I want to get this down before I forget because I know the longer I wait, the fuzzier it will become.
As
we all know, my due dates (yep, dates...2/8 and 2/11) came and went
with no baby. I went to the doctor on 2/12 and saw Dr. Beaven. Dr.
Beaven has been my "favorite" doctor for a while. He's very laid back,
quiet, reserved -- he seemed like a good fit to deliver little Miss
Lauren as I don't like much noise/commotion when delivering. He did his
check and told me I was a good solid four, pushing 5 and stated he was
surprised that I didn't have the baby yet. I told him that I wouldn't
progress any until my water broke, which it wasn't going to do on it's
own. He asked how I felt about induction and I told him "I'll love you
forever!". He asked if tomorrow (Thursday) would be too soon...um no!
So, he had one of his nurses call the hospital and set up the induction
for tomorrow morning at 7am.
We get to the hospital
and get situated. The nurses had some difficulties finding a vein for
the IV but after 4 attempts, they were able to locate a vein and got
things started. Dr. Beaven came in around 9:00 and broke my water.
They started pitocin right away and asked how quickly I thought I'd have
the baby. I told them I thought she'd be here by lunch time. The
nurses were thrilled to hear me say that -- their lunch break was at
1pm!
The pitocin started working right away and while
I wouldn't consider the contractions "painful", they were most
certainly uncomfortable and they were getting closer together. The
nurses came in around 9:30am and upped the pitocin. At 10am, they came
in again and upped it again (this is completely normal). At the same
time, a nurse anesthetist came in and asked if I was going to want an
epidural. While I wasn't in pain per se, I didn't want to "miss" the
opportunity to get an epidural so I said yes. They asked when I wanted
it and I said "might as well do it now". She was happy with that
response and left to go get things ready.
At 10:15,
she was back with another nurse anesthetist, Dan. By this point, the
contractions were very regular, probably every 2-3 minutes apart, and
while not painful, they were more and more uncomfortable and were moving
to my back (oh goodie). They sat me up on the edge of the bed and had
me bend over a pillow for placement of the epidural. At this point, the
contractions started coming hard and fast (again, I wouldn't consider
them "painful"but I did have to breath through them. The back
contractions were painful -- and back contractions while trying to hold
completely still were not fun. I told my nurse (Erin...not to be
confused with my other nurse, Erinn) that I felt like I was going to
fall off the bed at one point. She told me that was completely normal
and that's why she was standing directly in front of me. Erinn and Erin
were also joking that Dr. Beaven asked why I wasn't complete yet. We
had just talked at my previous dr's appt about how quickly I went with
Kate. They always say you go faster with your second child than your
first -- I went from my water being broken to complete in 2 hours with
Kate so...
Dan and the other nurse anesthetist kept
asking if my contractions were subsiding any -- um, nope! I could hear
some whispering behind me and then the talk of "we've got to catch up
with her. She's sprinting to the finish and we've just started." Dan
then asked if they had checked me before getting started with the
epidural. They hadn't and Dan asked them to check me NOW. Fun times
since my back pain was so intense now that I couldn't lay flat. Yep,
that was fun. Erinn checked me and sure enough, I was complete with the
head right there. The female nurse anesthetist asked where my husband
was and was kind enough to find my cell phone for me so I could text him
(he was walking the halls since he couldn't be in the room while the
epidural was being administered). My text said something like "get back
here. I'm complete and am ready to push NOW." Erinn called Dr. Beaven
and told him to get ready ASAP. I still couldn't lie flat on my back
so they upped my epidural and added something else to it to "catch up"
with me.
Matt and Dr. Beaven arrived about the same
time (probably about 10:45 now). They got me prepped, got the newborn
area prepped, all while I was still having this back pain (it was most
certainly still there, but at least I could lie down....on an incline.
The
epidural never fully took -- I had back pain (on my lower left side)
and front abdomen pain (on the lower left side) and could feel an insane
amount of pressure. I started pushing at 10:57 and pushed for what
seemed like an eternity, however, that eternity was only 17 minutes
long. Thankfully, the epidural took enough that I wasn't able to feel
any stitches being done. :-)
Everyone got a good
laugh when they looked at the clock after everything was cleaned up. It
was before noon -- just like I had predicted. Dr. Beaven told me it's a
good thing my water didn't break at home. There's a good chance if it
did, I wouldn't have made it to the hospital!
Lauren
was very purple when she was born. I don't remember Kate being purple
-- then again, I was on oxygen with Kate and wasn't feeling much so it's
possible she was and I just don't remember. Because the epidural
didn't fully take, the doctors/nurses/lactation people don't think
Lauren was medicated when she was born. What does that lead to? A baby
who made everyone well aware that she was born....for several hours!
She latched on to feed almost immediately and hasn't had any nursing
issues since (but that's a different post for a different day).
All
in all, it was a great experience, even with the pain and pressure (oh
the pressure!). I honestly can't complain about being in "labor" for 2
hours and 14 minutes, including pushing time. I'm glad they didn't
check me before I got my epidural because if they did, I may not have
been able to get it (and that would have been BAD).
I'll
try to remember to do a post about Kate meeting Lauren for the first
time as well as our first week at home...it's been a journey that has
been very unique -- after all, every child is different, right?
