Covid Birth Story — RIVF — Modern family travels

You know how everyone has this beautiful birth story? Free of complications where the mom has the energy to put on make-up and take an instagrammable photo afterwards? This is not it. This is what I went through… with no gloss.

Despite having a normal, complication free pregnancy, we were considered high risk due to IVF. At every high risk ultrasound appointment, we hoped to graduate but with each appointment, they asked us to come back. It wasn’t until week 36 that we graduated and we were considered clear. My OB suggested induction at 39+4. We were nervous about inducing but we were also nervous about being in the hospital later in the year due to Covid so we took her advice and scheduled the induction.

Our hope was that baby girl would come on her own but since it was my first pregnancy, we knew that was very unlikely. But she surprised us! Instead of waiting until 39 week + 4 days, contractions started happening 39+1, Monday night at midnight (so actually Tuesday morning).

12:00 AM - Are these contractions? All my child-birthing classes said it was best to sleep through early labor so I tried… but I couldn’t.

12:30 AM - I should probably actually start to track these contractions.

12:45 AM - The app tells me I should start getting ready to go to the hospital. It’s probably too soon though. I don’t believe this app. Let’s not wake Sarah up yet.

1:00 AM - I have to pee, again. Oops, woke Sarah up. Why is she such a light sleeper? I let her know what was going on and she excitedly got up and jumped in the shower. The app is telling me to shower and eat but I didn’t listen (and I wish I had). Oops, I hit the button incorrectly on the app to mark a contraction… but I don’t want to pay for the version to amend it. So I don’t really believe if it’s actually happening yet. Sarah and I decide to go to the hospital just to be on the safe side. We’ll probably be sent home anyway. By the time we actually leave the house, the app is saying it’s go time!

Pictured above from left to right: 1) My last bump pic taken the night we went to the hospital. Little did I know it was my last. 2) The app notification telling us to leave for the hospital. 3) Covid safe masked delivery room selfie. 4) Bouncing on a birthing ball trying to speed things along.

1:45 AM - En route to the hospital, I got a notification that my contractions were too irregular and to stay home. Since we were already almost at the hospital, we continued on expecting to be sent home after getting checked.

2:00 AM - We entered through the only entrance available during covid, the ER entrance, and headed to the labor and delivery floor. They gave us a room, I changed in a gown and we waited. Our first nurse was an older women that was nice but almost killed me when she did a cervical check. I was only 1cm dilated. She checked with the on call doctor.

3:30 AM - The doctor on call wanted me to walk for an hour so we paced the halls. How many times can you walk the same hallway over and over again in an hour?

4:30 AM - The nurse came in to check on me again and we all thought we were going home. She was surprised that I was now 2cm dilated! The doctor wanted me to stay. I was then restricted to liquids only (why didn’t I eat at home?!?). Things were still early so it was safe for Sarah to leave. She headed home to drop Pintxo off at the neighbor’s and pick up a few more items.

5:30 AM - I was checked in, got an IV and hooked up to the monitors so I couldn’t walk around anymore. This slowed my progress down.

6:00 AM - Everyone will tell you to nap and I tried, but my back pain was getting more and more intense. Who can nap through this??

7:30 AM - My contractions had almost stopped but all I could feel was pain in my back. Sarah was back at least.

8:00 AM - They started me on pitocin to speed up the process. Within 15 minutes, my contractions were back. At this time, I wasn’t allowed any more water. Only ice-chips.

9:10 AM - My doctor came by to see me and broke my water. I was 4cm dilated and she cleared me to have an epidural whenever I wanted. Another woman down the hall was getting her epidural so the nurse asked if I wanted to be prepped and be next. The pain was bad, not unbearable but I was scared that the pain would get bad and I would be stuck waiting for the anesthesiologist so I agreed. Pro-tip, it can take awhile if you are waiting for the anesthesiologist, so ask for one before you think you really need it.

10:00 AM - I was getting the epidural. The anesthesiologist was probably my favorite staff member at the hospital (besides my doctor). He was from Nashville (always nice to meet a fellow southerner) and we talked about food the whole time. It was fairly easy and afterwards I was able to nap (finally!).

Sarah enjoying her favorite tonkatsu while I finally nap after getting my epidural.

12:22 PM - I was feeling pain again so I got my second push of the epidural.

1:30 PM - I was 6cm dilated and they put a peanut ball in between my legs to help open my cervix and move little girl down.

