My Play by Play
I want to write this down for myself so that I don’t forget… Because these days, I don’t even know what day or time it is. I don’t know how long it’s been since Baby A has been in our lives… I don’t know who I’ve spoken with… I don’t know what the weather is like outside.
My Play by Play.
I had a tax exam scheduled for Wednesday, April 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. (I received special treatment because of my pending, or should I say past due date). Ryan drove me to the city and waited around for me to finish. I’m fairly certain I passed~ which means that I will finally receive my L.LM. I thought about attending the graduation ceremony in May, but I’ve been in enough graduations. I know this one will be different because Baby A will be in the pictures and she’ll get to see what was going on in my life when she entered, but it sounds like why too much work than reward. Maybe I’ll dress up in gown and cap and take pictures with her… I think I only have a white college one though…
After the exam, I was totally relaxed. I thought about getting a massage or a foot accu-pressure thing, but I was scared that it might hasten Baby A’s arrival. At this point I was completely resolved on just waiting for Baby A to come whenever she was ready. I think for the past couple weeks, starting Week 38, I felt a lot of pressure to have the baby come out sooner than later, for various reasons. But let me just say (for anyone who is past their due date): There is nothing wrong with a late baby especially if you’ve had a pretty smooth pregnancy. And even at week 42, the baby is not late, it’s normal! And a big baby is a healthy baby and either way it’s going to hurt when he or she comes out! =P
After some email conversations about a possible induction, my doctor went ahead and made an appointment to have me induced Wednesday, 4/1 evening. I told him that was a little too early and asked it to be pushed back to the following week and he agreed. However, that evening at 10:00 p.m. I received a voice message from Sequoia Hospital asking if I would be coming in for the induction. I called them back and told that I would not be coming in after talking to my doctor… but little did I know…
My contractions started around 1 a.m. that very night. I went to bed an hour earlier and was dreaming about eating bagels the next morning. R and I were going to pick up some bagels before his off-site, and I really, really wanted to eat fresh bagels, not the supermarket kind.
Anyhow, when the pain first hit, I was 80% that this was it. They were all right, it feels like menstrual cramps. At first the contractions were 15 minutes apart. The pain was bearable – women do have a higher threshold for pain, but I knew that I didn’t have the stamina or the strength to endure it for x number of hours.
By 4am, I told R that I wanted to go to the hospital, by then the contractions were 5 minutes apart. R called the hospital and told them were we on the way. We arrived in 15 minutes and entered through the emergency room.
R took my in a wheelchair and when I got to the second floor, one of the nurses commented, “You should have walked here, it’s better for labor.” In my head, I said “Screw you. It’s the middle of the night and I didn’t get a wink of sleep.” If that was how this hospital was going to treat me, I was not going to be a happy camper. (Turns out hospital was great and nurses were fantastic).
I was laying around to finish some paperwork and by 7am I was 4 cm dilated and they asked if I wanted the epi now or after the anesthesiologist finished a c-section. I opted for option number 1 ~ who knows when the doc would be done?! I wonder if knowing what I know now (that the epi totally slowed down my contractions and caused the baby some stress), I wonder what I would do… maybe take it after??
The epi was the WORSE part by part. I felt every needle that the doc punctured me with. Apparently, the numbing thing didn’t work on me. She also wasn’t the most comforting doctor. She said that she couldn’t find the space between the bones… boo. When I got home, I counted 13 holes in my back. I’ve never shed such big tears or shook so violently in my life!
So the epi slowed down my contraction and the baby’s heart rate was too flat, the nurses and doctors would have like to see more up and downs in her heart rate. So as a remedy, they had my on an IV. Luckily, this strategy worked. But as for the slowed contractions, the doctor came bavk at 10:30am to pop my water. If this didn’t get my contractions going faster, he said he would have to inject some pitocin by 3pm.
With the epi and IV, I was able to finally get some sleep.
By 1:30pm, I had progressed to 6 cm and and the contractions were regular so no pitocin.
By 3pm, I was 8 cm dilated and the epi was running out! The pain came on gradually, but I just assumed that the rectal pain and the urge to push was supposed to be felt, so I let it slide, but soon the pain was way too strong. It was definitely pain, not just pressure. It took some time to locate the anesthesiologist, but she came and by 4 something, I was feeling OK.
The problem with the second dosage was that I was close to being fully dilated and needed to start pushing, but I was feeling nothing in my legs. By 4:30, the doctor told the nurse to start my pushing, so we tried, but I really couldn’t feel anything… so I didn’t know how to push.
But 5:30ish, my doctor came to the rescue and did two thing: 1) insert an IV into the belly because the baby’s heart rate was too steady again and 2) get me off the epi so I could feel my legs and my contractions. The pushing part was no easy, but knowing that there was progress (they could see black hair!), I was hopeful and this gave me more strength to continue. I pushed her head out, then pushed more for her shoulders. Then Baby A came! They tossed her on my chest, but by this time, I was so tired and exhausted I didn’t know what to do with her. I didn’t want to drop her or anything. But they took her away to clean her because here was some meconium in the placenta.
I was then injected with pitocin to get the placenta out. My doctor rubbed my tummy (and it hurt!), but I knew that it was necessary.
My nurse, Michelle McKinney was the best nurse on the universe.
They moved me the the c-section room, which I was NOT happy about because it’s so small and I could hardly move about, especially with my IV.
It was official, I was a mom.
