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Birth Stories
Heather Renee's Birth Story
On September 16th, I went in for my weekly doctor appointment at 10am. At this time I was 41 weeks and 1 day late. I was scheduled for an induction that morning for 7:30 that evening.
As my mom and I left the doctors, I called the Red Cross to get in touch with DH (who's in boot camp) to let him know that I was being induced. At that point I was told that the Red Cross didn't deliver labor messages. 
Needless to say I was a *little* emotional. Luckily I had the contact number of his recruiter who in turn got the message to him.
I got home and finished packing my bag and cleaned. At 7, we left the house and headed for the hospital.
At 8:30pm, I was admitted and taken up to my room. They had me change and started me right away on pitocin.
At 9:30pm, the nurse came in and checked on me. I was only a finger tip dilated and my cervix was still really firm. The nurses said they were going to call my doctor and ask if he wanted to stop the pitocin and insert cervadil.
At 10:45pm, the nurses came in and stopped the drip and inserted the cervadil. It was really, really cold. I had to wait 2 hours before moving or sitting up.
At 11:30pm, the nurses asked me if I wanted to take ambien to help me sleep. I took it, but still didn't manage to get any sleep until 1am.
At 4:30/5:00am the next morning, the nurses came in and checked me and my cervix had softened, but I still was only about a fingertip dilated. At this point they removed the cervadil and started the pitocin again.
At 7:30am, I got a call from DH who told me they were going to let him come home. He was boarding a plane at 9:00am and would land at 1:30pm.
About 9am, I was starting to feel the contractions. The nurses gave me some type of drug that helped with the pain by knocking me out. There wasn't even a drowsy period. As soon as they put it in the IV I was out. I really didn't like the drug and by the time that I would wake up I was so loopy and out of it.
Around 11am, my doctor showed up and check me. I was only about 2cm. He broke my water and told my mom that he didn't think I would go into labor until around 10pm that night. I was still on those loopy drugs and just remember saying that I was scared it would hurt, but it didn't. Shortly after that, the anesthesiologist came in and administered my epidural.
Around 1pm, the nurse came in and checked me again. I was 2-3cm, she attached the internal monitors and the catheter. They also made me wear a breathing mask, which I hated. I didn't like having anything over my face. Of course, I was back asleep shortly after that.
At 2pm, DH showed up! I was so happy to see him and couldn't believe that he was actually there. I hadn't seen him since July 21st. They checked me shortly after and said I was still 2-3cm. The nurse also noted that the baby's heart rate went up after her daddy showed up.
Because of the epidural I was still in and out of awareness. About 3:30pm, DH and my dad went to get something to eat. Shortly after this, about 4-4:30pm, I woke up when the nurse came into check me. I was feeling a really sharp pressure downstairs that was really painful and the nurse kept reassuring me that it was just the catheter. I told her again that it really hurt and she decided to check me. When she checked, I was 7-8cm dilated!
The nurse was shocked and said that the reason it felt painful was because her head was really low. After that she got into gear and called my doctor and began getting everything together. My mom called my dad and DH to tell them to get back NOW. Luckily they had just got back into the hospital and bee-lined it up to the room.
DH got there at about 5pm, just as the nurses came in with everything. They told me at this point that the Doctor was on his way, but that it was time for me to start pushing. They proceeded to get my into the position and kick everyone out of the room except for DH.
10 minutes later, the doctor finally showed up and I kept pushing. There was one point where Heather's head was stuck in the canal and the doctor tried to suction her out, but she had too much hair! The suction thing would fix onto her head.
Finally, at 5:32pm on September 17, 2010, Heather Renee was brought into this world screaming. She weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 19.5 inches long.
We've been home for two and a half weeks and I can't imagine life without her.
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