3:51 PM - My nurse checked on me and I was 9cm dilated. She wanted a practice push and depending on how that went, she would call my doctor. It went well!

4:41 PM - My doctor arrived. For every contraction, I pushed 3 times and by the third time I always felt like I had nothing left. Sarah put Taylor Swift on repeat for me and held my hand encouraging me. 45 minutes later…

5:26 PM - Little girl was born. They put her on my chest, Sarah cut the cord, I pushed out the placenta and my doctor sewed me up (I had a 2nd degree tear). The pain was not as bad as I had feared and I didn’t feel the ring of fire....thank God.

Yes, that didn’t sound so bad. They don’t tell you that delivery isn’t the hardest part. You’re pumped full of drugs anyway from the epidural. I would do that part again easily. At least I was finally able to drink water again. I was so thirsty, I was chugging it. And Sarah ordered some food for me - fish congee with extra ginger to help in my postpartum recovery. Unfortunately the L&D floor was really busy that night with lots of new little babies. Usually you stay in your delivery room for 2 hours and then get moved to a postpartum room. We didn’t get moved into our new room until midnight.

My next nurse took me into the bathroom to show me my new bathroom routine - OOOOF. Witch hazel and dermoplast becomes my new best friend. But as the night went on, I realized when I went to the bathroom I wasn’t urinating. Plenty of other fluids were coming out so it was hard to tell. I let my nurse know and by 2AM, I was crying in pain, not being able to pee. They realized my bladder was distended and they had to catheterize me in order to empty it.

After I got my epidural, I asked for a small catheter. Due to urinary tract issues in my 20s and lots of visits to the urologist I discovered that I have small urethra that requires a small catheter. The L&D nurse told me they didn’t have a smaller size and proceeded to use the regular size. There wasn’t an issue putting it in - but I am guessing I might’ve been numb from the epidural. When I was crying in pain at 2AM, I also told my nurse this and I warned her that in the past, nurses had problems getting a regular sized catheter in.

It makes me hurt even now, as I’m writing this. This confident nurse disregarded my warning, tried, failed and had to call for backup. There was now blood in my urine and she was unable to get the catheter in. With the help of another nurse they were finally able to get it in and relieve my bladder. But this was by far the most traumatic part of my birthing experience. I was now told that I had 6 hours to urinate twice and if not they would have to catheterize me again. I had what they called a sleepy bladder that just hasn’t woken up since the epidural. I was scared shitless and thought they had ruined my bladder. Fortunately, I was able to go, my bladder went back to normal and the crisis was adverted. I will say that I should have advocated more for myself but at 2am with a distended bladder that was about to burst, I didn’t have many options.

I did tell the nurse leader afterwards to find a smaller catheter in the event that they had to do it again. If I needed another one, it would have been 8am and hopefully they would have been able to source one by then. Lesson learned: I should have requested this in advance and had it noted in my chart. This hospital did not have a Pediatric department and that is why they did not have access to a smaller catheter easily.

The following day (Wednesday), I tried to rest as much as I could and Sarah took care of Eliza while trying to sleep on those lovely hospital pull out chairs/beds. We were cleared to leave but given the option to stay another night. As ready as we were to get out of the hospital and get home, we opted to stay and I’m glad we did.

I had been putting Eliza on my boob non-stop but we were not getting a successful latch. The nurses kept telling us it was fine but it was so painful and I knew something was wrong. (Pro tip: It’s not supposed to hurt that much! Advocate for yourself! The nurses were wrong and Eliza actually had a tongue tie - we will discuss more in later stories.) Baby girl was showing signs of dehydration so we asked for formula. (Pro-tip: You’re not a bad mom by doing this. I would tell all my friends to just supplement with formula the early days) I’m so glad we stayed an extra night because that is when we discovered that her little stomach was not adjusting well to the formula and we needed a more sensitive one.

We were discharged Thursday morning. While our hospital stay wasn’t perfect, overall it was a successful event since we left with a healthy baby! As soon as we got home, we had an appointment setup to meet with a lactation consultant and that is when our breastfeeding journey began.....

Moments I want to remember

Sarah booking rooms for a client of mine while I was in active labor because they waited until the day before they needed the room to book 😆
The look on Sarah’s face when they pulled Eliza out
Sarah dancing to Taylor Swift to make me laugh during contractions and playing her tunes during delivery

Sarah chilling in the delivery room and feeling confident as always.