Birth Story of Kathryn Irene McFarland

Kathryn (Katy) Irene McFarland
August 1, 1993
7 lbs

My due date was July 28, a Wednesday. It came and went without a hint of labor, and I cried when I got home from work that day. I knew the due date was just an estimate, and it was extremely unlikely I would go into labor that day, yet the day had been "circled on the calendar" in my mind for so long... and I was tired, and my in-laws were in from out of town for the big event, making jokes about driving over bumpy roads, etc. to start me going, and I wasn't even OVERDUE yet!

At my checkup the next day I was about 1cm dilated and 75% effaced. It was nice to hear some progress was being made, and my OB said she wouldn't be surprised to see me over the weekend.

On Friday, I had a great day at work; for the first time, I left the office thinking, "I'm ready to be gone for a while -- everything is ready."

Saturday morning at 1:30 I woke up to go to the bathroom and I passed the mucus plug -- I was also having contractions, very irregular. Sometimes they were 7 minutes apart, sometimes as close as 3 or 4. Bob (hubby) woke up when I got back into bed, and I told him what was going on, and he couldn't go back to sleep either, so we watched the clock and tried not to get too excited.

About 3:00 I called the hospital, figuring since the contractions were "averaging" about five minutes apart. They said come in if you want, but don't be disappointed if you haven't progressed much and we send you home. Woke the in-laws, made the trip to the hospital, found out I was only at 2cm, and was sent home. :(

I slept for a couple of hours, then we went about our usual Saturday business -- shopping, etc. Contractions were consistently inconsistent, although getting slightly more intense as the day went on. In the afternoon we walked to the Dairy Queen near our house for a treat, and I found it uncomfortable to sit very long.

Hot showers seemed to help, and breathing may have, too, if I had thought to try it -- I kind of thought it was too early to start, but afterwards realized it wouldn't have been. I also took a couple of hot baths (my water had not broken).

About 9:00 that night I talked to my mom (a nurse, and mother of 5), and she could tell from talking to me that I was definitely having trouble coping with the contractions, and encouraged me to call the hospital. This time I *told* them (didn't ask them) we were coming, and when we got there they were prepared to admit me, even though I was still JUST 4cm dilated :(.

The doctor (not my OB, but HER OB, who was just fine) told us to walk around the hospital for about an hour, and that helped -- by the time we got back I was at 6cm. It was a busy night in LDR, and we had to wait a while for a room to be cleaned from a previous birth, and while we were waiting I told my labor nurse I'd be really interested in an epidural, in spite of what I had written in my birth plan.

The doctor came in to check on me (this was when I measured 6cm) and was about to break the amniotic sac when it broke spontaneously anyway, leading to much stronger contractions. He OK'd the epidural, but the anesthesiologist had just started one on somebody else, and had to remain with her for a half hour afterwards, so it seemed like a long time before he got to me. The epidural was the most difficult part of the whole thing, for me. I had to lean over one of those hospital bed trays and try to hold still, while in the middle of what seemed like one long contraction. It also took a while, and the nurse was concerned because the external monitor slipped when I sat up and we hadn't seen Katy's heartrate for a while. Once I laid back down the monitor was showing decelerations during contractions -- when I sat up the cord probably slipped down next to her and was being compressed during contractions. This prompted her to call the OB staff, and another doctor checked me and asked if I felt like I wanted to push -- and I realized I did.

In the meantime, the anesthesiologist kept "testing" me by brushing wet cotton balls on my legs -- I NEVER lost feeling anywhere! So Dr. E (the dr. who'd been attending me all evening) gave me a pudendal block for an episiotomy, because they wanted to use vacuum/forceps to help Katy out -- they were pretty concerned about the heart decelerations. About three pushes later, Katy was born at 3:20 am. It's amazing how much better I felt instantaneously.

One funny part about the actual delivery was that Bob heard the nurse say something like "Is that brains?" (I can't IMAGINE what she actually would have said that even sounds like that!!) So he followed Katy across the room while she was checked out, more or less to reassure himself that her brains weren't oozing out, or something. She had Apgars of 10 and 10 (I think all the excitement at the end really helped her blood flow so she was pinked up).

She breastfed immediately, and went to the nursery for about an hour while I got stitched/cleaned up and settled in my room.

The coda to the story is that I ended up with a spinal headache from the epidural -- I am susceptible to headaches in general (i.e., migraines), and *I* believe this has something to do with my reaction. It was the worst headache I've had in my life, and I kept thinking it was from tension in my shoulders from pushing, etc., etc., that a hot shower would make it go away, blah, blah, blah... I went home the next day (Monday), but basically laid in bed, flat on my back, able to get up only to feed Katy. I finally called them back on Tuesday and went in for a "blood patch" -- they take a little bit of blood from your arm and put it into the epidural space around the spinal column (I think). I did feel better almost immediately, and the lesson I learned is that I will NOT have an epidural or spinal again -- I don't want to risk another headache like that, mostly because I was wanting to enjoy the new baby and was unable to. Since the epidural didn't work anyway, and I know what to expect this time, I think I can cope better.

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