Arianna Macias Cummings’ Birth Story
Sunday night, November 7, 2010, while out at Deckers, I started to have contractions. At first we weren’t sure whether they were contractions but when a particularly hard one hit me on the way to the car, we started to get excited. To test them for staying power we decided to go to Camana Bay for lattes and hot chocolate and to walk around.
At Camana Bay the contractions continued even through the walking so we headed home to see what would happen, convinced that we would be calling Dr. Richter to come to the hospital. However, like the previous Friday the contractions died down when we went to bed.
On Monday after picking up Bruma and Brupa and then dropping them off at Smith’s Cove for a sunset, Scott and I headed to Dr. Richter’s to get the catheter put in. We learned that Tanya and Ian, a couple from our Lamaze class, were also doing the same thing!
There were two babies about to be born so Dr. Richter had to head to the hospital which meant that we had to wait. Around 6:30, Dr. Richter returned and we got the catheter in. The plan was to go out to eat afterwards but it was pretty uncomfortable so Scott ran out to get Chinese takeout and we went home to eat.
While eating, I started to cramp. When we went upstairs I gushed blood which made us very worried. Bruma reassured us that it was perfectly normal and a good sign. I called Melanie and Stephanie (we’d called Mom and Dad earlier) and settled in to try to get some sleep.
At 6:00 the next morning we got up, showered, and got dressed. Bruma and Scott made a breakfast of scrambled eggs and oatmeal and, at 7:15, we left for the hospital. After first going to the wrong entrance, we made it to maternity to check in at 7:30. Tanya and Ian were already there so we chatted some with them. They’d also had blood and cramping but Tanya’s cramping had stopped the night before so we thought maybe it was a good sign that I was still in pain.
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| Hooked up to the fetal monitor |
At 7:40 we were moved to room 8 and met the midwife who was going to be helping us, Mairead. She got us hooked on the external fetal monitor at 7:55 and left us to listen to the baby’s heartbeat. We had to do the monitor for a bit longer because on one of the contractions her heart rate dropped to 90 and they were worried that the contractions were impacting her. After the extra time everything was okay so they think she just moved away from the monitor for a bit (wiggle worm!).
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| Mairead and Marion |
We started to go for a walk but ran into Dr. Richter so we turned back. He inspected me and said that I was around 3.5 cm dilated, pulled out the catheter and put in the prostaglandin gel. We had to be on the fetal monitor for an hour so we watched a Blue Planet episode. After the fetal monitor showed that everything was good, we walked around and explored. The contractions started to get more intense as we walked.
When we returned to the ward to eat lunch the contractions seemed to lessen. Another walk got them going again so we kept that up in hopes that we could really jump start labor. After a while, I started to get very tired so we returned to the room for a bit of a rest and to watch some episodes of “How I Met Your Mother”. I had a few contractions about seven or so minutes apart while we watched the episodes and found that getting on all fours on the bed helped them feel better.
At 2:00 p.m. we were moved to Delivery Room 3. Dr. Richter inspected me and indicated that I was somewhere between 5 and 6 cm dilated. He broke my water which is when we realized that she had passed her meconium inside which would change some of the procedures when she was born. Since they wanted to avoid her inhaling any of the meconium, they would do their best to keep her from crying when she first came out. She would also be moved to the care unit before we could hold her as the midwife worked to suction everything out of her nose and mouth. We wouldn’t be able to hold her until they made sure that everything was okay.
The contractions started to come more frequently. We tried watching more episodes but I couldn’t focus very long because of the contractions. We decided to put on some music and look through vacation pictures. We also started trying our comfort measures. We found a few positions that helped like standing with my elbows on the bed and rocking. Scott also used the tennis balls to massage my lower back. I sat on the birthing ball which helped in between contractions but didn’t feel good at all during contractions. The contractions were starting to last about a minute and I had only a minute or two in between them so we were excited that things were moving along. Mairead said that I should be between 7-8 cm at the next check and Scott joked that with how things were moving I was going to be at 9 cm.
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| After the water broke while hooked on the fetal monitor |
That’s why it was really disappointing when I was still the same dilation at 4:15 when Mairead checked. She tried moving the baby’s head out of the way to release more of the amniotic fluid so that the baby could move further down and help open up the cervix. Scott says that I passed a “lake” and Mairead said that with the size of my bump and the amount of fluid I was passing, this was most likely going to be a small baby (didn’t quite turn out that way).
I was laying in bed at that point because I was getting tired being on my feet all the time so Mairead told me try laying on my left side. She warned me that the contractions would feel different. I was offered pain medication at this point but I wanted to wait even though the contractions were coming pretty quickly. After working through about 5 contractions on my side on the bed, I realized that I DID NOT like lying down. The contractions were starting to come almost one on top of the other. I had only about 30 seconds to a minute between each one. Scott wanted me to try pain medication but I really wanted to exhaust all of the comfort measures that we had in our arsenal before we went for the pain medication. One of the things that we hadn’t tried was water so we got into the shower (no baths in the hospital). The hot water felt very good and helped for about 30 minutes before its usefulness wore off.
