Momma Had a Baby

I had a baby last week.

I chose to be induced ultimately b/c of the convenience factor. The Hub and I were able to take W and Super N to Gramma and Grampa's on Tuesday night while we prepared to be induced the next morning.

I arrived for my induction at 9am and was started on a pitocin drip at 10:30. My OB, whose office is directly across the street from the hospital, stopped over on her lunch break around noon to break my water. Baby J didn't respond well to this change and so his heart rate dropped pretty fast and he took a while to adjust which worried the nurses and sent them scurrying every which way. But he eventually recovered after they put an oxygen mask on me for 20 minutes or so, had me switching positions every few minutes and they lowered the pitocin dosage.

The labor seemed to drag on and on although one perk was I got to watch HGTV and FoodTV. From 1pm until about 5pm I became increasingly ill and worn out. I hadn't slept for a few days prior and I had a head cold I was recovering from and I hadn't eaten since the night before. The contractions were not awful around 5pm but they were becoming increasingly uncomfortable. I started thinking about whether or not I wanted an epi so that I could sleep since Baby J was taking his sweet time. I then started thinking about Baby J coming out of the Va jay jay and the pain I may experience with that and I realized I wanted an epi at that point. I knew I would be beat after labor and in pain and I knew I'd still have to go home to nurse and spend time with the other kids. I chose to get the epi and try to sleep.

When I chose to get the epi I was progressing very slowly. I had arrived at 2 cm and at 5pm I was only 5cm. The anesthesiologist took 5 attempts at my epi, which btw was worse than the contractions, and then he finally got it in. I had the same problem with my other two kids. After getting the epi in it took effect and although I couldn't feel my legs I could feel the pressure of the contractions and I could feel my feet. After the epi I turned over (well they turned me over) and I fell asleep for about and hour (the Hub said I snored). They checked me, barely changed, and I watched some more tv (Rachael Ray sure has a lot of shows).

At 7:50 the nurses came in (btw one of my nurses names was Beth and my Obgyn's name is Beth so we started to refer to eachother as Nurse Beth, Dr. Beth and Patient Beth) and decided to put me into a "weird" position to see if anything would happen. They flipped me on my right side and bent my right leg up latching my foot into the guard rail. My left leg was put into a stirrup. I looked like I was skipping but I of course was laying down. They checked me again and I was at 6cm. Baby J's heart rate started to go nuts at that point so out came the oxygen mask again. He did adjust relatively quickly though and was fine. I of course felt very comfortable and they kept bringing me warm blankets so I fell asleep.

At 8:30 they came in to check me and the nurse gasped and said "You're at 10! I gotta call the Dr.!". She flipped me over on my other side and told me to breath through the pressure. She got a hold of Dr. Beth who was 20 minutes out and they all told me to "hold him in!". It actually wasn't awful but a bit uncomfortable. I was so excited to meet him that I was just waiting in anticipation!

Dr. Beth got in the room at 8:55 and got situated. She then checked me and said the head was right there, I could see it too thanks to the funhouse mirror and the fry lights that hung from the ceiling. None of us could believe it! So the next contraction they handed me my legs and I pushed. The Dr. yelled for me to stop b/c the cord was around Baby J's head. She lifted the cord and I felt another contraction so she said give me a small push so I gave her one and she delivered him through the cord after 1.5 pushes, he was born at 8:58pm! It was awesome! I was so grateful he was okay. He weighed 7lbs and 10oz and was 21" long. We all figured if they had started to put me in "weird" positions earlier he may have come out sooner.