my due date was october 18th. when i woke up that morning, i had what felt like normal menstrual cramps...and they lasted throughout the whole day. around 8:30/9pm that night they started feeling a little stronger and almost like they were spread apart. i was at work but around 10:45 decided to head home. i called my husband because i was contemplating going straight to the hospital to get checked out. he wanted me to just come home, since i had a doctors appointment the next day at 1pm. an hour later when i got home, the cramps felt worse. we called the hospital and the doctor on call told me to take some tylenol and try to lay down and get some rest. ok. once i got in bed, michael rubbed my lower back for awhile, but then he fell asleep. my pains were coming and going more regularly, it seemed like every 5 minutes. i kept trying to time them, but i was hurting so bad that i couldn't concentrate. i ended up getting out of bed because it hurt to lay down. it even hurt to sit down. so from about 12:30am until probably almost 7am, i was awake, walking around the house all night long. around 4am i tried to wake michael up to say "take me to the hospital now!" but he wouldn't budge. ugh! i was sooo tired. all i wanted to do was lay down and get some sleep. so around 7am i tried getting back in bed. i managed to lay there for almost 2 hours, suffering through the cramps and trying to get a few minutes of sleep in. at 9am, i woke up, talked to michael and we decided to call the hospital to see if i could come in ahead of time before my appointment. i quickly took a shower, then when i called the office, the lady asked me how long i had been having pains and how spaced out they were...i said about 5 minutes apart for the whole night...she said to come to the hospital immediately! i had the phone on speaker at that point because i was on hold for so long and once michael heard that, he jumped out of bed! told you i was not making it up! i was having contractions all night long. the first stage of labor!
we got to the hospital and in to see dr. miller at 11am. i was 1cm dilated (thats it?!) and i had one of those pains which she confirmed was a contraction. since we live about 35min from the hospital, she didn't want to send us home...so she sent us to the 2nd floor to get a delivery room. she said i would have my baby around 7 or 8 that night!!! eeek! call the grandmas!
we went ahead to the next floor down and were checked into room number 12. the lady told me to put my gown on, and shortly after a nurse came in to ask me a bunch of questions, which she filled out on the computer. another nurse came in to start my IV line. she said many people think this hurts the most out of everything...great! thanks a lot. but michael held my hand and she got it on the first try, so it wasn't that painful. thank goodness! she was able to start some pain meds for me to help out, which she warned me would make me feel drowsy and possibly like i was drunk. yep, she was right. the stadol made me feel weird and out of it. it was around 1:15pm at this point, and michael decided to run home to take care of rocket and pepper since he knew we'd be there for the rest of the day. i would wait until he got back before i got the epidural because i was scared.
basically right after michael left, another nurse came in to check how far along i was. she said i was 4cm dilated and while she was doing that, my water broke! oops. it felt so weird...like someone just poured water all over me in a big gush. i was feeling pretty wacked out still because of the stadol. i'm not sure if she had me get so she could change the bedding, or what?! but let me say, after my water broke, those contractions were 100 times more intense. it hurt bad! they were coming about every 5 minutes. i somehow made it through about an hours worth of pain...i told the nurse that i was waiting until michael got back before getting the epidural. i wanted him to be there for me to hold my hand because i was very scared of getting such a huge shot in my spine! however, she could tell how much pain i was in and went ahead and called the anesthesiologist ahead of time. meanwhile different people had been coming in the room to go over paperwork with me, something about a living will, etc, but i couldn't focus on anything they were saying...the stadol was making me so drowsy that i kept falling asleep while they were talking to me! finally the anesthesiologist showed up around 2:30ish and got me prepped for the epidural. he had me sit up, feet hanging over the edge of my bed. he felt my spine a little to get the exact entry position, cleaned my skin and gave me a numbing shot first. that one stung a little. i think there was actually 3 different needles. i remember the nurse being right there, but her phone rang and she took it out of her pocket and answered it. how rude! she was not the kind of support i had hoped for during this. but while she was talking i guess it provided me with a distraction because in went the epidural needle and it barely hurt...i remember it just feeling weird and taking some time to fish in that catheder line into my spinal column. but he got it in there with no problem (thank goodness) then taped me up so it wouldn't move. phew, that was over! then he administered the pain meds and i couldn't feel the pain of the contractions anymore! that was the best part...it was like magic! i barely remember the doctor coming in to meet me, but again, i was out of it, so she said she'd come back later. her name was dr. grider...i never got the chance to meet her during my rotations through the doctors at women first. i called michael a little while later, probably shortly after 3pm to see when he would be back...he was just getting to the house because he had stopped first to have the car seat inspected. so i took the opportunity to take a nap since i had been up all night!
