Lucas' arrival - very long & PIP

Back story: I have Type 1 Diabetes, on an insulin pump, and the plan had been my entire pregnancy that I would be induced by 39 weeks at the latest.  I had biweekly NSTs and weekly OB appt with an ultrasound as well from 32 weeks on.  Everything looked fabulous throughout my pregnancy and so it was decided to induce at 39 weeks.  At my 38 week 5 day appointment, I was at -3 station, and had a very high cervix.

On January 22nd we arrived at the hospital at 6pm to be admitted for my induction. I was only a fingertip dilated and 50% effaced, baby was still at -3. They placed the Cervadil at 7:30p and the plan was to be on the monitor for the remainder of my labor. I had eaten dinner before we came in, but they said I was okay to snack throughout the night. They also agreed that I could manage my own blood sugars and insulin  - score!  I got up a few times at night, got a few stretches of sleep and felt some contractions - but nothing that I hadn't already been feeling at home.  A little after 6am I was laying in the bed and was dozing in and out, but knew I needed to get up to pee. Then I felt this HUGE kick/pop and thought that LO had kicked me really hard at first.  Then I felt a little trickle, and realized that my water had probably broken. I stood up, expecting a gush and there wasn't anything but a few drops.  Went in to the bathroom, peed, went to wipe and then had a very large gush - so for sure my water had broken.

After trying to find the cervadil a few times, ouch, (it apparently came out with my breaking water) they said I was only 1cm and about 60% effaced. I had been contracting every 4 min before my water broke, according to the nurse, so they decided to hold off on Pitocin to see what happened. I progressed to contracting every 2-3 minutes and was doing great. Had a little bit of breakfast (yay!) and sat and happily talked with DH about how excited we were.  The contractions started getting bad after a few hours, so around 9 I asked for some Nubain. They checked me - still only 1cm, and gave me the Nubain. They warned me that it would do this, but that totally made me feel happy drunk. I was relaxed and took a little nap even. Around 11 DH left to have some lunch with his family (I was dozing anyways and had so far to go..) and then my mom showed up a little while later. Contractions had slowed down after the Nubain so they started the Pitocin.  I breathed my way through the contractions and was doing pretty good.  

Things all started to get blurry and run together at this point. I threw up, felt better, and still was breathing through the contractions. Then I got sick again and they gave me some Zofran. DH was really good about holding my hand and staying calm with me.  That helped a little bit but then the contractions were coming about every 2 min and really strong.  They turned my pitocin down at some point since I was contracting too much and LO had a few little decels.  Around 2 I was still getting sick and in pain and they decided it was okay for me to get my epidural.  I never had planned on definitely going med-free so I had no qualms about asking for it so early. Why suffer forever if I knew I was getting it anyways! The epi made me completely numb from butt down and I couldn't move my legs or toes or anything - but I was happy cus I couldn't feel anything! The epi went in great, I actually think the IV hurt worse.  I dozed in and out, and was still getting sick so they gave me some Phenerghan around 4 - which is pretty strong anti-nausea meds.  That really knocked me out and I was really out of it. I remember my nurse coming in and talking to DH and my mom, I had the shakes really bad, and I heard them being a little concerned about LO.  His heart rate was trending up and was having more decels with my contractions too. My blood pressure was also going down. I typically ran 110/60s my entire pregnancy and the lowest pressure my mom saw was 80s/40s.  My temp was also trending up a bit but not bad. 

Around 7 the resident came in and said they thought a c/s would be best. I was totally okay with this, and had come around a bit by then to absorb all the information. I'm a NICU nurse so I don't know much about the whole L&D thing expect for when things go wrong - so I figured a c/s was in order.  With LO showing signs of distress and me only being 2-3cm at this point, there really wasn't anywhere else to go.  I got brought back to the OR around 8pm by the time my OB got there, and the anesthesiologist had started pushing the medicine since I had an epidural and not a spinal to be able to do the C-section. I started getting short of breath, which they assured me was normal, but by the time I got transferred to the OR table, I felt like I wasn't breathing. I couldn't move anything other than my neck up and started getting really really anxious. I literally thought that I wasn't breathing even though they assured me that I was and that all was fine. I couldn't talk but was mouthing "help me!" and sobbing without making any sounds.  He eventually put a bi-pap mask on me to help me feel like I was breathing, and gave me something to calm me down as well. Since I have attended c/s before as part of the NICU team, I knew that typically the mom is talking to the dad, to the docs, maybe has a little oxygen in her nose but is otherwise fine and that what I was experiencing was not the norm. 

By the time DH got in the OR I was calmed down but still breathing with the bi-pap on and he said later he knew that I was really anxious. The doc's told him that as well, and had him talk to me and let me know what was going on.  I remember them saying when Lucas' head was out, and I heard the resident say "Let go of your momma!". I also remember thinking that it was awhile (what seemed like minutes but probably wasn't) that it took them awhile to call time of birth and have them say that he was out from when they said his head was out.  Turns out that his head was transverse (meaning he was head down, but his ear was on my cervix not the top of his head), and that he was pretty much stuck in there too, hence it taking awhile to get him out. He would have never been able to come out vaginally with his head being transverse.  Finally they called time of birth at 8:44pm and I was so glad he was out and got to hear his first little screams.  He screamed for a litttle bit but then I didn't hear much more.  Turns out he was just wide eyed and looking around at everything as if to say "Wtf just happened??".  I also remember one of the neonatologists that I work with trying to come talk to me, but I was too out of it to reply or anything. I did hear what she told DH though and I was glad how much information she gave him about how Lucas was doing - which was great.  She explained about how his blood sugars would need to be monitored but that unless they got really low and wouldn't come up that Lucas could stay with us and out of the NICU. I was so glad to hear he was okay! I had been scared with all that had led up to the c/s that something would be wrong.

I started coming around and being able to feel myself breathing when DH was over by the warmer checking out Lucas and taking lots of pictures. He showed me a picture but I just wanted to have my baby in my arms (that I still couldn't move).  Eventually I could talk and move my hands and arms and was really starting to feel much better,  Finally he got to bring him over to me and it was the absolute best moment of my entire life. People can try to explain that feeling and how you'll feel, but nothing beats how absolutely incredible it is to see and touch and kiss your child for the first time.  DH and I just sat there crying and smiling and looking at each other and Lucas.  For as much as that day just kept getting worse and worse, and I had a pretty awful c/s experience, I would do it all over again if it meant that I could have my little Lucas, healthy and doing great just like he did. 7lb 11 oz, 21 3/8 inches long with lots of hair!!