Stumbling through Labor

This is Campbell Jane Bell born at 12:39 PM on July 19th weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 20 inches in length. This is her story, at least the first couple hours of it.

I was in labor either 31 hours or 22 hours depending on when you count labor starting. I started regular contractions at 5 AM Saturday morning, but they weren't progressing my dilation and effacement when the doctor asked us to come into to be checked. So we went home...and when the contractions started at 3 PM and were so painful I was tearing up but I was too stubborn to call the doctor, we finally went back in around 10 PM. I had dilated to between a 4&5, so I was commanded to stay. :)

Around 2 AM the contractions were real strong and I was crying through a few of them. Don't get me wrong, they hurt...but I think it was more that I was exhausted and had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep Friday night and hadn't really slept since. So Micah and I decided on an epidural so we could get some sleep while I progressed.

Only I didn't progress and after a really upsetting conversation, that left me in tears, with the doctor on call (our doctor was off the clocks this weekend) we finally convinced him to let me go another hour before break my water. When my water was broken, but nothing really came out (our darling daughter was positioned in such a way that she was blocking the flow) and I progressed a centimeter in 2 hours, he ordered the pitocin.

Micah and I were dead set against the pitocin-unless it was an absolute emergency. We had had numerous talks with our ob about this...but we didn't have our ob delivering us so he didn't know about these conversations. And when I was trying to explain our feelings to him, he basically said we brought this on ourselves by getting an epidural.

But he is the medical professional, so we got pitocin. And it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. Though the epidural wore off in my delivering area and, in spite of two more attempts to renumb the areas, it stayed that way until delivery.

Labor was a tough, tough process for me. I got about 4 hours of sleep from Friday morning until Campbell was delivered at 12:39 on Sunday. I can handle pain pretty well, I can't handle exhaustion. It amplified all the good things and hard things that happened. I struggled a great deal with not having the doctor who cared for us for the last 9 months deliver Campbell-I never thought it would be that hard. I struggled with having residents care for my body and being poked and prodded several times in similar ways so that they could gain field experience. I struggled veering from what we wanted originally-as simple as a labor as possible, in that minimal interventions would be used.

But here is the good news-I pushed for less than an hour. And towards the end, I even got to let the contractions do all the work. My body took to delivering a baby better than anticipated and damages were relatively minimal and minor. I never lost feeling in my legs and feet.

And Micah was absolutely amazing. Seriously, right after Campbell left my body I looked at him and felt that God had created him for two purposes in life...to be a husband and a father. He was so supportive, so loving, and just perfect during the whole process. The second he held Campbell she stopped crying. They love each other so much...and they've only known each other outside my womb for 9 hours!

Campbell is absolutely perfect. She didn't cry when she got her shots...she fussed a little when getting cleaned, but as soon as Micah took her she stopped. When I got to hold her, she just started at me. She is beautiful and loving. She latched on to nursing right away and by the 4th feeding she fed 15 minutes on each breast. We've attempted to do a feed, wake, sleep pattern with her in the 9 hours she's been outside the womb and she has taken to it...

Now I know that all these things can change. It's been 9 hours, though it feels like an eternity. But we are just about the most proud parents in God's good earth. Pictures don't do her justice.

I am writing this as I listen to Micah snore and watch Campbell sleep. I am excited to join in their slumber as well. We are blessed, blessed people-but the blessings seem to be shining a little brighter for us on this 19th day of July.

peace.