September 17, 2014 was a life-changing day. September 17, 2014 was a life-giving day for me. Miriam Jubilee Stelter was born!
There is so much to tell but I will try hard to consolidate and tell it well.
I was a week + past due and I went into the clinic to check things out. My parents had just arrived the day before and were here to help should the babe be born soon. At the clinic I found that the fluids in the placenta were much lower than they had been previously and this could be a danger to the baby. Thus, after consulting my parents, my doula Amelia and my man Chris, we decided to go ahead with the induction on September 16.
We went home and ate a heavy meal of black bean/hamburger tacos and I tried to settle down to sleep at 9 p.m. because we were to be at the hospital at the absurdly early hour of 5 a.m. I took a sleeping pill but it didn't kick in for some time. At last I fell asleep and had a handful of hours to gain my strength for the coming adventure. We went in to the hospital bright and much too early trying to make sure we had everything we could possibly need. When we got there they told us we didn't actually need to be there until 7 a.m. Anyway, we got things going a little earlier because of this and it still took us until 7 a.m. to start the pitocin. The morning was fairly uneventful but we called our doula Amelia in and the partner doula came instead, Marie because of various circumstances. We had a terrific, cheerful nurse who was philipino and really down-to-earth. As we came into the afternoon the contractions began to be challenging but I was dealing with them fine. I wasn't making much progress unfortunately and by the time they were getting more and more intense and I just wanted to stop 5 p.m. rolled around and the midwife said to take me off the pitocin so I could eat a good meal and rest for the evening and begin again the next day. My parents brought in chinese food and we went to sleep at 8 p.m.
So the sun rises on September 17, 2014. I am told the doctor from the clinic is coming and wants to break my water. I say we will discuss it when she gets there. Well, she comes and is pretty combative when I ask if it's necessary to get my water broken and find out about the reasons/statistics of it helping. This encounter is very unpleasant but Chris and I decide to get my water broken. Very little fluid leaks out which means that getting the babe out is more urgent than I realized. I start back on the pitocin and things pick up faster but I am still slow in progressing. I move about 1 cm and then stay there. I'm at about 4.5 cm until 3:30 p.m. when after much pain and trying so hard I decide to get an epidural. After the epidural (which Chris questions me about since I had said I originally didn't want one) things go lightning fast! Only 4 hours later I make up all the lost time and I'm fully dilated to a ten! They call the midwife and she gets there about 8 p.m. One blessed thing for sure is that our original doula Amelia ends up being able to be with us as well as Marie at this time. We begin pushing shortly thereafter.
I'm sprawled on the bed with a kajillion wires/monitors but I can change position. It's really hard to know what to do since I still don't have full feeling in my lower half. There are just too many people telling me too many things and the midwife doesn't seem convinced that I am going to deliver naturally as the hours wear on. She asks me about 10:00 if I am willing to keep trying for another hour. I say yes. I am determined but beginning to feel more pain and I need another epidural shot in my side where the pain is beginning to be unbearable and no position seems to help. Getting another flush of the epidural helps and I ask for a mirror and then I see the little hairy head. I am so close! Yet, it's just getting harder and harder to not be completely fatigued. I still have too many people telling me what to do. Finally, around 11 p.m., Dr. Coyle comes in, and as Chris later states, "Once she put on her labor boots I knew she was going to help us do this!" She is a commanding little firecracker of a lady who tells me, "I heard you really want to do this, now let's do it!" and "Poop my fingers out!" It's only a half an hour later and then Miriam Jubilee makes her entrance in a few miraculous minutes coming out like toothpaste out of a tube. She. is. finally. here!
TO BE CONTINUED....
