A Pandemic Birth Story

He was due on April 20, 2020, but my OB wanted me to deliver him during my 38th week of pregnancy because of my blood pressure issues and liver enzymes- which were all in range during my pregnancy. She told me at my appointment that she wanted to schedule my induction for 2 weeks from that day. Because of the corona virus, I had asked her for a letter so Tony could take 2 weeks off before the baby’s birth so we could quarantine and make sure no one was sick. Not only for the baby, but also so we didn’t spread anything at the hospital or to my parents who were going to watch TJ and G while we were at the hospital. When the Dr stepped out to write the letter, I texted Tony. I told him today would be his last day at work, not the following Monday or Tuesday, we were planning on. When she brought the letter back I texted him a picture of the letter to turn in to HR also. I asked her what the earliest time that the hospital would call us in was. 8 am? She said yes, 8 am. After my appointment, I had to wait 2 weeks. In my house, with my immediate family, not working, or going out to visit friends, or to shop. And this was the first time I would know when my baby would be born.

This is such a crazy time to have a baby. I had already been told that we could have no visitors at the hospital, not even M’s big brothers or grandparents. We quarantined at home for 2 weeks, getting groceries delivered, my sister filling our prescriptions for us, leaving the house only to go for a walk or for me to go to my Dr appointments. We helped the boys with their school work, baked some sourdough, and tried to live our normal life while preparing for Easter.

Finally the day arrived, we got the call from the hospital (at 5:15 am) “can we be there by 6 am?” , She asked. “Uhhh… no, sorry. Everyone is asleep and we need to drop the big kids off with grandparents on our way in.” I replied. “Maybe by 7?” She said that would work, so I jumped out of bed as into the shower. No time to waste! We packed up what wasn’t already in suitcases, loaded the car and headed out. We made a quick stop at Starbucks for breakfast (and a chai) and took the big boys to my parents house. Then we headed to the hospital. We were not there at 7 but pretty close. 😜 at the hospital entrance we told them who we were and why we were there. They took our temperatures, asked about Covid 19 symptoms and then walked us back to Labor and Delivery. After we checked in there and got to our room it was a waiting game. We waited for the nurse to come in and we waited for meds to start the induction. I was put on contraction and fetal heart rate monitors from the time the nurse came in until M was born. It was a little frustrating, having to unplug wires every time I had o use the restroom, I also felt tied to the bed, like I shouldn’t get up unnecessarily. This kid kept hiding from the monitor. That poor first nurse was in our room about 100 times, moving the monitor around on my belly trying to track down his heart rate. The night nurse was in quite a few times for the same reason. That was the longest day ever! We watched the hallmark, discovery, and history channels, tried to read, texted family and friends updated, tried to nap and waited for the meds to work.

By midnight, I had taken 3 doses of miso 6 hours apart. Miso is a pill they use to thin the cervix before giving Pitocin to start contractions. I was contracting without Pitocin and they were coming every 2-3 minutes, but I was able to get some sleep.

The next morning around 8 the contractions started getting stronger, and I asked for IV pain meds. They gave me something different from what I had with TJ and G. It made me feel woozy, but it did take the edge off if the contractions. I was ready for another dose when this one wore off. It only lasted about an hour, whatever they gave me with my first 2 births worked much better. I didn’t feel them wear off, but I was also on a continuous drip for those deliveries, with M they pushed it in my IV from a syringe, I wasn’t even on continuous fluids. Around 10:00, I was stopping my body from pushing during contractions. The Dr on call came into my room and checked me. I was only at an 8 and he said, “If you push before your at a 10, it’s like opening a door that won’t close again. It could take an hour or 2 to dilate to a 10, I’ll come back when you’re closer”. What?!? I didn’t have much choice but to keep breathing and trying to not push when my body kept taking over. The nurse checked me again later and said I hadn’t changed, to keep breathing through the contractions. She had me try hands and knees but my body kept trying to push M out. During one of my contractions when my body started pushing on it’s own, he crowned. After that the nurse checked me again and said I was at a 10. No kidding, his head forced my cervix open. I crowned 3 times before the Dr came back and at least twice, while he got set up to deliver M. He kept telling me that I was alright. Umm.. no, I wasn’t! The baby should only crown once during delivery! It hurt every time and I was scared I was going to deliver before he was ready to help me. Eventually the Dr was ready, M crowned for the 6th time and then was delivered the rest of the way too. He had an issue with his cord being compressed (I was a little out of it, and they didn’t explain anything, just clipped his cord and rubbed him to get him to cry).

I tore again along the scars from G’s birth and a couple other areas. The Dr told me I tore “in a very sensitive area” (where I tore with G) he gave me a couple shots of lidocaine and started stitching me up. He didn’t wait for the lidocaine to numb me. I felt those stitches, especially the ones in my “sensitive area”. He is definitely not a Dr I would recommend, unfortunately you get whichever Dr is on call when you are in labor. I was surprise by this, I thought since it was scheduled, that my Dr would plan to be there to deliver M.

This was my toughest delivery. I thought G’s was bad, but at least my Dr for his delivery listened to me when I said my body was pushing and I had to keep stopping it. This Dr complained to the nurse about me not being his patient, like I had a choice. I did tear way worse with G, which made recovery much tougher, but the delivery was not as traumatic.

This little boy was definitely worth everything I went through.

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He sure is loved! 💜

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