We walked in to the hospital at 5am, I was still contracting. We were going to meet our precious baby boy. Oh, what joy! We filled out our paperwork, got things in order and headed up to labor and delivery. They were surprised (pleasantly) to find that I was already in labor, but wanted to continue to monitor things.
At some point after we had done all the initial blood draws, fetal monitoring, blood pressure checks, answer a ton of questions, etc. they checked my progress. I was 3cm dilated and 80-90% effaced. Hooray! My body was working the way it was supposed to.
Just like when I was in labor with Karis, I wanted to do all that I could do to keep progress going. I did not want to just lay in bed all day and wait for things to happen. So, we went out in to the halls and started walking.
Now, I should probably tell you that this hospital was in Myrtle Beach, where the maternity ward is quite small. Plus, it was under construction and half of it was closed making it even smaller. This means we didn't have too much length in the halls to walk. Lots of back and forth. Back and forth.
We continued to walk for a while until my nurse asked me to come back to bed to get checked again. I was fine with that since I was getting tired and my contractions were getting worse. However, I was still just 3cm.
We started walking again for a while. I feel confident we walked past the nurses station 732 times that day. By late morning, almost noon, I was in a lot of pain. My back was just killing me. It was a constant pain. I had back labor with Karis but it came on strong with contractions. This was consistent. And painful.
Around lunchtime I was checked again and was at 4cm, but still 80-90% effaced. I was disappointed that things seemed to be going slowly. But, I was hurting bad. The nurse went ahead and got the epidural ordered for me.
The anesthesiologist had no trouble finding our room. He heard the moans from the hallway and knew it was me. Again, I was feeling defeated and disappointed to give in to the epidural this "early" on, but I was becoming so fatigued. It was about 1:20-1:25 when I received the epidural.
After I got the epidural I knew things would feel better for a while, and John had to go to work since it was the end of the month. We decided it was a good time for him to leave since I still had some time, but at least the pain wouldn't be so bad.
At 1:37 I text John that I was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. Apparently just giving my body a bit of a break was all that it needed.
By 3:45 I was completely dilated and fully effaced. At some point in those two hours, we became a bit concerned for Jack and me. Things progressed so quickly, that my blood pressure dropped way down, I got dizzy and nearly blacked out. We got us both under control pretty quickly though.
So there I was fully complete, I was ready, but the nurses wanted me to take some time and 'rest' while we waited for the doctor. I didn't really have any problem with that. I was just full of anticipation. I had now reached a point I had never been before. I was fully effaced and 8-9cm dilated with Karis before we reached the point of fetal distress for a second time and had to go in for an emergency c-section.
Now, it was all new. I'd never pushed before. I was nervous and excited. Scared and happy.
My doctor came in to check on me a bit later and said that Jack was turned sideways. He was 'sunny side-up'. This explains the horrible back pain. Karis had been sunny side-up as well, ergo my back labor with her. Both babies gave me back labor it just presented differently.
We had to wait for two hours for him to slowly start turning down. Oh, it was such a long wait. The longer we waited, the stronger my desire to push became. But, the more they assured me it was going to be difficult with him in the position he was in.
During this time my epidural had run out. We asked the nurse about it, to which she responded, "everyone's always so nervous about that." Um, yeah, I am quite interested in that since I haven't even gotten to the most painful part of my day. Thank you very much.
Finally, I was given the green light. It was sometime after 6pm. I was to start pushing. Oh. My. Word. That is no fun. At. All.
I was so exhausted. So...exhausted. No sleep in 36 hours. No food in 24 hours. Laboring all day. Exhausted.
At some point during this pushing process I was quite certain I had made a poor decision and that I should have just scheduled a repeat c-section. It just felt like so much more than I could handle. But, I kept thinking that I would meet my baby boy SO soon though.
The doctor, the nurses, John, they all kept saying, 'he's right there, he's so close.' I feel like I heard that a thousand times. And I thought for sure they were wrong, because if that was the case, he should have been out by now. I also kept looking at John's face and wondering if he would ever look at me the same after what he was witness to.
Finally, I leaned up and went for one last push. I saw the doctor reach for her scissors and I knew this was it. The end was here. I just kept pushing until my baby boy came. He was here. He was alive. He made it. It was 6:53pm on Wednesday, July 31.
Woah, his head was such a crazy shape.
But, he
And it was painful. But, so worth it. The pain was immediately forgotten. And my life with my precious baby boy was beginning. He stole my heart.
And one of my favorite posts, if you'd like to read about the first time that my two babies met, read about Jack and Karis here.
No comments:
Post a Comment