Due to " high blood pressure" (we aren't sure that I ever really had it. Dang machines may have been off), we were scheduled to be induced at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 28th.
They called at 11:00pm the night before
saying that our induction was put on hold so we decided to get some shut eye.
Hoping to get in the next morning, I waited patiently. Derek not so much. He
decided to call the hospital to see when we could get in, and they told him
that we could come in, in one hour. So we got everything ready and headed over
at around 8:45 a.m. At around 9:30 a.m. we finished paperwork and headed back
to the room where they got me hooked up on IVs and monitors.
After monitoring for a few minutes, they decided to start with a small pill that would be inserted into my cervix (10:30 am). They warned that it could give me contractions with no progression, but that it would hopefully get things started. At the time I was dilated to 1. It took about 40 minutes to start working, but it definitely brought on contractions! After the first hour in bed, they sent me on a walk for an hour! We decided to use this time to narrow down our name choices. After we walked, they hooked me back up. My contractions were pretty close together (approx. 30 seconds apart). Since I was having so many contractions, they weren’t able to do another pill in my cervix, so we waited a little while longer to see if they would progress at all. By the time they came in and checked again I was all the way to 1.5 cm…So they asked me to do another 1 hour of walking to “see if the contractions would slow down”…that confused Derek and me, because walking is what they have you do to speed things up usually…Anyways we did the next walk and the contractions continued to speed up (contractions every 15-20 seconds) and get stronger in intensity, but weren’t doing much of anything.
By this time it was around 3 pm. They monitored for another hour or so and then came and checked me again. I was all the way to a 2... ha awesome. So not only was I insanely uncomfortable from walking for two hours, but I was exhausted from not getting a break from my contractions going constantly with 15 seconds in between each one. These weren’t just beginning contractions either. Most of them were off the charts on the monitor. Why weren’t they doing anything?? So the nurse came back in and asked us to go on another hour walk. I wanted to cry. I mean, you run out of things to look at after a certain point. So we got our stuff ready and walked to fill up my ice cup. Derek stopped to use the bathroom and while I was waiting for him (all 30 seconds) I felt a gush of liquid. Hopeful that my water had broken, I looked down and saw blood dripping onto the floor. Not sure what to do I stood there, and thankfully a nurse came out of one of the rooms by me just as it happened and I asked her what I should do, so she tracked down something to wrap around me. Derek came out of the restroom during all of this and I will never forget his face as he was trying to figure out what was going on. I waddled my way back to my room. I remember thinking SCORE I got out of that walk!! My nurse decided to check me to see if there was any progress since bleeding can mean cervical change. She said no change in dilation but my cervix was softer now. And that it wasn’t my bag of water so no one was really sure where all that blood came from, but they were hopeful that things were moving along. I remember this being the second time that we asked when we could start Pitocin to get things moving along. They never really explained why, but just said "let's wait and see". So we waited a few more hours. By this point I was getting very uncomfortable and extremely tired. So the next time she came to check on me, I decided to ask to get my epidural so that I could get some rest, as it wasn’t looking like I was going to be having her anytime soon.
By the time that the epidural lady came in at 7 p.m. my contractions were every 10-15 seconds and I was finally dilated to a 4. I was very excited for relief. I was proud of the 8 hours I had done with almost no time in between contractions. Of course she had a hard time getting the epidural in because of my back muscles and positioning. It took her three pokes and me sitting in funny positions to finally get it in. Thankfully I was mostly numb from the shot during these. I was so glad to finally have some relief. Not thinking that now that I was confined to a bed, that they could start the Penicillin for the Group B strep. As she hooked it up to my IV, I remember thinking that it wasn’t as bad as I had read. And then it started going through my veins and I swear they were pouring gasoline into me. It burned insanely bad. So bad that the only relief that I had was to constantly twist and move my arm. So now I had relief from my contractions but I wasn’t able to get any rest from my IV. They kept telling me that I needed to fall asleep, but I literally couldn’t. So I at least rested my eyes while Derek slept. He was a trooper and walked the whole time with me and decided to stay with me instead of going home with the kids while I wasn’t progressing.
Anyways, we noticed on the monitor that my contractions had slowed down significantly from the epidural, so sometime in the night I remember asking again about Pitocin. I knew that as soon as it started my body would do its thing. I’ve used it with the other two kids so knew that my body responded well to it and was frustrated that it had taken this long for them to even start it. The nurse went and got a bag and hung it on my IV stand, but didn’t hook it up. She left for a couple hours and when she came back she still didn’t hook it up. They checked me for dilation once during the night and I don’t remember exactly what I was at, but I remember it being around a 6. I was grateful that I was progressing but didn’t like how slow it was. Right after she left, I got super nauseous and started barfing so they gave me a couple of doses of Zofran to help with that! I think around 4 a.m. they finally started me on Pitocin and like we had assumed it sped everything right up.
At 6:30 ish on Aug. 29th, I remember feeling like something had changed. Not sure if it was pressure or not because I was so numb, she checked me. I was right. I was at a 10, with my bag of water bulging but baby not being as low as they would like. Yay! I was so excited to be so close!! So I asked the nurse if we could get the doctor to break my water so that we could get baby to drop and, you know, have this baby! No joke, she said, “You can actually stay with the bag of water bulging for up to 4 hours” then left the room……….Derek and I just kept saying “are you kidding me???” thankfully it only took 4 minutes for my water to break on its own. That's the weirdest feeling ever! Just like with Kelsie, they put me on Oxygen because she started to be in distress with each contraction. The on call doctor came in soon after that and quickly got ready! We started pushing at about 7:24 and by 7:26 she was out! It took two pushes. I honestly thought we were practice pushing and she came out during those. 5 lb. 13 oz and 18 ¼ inches long!
