Labor Story

At first this was copied and pasted from a mommy site. But I updated it Aug 1, 2010 so it's easier to read through and makes more sense. :) and I added pictures

41 week belly right before we left for the hospital

Now that I have a few minutes while she's sleeping Labor Story We got to L&D on friday night at 830 to be induced.Got put into the room, changed, nurse came in put on the bp cuff did vitals, started my iv line...where she tried first made no sense to me, my wrist right under my thumb on the wrist bone, It hurt so bad and wasn't even in a vein, no blood came out, nothing. She then tried my hand which she should have tried first! While she was doing that she left the other iv that was killing me in my wrist. At about 9 she came back in and put the first cytotec capsule in. I was at 1 cm and pretty thick at that point. Jason and I then started watching movies and waiting.

My next dose was at 1 am. She put it in, I was still at a 1 but much more thinned out. I continued to watch movies not feeling any different. At about 3 she came in to fix the monitors because Emorys heartrate was getting lost and I was showing that I was having contractions. I wasn't feeling them at all though.At about 4 I started to feel them. Jason was sleeping and I woke him up because time was going by so slow and I was uncomfortable from the contractions... they were more annoying than anything and I was only feeling them in my lower region.

 5 am its time for the my next dose but I didn't get it because the nurse checked me and says I'm at a 6. Whoo hoo I think and she orders my epidural for the pain, which wasnt bad at that point. Epidural man comes in and it gets put in at about 530. It sent weird shooting pains down my right leg and then made me shake like I was freezing cold, weirdest feeling ever. The nurse then puts in the cathetar and checks again and says "oops you're only at a 2 I must have felt under cervix, sorry" freaking fantastic! I am now pinned to this bed until I have this baby. The epidural made my left leg feel like it weighed 500lbs and my right leg was tingly like when get up and your leg is first asleep. I tried to sleep and couldn't at all. My feet would feel so itchy and I couldn't do anything about it. I would be uncomfortable on one side and want to roll over...impossible.Pitocin started right after the epidural was put in.

The new nurse came in at about 930 because I had Jason move the pillow that was supposed to be under my legs from under my butt and we realized my water had broken(I had weird popping sounds at around 730 but never felt a gush or anything) He took the pillow out to the nurses desk...My water had thick meconium in it.She then checked me and I was at a 4. She came back in at 11 because I was in so much pain. My nether regions felt like they were going to shoot across the room. That was the only place i felt contractions the entire time. I was at a 4+. Very frustrating. I pushed my epidural button to get another dose and it didn't work. I was screaming in pain, trying to breathe through the pain. She then ordered more epi. He (a different guy than the one that started it) came in to put more in and said it wasn't working well because I was laying down on the cord. They laid me flat and my back felt like it was going to snap in half and it was hard to breathe. I told them this over and over until they sat me straight up and gave me some oxygen. It was like magic.I finally got to sleep. I slept from about1130 to2ish.

haha

this was after my nap during a contraction

I finally got to meet the dr that was going to deliver Em at 215 when he came to check me, I was at a 7, he said probably 2 or 3 more hours til push time. He kept checking me while I was having a contraction to see what they were doing..Boy was that painful! He then left and they said they'd be back in an hour to check me again. Nobody came back an hour later. Jason went to get the nurse at  about 345 because I felt i needed to be checked. She said she'd call me a 7 still but the dr would call me probably call me an 8. I was in pain and she went to order more epi meds because again the button wasn't quite cutting it. 10 minutes later I felt the urge to push only because I thought it would make the crotch shooting across the room pain better. I told Jason "I feel like I need to push" He just stood there. I told him GO TELL THEM NOW! He ran out of the room and came back with the nurse. She checked me and said OH you're rimming she then said that I could either start pushing or she could get the epidural but I would push longer. I said I just want this done lets push. At 4 o clock I started pushing. About 2 or 3 contractions into it she could see that she was coming down fast and showed Jason. She then left the room and said to push when I felt the need and she'd be back. She was getting everything ready since nothing was ready for delivery and  she needed to call the dr.

 They had to get the nursery nurses for the meconium, get all the delivery stuff. Jason had to help me push through me contractions hold both my feet up from one side of the bed. we did this for what felt like eternity but was probably 10 minutes. We paged the nurse and said we wanted someone in there. She came back to help push for a couple more minutes then said that if I needed to push to just let my legs go limp and push. I tried that and didnt feel right. Jason grabbed my legs and helped push again...he then saw her head nearly crown, Nurses started coming in, dr still wasn't there and they were making me breathe through my contractions...hardest thing ever to do! I would breathe some and then push but my legs were down,my body was moving her down and out on its own pretty much. Finally at about 445 the dr gets there. He was at the other hospital thats about 30 min away...nobody knew where he was until he got there. He gets ready and I am allowed to push the right way at about 450. she crowned and he said he would cut me to make it easier or I could just push through i didn't have a chance to answer I pushed, tore and out came her head. Then her shoulders and Bam she was born at 5:01 pm, 7lbs 3 oz, 18 1/2 inches long.. She screamed immediately which was a good sign I guess even with the meconium. They took her over to clean her and suction her really really well and the dr finished his thing.

