Around 1:30 am on Wednesday, September 24 (Baby's due date), I woke up and felt like I had a little fluid leaking. I thought "well, I'm really pregnant so I think I might have just peed a little as I turned over." I got up to go to the bathroom and couldn't really tell what it was so I went back to bed. A little before 3:30, I had the same sensation with a little more fluid this time so I got up to the bathroom again. I still couldn't tell for sure what it was so I went back to bed but decided to wake up Dave. I told him I thought my water had broke. He got out of bed quickly and he asked me how I knew, to which I said I didn't really know for sure. I told him we should just go back to sleep until something more happened. I decided to get up and check my hospital paperwork and saw that they want you to come in if you think your water broke. I decided to just call the birthing center to see if they thought I should come in or not. When I called, I told them that there hadn't been enough fluid leaked for me to tell what was really going on. They told me to come on in and they would run a test to see if my water had broke or not. I told Dave that we were heading to the hospital, so he started packing up the car as I got dressed. For some reason, I decided I need to clean the toilet, clean up a few things in the kitchen, and put a few other things away before we left. Once I was finished, we headed out for the hospital.
.JPG)
Dave drove us to the hospital, which is about a 4 minute drive from our place. He parked the car and we entered through the emergency entrance. On the way into the hospital, I had a big gush of fluid come out so then I knew we would be staying. We checked-in with the receptionist, and as we were standing there, I had another big gush of fluid release. We were directed up to the birthing center, where we were met by two nurses. One of them directed us to room 1, where I changed into a gown and was hooked up to monitors. One nurse did a swab test to make sure that it was my water that had broken. The test came back about 15 minutes later with positive results that my water had broken. The nurse started looking at my veins to see if she could find one to start an IV in. She wasn't able to find anything so she decided to wait for someone else to look before they started poking. A few minutes later, we were moved into a birthing suite.
Once we were in the birthing suite and I was all hooked up to the monitors again, they started looking for a vein again. No one was able to find anything so they eventually called up the anesthesiologist so he could give it a try. He dug around in both arms before finally getting a vein. I was so glad that he was finally able to get in as I was just so over being poked at by that time.
Around 5:30 am, I was started on pitocin as my contractions weren't doing anything and I wasn't dilating any further. Dave and I hung out for awhile, then started to make phone calls and send texts to tell people I was in labor.
I started to feel mild contractions a short time later and they intensified as the morning went on. Around 11 am, the nurse checked my cervix and said I was at a 7. I told her I was ready for the epidural. I was so nervous to get the epidural that every time nurse anesthetist touched my back to clean it/look for a good spot/etc., I would jump a little. It really scared me that I would jump because I thought I'd be paralyzed for sure if I couldn't hold still. It took a little while for the NA to find a good spot to put in the epidural and once they started putting it in, it felt like they were jabbing my hip with a knife. I told them it hurt so they gave me another shot of Demerol and tried again. This time they got in and it wasn't long before it kicked in and I was feeling good.
The nurse suggested that we try to sleep for awhile so that's what we did. I woke up an hour or so later and laid in bed and shook. At first I thought it was because I was cold, but then I realized it was because I was so nervous/scared about what was about to happen.
Around 1:30 pm, the nurse checked my cervix again and found I was fully dilated. She took some time to tell me how to and show me where to push. We did some practice pushes for awhile and then the nurse left to call my doctor.
Around 3:30 pm, I started pushing with the intention of getting baby delivered. I pushed and pushed and got nowhere. Baby was stuck behind my pelvic bone and I didn't think I would ever get him past it. My epidural was doing the job of blocking the contraction pain but I could feel everything below the waist. I started telling everyone that I couldn't do it anymore and my mind was so wrapped up in the pain that I had a hard time pushing with my all. The nurse called my doctor again and she told them to top off my epidural. It wasn't too long before the nurse anesthetist came in and added to my epidural. Almost immediately most of the pain was gone and I felt like I could actually get baby out. I was able to push whenever I had a contraction and was finally able to push Baby past my pelvic bone. My doctor came in about 4:45pm. The doctor had one of the nurse play tug-of-war with me with a blanket (she held the ends of the blanket and I held onto the "U" and I pulled) whenever I was pushing. It helped quite a bit to have something to pull on besides my legs and Dave's shirt. Around 6 pm, the epidural wore off again and I could feel everything. The pain in my butt was unreal and that was what really hurt. I felt like I'd been pushing forever and then all of a sudden I heard the doctor asked for a vacuum. Apparently Baby decided to make a right hand turn before he exited so the doctor used a vacuum to get him out. I think it took all of two minutes from the time she asked for the vacuum til the time he was delivered at 6:44 pm.
The doctor laid Holden on my chest immediately. I can't remember what I said to him, but as soon as I said it, he turned his head to look up at me. It was like he was thinking "hey, I know you!" :o)
The next thing I felt was the doctor pushing on my stomach and then the weird sensation of the placenta being delivered. Then the next thing I knew, I was getting stitches. I had second degree tearing so I received quite a few stitches, which I felt every stitch being placed. I said "ouch" several times and the doctor would just say "yeah, it's a sensitive area". I was so glad when she was all done.
Dave was right by my side through the whole thing, holding on to one of my legs. While I was pregnant, we had talked about whether he would watch the delivery or not and he didn't think he would. He ended up watching the whole thing and said that it was hard not to watch since everything was right there. ;o)
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment