Positive Labor/Delivery Story (Assisted Vaginal Delivery w. Forceps)

 Well, I have Nick and Taylor Swift to thank you for going into labor. 

Backstory: I began my maternity leave on November 17th, 2023 at 36 weeks pregnant. My mom came into town for a week to help me prepare for baby girl's arrival and to celebrate Thanksgiving and an early Christmas. Then, I had two weeks at home to prepare. And I got a little bored/stir crazy. Then, Nick started his paternity leave on December 11th and we had a wonderful few days together. But then I started getting anxious--if baby girl didn't come spontaneously, our induction was scheduled on December 26th. Not only would she be born after Christmas (which is such a dumb thing to worry about lol) but two weeks of Nick's paternity leave would already be gone. And I felt SO done being pregnant lol I actually messaged my OB and asked if we could move my induction up. Nick gave me a wonderful priesthood blessing where I heard the words of my Heavenly Father counsel me that whatever decision we made would be the right one. But, there was no need for that because little one decided that she wanted to be born before Christmas. 

On December 14th, I watched the Taylor Swift ERAS tour and bounced on the yoga ball for the entire duration of the concert (over 3 hours). I sang along and bounced to the beat. Then, Nick took me on a speed walk. He held my arm so that I could walk at a more brisk pace. It hurt but also felt really good. We also walked to Trader Joes to get some produce. Nick made yummy veggie burgers and we watched a football game. Then, we played board games and I watched Nick play one of his new Mario games. I began to feel a lot more pressure on my pelvic floor and my lower back was aching. I had a hard time falling asleep, and spent a long time looking up restaurants and activities that we could do when we moved to Durham. 

I fell asleep around 11:30 p.m. and woke up at 2:00 a.m. with lots of pain on my bladder. I tried to ignore it (because I wanted to fall back asleep), but then I felt how badly my lower back was hurting and so I got up to use the restroom. When I laid back down again, I realized that I was having back spasms of pain and then realized that what I was having might actually be contractions but had to remind myself not to get too excited because it could be all prodromal. With this in mind, I started timing them and felt surprised by just how painful they felt. At 6:00 a.m. I woke up Nick and I got so sad and started crying because when I told him what was happening, he asked, "can I go back to sleep?" I showered and then the contraction app that we were using told me that we should go to the hospital. We called, and they said that we were welcome to come in if we wanted too. We drove to the hospital and arrived around 10:00 a.m. We definitely pulled a niave first time parents move and brought our bag into the hospital. I even changed into my own L&D gown. We were home by 1:00 p.m. I was only dilated to 1 cm and the triage nurse made me feel that this could last for days and would need to get a whole lot more painful before we came back. BUT we were able to confirm that I was indeed in actual labor and I got some "morphine sleep." 

We came home and I attempted to rest. I was SO tired by this point, but every time that I would almost fall asleep (a little delirious from the morphine) I would have another painful contraction. Nick was running back and forth reheating my rice bag and I stayed on the heating pad/hot water bottle permanently. I also tried walking around and bouncing on the ball. 

I was feeling pretty miserable around 4:00 p.m. when I decided to get into the shower again after the contractions started to get more intense and I threw up. I was also shaking uncontrollably. Nick made the very good decision that it was time to go to the hospital again. On the way there, I sat in the back seat, headphones in, and blasted a Christian worship music playlist. My contractions actually slowed down, but were definitely very painful. We came into triage again, and we weren't convinced that we would be admitted (we didn't bring any of the suitcases this time). I was thrilled when the resident doctor said that I was very effaced and dilated to 3 cm (almost 4) and that they would admit us. And I announced that after 18 hours of home labor (horrible back labor), I was going to get an epidural.

Because I was so dehydrated, putting my IV in was a miserable experience. The nurse tried three times in my left arm, another nurse tried in my right arm, and then they ended up sticking it in my hand, which was definitely annoying. By the time I got to the L&D room, I was even more miserable. I felt so much pelvic pressure that I felt like I was going to constantly pee myself. I threw up again and lost my mucus plug. 

I got an epidural around 12:15 p.m. Saturday, December 16th and it was a miserable experience. It took three tries because I wasn't slumped over properly (the anesthesiologist broke a needle), I kept having painful contractions and had to stay completely still, and I was so anxious about him poking my spine. But after it kicked in, I 100% did NOT regret my decision. I was able to sleep from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. and at 5 a.m. I got checked and was 6 c.m. and having all sorts of bloody show. I was able to go back to sleep until 9 a.m. and then they broke my water at 7 a.m. 

Here's where my time stamps stop because I wasn't able to write in my journal after this. But I believe around 10 a.m. I got Pitocin and around noon, it was time to start pushing. The nurse that was with me most of the day that taught me how to push was an angel. She was so patient and kind as we tried all sorts of different positions to find what worked. At first, I sucked at pushing. But I definitely got the hang of it and was doing some powerful pushes. After about three hours, I developed a fever and Sophia's heart rate was elevated. I had an infection. I was pushing hard and her head was visible, but at the end of each contraction, it would slip back in. The attending physician came in around 3 p.m. and said, "this isn't the c-section talk," but I knew that he was going to suggest an assisted delivery. And he did. He said that I had been pushing for 4 hours, and I could keep pushing, but with the elevated heart rate, it was time to get baby out. He went over the benefits and risks of both forceps and the vacuum and gave us time to make our decision. To me, I felt that if they were to use forceps, that I would take most of the damage. If they used the vacuum, her little head might take more of the damage. So, in super old school fashion, we decided on forceps. 

Then, what felt like a million doctors and nurses entered the room and the anesthesiologist came back to top off my epidural. And they got the forceps all set up and told me that it was going to be 95% me and 5% the forceps. And so I prepared to give the strongest push of my life. And her head came out! They let me feel her head, removed the forceps, and then on the next push, the rest of her came out. 

Sophia Betancourt was born at 4:23 p.m. at 7 pounds 3 oz and 20 inches long to the song Landslide and I was so concerned that she didn't cry right away. I kept saying, "cry, cry." It was indescribable when they put her on my chest and I looked at her beautiful face for the first time. I kept her on my chest for a whole hour and counted all of her fingers and toes. She got an APGAR score of 8 at birth because her hands and feet were rather blue and a 9 later on. I felt great pressure for her to latch on my breast and tried to get her to, but she didn't seem interested and she wasn't crawling up to my breast like I read some babies might. In retrospect, it makes me sad that I felt such pressure to latch that I let that anxiety into this beautiful moment. After about an hour, I gave her to Nick who did skin to skin and talk about falling in love with my husband all over again. It was so emotional watching him hold her for the first time. "You are my Sunshine" was playing--how fitting! 

Throughout my experience, I felt respected, cared for, and empowered. I felt informed and like I had control of my L&D experience. It was clear that Nick and I were making the decisions. The doctors and nurses always asked if they could touch my body and explained what they were doing each step of the way. I did NOT find this to be my experience in the postpartum unit, and found that whole experience quite traumatizing, but that's a story for another day.