Well, the short of it is that I had a baby. It was hard and painful but worth it, we love our little boy Reed.
The long of it is as follows:
As you might know I was scheduled to be induced at 7:30am on Tuesday, May 19th due to the suspected size of the baby and my slightly elevated blood pressure. On Monday morning, May 18th, I had another appointment to see if I had progressed at all on my own and to strip my membranes to help things going on their own. Stripping membranes means that the doctor separated the cervix from the uterus which will sometimes start labor without drugs. It was an unpleasant procedure but quick. Unfortunately, while I was at the appointment, my blood pressure had gone up a bit more. I bargained with my doctor to let me wait until Tuesday but all she gave me was to go pick up my parents from the airport then come back to check my BP again. So I left and drove down to pick up mom and dad. We met up with Fogg for a quick lunch (where I ate a ton, thinking this might be my last meal for a little while) then back up north. We also stopped and got some ice cream before going back to the hospital cause again, wasn’t sure if I’d be leaving the hospital that day. So back up to the doctors office where my blood pressure had gotten worse. So immediately I was admitted to the hospital and it seems like within minutes I was in a gown, in a bed, getting IV’s hooked up. They gave me a tiny bit of pitocin and a bag of fluids to keep me hydrated. I was admitted at 3:30pm. Fogg got there shortly after that and we hung out for a bit just waiting for things to happen. At my appointment in the morning, I had already dilated to a 3 so that was my starting point. Fogg and my dad went to get my bag from home and picked up dinner for everyone (except me of course).
So hours go by and by 6pm, I was still only 3 or 4 cm dilated. They upped my pitocin a little bit and I started to progress a bit more. By 9pm, they upped my pitocin again and shortly thereafter the baby’s heart rate dropped for about 5 minutes. They nurses and my doctor come running in, give me oxygen, move me around and my doctor taps the baby on the head. Things quickly turned around again and all was good. But they had to lower my pitocin back down again. But no worries cause I started to progress well enough on my own at that point. So we tried to sleep for a few hours but after the lights went out, I started to feel some stronger and more painful contractions. At 10:30, I was really feeling them. I labored a while on my own, unfortunately not able to get out of bed cause of the pitocin. When you are on it, they have to monitor you every minute (cause of things like what happened with the baby’s heart rate). Because I was progressing on my own, they were able to take me off the pitocin and I could get into the tub. I got in the tub around 2am and labored there for about a half hour. At that point I felt a big difference in the pain level. The nurse came in and checked me and I was already at an 8! So the drills went off, they called the doctor, they wheeled in the instrument cart and baby warmer, called the nursery to let them know and turned on the power lights. I was so proud of myself that I was going to do this all on my own!
But then I stalled. I stayed at an 8 for 4 hours!!! I was still able to handle the pain but was getting a little exhausted. They put me back on the pitocin to help kick start it again, broke my bag of waters and I got in the tub again, all things that should have helped me progress. Finally I got to a 9 but the pain level was magnified 10 fold from an 8 to a 9. Still, I was handling it and staying under control. But after another couple of hours at a 9, I was seriously fatiguing and losing control. My body started to freak out a bit and I was having these ab contractions on top of the uterus contractions that were causing me to involuntarily push, kinda like when you have diarrhea. My doctor told me that I could continue to labor without meds if I wanted and eventually, my abs would fatigue and I would finally get to a 10 but strongly encouraged me to get an epidural to help relax my body so it could progress. The ab contractions were making my pelvic floor contract, not letting my cervix fully dilate. I had already gotten a couple of shots of Demerol but they only made me sleepy in between contractions instead of taking any pain away. So at this point, I’m screaming every time the ab contractions hit and very much lost control of my own pain management. I was also so exhausted I couldn’t focus anymore. They sent in the anesthesiologist so Fogg could ask lots of questions and figure out if this was the right choice for us. Thankfully he was there and knew my wishes because I was so focused on getting through contractions that I couldn’t have participated in the conversation at all. After a bit of discussion and everyone watching me scream in pain, we decided to get the epidural. A few LONG minutes later, they came in to do it. Fogg was my support person but he quickly almost passed out from seeing the needles and what they were doing. He had to sit down and get some OJ and a snack. I didn’t even feel a pin prick when they did it. Anyway, immediately the ab contractions stopped and after a few minutes, my doctor checked me and already my pelvic floor was relaxing. They figured I’d progress to a 10 in no time. That did not prove to be true.
Three hours and multiple positions later, I finally got to a 10. So now it is 8:30 in the morning. The doctor asked me if I wanted to push now or if I wanted to wait a bit to recover a bit more. Because I had been sort of relaxing since I got the epidural, I figured that waiting wasn’t going to get me more energy, I wouldn’t sleep cause I was so anxious and still slightly uncomfortable. So we started pushing. The first hour was fine, I was energetic and anxious to meet our little baby. They gave me a little bit of juice and a popsicle while I was waiting to get to a 10 so I had restored a bit of my energy. But by the time we entered hour two, I was starting to get pretty tired. Poor Fogg was struggling as well, he hadn’t slept much (he got a couple of hours in after I got the epidural) and the concrete floor was starting to hurt his knees. So he would stand next to me while I was pushing and encourage me, then go sit down in between. By the time 10:15 rolled around, I knew I didn’t have much more in me to push. I was really starting to feel everything back again (the epidural wore off and I didn’t want to get another). But I was so close to getting our little guy out. All the sudden, my temperature went up and the baby started to show signs of distress. So they let me push a couple of more times before they put the suction cup on his head and two pushes later and his head was out! The doctor worked his shoulders out and he just slid the rest of the way out! It’s a boy! It felt like I had just had the biggest poop of my life! It was so overwhelming to finally have him out and see our little guy. He looked great and was huge. I just kept looking at Fogg and telling him that we had a boy!
He was taken over to the warmer where they weighed him at 8 pounds, 13 ounces and 21 inches long. He was officially born at 10:33am on May 19th, 2009. Fogg went to take pictures of him while I was getting wrapped up with getting the placenta out and getting sewn up from an episiotomy. Soon, Fogg brought him over to me and the next few hours seemed like a blur – partly because I was drugged up for pain and partly because I now had a little baby boy.
So we were at the hospital for the next two days, leaving on Thursday morning. I kept Reed in the nursery at night time, having them bring him to me only when he needed to be fed. It was nice to have some sleep. He got circumcised on Thursday morning before we left. We have been adjusting well so far, just working on getting into a bit of a schedule. I’m still trying to recover, surprisingly it’s painful to give birth.
Some important things that I have learned in the past week and a half:
1. I love my husband more now than I ever have before.
2. I realize that this little person is his own and can’t wait to see what he becomes.
3. It REALLY is different when it’s your own kid.
4. Funny how he sleeps a lot but I sleep less (how does that work?)
5. Life as I knew it before is forever gone and what I thought this time would be like is very different, but I still love it.
Ok, well it took me days to write this, I’m finally going to post it for those who might care about the whole thing, if not, if you’ve made it this far, than nice work! I’m off to bed now, hopefully he sleeps a good night again!