We returned to the room and tried a few more things but none of the comfort measures that we had did anything to ease off the pain. At this point the contractions were just about constant and I was barely getting time to breathe in between. Each single contractions wasn’t very long but they were very frequent. We were trying to work through a contraction standing with my elbows on the bed when my legs buckled. Scott caught me and had to hold me to get through the next contraction. I didn’t want to get in bed because I knew that it hurt more when I was lying down but I no longer had the strength to get through the pain on my feet. We tried doing things on my knees but my legs were spasming too hard to allow me to keep myself up. Mairead came in to check and I was only at 7 cm. That meant that after four hours of labor with contractions one on top of the other I’d moved only about 1 cm. That was a disappointing blow.
After a series of particularly painful contractions that were about 1 minute to 1.5 minutes long with less than a minute in between and sometimes only about 20 seconds in between, we decided to talk to Dr. Richter and Mairead about an epidural. Dr. Richter indicated that he thought I had until at least midnight before I was going to have the baby and I was still far enough away that I could get an epidural. We decided to do it.
It took nearly 45 minutes for Dr. Anwar (the anesthesiologist) to get the epidural in because the contractions were so intense that my arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably during the contractions and there was only about half a minute in between each one which wasn’t long enough for her to get it in safely. First Scott held me up and tried to keep my body still during the contractions so that Dr. Anwar could work but when his back gave out from supporting all my weight, Mairead had to do it.
When the epidural went in, it wasn’t working well on my right side so Dr. Anwar gave me another shot and told me to lay on my right side to help the medication work there. Dr. Richter came in to inspect me again for Dr. Anwar’s records. An hour after Mairead’s last check and the hour of intense contractions that caused all the trouble with the epidural, I was still only at 7 cm dilated. At 7:30 I was resting well and was ready to settle in for at least the next four and a half hours before this baby was supposed to come. I was hungry but wasn’t allowed to eat anything so Scott took my dinner but threw most of it away because it wasn’t any good. At 7:50 we watched a Blue Planet DVD and, at 8:00, we were introduced to our new midwife Hamerika.
Dr. Richter wanted to use Oxytocin to try to get labor moving some more since I’d seemed to stall. Hamerica came in at 8:10 and got the Oxytocin started. Within 5 minutes I started to feel pain even with the epidural. By 8:30 I was really pushing for something because the contractions had returned. Although much less intense than they had been without the epidural, the pain was starting to slice through my right side. Before Dr. Anwar had left at 7:30 she had mentioned an infusion of the epidural medicine so that the medication would be continuous but no one had given me one yet. I pointed that fact out to Hamerica. As she was getting the infusion ready, the pain started to spike back to where it was before.
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| Resting after the epidural |
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| Hamerica checking the fetal monitor |
At 8:45, Hamerica examined me and said she must call Dr. Richter because I am ready to give birth; the baby is right there! I didn’t believe her because the pain in my right side was pretty constant, intensifying with the contractions but lingering the whole time, and it felt similar to when the baby would move and kick into my side during the pregnancy. I didn’t think she was in the birth canal; it felt like she had moved up into my rib cage in protest! All throughout labor she had been moving a lot and kept moving away from the monitors when we were hooked up and kicking and punching me in between contractions. I hear that is pretty rare as most babies settle in for labor and stay quiet; she has always been a wiggle worm!
Dr. Richter arrived at 9:15 and said that it was time to start pushing. He gave Scott the option of looking down the birth canal to see her head. Scott had indicated before that he was going to be a strict above the waist guy during the delivery but the temptation to get the first glimpse of the baby was just too much! He was able to see her right at the beginning of the pushing and watched throughout the delivery as the baby got closer and closer to coming out. It was amazing watching the excited expression on his face as the baby got closer and closer!
The pain in my side was so intense that it made the time in between contractions much worse than the contractions themselves. I would push with each contraction and as soon as it ended my leg would start shaking violently again and my side would feel like it was being ripped apart. Dr. Richter held that leg and told me to focus on what I would do with pushing on the next contraction instead of on the pain. He said that the pain would go away as soon as the baby was out so it was important that I get the baby out.
Dr. Richter was on my right trying to keep my right leg from going crazy, Hamerica was on my left holding the leg that was still partially numb from the epidural, and Scott was close to my face on my left counting for the pushes and encouraging me. At some point he said “Just one more push” and I stared straight at him and said “Liar!”
After an hour of pushing Arianna Macias Cummings was born at 10:12 p.m. They pulled her out, suctioned her immediately, then took her over to the care unit and laid her down to clean her off. She was screaming her head off. While I pushed out the placenta and Dr. Richter stitched me up, Scott was able to be over by Arianna talking to her and taking pictures.
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| Arianna screaming her head off in the care unit |
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| Dr. Richter, Arianna and I after Hamerica cleaned her up |
They measured and weighed her while they worked to get all the messy amniotic fluid off her. Arianna weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 52 cm long (about 20 inches). She was in the care unit for 30-45 minutes, screaming the whole time. Arianna was not pleased to be out of her nice warm home and all by herself while they checked everything out. Finally, I was able to hold her. After some time breastfeeding and being together as a family, Arianna was taken by Hamerica to be washed and changed. Per Scott’s instructions, she was put into the Texas Longhorn receiving blanket. She was then taken from the delivery room and met us in my regular hospital room. It was an exhausting day but we had a beautiful baby girl by the end of it!
