Induction Day & Birth 2/7/12

This is extremely long and pretty detailed. This is mostly for myself, and then for anyone else who is interested. I always like reading other peoples birth stories. So here I go.

After a whole weekend of have some pretty painful contractions I was more than ready to be induced. The night before we got a call from the hospital and we were scheduled to be the 7:00 am induction. I was really glad that we could get started early, because I know that it could take a really long time.

Going to bed that night was weird…last time that it would just be the two of us. We woke up the next morning excited and ready for the day.

We got onto the 3^rd floor (Labor and Delivery) and they put me in the first delivery room right through the second set of doors. It was quite a large room. I was kind of surprised. I got changed into the ever so flattering gown and took a seat on the bed. We waited for a while before my nurse came in. She got me all strapped up to the monitors and ready to go. She told me that at any time I wanted my epidural to let her know. She told me don’t feel like you are a weak if you ask for it just ask for it when you want it.

At 8:15am the doctor came in and broke my water. At the time I was dilated to almost a 2. Not really any progress from the night before when we went to the hospital because I was in so much pain. It was kind of discouraging that all that pain did nothing. They did say I was almost 100% effaced so that the contractions did something…but that didn’t make me feel too much better.

At 8:20am they started me on the Oxytocin drip through my IV. Which by the way I was really nervous to get an IV. I had never had one before. At first they tried to put it in my left forearm, but she really couldn’t see/find the vein. That didn’t surprise me. I have very small not very visible veins. Then she tried to put it in my left hand but apparently my vein in that hand is incredibly crooked so she moved to the right hand and decided it was good enough. Um the IV totally hurts! I was really hoping it wouldn’t hurt that bad the whole time. Luckily it didn’t because it was really uncomfortable at first.

By 10:00am my contractions were really strong and about 2 ½ -3 minutes apart. Contractions are so painful. I wish men could just get a taste of what they feel like. Mine were all in the front low in my pelvis and just felt like knives stabbing me. Every time a contraction came I would think “I can’t do another one”, but then in between the pain went completely away and I would think, “I can do this.” I tried to watch old cartoons to keep my mind of them but that didn’t work too well. I was getting close to just getting that darn epidural. I didn’t want to get it too soon though and then have it not feel as strong at the end when I would really want it. In our classes the nurse anesthetist said that they prefer you to be dilated to a 3 or 4 before you get your epidural so I wanted to wait until then. But they hadn’t checked me since 8:15.

At 10:40am I finally caved and got my epidural. I wasn’t too nervous about getting it. I know a lot of people freak out. But when they showed us the needle in our class I thought that it was smaller than I would have thought. They raised the bed really high, I sat on the edge and Chris sat in front of me messaging me feet to calm me and keep my mind off of what was going on. I thought they would time putting it in when I wasn’t having a contraction, but they didn’t care apparently. So it was good that I was able to stay pretty still and calm while he did it.

It was crazy to start and feel the epidural working. It just slowly started dulling the contractions little by little. I was a little worried I got it too early, but they checked me at 11:10 and I was dilated to a 3! I was so happy! At about 11:15 the pain went away but I could still feel the pressure and then eventually I couldn’t feel anything at all. I didn’t even know I was having contractions. It was awesome! I was so happy. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want an epidural? Why go through hours of exhausting pain if you don’t have to? And it isn’t just the pain…it is the exhausting part. How at the end of hours and hours of painful contractions taking a toll on your body do you have the energy to push a baby out at the end? I don’t know, and that is why I got the glorious epidural. It was beautiful. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.

The doctor told me that dilating form a 1 to a 5 was the hardest, longest part. So I had mentally prepared myself for the longest day of my life. So when they checked me again at 2:05 I was thinking I might be a 4, but I was a 6! Again we were so happy! I was rocking it! At this time the nurse said I would probably dilated a centimeter an hour from here on out. So that would put me at about 6:00pm to start pushing.

