Carter Andrew was born on Thursday 8-9-07 at 3:21 pm exactly 3
weeks early. He was 6 pounds 10 ounces and 19 inches long. He came
out screaming and completely healthy, we are so completely in love.
On Wednesday I went in for my weekly appointment at 9am and my
BP would not go down. My doctor sent me over to the hospital to be
monitored and we spent about 6 hours on the monitors. The baby was
doing really well but my BP was just barely going down so my doctor
came in and said that Thursday would be the day! [:'(]
I stayed the night on Wednesday and they placed cervidil in my
cervix to ripen it since I was only a fingertip dilated at my
appointment that morning. She also stripped my membranes (OUCH). That
next morning at 6am I was placed on Pitocin and my water was broken.
That also hurt like a sonofabitch because I was only 1 cm dilated at
that point. That sealed the deal that I would be getting the epi. [;)]
I started having contractions almost immediately and I have to
say I give mad props to anyone that has a baby naturally because they
sucked. I lasted about 2 hours before I got the epidural and was in
heaven. It didn't hurt at all to get it and I felt immediate relief.
I told Hugh I wanted Carter's middle name to be epidural b/c we were
still undecided on middle names at that point.
At 2:15 I was checked and was only 3cm. I was a bit frustrated
thinking it would take forever to have this baby and sent my Mom and
sister out to go shopping thinking it would be a while, plus I wanted
to nap. I started feeling him drop down and pressure with contractions
after 30 minutes but figured it was just him moving down a bit. at
3:12 my OB came and checked me and almost fainted because I was 10
cenimenters! I went from 3 cm to 10 in an hour. [:|]
They had to tell me not to push so they could break down the bed and
get things set up. Once they did, I pushed for 9 minutes and Carter
was born! It was a lot easier than I was expecting. :-)
Recovery has been awesome, I had one tiny stitch but really no
pain down there. I'm really, really tired though. Breastfeeding is
actually going pretty well, I'm supplementing until my milk comes in
but I think we are close. My hospital does post-natal massages in your
room and that was such a treat. My birth experience was so amazing, I actually look forward to doing it all again.
Re: Carter's Birth - Induction due to high blood pressure