Jason was all teary eyed and I was slightly weeping but so relieved to not be in pain anymore. Jason had watched the entire birth even the delivery of the placenta and the dr stitching me up.Im surprised he watched it all since blood makes him really really queasy.He was shocked at how much my stomach went down once she was out.

We got to hold her finally at about 515 we were told we were gonna have her for about a half hour but the nurse came back at 530 and said that she had to take her because the nursery wanted her then to check on her. So off went my squishy baby.I didn't get to see her again until about 9.

While she was in the nursery I was allowed to order my first meal since 6 pm the night before. Finally FOOD! We made calls to everyone to announce that she was here. My dad was at the hospital already when I called him so he came up to my room and we got to chat for a bit. I was in the delivery suite until about 8. While the nurses cleaned up and and I got changed into a new gown, Jason and my dad went over to the nursery to look at Emory. I then got to go to my mom and baby room where I'd spend the next few days. Breanne came down to the hospital after she got off work and got to see Emory when they brought her to me.

We then spent 3 more nights in the hospital. the usual 2 after delivery and one extra as just rooming in.
Saturday night at about 1130 I got really hot and sweaty and was feeling nauseous. I sent Jason to fill my mug with ice and water and let the nurse know that I wasnt' feeling good, The hot flashes are normal since hormones are trying to even out but being nauseous isn't normal. The dr had ordered me some anti nausea meds though so she went to get the shot of it. It was time to nurse Emory again but I was feeling so sick I told them they could take her to the nursery and give her a bottle. Jason agreed so we could get some sleep.

They had her all night until about 830 sunday morning. She wouldnt nurse for more than 5 or 10 minutes all day sunday they were really concerned about her blood sugar. The lactation consult wasn't much of a help when she came in. All Emory wanted to do was sleep. She made up for it that night and was awake all night long! She would nurse for nearly an hour at a time.

At 630 monday morning the nurse came in to see if it was okay if they took her to the nursery to get seen by the peditrician. I said yes of course because I haven't slept all night long. My dr came in at about 830 to check on me. He wasn't the one that delivered because he was out of town but was back and wanted to see how things were. His visit was very short since I didn't have any questions and he wants to see me in 6 weeks. Then the peditrician came in and told me they found a heart murmer, and that they are very common. Also that her biliruben levels were up so they wanted me to go in the next day for have her heart checked again and have her bili levels checked to see if the jaundice level was going down. She had also ordered a chest xray. This was the first of many tests all day long! She had an ekg, a test to see how her heart pumps the blood to her extremities which came back sluggish, We didnt have her much of the day at all. They started giving her a bottle while they had her in the nursery at about 10 am...The only reason it was stopped was because the baby photographer came in to take her picture and Jason asked if she could make sure she wasn't being given a bottle. They brought her back in a little after that. She wouldn't nurse. All she wanted to do was sleep. She slept most of the day again, I also couldn't nurse her because they had her. at about 430 pm she finally got a 45 minute feeding in. They were worried about her blood sugar once again. They informed us then that they were going to keep her overnight to monitor her heart and that we had an appt with the cardiologist at Primary Children the next morning for a 3d echosonogram. I was then discharged but not allowed to stay in that room because Labor and delivery was full and they needed rooms to move people to after they were done delivering.

 So we moved rooms to a room that next to the construction going on at the hospital so they dont put anyone in that room. The bed we coudln't have plugged in because an alarm would go off on it saying it wasn't down, So it had to be left flat, there was no fold down chair so Jason had to sleep on the floor. The room was weird. It didn't feel welcoming at all but we had to stay at the hospital because I had to go into the nursery every 3 hours to feed her. It was a long but fast night since she would eat for like 45 min to an hour. Leaving us an hour to sleep before we had to get back there. We left there this morning at about 930..we were supposed to leave at 9 but the peditrician was talking to us and making sure everything was good before we left. It was finally good to hear something from a dr because the day before we'd heard everything from nurses and they couldn't say for sure what was going on since they aren't drs. We were then off to primary childrens for our appt. We get there and the dr listens to her and says he doesn't see a need for the sonogram because the murmer is so tiny. Its probably a little hole in the muscle between the ventricles and will close on its own. He had the other dr check her out as well and neither one of them saw a need for it. We have a follow up in a month or 2 to see how its going. And then we finally got bring her home!

Its so nice to be home at last. The cat doesn't quite know what to think of her and keeps trying to get into the bassinet but the more he explores the more he doesn't care and will just do his own thing.