would creep back up the birth canal. Finally my doctor turned to a nurse and screamed, "Get help! NOW!" That is exactly what I needed to hear. I was so afraid that she'd be still born that I pushed one more time with every thing I had in me and out popped Haylie. She was born at 8:02 a.m. June 12th, 2008. She was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 21 1/2 inches long. Even with the shoulder dystocia she was perfect and born in one piece.