Note: if you read this as it was happening, or later that first day, there is probably more to read, so please be sure to skim through towards the end to catch up on the end of labor and birth.

Well, for whatever ready (yes, I’m tired.. I meant reason), MV Hospital will not allow me to access Anna Riley’s website… however, mine is ok. So, I’ll be posting here our labor progress. And we’ve done a LOT the past two days.

Contractions started around 3 a.m. Friday April 3rd (after days and weeks of braxton hicks). Cas thought maybe her water had broke… she finally texted me to ask what to do. Decided to wait and see what happened. Contractions continued throughout the day and evening. We went to the hospital around 6ish to see if she had indeed broke her water… turned out not to be.. and even more discouraging, she was still only a cm dilated. No fun.

Home we went.

Cas sent me a text around 2:30 Saturday morning …. contractions were hurting, coming 7-10 minutes apart. She took a bath and I started preparing to go hang out with her.

I headed over there around 5:00 a.m. and we started counting contractions. They were painful but not really too close together – around 7 to 10 minutes apart. Then they got to 4 to 6 minutes apart. Very hard for her to deal through, but she was truly doing a terrific job handling them.

We went to breakfast at Golden Nugget and she managed through a few contractions while we were there ( She said, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to act normal? – I had to laugh) and also ate a pancake and piece of sausage. Doctor said to wait until contractions were 5 minutes apart regularly… so she trudged through the day with me following. From breakfast to the mall… then home to try to nap.. shower after shower (she did a lot of wishing for a bigger water heater).

About 3 she said it was just too painful to deal through. Regardless of the contractions not being 5 minutes and less regularly, we headed to the hospital. Alice, the first nurse checked her and she was 4 cm. Can’t tell you how excited I was to hear that!

Cas was then admitted because her blood pressure was up too high and she had protein in her urine. We weren’t arguing. After so many hours, she was in dire need of some intervention so she could get some much needed sleep.

Daniel was with his uncle most of the day helping him move. As soon as we knew she was being admitted, we got a hold of him and he got here quicker than quick.

They gave her a shot of nubain soon after getting her into a labor/delivery room.. she didn’t care much for it.. it made her feel loopy without doing much for relieving the contractions.

Epidural in place about 8:30 p.m. Saturday night. Had to take it out and replace it because the first one was leaking – unusual, but all is ok. Fifteen minutes later and Cas is still feeling pain, but Daniel is very attentive.

Her blood pressure dropped after the epidural, so the anesthesiologist came back and gave her something to help… blood pressure up got her admitted, now it’s dropping. Oh boy! Between a dose of nubain, some magnesium sulfate, the epidural.. her body is just wondering what’s up!

Nurse broke her water about 9:15p.m and said she was about 6 cm dilated. A little bit closer…

Cas wasn’t feeling well… she kept complaining her face and hands and arms felt weird. Not knowing why we called the nurse to come talk to her. It’s the magnesium sulfate. It works on all the soft or fine muscles. Weird.

She’s trying to get some rest, but having a hard time getting comfy while she’s half numb.

About 12:00 a.m. (Sun 4/5) the anesthesiologist (Scott, we learned) came back to give her a new epidural. He took out the first one (or rather, the second one, since the first leaked) and put a new one in. It seems to be working much better now. She had reached a point that the epidural was wearing off, or just not working where it was located and the contractions didn’t bother her so much as the contracting around the catheter. Now the new epidural in working, she doesn’t seem to notice the catheter at all. She is finally dozing off.

Luke, Danny and Sharon (Daniel’s parents & brother) are in the waiting room… just too excited to wait at home. :) Luke came back to visit his brother. So sweet. Kristin came by earlier (Daniel’s sister, one of them).. and she rubbed Cassie’s feet… Cas was a real sport about having a few siblings stop by.. but they didn’t stay long. Oh, but Cas did say even though Kristin rubbed her feet and she had the epidural, she could tell it was awesome and plans to get her to do it again. Kristin says she naturally exudes reiki and I think I believe her..

At the time of the new epidural, Cas was still at 6 cm… a pitocin drip was started too. Let’s get this ball.. er.. baby rollin’!

Well, we sure got things going, but poor Cas was never relieved of her pain. The nurse seemed to get a slight attitude and after a few times of noticing it, I asked to talk to her… she admitted she was upset.. but not at us… instead she was upset because she felt like the anesthesiologists let Cas down. After replacing the epidural 3 times and she was still in pain, she felt like the head honcho should have stepped up to the plate and redone it himself. Instead, he said that some people just didn’t know the difference between pressure and sharp pain.

Cas was sure feeling pain, regardless of whether it was pressure or sharp pain, I agree with nurse Sherrie.. should not have been like this for her. She was getting absolutely no relief and should she have required an emergency c-sec, they’d have had to knock her out completely as what was going on was completely insufficient. At least I wasn’t alone in my thoughts on this.

It took a few hours for Cas to get from 7 to 9cm and seemed to be a little stuck at 9 for about an hour at 3:30.. with a cervical lip all the way round the babies head. By 4:30, the nurse said yes, let’s get you pushing…

Cas was utterly, completely exhausted. She’d look at me with the most tired, pleading eyes, just trying to find some strength (or maybe an out)… between me and the nurse, and herself, Cas remembered to breath through contractions, slow in, slow out. And when she’d say she was too tired to do it, I’d coax her through again (got to do, can’t leave the baby in there). Other times, she’d say I can’t, I can’t, I just don’t have the strength and then she’d take a deep breath and get back down to business.

The nurse suggested getting the doctor to use a suction.. Cas only caught part of what was being said and ask what, are you going to cut me? And the nurse quickly reassured her that wasn’t what was being talked about at all…. Cas looked at her and said “Are you lying!?” We all thought that was funny.

In the end, with the help of the suction, and an episiotomy (she’d have torn, not to mention taken hours longer had she not had this help… which I am convinced would have let to a c-section because of her waning strength and conviction and no breaks) she managed to work with the doctor and out came the most beautiful little baby girl I’ve seen since May 21, 93 (which happened to be her aunt Em… I’m not included Jordan as that situation was completely different)…

**** Will post updates later… but a quickie.. Anna Riley was born at 5:39a.m Sunday April 5th tipping the scales at 8 pounds 3 ounces.

See some pictures. Anna Riley flickr set.

Tagged as: anna riley, birth story, cas, labor, pregnancy