The Birth Story-Part Two (Hours 20-31)

Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, the epidural.

So, I got the epidural around around Hour 20, circa 6:00 pm-ish on February 13th. David's parents and sister had gotten there right before hand and my parents got there shortly after. We were all just chilling, waiting for the epidural to do it's thing and I was munching on ice chips. Oh, and I got my lovely catheter, standard procedure (insertion of hardware #1).

I was in and out of sleep and our nurse, who was about the most awesome labor and delivery nurse we could have asked for, let everyone stay and be with me at their choosing. Around 8:30-9:00 pm-ish, Dad left to get Kristi from the airport! I think they got back around 10:00 pm. The Doctor came in somewhere in there to check my progress and I was dilated to a solid 5! Yahoo! But Baby was still floating high. She checked me a little later and I was about the same. So, the Doctor, who was about the most awesome labor and delivery Doctor we could have asked for (PS- we prayed for the right Nurses and Doctors to be "on" when Baby was born, and God SURELY answered that prayer), suggested that since I wasn't really dilating any further in the few hours since she checked me, and since Baby wasn't coming down at all, we should either start Pitocin or break my water. She wasn't super interested in the Pitocin, since my contractions were very regular (1.5 minutes apart) and strong; however, she was hoping the Pitocin would kick them into the right kind of contractions to dilate me further. (My cervix was starting to get compromised at this point). I wasn't super interested in the breaking of my waters since Baby was still high and I didn't want the cord dropping before his head. So I opted for Pitocin.

They set it all up and the second they started the drip, our nurse's eyes widened and I've never seen anyone so panicked in all my life. In nanoseconds, I had the Doctor, a Resident and the Nurse inserting an internal fetal monitor into Baby's head (insertion of hardware #2... BTW, this was the ONLY thing I really didn't want but had no choice). Turns out his heart rate dropped drastically (only time it did this the whole 31 hours). We thought it was from the Pitocin, but when they checked everything out, no Pitocin had actually gone through me... my water had broken at that instant! Crazy. So, with Baby's heart rate back to normal and being monitored, they discontinued the Pitocin drip and let me labor with broken waters. I think the Doctor was super pleased this happened, since it was her first choice, and we were all hoping this was it and I was on my way to dilating more.

The Doctor let me go a few more hours and came back to check me. Still no changes and still a slightly compromised cervix and a floating Baby. She suggested starting Pitocin again and also suggested monitoring my contractions from the inside with an internal contraction monitor thingy (insertion of hardware #3). Since we were all pretty sure I was having the "wrong" kind of contractions, they wanted to get a really good measure to make sure that's what it was/wasn't. They got me all set up with my new hardware and Pitocin just after 12:00 am on February 13th. I joked that we thought for sure Baby was going to be a February 12th Baby. Kristi joked that I had officially beat her and Mom in hours of labor.

They let me go on Pitocin from about 12:00 am until 3:15 am, checking me periodically. There was no change that whole time and my cervix really wasn't looking good and Baby was still high. The Doctor suggested a C-section (which had been looming the past few hours) and we all agreed it was time. David, our Doula and I had agreed way before hand that Babies know when they can't come out and they act certain ways for a reason. We had much peace...

At 3:30 am, I was being prepped by the anesthesiologists and David left to get his fancy scrubs on. It was time to meet Baby...

***By the way, I recommend to EVERYONE to hire a Doula. If you live in the area and want the name of ours, she simply is the BEST. DOULA. EVER. Hands down. We cannot say enough about her. She did everything and was with us every second and gave us such peace of mind and prayer and expertise throughout. We couldn't have done it without her and she helped us to work through every option so that we had no regrets!***

Part Three will chronicle the C-section :) ... no worries, I'll leave out the gory parts. Oh, who am I kidding? I couldn't see a thing behind that curtain!