by 4pm-ish michael was back and we were watching tv together. a nurse came in to check my dilation again and i was still at a 4cm. apparently you are suppose to progress by 1cm per hour after your water breaks, so i should have been at a 6cm by then. which meant it wasn't happening right. throughout the day there were several nurses who came and went, but now the nurse who would be with me for the rest of my delivery was there. now i can't even remember what her name was. anyhow, she started me on pitocin to speed up the dilation. at 6pm they came back and i was at full dilation! whoops! so they backed down the pitocin levels to bring me back down. call the grandmas again! they are still in southern indiana, about an hour away. hurry up, cause i'm gonna have a baby in the next hour! around 6:45 several nurses all rushed in at once, and without saying a word, started heave-ho-ing me from side to side on my bed. what in the heck was going on? it totally freaked me out. (also forgot to mention after the epidural, they made me wear an oxygen mask, which a. made it hard to talk, and b. made me feel ridiculous). so here i am, totally freaked out, wearing my mask and being thrown all over the place. i started to cry. i finally asked what was going on and they said the baby's heart rate had dropped into the 40s which is not good at all. it is suppose to be closer to 150 beats per minute. they were rotating me side to side to try to find a spot that the baby liked so that he could get his heart rate back up. the doctor explained that if it didn't work, they were going to take me in for an emergency c-section. more crying ensued. it was very scary. finally they were able to get his heart rate stabilized and wanted to monitor it for awhile before totally ruling out the cesarean. thankfully it stayed where it needed to be and the grandmas (plus kate) showed up around 7:20pm. it was so good to have my mom there with me finally! since kaitlyn is under the age of 14, the poor thing had to sit out in the waiting room the whole time. it made me feel bad! we kept asking if she could come in, but the nurses wouldn't budge...which i somewhat understand because of sicknesses children can pick up in schools...but still. she felt bad for being left out of everything :(
from that point on, it seemed like they were constantly cranking up the pitocin, then taking it back down again for the next few hours. i was suppose to be having my baby by this time...but then i spiked a fever of over 100. great, more talk of an emergency c-section! they gave me tylenol, and i ate some ice chips to try to get it back down. i was starving too, by the way. i had a half bowl of cereal for breakfast around 9:30ish but that was all...but i just kept crunching away on the ice chips because it was all i was allowed!
now around 9:15ish i was able to pick my legs up off the bed...which totally freaked me out. the nurse explained that the epidural meds are given in a concentrated dosage, and as the day wears on, it will start to even out...but i was scared that i would be able to start feeling it when it came time to push! she assured me i would be fine. she also said that the doctor had planned to deliver all of the other babies first and save me for last, so that if any complications arose, all hands were on deck to roll me to the surgery room. scary! so there i sat just waiting! then in the next half hour my fever broke and it was about time to push! how exciting...except for the fact that i was starting to now feel pain in my lower back! it was a steady dull pain, but hurt enough to make me uncomfortable. i'm sure they thought i was a big baby, but if they wanted me to push this baby out, i needed some more meds! they called for the anesthesiologist to come administer more medication through my iv. he gave me one dose, disappeared for awhile, then came back to give me one more. that took care of the pain problem!
finally a little after 10pm, a whole swarm of nurses (probably 6-8 of them) plus the doctor and anesthesiologist, plus the pediatrician arrived. it was time! the nurse instructed michael and my momma to come over...they were going to hold my hands and push on the bottom of my feet while i curled up and pushed! haha, my mom wasn't even sure that she wanted to be in the room (she says she didn't want to see me in pain) but boy was she right there in the middle of it all! :) it took me an hour, (which i never thought it felt like that long) but finally weston's head emerged (they kept saying almost the whole time that they could see his dark hair so i was getting frustrated that i couldn't get him out right away) but anyhow, the very next push was the last & our little weston was born. he was perfect! right away, i heard one of the nurses say "he's got 10 fingers and 10 toes!" lol, dont' know if that was her only purpose for being in the room...to count my little guy's fingers? but that made me happy to hear...even if we do have to pay her $300 for being there to do that. lol.
so our little baby boy was put on my chest immediately, covering in all that glorious goo. it was such an amazing experience! can't really describe how good it felt. then of course, they had to clean him up, weigh & measure him, get fingerprints, give him a shot and all that other fun stuff. meanwhile the doctor had to give me some stitches, which i did not like at all. i could feel it and it hurt! she pushed my morphine button for me several times...which means i can't remember everything that happened the next couple of hours, except that my little boy was here, he was perfect and our little family was so happy!one of the nurses got my finger prints at that time too, but i vaguely just remember that...my mr. had to remind me about it, when i saw the paper the next day and was very confused about how my fingerprints got on it when i clearly never did that...haha!
i got to do kangaroo care with weston which was also very special to us. :) everyone left the room for about 1/2 hour, then the next half hour my mom came back in. she got some videos on her camera which are so good, they make me cry. i didn't even realize she had been videoing anything, so that was pretty special to see afterwards. it was a long day...but so worth every single minute. i'd do it again in a heartbeat! we are very blessed!
weston charles. 10.19.2011. 20" long. 7lbs 12.5oz. complete with chubby cheeks ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment