This post will go through my labor and birth of Lachlan on 12/13/2011!
5:37am: The day started with a phone call that completely jolted me out of a deep sleep. The hospital said they were ready for me, so Dustin and I had one last snuggle together in bed and then were up showering and getting ready! I was not expecting to get called so early and were just told it would be sometime that day. We snapped one last picture before leaving the house to capture me at 41 weeks. It was a dreary, rainy morning and took us a while to get to the hospital cause was rush hour- I was just relieved we were going for an induction and I was not in labor stuck in the traffic!
7:30am: We checked in and they put me in my room, gave me the gown, and got the IV going. I was dilated to 3cm. The IV did not hurt, but just grossed me out to look at this tube going into my arm...so I actually covered it with a towel for the first few hours so I didn't have to look at it.
9:00am: They gave me Pitocin, which is a drug used to start contractions. About 20 minutes later the doctor came by and broke my water. There was an initial gush of fluid that came out and basically just feels like you peed the bed, but I was not prepared for it to continue to leak out for hours afterwards. I frequently asked them to keep changing the pad I was laying on cause it just felt disgusting laying in this wet fluid-- was not prepared for how that was all going to feel/work! We had brought dvds to watch, so we popped in Season One of 30 Rock since we had not seen those episodes before. The contractions were either not noticeable or not too bad at the beginning here. However, then they started getting noticeable—they were not crazy painful, but on about the same level as menstrual cramps. My back was killing me around this time and I wanted a heating pad we had brought from home, but that was not allowed- so they brought me a hot towel to put back there which helped some. I wanted to get the epidural in BEFORE they got really bad, so I asked about getting the epidural at 10:40. The nurse recommended I wait just a bit more maybe until 11:00 and then she would have the doctor check to make sure I was progressing and had moved past 3cm. I was a little skeptical of this because figured come 11:00 everyone would be busy and I'd be sitting around waiting long past that.
11:00am: Luckily the doctor came almost right on time and said I was at 4.5cm, so they called for the epidural and got that put in pretty quickly and was not a painful process. After that point, I went back to feeling no contractions at all for a while. Woo-hoo! For the next few hours I'm thinking this delivery is going to be a breeze because of how well this epidural is working. They said to plan on dilating about 1cm/hour. I continued on slightly faster than that...
12:30pm: 6 cm dilated
1:10pm: 7 cm dilated- the nurse and doctor comment on how well my body is responding to this and hopefully the delivery will be a breeze and go as smoothly as everything else has so far.
2:45pm: 9-10 cm dialted and ready to start pushing soon. So it seemed that I was well on my way to having a baby in the next couple hours and the pain was perfectly tolerable- I could only feel slight pressure when having contractions. Life is great at this point!
3:00pm: Now all hell starts breaking loose! So the nurse explains to me how to push and I felt like I just could never do what she was asking. As I’m laying on my back she wants me to basically do a stomach crunch and curl up around the baby and then push 3 times for 10 seconds each whenever I have a contraction. My problem was that the baby was so big and I’d been uncomfortable for so many weeks, I just couldn’t hardly “curl up around the baby.” And when I did that, I couldn’t breathe in adequately to effectively push for so long. It felt like my lungs were crushed that I couldn't breathe. So we just kept trying over and over and over. It was discouraging cause the progress was so little each time-- she commented after lots of pushing that the baby had moved a few millimeters (yes, MILLIMETERS)...and I thnk she was just saying that to be nice and keep my spirits up!
4:00pm: Eventually the pain started getting horribly bad on my right side to the point where I couldn’t even attempt the pushes anymore. The pain was extending down my right thigh. So I keep telling the nurse that I’m having really bad pain- and she always comes back with asking if it is "pressure" or "pain" because I should be feeling pressure, but not pain. Since I’ve never had a baby I didn’t know if I was just being a wimp and this was normal or not. Finally it was so horrendous I just broke down crying and was borderline freaking out cause there was no way I could go on pushing under these conditions and didn’t know how I was going to get the baby out. This was just the worst feelings and pain that I never want to live through again. So she called the epidural people to come back and see if there was anything they could do. Luckily, they were able to adjust some things and have me lay on my right side to get that numbed a little more. I then went back to trying more pushing…I could tell from the nurse that still no progress was being made, but at least it was a little less painful.
6:00pm: Finally the nurse called the doctor in to look at things and the doctor said the baby’s head was at -1 and needed to move to a +3 to get out, so I wasn't even close. She said basically no progress had been made in the baby’s position from the start—just what you want to hear after going through all that excruciating pain! She said I was probably looking at like 3 more hours of pushing and maybe I would get to that point…or the other option would be to do a c-section. Immediately I’m like- give me the c-section. A huge sigh of relief came over me and I've never been so happy to have surgery before!
6:30pm: A crew of people came in to give me drugs prepping me for the surgery. Dustin got his scrubs.
7:00pm: They wheel me down to the operating room. Everything just seems now to start happening really fast and my memory may be slightly fuzzy for events in the room cause I wasn't feeling the best. Dustin was by my side for the surgery and the main thing I remember is I started shaking really badly. I look over at my arms and they are flopping around like a fish out of water- so this scared me some that I was going into some sort of shock of having some reaction. However, they assured me this was common and okay. I couldn't see or feel the lower part of my body, but I was scared it was shaking too and they weren't going to be able to do the surgery or I was going to jerk and then they would splice something open they shouldn't.
7:13pm: Lachlan is born and I hear his little cries! However, the moment is not all joyous as I hear someone say, "Call the NICU" immediately when he is pulled out...so I am so scared that something is majorly wrong with him that they were able to determine that so quickly. For those that don't know, NICU is basically where the babies go when they would have something wrong or born prematurely, so it is not good news. The other 2 things I hear from the other side of the table are, "Whoa- he is such a big baby!" and "Look at all that red hair!" I kept telling Dustin all along that I want a blonde kid and not a redhead....so was not happy to hear about the red hair at all...but was the least of my worries at the time!
So now they start the about 20 minute process to sew me back up. They bring Lachlan over to the side to perform tests, weigh him, etc. so I can see him during this time and Dustin can be by him. The first thing I do is just inspecting him head to toe trying to see what is wrong. For a second I thought he was missing a finger, but it then popped up and was just folded back. So I can't see anything wrong with him...and he looked HUGE....and his hair did not look very red to me- maybe strawberry blonde. He weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and supposedly pooped twice before he hit the scale.
Finally a nurse tells me that they had to call someone from NICU because there was unexpected merconium, so they have to make sure he didn't swallow any...which he didn't. I'm also feeling just very naseaus while they are sewing me up and feels like it is taking FOREVER. They get me a bucket and I'm freaking out what is going to happen if I throw up. I'ts so hard on your stomach and body and obviously they are trying to do surgery, so this can't be good if I start puking. I'm also still just shaking really badly. Poor Dustin was over by Lachlan and taking all sorts of pictures that I had asked him to do...but I called for him to come over by me cause I just needed him there to hold my hand and be there in case I did get sick. This time period was really the only downside to the whole c-section process.
8:00pm: We go back to recovery room and it was kinda nice to just get some time for the 3 of us and to just relax and take a deep breath! I got to hold Lachlan and I'll have to say that it really just was kind of weird...to be holding this little guy that is now our son and that just less than an hour ago was that painful thing inside me. I thought he looked so adorable though and was so happy! Dustin left for a few minutes to go out to the waiting room to tell his family and I called my mom and sister. After a while, they took Lachlan to the nursery so they could clean him up and do tests, so Dustin went briefly with him, but then came back to hang out with me.
9:45pm: Unsure of the time here, but they take me to our room and get us setup in there. All I can think of is WHAT A DAY! Was glad that it was over, we were all healthy, and just exhausted!
At the end of the day, I’ve had such a positive experience
with the c-section and the recovery so am glad I got to go that route. And if there are people
like me that were very scared and apprehensive on the whole labor process, I
would seek out a doctor that will voluntarily give you a c-section. Who knows, maybe if the baby was smaller and
that epidural had worked better, the labor would not have been bad….but I know
I NEVER want to experience the pain and feelings like I had that day. There was very little pain/discomfort with
the c-section process. They give you tons of drugs for the recovery and at the 1 week mark, I was completely off all
medication and had essentially no pain.
The scar is down so low that no one will ever really see it- can still
wear a bikini if I desire. And I liked
that we got to stay in the hospital longer- it gave us more time to get help
breastfeeding and having the nurses monitor the baby.
Here were our predictions vs. actuals-- we ended up in a tie :(
Time of phone call: Amy- 9am; Dustin- 6am; Actual- 5:37am (Dustin wins!)
Baby's Weight: Amy- 7 lbs 9 oz; Dustin- 8 lbs 5 oz; Actual- 9 lbs 4 oz (Dustin wins!)
Baby's Length: Amy- 21 inches; Dustin- 24 inches; Actual- 22 inches (Amy wins!)
Time Baby is Born: Amy 5:16pm 12/13; Dustin- 11pm 12/13; Actual- 7:13pm (Amy wins!)
Here were our predictions vs. actuals-- we ended up in a tie :(
Time of phone call: Amy- 9am; Dustin- 6am; Actual- 5:37am (Dustin wins!)
Baby's Weight: Amy- 7 lbs 9 oz; Dustin- 8 lbs 5 oz; Actual- 9 lbs 4 oz (Dustin wins!)
Baby's Length: Amy- 21 inches; Dustin- 24 inches; Actual- 22 inches (Amy wins!)
Time Baby is Born: Amy 5:16pm 12/13; Dustin- 11pm 12/13; Actual- 7:13pm (Amy wins!)
Get ready for many more posts all centering around baby Lachlan now!
