Inspiring VBAC – Getting to Hospital
As we headed down the interstate and turned onto the street in front of the hospital, I put my headphones in my ears and turned on my Hypnobabies tracks. We had had a very difficult time putting the tracks onto my mp3 player, so finding the track I wanted was a bit of a challenge. At first, I thought Easy 1st Stage never even made it onto the device (and was about to lose it over this minor issue), but just as we made that turn I found the track! I felt a huge sense of relief as I turned it on and allowed myself to relax and just go with the process.
I had called Anjli when we were on our way, but had to leave a message because she didn’t answer. I figured she was with the mom that was laboring earlier in the day, and she would probably call us back. We arrived at the hospital at about 8:45 and went up to Labor & Delivery. We checked in at the desk and told the nurse that our midwife had sent us to be induced. I really enjoyed the look on her face when I told her my water had been broken since Wednesday night! They apparently did not know I was coming (because Anjli was busy with the other mom) so they put us in triage until they talked to her.
Our triage nurse was very nice. She came in and had me change my clothes and get settled on the bed. She offered me a hospital gown, but told me she didn’t really care if I wore it or not. Since I had been planning to wear a tank top and the birthing skirt I made, it was nice to know that I wasn’t going to have to start my experience with an argument of any kind. The nurse hooked me up to the monitor and seemed intrigued by my skirt, but appreciated the way I had made it user-friendly for the staff. After I was all wired up, she asked me some questions and someone from lab came to take my blood. The nurse said she wasn’t going to check me since my water had broken and we knew Anjli would be there soon.
(My “hard on the eyes, but incredibly comfortable” birthing skirt)
(Trying to be a good patient in triage. I was probably texting the doulas or checking ICAN (since my phone is in my hand). You can also see the Blessingway beads on my left wrist next to my phone). This may be the only pic of me wearing them….
The whole time I was sitting in triage I continued to feel crampy, and laying in bed was really not very comfortable. Every time I tried to adjust myself Waffle would come off the monitor, but I didn’t care since that whole thing was for the staff and did absolutely nothing to enhance my experience. Around 9:15 PM Anjli came to see us. She apologized for us having to be in triage when we should have been directly admitted (didn’t bother us – we’re very easy-going). She noticed me holding my beads and asked me if they were from a Blessingway. She told me she had thrown several for some of her friends, and thought they were great. I was excited to show her the beads and tell her a little bit about some of them.
After this, she got ready to check me and see where we were starting from. It was really comical to watch Joel be her “assistant” and help open packages of lube. It was a big production. The final result of her exam? 3-4 cm/80%/ about 0 station. (Which I promptly posted to ICAN and texted to my doulas.) Anjli was please with this, and I was both pleased and nervous.
We were both happy that I had obviously made some good progress on my own in the last 8 hours, but I was nervous because when I went into my induction for my first birth I had been 3 cm/80%/-1. After a minute or so I got over my fear of this experience being like my first. I reminded myself, in the words of Kerry (the voice/founder of Hypnobabies), “This birth and this baby are unique unto itself.” I knew that this time things would be different. They had already been so very different. At one point, earlier that day, I turned to Joel and reminded him that when we were in this situation last time, our child had already been born because they didn’t believe in my body.
The entire experience, even though it wasn’t nearly over yet, had just solidified to me how wrong my first birth experience had been. It wasn’t just handled poorly, it was handled WRONG. My body had not been ready, my baby wasn’t ready, it just hadn’t been the right time.
We continued to sit in triage (watching Liar, Liar) on TV as we waited for a room to become available. At 11 PM I finally got annoyed and sent Joel to the nurses’ station to find out how long it was going to be. I don’t usually like to be the annoying patient, but I was here to work, and the longer I sat around with nothing happening, the more tired I was going to get. That just wasn’t going to work for me. Ten minutes later, my triage nurse came back in, unplugged my cords, and escorted us to LDR 8 – with a GORGEOUS view of the downtown Atlanta skyline.
When my triage nurse had left us, she told me to just plug myself into the monitor whenever I was settled. I took this as an invitation to take a break from monitoring (which doesn’t bother me so much as the thought of being physically attached to a box). I took a bathroom break and then we started decorating our room. I had borrowed Christmas lights from a friend so that we could keep the overhead lighting low and still have a nice glow in the room – we plugged those in and laid them along the window sill.
Next, we unrolled the “Happy Birthday” sign I had made online – we ended up hanging it on the bathroom door. I set a big bag of candy next to the fetal monitor with my birth plan and baby care plan. (It was for the staff – although my team ended up eating some of it because the nurse just left it there after I suggested she take it to the nurses’ station. She kept saying she would wait until later…she thought I would be laboring for a long time!) Once everything was in place, the room felt much more like a party was going to happen and much less like a boring hospital room, and that is EXACTLY what I wanted.
(DH putting up the lights)
I finally plugged myself back in, and my new nurse came in and started getting everything set up to start. I had to get another 20 minute monitoring strip to make sure Waffle was doing fine before they started the pitocin. The nurse had me lay in bed, and I had to stay still so she could get what she wanted. I obliged a little bit, but only because I was busy calling Nichole and trying to decide if I wanted my doulas to come. Christine had told me earlier that she thought this would not be long and drawn out (or something like that), so I finally decided to have them come (and I’m SO glad I did). My back and hips were already getting uncomfortable, and I knew that adding the pitocin would just intensify the feeling.
