The Birth Story - Part I

*The long awaited birth story is here...but only the first part, so don't be too disappointed. I really think I kept it pretty PG because honestly the experience wasn't bad at all, but feel free to ignore this post if needed*

September 16, 2010

Thursday night we went to bed knowing that the next day would be our last before our induction. As you may remember, we were scheduled to be induced Saturday. We had lots of plans for Friday…mostly just trying to get as much done as we could before Eden’s big arrival. The doctor had felt positive I wouldn’t go into labor early since my body hadn’t really had much progress. We definitely felt like there was no chance we would have a baby before our scheduled induction. All I can say is HA HA HA. Oh and as a reminder, here is what I looked like:

39 Weeks

September 17, 2010

Friday at 3:30 a.m. I woke up feeling a bit wet. Pretty much the second I woke up I knew exactly what had happened, but I also didn’t want to be wrong and find out that I had just peed myself during the night. Oh and for those of you who know that I am kind of crazy about cleanliness, I will reassure you that we did have a waterproof pad on the bed, however it wasn’t needed because thankfully the large gush of fluid that you see on movies didn’t happen…well at least not yet. 

I ran into the bathroom to get a better idea of what was going on. I still wasn’t 100% confident that my water broke and I really didn’t want to be the laughing stock of labor and delivery that early in the morning. I stood up with the plan to walk around and watch t.v. until I could feel certain as to what was happening to my body. Yeah, that never happened because the second I stood up I did have that gush and it was enough to prompt me to yell for Josh. One thing you need to know about Josh is he can sleep through anything. The fact that our bathroom is five steps away  from our bedroom doesn’t matter, he slept right through my shouts. I waddled to the room and shouted at him a couple more times until he finally looked at me with wide eyes as I said, “MY WATER BROKE!” Funny thing is I was completely calm about the whole thing while Josh was jumping out of bed and ready to throw me in the car, wet clothes and all, and rush straight to the hospital. Instead, I clearly stated my intent, “Babe, I am not having contractions yet so it could be a million hours before I even have her. My plan is to take a shower, get ready, and eat some breakfast. I would say we will be out of here at 5 a.m. Why don’t you follow my lead and do the same…it might be awhile before we see another shower or meal.” I think I was able to play it so cool because we were already so prepared for Eden’s arrival. 

Sure enough at 5 a.m. we were pulling into the hospital (which is conveniently located just down the street from our house). There was no need to have Josh wheel me up in the wheel chair, I was still feeling quite great so we walked ourselves from the parking garage into the family birth center. We started the check-in process where the receptionist could not figure out why I was smiling and not doubled over in pain. I assured her I was in labor, just not feeling anything yet. 

We were brought into a triage room where it was confirmed that my water had definitely broken, however my body still had yet to make any progress. Not what we wanted to hear. The doctor came in and said we could start pitocin immediately to get things moving, however I was so determined to let my body do its thing…especially since my water broke on its own, that we declined. The deal was made that at 9:30 a.m. I would have to start pitocin if no progress had been made in order to protect the baby from infection. I was a-okay with that plan. 

We were moved into our birthing suite where they took vitals and did all the fun stuff and then we pretty much just relaxed. I definitely was getting mighty hungry so the nurse brought me some jello (WAY better stuff than the Jello in the store) and some really good orange popsicles that brought me back to my childhood. Okay, maybe I was just so hungry and anxious that anything they put in my mouth would taste good, but honestly I loved every bite of jello and every lick of the popsicle. 

Well, 9:30 a.m. came quite quickly and sadly there was no progress. Time for pitocin. I had heard many stories about this stuff and I wish I could confirm how bad it is. The thing is, I never did have contractions of my own, so I have nothing to compare to, but I will say the pain was quite strong and did eventually take its toll on me. I had planned to try to move around a lot during labor, but once I had the pitocin I had to stay in bed (except for quick trips to the potty…which aren’t so quick when you are hooked to machines and having contractions 1 minute apart). I breathed through each contraction (yes, the breathing exercises do work!) and was checked periodically. How was my attitude during this whole shebang? Actually quite pleasant as confirmed by my dear husband…and no I don’t think he is just saying that! At this point I had not had the urge to start yelling at Josh saying, “YOU DID THIS TO ME!” or anything like that. In fact, my biggest request was for absolute silence…and I mean SILENCE. I didn’t even want to listen to the music on my iPhone that I had so diligently added for my labor. I will admit I was no peach though…I definitely had my moments of frustrations so don’t let me make you think I was a perfect angel.

