My last post was a week and a half before my due date and I had just found out that my little girl had flipped to breech. I was so disappointed because this late in my pregnancy could mean a c-section if I couldn't get her to flip back. That afternoon I did handstands and used doterra oils to encourage her to flip back. The next day I showed up at the hospital for my version appointment and told the nurses the things I had done the night before. Before they hooked me up to the monitors they did an ultrasound and by the grace of God she was back head down in perfect position! I was so happy I nearly cried. I asked my doctor if I should refrain from working out until she was born as I feared her flipping back again. My doctor assured me that I would be much happier to keep exercising as I had been and my regular workout routine in no way had "made" her flip breech.
For the next week I continued to workout but was cautious of a lot of up and down movement like burpees on the low box. At my 39 1/2 week appointment she was still in good position which made me a lot more confident she would stay there. That appointment was on Wednesday. I was only 1.5 cm dilated and my doc asked me what I would like to do as far as an induction goes. I told her as over being pregnant as I was, I wanted to wait until my baby was ready and go as long as possible without an induction. I mentally prepared for at least another week of pregnancy.
That afternoon benchmark workout "Nancy" was programmed at our gym. For some reason I always had it in my mind that I would go into labor the day of doing overhead squats. I didn't necessarily think that day was today but I was hopeful. Nancy is 5 rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats with 65 lbs. You can hardly call what I was doing those days running....I called it a woggle (mixture of a jog and waddle). It wasn't very hot for August so I decided to give it a go as prescribed and finished in 17:50. I started to feel more contractions during the workout but I had them off and on for the past week so didn't think much of it.
That evening the contractions were getting stronger and at about 8 p.m. I told Jarod maybe he should start timing them because they seem to be coming frequently and more close together. After about an hour they were regularly coming about 2-4 minutes apart and lasting 45 seconds to a little over a minute. We decided to make a trip into the hospital since it is a half hour drive for us. When I got there I had dilated to a 3 and they said because I had that much change just from my doctor appointment earlier that day to now I was there to stay. I walked the halls for about 4 hours and did air squats to try to encourage my body to progress further into labor. After 4 hours they said I was not progressing quick enough and they wanted to give me petocin. I really was dreading this because I wanted a natural birth with no epidural. With my first I was given large doses of petocin because my water broke at home and I had no dilation when I got to the hospital. Petocin contractions are much more difficult to manage pain wise than our body's natural contractions. I told them I would like as small of a dose as possible so I could try to manage my way through them so they agreed. After another couple of hours my progress was still slow and they wanted to increase the petocin. Once that happened it was all over for me! The contractions were so strong and close together yet I wasn't dilating any more. Now I had a decision to make. Try to fight my way through them, which I am ok with doing when I know I am getting closer to giving birth, but that was proving to be a dead end because for some reason when my body tenses up, I just don't progress. I was worried if I continued to do this a c-section could be in my future so I decided I would get an epidural. It ended up being a good idea because after that I was fully dilated in about an hour. I only had to push 3 times through one contraction and our little girl was here!
I am still a believer in birthing as natural as possible and feel some disappointment for giving in and getting an epidural, however I also do believe in the situation it was the best decision for me. I can tell you after feeling the pain of those contractions and being told they were not helping me progress through labor is like doing Fran and being told every time you finish the round of 15 that you have to repeat that round again. Ha, well not sure if that is a good analogy but the best one I can think of right now.
More details will come in my next post as well as updates on my postpartum recovery and getting back in shape!
Our little girl was born at 7:30 a.m. She weighted 7 lbs 4 oz and was 21.75 inches long.
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