I wrote this for my family blog, so if there are parts that seem like I'm explaining the obvious to a group of pregnant women, that's why!
The short version
I
was scheduled to be induced at 6am on Monday, but went into labor on
my own around 11pm Sunday. We arrived at the hospital at 6am where I
was given my epidural and had my water broken. I started pushing at
3:15 and Connor was born at 4:10pm, weighing 7 lbs 15 oz and measuring
20.5 inches. We had a brief scare where Connor was having trouble
breathing, resulting in a visit from a NICU nurse, but he ended up
being fine. Actually, he's perfect. Pictures follow the long version.
The long (detailed) version
I
was scheduled to be induced at 6am on Monday since Connor had decided
he was going to take his time and come a week late. I had been to the
doctor for additional monitoring and everything was fine, but my doctor
wanted to get him out by Monday. I started having irregular
contractions on the Wednesday before Connor was born and kept getting
my hopes up that "tonight would be the night." Every day the
contractions were slightly worse, but nothing bad enough to stop me
from my daily activities. By Sunday afternoon they had strengthened to
the point where I was really starting to feel awful. But I just assumed
that like every other night, they would stop once I went to bed. After
packing our last-minute items for the hospital, we tried to sleep. As I
was laying there, I noticed that the contractions were getting worse
and worse. Normally I had no problem sleeping through them, but these
were getting pretty intense. I decided to get up and start timing them.
They were getting longer and more regular, but still nothing I
couldn't handle. I watched some TV, tried to sleep, took a shower, etc.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't ignore the contractions. By 4
am, I decided to wake Danny because, while my contractions weren't a
minute long and 5 minutes apart, they were shorter and consistently 90
seconds apart. We called the on-call obstetrician who was not very nice
and told us it was too early to go to the hospital. So I dealt with
the contractions as they came until it was time to head in for the
scheduled induction.
We
made it to the hospital in 7 minutes where the valet parked our car
and we headed to Labor & Delivery. I checked in and they showed me
directly to a room. Since I had a scheduled induction I got to bypass triage. When I arrived
at my room the nurses got right down to business. I changed into a gown,
they started my IV and asked a million questions for their paperwork.
After hooking me up to monitors they noted I was already in active
labor and would therefore get to skip the procedures used to help
jumpstart labor. Thank goodness because those sounded awful. They also
told me I could get my epidural any time. I never expected the early
stages of labor would be as painful as they were, but having had
contractions off and on for 5 days and been in active labor for 7
hours, I opted to get the epidural as soon as they could get the
anesthesiologist to my room. Somehow I was at the top of the list so
someone was in quickly. She appeared to be about 18 which made me a
little nervous since she would be inserting something into my spine.
She asked me a number of questions and had me sign a release form while
the nurses gave me two bags of IV fluid. By the time my fluid was
done, it was time for a shift change. The 18 year old left after
introducing me to Ron, who looked like he had been doing this for 40
years. He was wonderful. He explained what he was doing which I thought
would freak me out, but actually comforted me somehow. Everyone made a
big deal about how big the needles are, but Danny said they were no
bigger than a normal shot needle. As I sat there arching my back, I
braced myself for the "burning pain" of the first numbing shot, but it
never came. It just felt like a few pin pricks. After that, I never
felt the epidural. My blood pressure dropped so they gave me a shot of
ephedrine (yes the weight loss drug that is now off the market) to
bring it back up. That made my heart start racing, but it did its job.
After a few minutes my right side was totally numb, but my left side
still hurt. So they rolled me to my side to help even out the drugs and
five minutes later I was delightfully pain-free. They told me that
even though my contractions never made it to the magic threshold (1
minute long and 5 minutes apart for a full hour) I was having pretty
intense contractions and likely would have been in on my own later in
the day. After they made sure I was stable with the epidural, they had
to reinsert my IV because the first nurse had put in the wrong kind of
tubing. The IV was easily the worst part of the experience.
About
an hour later a resident came in to break my water and I was started
on Pitocin to help my contractions become more productive. Around that
time the nurses? shift change came and the nurse who would be with me
for the rest of the day came on. Her name was Dori and she was
wonderful. She took such great care of me that I would like to request
her for the next time around. About every hour Dori would come change my
position. It was an odd feeling because I was numb but not paralyzed. I
could still help move my body, but I didn't have any control over my
legs. My mom came for a bit and then left and Danny and I took a nap and
I enjoyed at least 5 cherry popsicles.
When
I wasn't sleeping we were just hanging out and talking. Around 1 the
nurse came in and said I was dilated to 8cm so we asked my mom to come
back. By 2:45 I had made it all the way to 10cm and the Dori called my
doctor because it was time to push. She said since I was so numb they
might have to turn my epidural down, but we did some practice pushes and
I was doing fine so they left it alone (dodged that bullet!). I
started pushing for real at around 3:15, my doctor came a few minutes
later and Connor was born at 4:10. I was hoping he'd hold out for 4:11
(so he would have been born at 4:11 on 4/11), but he was ready. I
didn't feel an ounce of pain and was actually surprised at how quickly
the hour went by. Danny, Dori and my Dr were all chatting between
pushes, but I had to have an oxygen mask so I wasn't participating
since no one could understand me. I thought I would at least feel
pressure, but I was shocked when they told me that he would be out
after one more push. As soon as he was born they put him right on my
chest where he proceeded to poop all over me. He actually pooped on the
doctor too as she was catching him. Connor was slimy, cute, and
perfect. The biggest surprise was that he wasn?t a redhead.
They
took him from me over to the warmer to do his initial assessments. He
checked in at 7 lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches. That's about a half pound
bigger than the doctor?s estimate (although he was a week late) and
apparently very long. His oxygen saturation levels were low and they
called in a nurse from the NICU to monitor him. Everyone seemed very
calm and said this happens often with big babies. My doctor told me he
would be fine, but might have to go to the NICU for a while. I honestly
didn't have much of an idea what was going on, but it seemed like they
were monitoring him for a long time. Finally they brought him over to
me for some skin-to-skin contact to see that would help resolve the
issue. Apparently it did because we were told he could come to recovery
with us instead of the NICU. Danny was able to hold him for a few
minutes while they got me ready for recovery and we were on our way by
6:30. My sister brought me a Jimmy John's sub since I had been craving deli
meat for the past 9 months, and we watched while they gave Connor his
first bath. My family left and the ILs came a little while later.
No one was able to hold him that evening except Danny and me because
they had to monitor his temperature and keep him under the warmer for
several hours. The rest of the night was a blur of nurses constantly
checking on both of us and snuggling with our little boy. I had
intended to keep him in the room with us overnight, but was so freaked
out about his breathing issues that I wanted him in the nursery where
the nurses could observe him overnight. They brought him back to me at
6am to eat. We had a slow start to breastfeeding because of his initial breathing issues. I was not allowed to get him on the breast right away because his lungs and stomach were filled with mucus and they wanted him to be clearing that out first. I attempted feeding him before bed and he wouldn't do anything because he was sleepy. He didn't take the breast until about 24 hours because of all the mucus. He spit it all up throughout the day and finally about 24 hours after birth he started sucking. I was concerned, but he's a great eater now.
The
rest of our stay was great. The nurses were awesome and took very good
care of us. I was surprised at how much pain I felt after the epidural
wore off. I had second degree tearing and quite a bit of swelling. I was surprised that I could barely move the morning after he was born. It obviously makes sense, but I guess I was focused on how painful labor would be that I didn't think about the recovery as much. The nurses really helped me out and forced me to be up and walking. We spent out days walking up and down the halls pushing DS in his bassinet. We were released from the hospital last Wednesday
afternoon and have been settling in ever since.
Now for some pictures.
Leaving for the hospital at 6 am
Enjoying popsicles and the epidural
Perfect baby
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Re: Connor's Birth Story (4/11/11)