At about 2:35 the nurse checked me again. I could see it on her face…it was awesome. Her eyes got wide and she got a big smile on her face. I said, “What? What is it?” She says, “You’re a 9!” At this point I’m feeling like a freaking rock star. My body is awesome, and we are getting this baby out faster than we all had originally thought. I was prepared for a 12 or more hour process.

We hung out for a little longer waiting to get to a 10. The nurse told us at about 4:40 that we would start pushing at 5:00. She warned us that pushing could take 1-3 hours. I was kind of bummed because the nurses have a shift change at 6:00 and that would suck to get a new nurse right at the end. I really liked mine.

So at 5:00 I started pushing. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I was having a baby. She was coming out of me. I am exposed to the whole world, and I really thought part of me would care. But once I started pushing it was the least of my worries. I just really tried to focus on pushing like a champ. I had told the nurse earlier that I wanted the baby to have hair. At 5:10 you could already start seeing her head so the nurse told Chris at the next push to see what color her hair was. He was shocked at how much dark brown hair he saw. Yay for lots of hair!

At this point the nurse realizes that this is going to happen really fast. She has called the doctor to let him know, but he isn’t there yet. So now she tells me to do “half” pushes, because if I did full pushes she would be out before the doctor got there. We joked about why the doctors get paid the big bucks when all they do is come at the end at catch the baby. He showed up about 5-10 minutes later. I only did a few more sets of pushing and at 5:25pm she was here!

It was the weirdest feeling when she finally came out. All this pressure was gone and my stomach deflated. The nurse had the respiratory team there just in case. So they took her and checked her and cleaned her all up. She was 7 lbs. 2 oz and 19 inches long.

(Warning the following is gross and may be too much information.)

Meanwhile, I apparently started hemorrhaging. And apparently right after she came out there was this huge gush of blood that barely missed Chris and went all over the floor. Like a lot of blood. (I have pictures to prove it, but it is gross so I won’t share.) I also learned that at the last push before she came out the doctor saw that the cord was wrapped around her neck. So instead of letting her slip back in and me doing more pushing he quickly snipped (gave me an episiotomy) and she slipped right out, with so much force that her shoulder made me tear in another place. Lovely I know. So for the next 30 minutes after she was born I laid getting all stitched up and they worked on trying to get me to stop bleeding. Chris told me later that there was like a river of blood coming out of me. He thought I was going to need a blood transfusion there was that much blood. And there really was blood everywhere. The doctor was pretty covered.

I wasn’t really too worried though. The doctor didn’t seem too worried either. I hadn’t lost enough blood to get a blood transfusion. But it sure did make a mess. And now I know why the doctor gets paid the big bucks. Boy am I glad that he was there. One to make that decision to give a snip to get her out because the cord was around her neck, and then to stitch me all up and work on getting me to stop bleeding.

The nurse told us that she really didn’t think she would see her born, but she was there for all of it. I was feeling pretty ecstatic after all was said and done. It wasn’t as horrifying as I thought it would be. With the epidural it was a breeze and I could totally do it all over again. I was feeling totally awesome for pushing her out in 25 mins. 1-3 hours? Not me! Woot Woot!

When they finally put her in my arms it was the craziest feeling. I was so happy. And you just have this overwhelming feeling of love that you have never felt before. I just stared at her face, amazed that she was really here. She was MY baby, and I already loved her so much.

My mom was there for the whole birth. After they finally were able to put her in my arms my mom asked me what her name was. We hadn’t told anyone yet. And up until my mom asked no one had asked, and I kind of forgot. I told her that it was Aili. She teared up, I teared up. Aili (said eye-lee) is my great grandma’s (my mom’s grandma) name from Finland.

So that is the birth story. Now as some of you know that it just the beginning, and easiest part of the hole having my baby story. This is already way long. The rest of the story I will try to tell in the next few post. It will be hard to write. The first week of my Aili baby’s life was the hardest week of mine. I have never in my life felt the emotions I felt that week. It was so hard. But I need to write it down.