Birth Story.

Okay..... Here goes.. This could get long..

Our scheduled induction was set for February 24th.. they told us to get there at 6 am.. We got there at 6.. I got changed.. A nurse came in but basically told me her shift was ending at 7 so she was just gonna do paperwork with me and then my new nurse would come get me started.. So we did all that and waited around awhile.. My new nurse came in after what seemed like a long time. She put my IV in and started the fluids.. Then we waited around some more.. I thought they'd have started the pitocin by then, since it had been nearly 2 hours since we arrived.. Finally right around 8, a midwife from the hospital showed up.. asked me a bunch of questions and acted annoyed that she had to be there at all because my OB hadn't shown up yet.. She checked me, I hadn't really made any progress since my appt the friday before, which i was a little disappointed about since i'd been having mild contractions and crampiness all weekend. Right after SHE left, my Dr showed up. It was not the Dr who they told me would be there, but I was SO happy to see that it was the Dr who did my D&C last year and sent me for testing and all of that.. She is my favorite. So she came in, checked me again.. and broke my water. Right after that they started me on the pitocin.

So we hung out for awhile.. I didn't really feel much of anything until around 9.. About 10, things started getting ugly.. The contractions were getting pretty painful.. and I was starting to vomit when i'd have them.. They were concerned about my blood pressure.. so my Dr made them run more blood work on me to make sure that wasn't why I was vomiting.. They tried to keep me on my left side.. but then the monitors wouldn't pick up my contractions.. Plus when I was vomiting, I couldn't do much but sit up straight. They checked me again.. I was just 2 cm.. but my Dr said they could give me the epi in hopes it would get my BP down and make me stop puking. So.. the anesthesiologist came in awhile later.. Probably around 11 am.. Almost right away, I could tell that it only worked on one side.. My one leg was totally heavy and numb and the other one felt normal and I could feel the contractions all on one side.. He took his time coming back in..and made the nurses have me try different things, none of which worked.. Finally, he came back in and adjusted something and put some lidocaine through the epi.. After that.. I felt really good.. For about an hour.. I even slept for awhile..

Around 1, I mentioned to my nurse that i was starting to feel the contractions again.. I said it might just mean they are getting stronger..but she said no, it was way too early for that, because I was only 2-3 at that point.. so she pressed the button to put more medicine through the epi.. After that, I started feeling the contractions all one side again. So they called the anesthesiologist.. who once again took forever coming back.. I think somewhere in the time we were waiting for him, i started throwing up again.. Although I honestly can't even remember when it was at this point. He came in and totally redid the epidural.. only this time, it didn't really work at all.. I mean it might have taken the edge off, but I could have gotten up and walked around.. I was not numb at all. I still could feel the contractions.. more on my left side than my right.. but all over too.. I was making progress, about a centimeter an hour I think..... every time they'd check me I'd be another cm
Shortly after the 2nd time they placed the epidural, my IV "infiltrated" which means it came out of my vein and started pumping fluid into my arm tissue, so my hand and arm swelled up to probably 4x its normal size.. It took them FOREVER to get my IV into my right arm. Two nurses had to try, three different pokes.. I have a huge bruise on my elbow from the 2nd failed attempt, then they put a hotpack on my arm to try to get my veins out. They finally got one in my right wrist, but it was a horrible spot and kept catching on my wrist bands.. I was probably without an IV for close to an hour while they fooled around with it, not even counting the time that the IV had come out before we noticed.. luckily my body seemed to know what to do on its own by that time and I kept having contractions..that I could feel.

Probably around 4 o clock, I started feeling distinctly like I had to pee... Obviously I had a catheter since I had the epi.. But lo and behold.. when my nurse checked it it was not draining anything from my bladder.. She had a resident come in (the one that i saw when I went in for my headaches a few weeks ago that I did not like and had very poor english).. to try to flush the catheter to see if there was a blockage.. They did flush it, but it still would not drain.. Their best guess was the baby's head was blocking the catheter.. It sucked.. Especially everytime i had a contraction, i felt like my bladder was going to explode.

The bad english speaking resident checked me, because they thought I might just be feeling the need to push as pressure in my bladder. He said I was fully dilated.. my nurse checked me and said she didn't think I was.. but they let me start pushing.. I pushed kind of on my own for awhile.. My nurse was in and out.. The one thing that IS true is the contractions do not hurt once you are pushing.. but pushing was SO tiring.. I NEEDED to push, but I just wanted to lay down. They called my Dr once I started pushing and i guess she had left the hospital to go back to the office for awhile... another Dr from the office had been there for a meeting, so she came in to see how long it was gonna be. because if it was going to be soon, she would stay and delivere. The nurse told her that I had time yet and there was gonna be enough time for my Dr to come back so she could go. I was really discouraged about that. The nurse and Jeff could see Eve's head and they told me she had lots of dark hair. I did NOT believe them.. Around 5:30, my nurse said she thought I'd have my little girl by 6 oclock.. That was all I needed to hear.. Once my Dr came in, it all happened so fast. At some point they had me lift myself up.. either so they could change the bed or my pad thing or whatever.. and they commented to each other how my epi must really not be working if I could hold myself up on my legs for that long.. YES.. that is what i've been telling you for the last 5 hours.. thanks.. I pushed a few more times.. and someone said the head was right there.. and I said "Yeah, I can FEEL it.." and then almost immediately after that it was out.. and the rest of her was out too.. It was all within seconds and she was on me.. She was GORGEOUS but didn't look ANYTHING like I'd imagined she would. I expected her to look a lot like my SIL (a girl version of Jeff) or like my neices.. It was amazing though.. Jeff was crying. I did not cry... I think I was too overwhelmed to cry.

I ended up with a 4th degree tear.. Honestly..I pretty much expected it.. but it wasn't fun to get stitched up.. They did send out my placenta to check for testing to make sure that it didn't have clots or anything.. My Dr. was so awesome. She told me how happy she was for us, and how she knew we'd been through a lot to get here.. She commented that she wanted to deliver my next baby too.. I was so thankful that she was there instead of the Dr they had told us would be..

I was done getting stitched at the same time Eve was done getting checked out. Every thing on Eve was perfect. Jeff held her for a few minutes.. Then I took her and nursed her. She actually latched on better then than she has since.. Both sets of our parents came in then.. The moms held her, but the dads were afraid.. She is the most amazing baby I've ever seen. Our parents left after awhile and then they took Eve up to the nursery.. Usually they'd have me go up to my room about an hour later.. and then she'd be brought to me.. but of course.. that didn't happen.

When they started checking my blood pressures, they noticed my pulse was racing.. I felt mostly fine.. and i didn't feel like my heart was racing or anything.. I also was running a fever.. and my blood pressure was a bit high still. They gave me more fluids in my IV to try to get it down and it worked some... so they had me get up and go to the bathroom (really hard by the way!) and shower..and they had me all ready to go upstairs (at this point it had already been probably 2 hours since they'd taken Eve up).. and even had me IN the wheelchair, but they called my Dr to let her know about what was going on and she told them to keep me down and run a CBC.. My blood counts came back OK, except for my white blood cells, showing I might be having some sort of infection... So they gave me IV antibiotics.. and my Dr also ordered an EKG just to make sure everything was fine with my heartrate.. It was.. and they never really told me what kind of infection I might have.. but my temperature went down gradually.. and finally around midnight they brought me up to my room. So it ended up being a VERY long day.. but everything was absolutely 100% worth it for my beautiful little girl!