I'm so glad that she is here, but man that isn't anything like I had imagined it going. I'm super excited that we share the same birthday and that she's such a fun baby. She's perfect.
After monitoring for a few minutes, they decided to start with a small pill that would be inserted into my cervix (10:30 am). They warned that it could give me contractions with no progression, but that it would hopefully get things started. At the time I was dilated to 1. It took about 40 minutes to start working, but it definitely brought on contractions! After the first hour in bed, they sent me on a walk for an hour! We decided to use this time to narrow down our name choices. After we walked, they hooked me back up. My contractions were pretty close together (approx. 30 seconds apart). Since I was having so many contractions, they weren’t able to do another pill in my cervix, so we waited a little while longer to see if they would progress at all. By the time they came in and checked again I was all the way to 1.5 cm…So they asked me to do another 1 hour of walking to “see if the contractions would slow down”…that confused Derek and me, because walking is what they have you do to speed things up usually…Anyways we did the next walk and the contractions continued to speed up (contractions every 15-20 seconds) and get stronger in intensity, but weren’t doing much of anything.
By this time it was around 3 pm. They monitored for another hour or so and then came and checked me again. I was all the way to a 2... ha awesome. So not only was I insanely uncomfortable from walking for two hours, but I was exhausted from not getting a break from my contractions going constantly with 15 seconds in between each one. These weren’t just beginning contractions either. Most of them were off the charts on the monitor. Why weren’t they doing anything?? So the nurse came back in and asked us to go on another hour walk. I wanted to cry. I mean, you run out of things to look at after a certain point. So we got our stuff ready and walked to fill up my ice cup. Derek stopped to use the bathroom and while I was waiting for him (all 30 seconds) I felt a gush of liquid. Hopeful that my water had broken, I looked down and saw blood dripping onto the floor. Not sure what to do I stood there, and thankfully a nurse came out of one of the rooms by me just as it happened and I asked her what I should do, so she tracked down something to wrap around me. Derek came out of the restroom during all of this and I will never forget his face as he was trying to figure out what was going on. I waddled my way back to my room. I remember thinking SCORE I got out of that walk!! My nurse decided to check me to see if there was any progress since bleeding can mean cervical change. She said no change in dilation but my cervix was softer now. And that it wasn’t my bag of water so no one was really sure where all that blood came from, but they were hopeful that things were moving along. I remember this being the second time that we asked when we could start Pitocin to get things moving along. They never really explained why, but just said "let's wait and see". So we waited a few more hours. By this point I was getting very uncomfortable and extremely tired. So the next time she came to check on me, I decided to ask to get my epidural so that I could get some rest, as it wasn’t looking like I was going to be having her anytime soon.
By the time that the epidural lady came in at 7 p.m. my contractions were every 10-15 seconds and I was finally dilated to a 4. I was very excited for relief. I was proud of the 8 hours I had done with almost no time in between contractions. Of course she had a hard time getting the epidural in because of my back muscles and positioning. It took her three pokes and me sitting in funny positions to finally get it in. Thankfully I was mostly numb from the shot during these. I was so glad to finally have some relief. Not thinking that now that I was confined to a bed, that they could start the Penicillin for the Group B strep. As she hooked it up to my IV, I remember thinking that it wasn’t as bad as I had read. And then it started going through my veins and I swear they were pouring gasoline into me. It burned insanely bad. So bad that the only relief that I had was to constantly twist and move my arm. So now I had relief from my contractions but I wasn’t able to get any rest from my IV. They kept telling me that I needed to fall asleep, but I literally couldn’t. So I at least rested my eyes while Derek slept. He was a trooper and walked the whole time with me and decided to stay with me instead of going home with the kids while I wasn’t progressing.
Anyways, we noticed on the monitor that my contractions had slowed down significantly from the epidural, so sometime in the night I remember asking again about Pitocin. I knew that as soon as it started my body would do its thing. I’ve used it with the other two kids so knew that my body responded well to it and was frustrated that it had taken this long for them to even start it. The nurse went and got a bag and hung it on my IV stand, but didn’t hook it up. She left for a couple hours and when she came back she still didn’t hook it up. They checked me for dilation once during the night and I don’t remember exactly what I was at, but I remember it being around a 6. I was grateful that I was progressing but didn’t like how slow it was. Right after she left, I got super nauseous and started barfing so they gave me a couple of doses of Zofran to help with that! I think around 4 a.m. they finally started me on Pitocin and like we had assumed it sped everything right up.
At 6:30 ish on Aug. 29th, I remember feeling like something had changed. Not sure if it was pressure or not because I was so numb, she checked me. I was right. I was at a 10, with my bag of water bulging but baby not being as low as they would like. Yay! I was so excited to be so close!! So I asked the nurse if we could get the doctor to break my water so that we could get baby to drop and, you know, have this baby! No joke, she said, “You can actually stay with the bag of water bulging for up to 4 hours” then left the room……….Derek and I just kept saying “are you kidding me???” thankfully it only took 4 minutes for my water to break on its own. That's the weirdest feeling ever! Just like with Kelsie, they put me on Oxygen because she started to be in distress with each contraction. The on call doctor came in soon after that and quickly got ready! We started pushing at about 7:24 and by 7:26 she was out! It took two pushes. I honestly thought we were practice pushing and she came out during those. 5 lb. 13 oz and 18 ¼ inches long!
I'm so glad that she is here, but man that isn't anything like I had imagined it going. I'm super excited that we share the same birthday and that she's such a fun baby. She's perfect.
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