At 5:30 p.m.  I was checked again and FINALLY at 3 centimeters. At this time I begged politely asked to have an epidural. My nurse was great at giving me options, and I had told her I was determined to make it to 3 cm before making a decision. That was VERY tough to do, but I am still happy I did it. I had been convulsing like mad for the past few hours or so which made it much harder to let my body relax and progress as it needed to so Josh and I decided an epidural was becoming necessary. Here was the clincher though…there had been 7 emergency c-sections and 5 scheduled c-sections in the hospital that day. I actually had nurses coming into the room saying that our room was the only place they could get rest…hey we are willing to help as needed! Anyway, with all of the c-sections that were happening that meant no such luck on getting the anesthesiologist in my room for my measly epidural. 

All thanks must be made to my amazing nurse…she found one that pretty much had 1 minute to spare and made it happen. To all of you who have yet to have a baby, epidurals are really pretty painless! I didn’t feel a thing and the only hard part was being held still while my body was convulsing. Oh and also, don’t be surprised if you fall in love with your anesthesiologist. I told him I loved him and that he was my hero more times than I care to admit. I will say that if I hadn’t been given the pitocin I may have made a different decision, but unfortunately my body just didn’t want to have contractions of its own.

An hour after the epidural had been administered I was at 7 cm dilated and I think 80% effaced and then shortly after that all systems were go. Let me stop to say pushing is not what I expected. I guess from watching movies I thought it would be a bit more dramatic than what it was. Really it just starts out with a nurse who has you push until she determines you are ready for the doctor. I kept thinking I would end up having Eden before the doctor even came in the room, but thankfully they are the professionals and knew exactly when it was time. In fact, the exact second that the nurse determines it's time to call in the doctor, all of a sudden they pull out all the stops. I was suddenly surrounded by tables of silver instruments while the doctor "suited up" underneath a gigantic spotlight that was aimed at youknowwhere. 

I was told that I should only have to push for around a half hour because I was making great progress…which would have been wonderful if it actually happened that way. Unfortunately, Eden’s heart rate started to drop with the pitocin and she was stuck on my pubic bone so they quickly cut the pitocin. More unfortunate news was that my body still was not contracting on its own so they had to go ahead and keep the pitocin going, just lowered the amount. At this point I really didn’t remember much…I just remember having to wait 4 minutes in between contractions and then I would push with every single bit of strength I had. Josh says I pushed for an hour and a half (it felt like 10 minutes to me). Just a sidenote, I personally thought pushing a baby out felt a bit alienlike. Maybe its just me, but it kind of creeped me out. Okay, back to the important stuff. 

Eden was born at 8:34 p.m. with a giant conehead from being stuck so long (thankfully they didn’t have to use the vacuum). The moment that she was out was a moment that truly is indescribable. I remember just reaching out with my hands, so desperate to touch the baby that I had inside me for so long. I remember wishing the nurses didn’t take so long to clean her up (I think at most it was 30 seconds) so that she would be on my chest where I knew she would be safe. I remember kissing her nonstop and telling her that I loved her over and over. I remember looking at each body part thinking how amazing she was and that she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I remember Josh and I reflecting on just how incredible our God is for making such a beautiful baby. I really had no idea how powerful that moment really would be. Sadly, that would be one of the last moments I would have with Eden that I could truly remember for the rest of that night because I was about to have a bit of an emergency of my own. 

*Regret #1: Not taking pictures of my time in the hospital. At the time, I was in pain and didn't want to remember a moment of it...but now I wish I had taken photos of the little things. The strip that showed her heart rate, the room, my IV that I carted around for hours....