Birthstory

I have been so busy around here but figured I needed to get this written down before I forgot details.

So early early at 0300 am we headed into the hospital. We both had gotten next to nothing for sleep because we were so nervous/excited. I was up at midnight doing last minute things that didn't matter like painting my nails and plucking my eyebrows... I think it distracted me enough to make it until 0300 when we went in. We got there and got all checked in and what not. By the time the had drawn my blood, started my IV, asked a bunch of stupid questions, it was 0430. They have standard orders on what they can/can't start depending on what my cervix was doing, so they checked me at that time and I was a 3 and 50% effaced. She suggested we do a prostaglandin gel first. They re-checked me at 0700 and no change, decided to try one more gel before starting pitocin. The gels made me feel real crampy and positive that things were making progress down there. Re-checked me at 0845... no change. So at 0900 they started the pitocin. The first downside of the pitocin is I couldn't get up and roam around like I was with the gel. The baby had to be on the monitor at all times.. unless I needed to go to the bathroom. So every 1/2 hour to hour they came in and turned the pitocin up. The contractions were getting stronger but bearable.. more tiring than anything. It got to be 12:30 and I was pretty sure I was ready for an epidural. I wanted them to check me again, just because I thought if I had made some good progress I could wait a little bit more.... NO CHANGE. So 1:00 CRNA came in and placed my epidural. Not so great of a time... I had weird scary shooting pains down my back and into my legs ( working in the Neuro ICU gives me way more information then I need to know) . Finally got through that part and started getting some relief. By 2:00 you would think the epidural would be working but it was only working on my left side. The CRNA came back and bloused me with more drugs and additional lidocaine which gave me some relief for like 30 minutes but then I could still feel my right side. Then by 03:00 my nurse was like, lets go ahead and place a foley cath, you shouldn't feel a thing. Holy crap.. the catheter hurt more than the epidural! So obviously the epidural wasn't in the right place. At 04:00 the CRNA came back and talked to us and said we really needed to take that one out and put another one in.. Ugh.. She made me feel a little better about her putting another one in when she put it into terms of.. If you have to have a c-section I can't send you to the OR with the epidural you have now. Ok ok ok.. here we go again. The 2nd epidural wasn't nearly as bad at all. I don't know if it was all the drugs/hormones but when she was putting the 2nd one in I was shaking uncontrollably. The shaking continued on and off until I had the baby too btw. So 2nd epidural in... aww relief. It was working! 05:00 the MD came in, checked me .. I was a 4 and 60%... and broke my water. Right after breaking my water she said I went to a 5 and 80%. From then on my evening was a little blurry. The contractions were still pretty intense despite my working epidural. I was having to use my pain button and bolus myself pretty frequently. By 10:00 the pain was pretty bad ( a lot in my lower back ) and they checked me... 9 and 100& ! The baby was still moving down so they wanted me to labor for another hour.. which they sat me almost straight up and down in the bed for. 11:15 comes around and I'm fully dilated and effaced and get to start pushing! I start pushing at 11:30. The pushing actually gives me so much relief from the contraction that is happening. We pushed with the nurse for 45 minutes and then she called the MD in. 15 minutes later we had our little monkey. I have to say the pushing baby part out was by far the easiest part of my whole day. He came out with his right hand up next to his head and his left arm was wrapped around the umbilical cord! The put him right onto my chest and I just cried and cried and cried. It is such a crazy amazing experience. He came out even more beautiful and more perfect then I could have ever ever imagined.

We are now home and adjusting to everything. It is a lot of work and we are both still feeling like zombies. It's already to rewarding.