My baby bump Sunday morning.
Jordan's baby bump Sunday morning.
We went into the hospital at 8pm on Sunday, July 17th with the plan to induce me via foley bulb. It was inserted around 10pm and I was supposed to sleep with it, but it fell out by 12am. Rather than retry (it took 4 tries to get it in correctly in the first place), my doctor opted to let us sleep the night and if needed, retry the bulb in the morning. Although between the uncomfortable recliner or bench that Jordan could choose to sleep from and the fact that I was getting checked every half hour or so, we didn't get much sleep. The best sleep we got all night was 5am-6:30am.
The next morning (Monday) my doctor came around 8am. After an evaluation, he found that the bulb must have done the trick because I was already 3cm dilated so we started with the Pitocin.
I've heard horror stories about the pain of contractions brought on by Pitocin, so I was surprised when the morning seemed to go by pretty easy. By 1pm my nurse suggested that if I wanted an epidural now was the time to get it. I was hardly feeling any discomfort from my contractions, but I didn't want to risk missing out on the chance of getting the epi so we went ahead with it. I was pretty nervous about getting the epidural inserted and that was the worst part up until that point. As soon as I saw the anesthesiologist enter the room I started to cry. I'm not even sure why, but I think I was just overwhelmed and a little scared. The epidural honestly was not as bad as I thought it would be. It helped that I never looked at the needle or anything the anesthesiologist brought with him and Jordan held my hands and put his head against mine to keep me calm. Within minutes I was feeling great and loving life, not feeling a single contraction.
At 3pm my doctor broke my water to get things going since it didn't seem to be happening on it's own. I was disappointed to hear that I was only dilated 4cm at that point, maybe 5. That's when things turned a bit sour.
Not too long after the doctor broke my water I gradually started feeling discomfort and what felt like my contractions coming back around 4pm. Mild pain and discomfort at first, but within an hour it was obvious that my epidural must have worn off because I was feeling every intense, and incredibly painful contraction. The nurses tried bumping the epidural a few times with no relief. They suggested that perhaps the contractions had gotten more gradual and more intense than the epidural could keep up with. I remember crying every time a contraction came. I couldn't even speak. I was squeezing Jordan's hands so tightly I'm surprised I didn't break any fingers. I honestly have never felt pain like that before, and I feared that I was going to spend the rest of the day suffering through them.
After what felt like the longest, most painful hour of my life, the anesthesiologist finally came and confirmed that my original epidural must have slipped in my back slightly, causing it to fail. The good news was that he was going to remove it and insert a new one. 10 minutes later, after nearly two hours without any epidural, I felt like a new woman. I was numb and aside from the 'epidural shakes' everything was great again.
The Pitocin was being bumped every hour or so along with my epidural every few hours. For the rest of the evening we just hung out and waited. It seemed like I was dilating so slowly and the time seemed to drag on. We watched the Red Sox and CNN. We flipped through magazines and played around on our iPhones, taking silly photos and texting updates to our family and friends. We were even able to nap on and off for a little. What started out as my doctor expecting her by dinner time, turned to midnight, and by 11pm we knew that was even too early.
By 11:30 I started feeling intense pressure and it felt like things were finally progressing. The only problem was that I was still only dilated 7-8cm. For the next hour and a half we hung on. The contractions were getting more and more intense as the time passed, but it was more incredible pressure and discomfort than pain. I was once again squeezing Jordan's poor fingers with each contraction. The only way I could get through them was counting the amount of breaths it took for it to pass (4, if you were wondering). By 1am they were pretty intense and I had the biggest urge to push, and I still was only at 9cm.
By the time 1:30am came and the nurse stopped to check in on me, I told her there was no way I could wait any longer. I needed to push. She checked and after what felt like the longest day of our lives I was finally at 10cm. My doctor was called and somehow it seemed to take him 2 minutes to drive the the hospital and appear in the room. I had never been so happy to see him. It was time to push.
The only ones in the room were me, Jordan, my doctor and the nurse. The lights were so dim it was nearly dark in the room. Jordan and the nurse each supported one leg and the doctor instructed me to start pushing. After a few pushes my doctor urged me to rest for a few, but I was so determined that after over 24 hours of long, slow labor, I was ready to meet our girl. I didn't want to rest, I just wanted her. So I continued.
20 minutes of pushing later, Lucy James arrived at 1:53am on Tuesday, July 19th.
It was so surreal when she was immediately placed on my chest. I had been thinking about that moment throughout my entire pregnancy, but never could have imagined what it felt like. Jordan and I both immediately fell in love with her. We took turns holding her, kissing her, and loving her before she was whisked off to be checked, measured and cleaned up.
What felt the longest day of our life was so worth it at that moment. We didn't get to our room until close to 5am that morning and we only slept until around 7am. Between the excitement of our daughter and the nurses constantly checking me and Lucy, sleep didn't seem to be a option. But we didn't care. We finally had our perfect little girl and that was all that mattered.
We've been so in love ever since.
I love this. The nurse put her footprints on Jordan's t-shirt. We haven't decided yet what we want to do with the shirt, but we will keep you posted.
