Here is an account of what I can remember from the whole experience. Some of it is in present tense because I was able to jot down some notes. The rest I'm just filling in now that I have some time at the computer.
We came to the hospital on Thursday night for a round of pitocin and meds to help soften my cervix and help dialate. Short story, it didn't work. We went home around 7pm Friday evening.
Sunday night and Keith got me all checked in and hung out for a while. For round two of the same process that we did on Thursday/Friday. I was still pretty skeptical that it would work. So, I sent him home to get some good rest. The hospital bed is really uncomfortable, so I didn't get much sleep at all. And, right when I got checked in the nurse hooked up my IV incorrectly so that the entire bag of saline got dumped into my system in about two hours. I had to pee a lot. Every time I would have to page the nurses and have them unhook me from the blood pressure cuff that was going off every 15 minutes and from the fetal monitor that was providing a constant thump.
Monday morning. 4am A couple of minutes ago I heard a crack crack in my pelvis it sounded kind of like a piece of plastic snapping. I figured it was Nolan connecting with the monitor on a couple of kicks. Could he have just broke my water? 20 minutes passes and nothing happens so I write it off. Then I have a chance to get up and to to the bathroom. Half way there I start to leak but make it to the toilet. The nurse had put a little measuring hat in it and the liquid that fills the bowl is very dark and murky looking. It scared me enough to call out for the nurse. She reassured me that meuconiun staining is normal in post date babies. It just means that Nolan has already had his first stool, and that things should start to progress soon. That water was protecting me, now I can definitely feel the contractions. Will try to sleep, that was a rush.
530am No sleep, these are definitely painful. The nurse gave me a small dose of pain medication and some Kleenex and told me to try and ignore them. Not possible. Once I get to 4cm I get to have an epidural, so that is the goal. 2 3/4 down hopefully I can make it to 4 before the day is too far gone. Its 5:30 am now, so I'm trying to decide when to call Keith and have him come over, I know I could handle the pain on my own, but he will want to be here as a support. I'll text him and see if he wakes up. No luck, 6:00am I call and he is by my side in no time.
9am the nurse comes to give me the epidural. She has to give me about 15 shots of "local" anisthetic before she can put in the catheter. I had 12 contractions in the time it took her and I had to sit up really straight on the side of the bed. It was really painful. Now that I have the epidural, it is great I can't feel a thing, I've requested that they tuen it down a bit so I won't be quite so numb, I want to have some of the "real" experience. I'm excited that I won't have to have a C-Section. I am at 5 cm now
11am the nurse just checked me again 9 cm! And, the nurse just discovered that they had forgotten to start the pitocin drip after they gave the epidural, she started it to try and get the contractions into rhythym. Now they are getting the room all ready for delivery, so excited this is all moving really fast. It's wonderful, not the miserable and painful horror stories thay I've heard. We are so excited to meet Nolan.They have gotten the room all ready for delivery.
Noon, ready set get ready. The nurse told me not to push. That my body would take care of everything it needs to. I feel like I have electrical cords cords coming out of me in every direction. I have the monitor hooked up in two places, the epidural lines, pitocin, saline, a catheter, and an internal fetal monitor.
1:00 Dr. Hoffman gets there and tells me that I can start pushing. I start pushing, and also pushing the epidural button for more meds as well. The nurse tells me that where they had to put in the epidural line it provided a great block for the contractions, but isn't going to help much for the delivery. Great, I keep pushing the button anyway. The nurse tells me that I need to push down hard three times per contraction. I continue with that even when no one is there to remind me, it doesn't feel like I am making any progress. At some point they tell Keith that he can see the top of the baby head. He looks amazed.
The delivery is kind of a blur. The last few pushes hurt a lot, most of what I remember is that they wanted me to push more than three times per contraction and I didn't want to. I was mentally prepared for three and to bring on the pain more was asking too much. I was telling them I can't push any harder when all of a sudden it was over. There he was. Gray skin and lots of hair, he is beautiful. It took a little bit for him to start crying and opening up those lungs, but he eventually let loose. Keith says he looked shocked. They took Nolan over to the warming table and suctioned his nose and ears and got him cleaned up. Keith stood by his side, but kept looking back at me with concern.
After just a little but they brought him over to me and let me hold him. I feel like I can't even remember it much because of how much else was going on, but it was the best feeling in the world to have his warm little body in my arms.
The Doctor was fixing me up and I told Keith that the Grandma's are probably wanting to see him so he took Nolan out to meet them, then cam back pretty quickly so we could all be together as a family. What a miracle.
