Birth Story

Sunday we spent the entire day entertaining some family friends from Pasadena and by the end of the night we were extremely exhausted. This is when I first started having contractions; only I wasn’t sure at this point if they were contractions. They hurt and felt like menstrual cramps but they weren’t that bad. I was unsure so I just went to bed. I continued to have them throughout the night but they were consistent in pain and not getting any worse. When I woke up around 8 am on Monday morning there was a definite change in the intensity and at this point I decided to start timing them. Sure enough, they were around 4 and 5 minutes apart and pretty painful. I woke Buck up and told him that we were probably going to have a baby in the next 24 to 48 hrs. He smiled and got really excited.

We decided to just wait around and let things progress for a few hours before heading in to see our midwife at 11 am to get the verdict. We got to the office and were seen right away. Rita checked the baby’s heart beat and then proceeded to check me for any dilation. She had trouble feeling the baby’s head and said, “She is so far back there.” I was nervous about this. She then proceeded to tell us that “This baby is angled back towards your butt and not down on your cervix like she should be. She is literally coming out of your butt. You are in for some long hard labor.” WHAT? MY BUTT? YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME? Rita then told us we were 3 cm dilated and that we needed to go home and do some exercises to get the baby to move into position.

For the next 3 hours I was on my hands and knees rocking from side to side trying to get her in the right angle. This position made each contraction so much worse. Finally around 2 pm, I couldn’t stand it anymore and told Buck that we needed to go in to the hospital. When we arrived they sent me straight to triage to check my progression. I was now dilated to 4cm and was bleeding. They went ahead and admitted me.

We got set up in our room and Buck pulled out his acoustic guitar and started playing. It was very calming and I enjoyed his playing. All the nurses and our midwife were so impressed that they thought of hiring him for the job permanently (That would be weird). I had GBS so they gave me my first dose of antibiotics and we relaxed (as much as we could) for a few hours. I went into this process knowing that an epidural was a must for me…I had no idea what was in store for me. I let the nurse know that I wanted the epidural and to get it started whenever it was most appropriate so that I would be set for labor. They broke my water, put in a catheter and gave me a small dose of Pitocin before giving me the epidural. I was feeling good almost immediately. After about 15 minutes I noticed that I was getting feeling back in my legs and I could feel the contractions at about a pain level of 10. That’s not supposed to happen. The doctor came back in to see what was going on and after much trial and error she decided to take the epidural catheter out and re-administer another one.

Side-note: When the epidural is administered no one can be in the room except the nurse and doctor. The second time the epidural was given; Buck had been relaxed and lounging in the chair…shoes off and everything. They told him to leave. He went into the hall to wait, where he was then harassed by the staff. They told him he couldn’t be in the hall. He was really frustrated at this point. If he can’t be in the room and can’t be in the hall where is he supposed to go? He turned around and went back into the room (before they were finished giving the epidural) and said, “They won’t let me be out in the hall.” The doctor was upset and again told him that he couldn’t be in there. He was furious! He said, “Well, I have to get my shoes”, and stormed out. They made him wait in the lobby. So ridiculous!

Again, I was feeling great from the second epidural and was ready to get things started. After about another 15 minutes, I started feeling my legs and contractions. Is this really happening to me? At the time, they weren’t telling me that Harlow was posterior (face-up) and pressing on my nerves. This was causing the epidural to be ineffective. Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t tell me about this…I didn’t need any more stress.

Rita had gone into the waiting room to inform the family members that Harlow was posterior and that we would probably need to start looking at other options. She told them she would let me push for an hour but if I couldn’t get her out, a C-section was needed. They team came in at 1 am on Tuesday morning ready for me to push. At this point, I was feeling everything. The epidural (what was left of it anyway) was completely worn off. Earlier that night, they had decided to stop trying to get the epidural to work and told me that this was going to be the real deal.  Let the pushing begin! They told me I had exactly one hour to get this baby out. She was stuck, crowned, for 20 minutes and I had just 10 minutes left of my one hour to push. Buck said, “You only have 10 minutes left. You need to push hard on this next one.” Thank God, I had a break of about 5 minutes between my last two contractions because I needed it. The last contraction came and I pushed so hard that I thought I was going to die and out she came at 1:54 with 6 minutes to spare. Talk about close. She came out face-up with my cord wrapped around her neck twice. Rita had the cord removed so fast that it wasn’t an issue but we were both scared. And then it set in, we had done it! It seemed so impossible just hours before, but we had made it through. They set Harlow on my chest and everything seemed so surreal!

Meet

Harlow Tate Nickell