Labor of love

WARNING: This is a post all about the labor and delivery of my daughter, Allison. There may be items in this post that are "gross" (according to my brother). However, I still wanted to document the day because while it may be "gross" to some, it is a miracle to others. Also, this is a day I don't want to forget and I wanted to have it written down somewhere. Might as well be in a place that others can read if they would like. Special thanks to Tim who documented the times of all of the important events of that day.

Once again, my baby loved my uterus. While pregnant I had a feeling that would happen. So, after dealing with pregnancy pains and woes for 39 weeks, I requested to be induced while at my weekly checkup. At that appointment, I was about 1-2 cm dialated. My doctor approved the induction and scheduled me to report to the hospital and be induced on Monday, May 9 at 6pm. Because it was an "early" induction (before 41 weeks) my primary doctor needed to be the delivering doctor and her only shift that week was Monday evening (hence the weird time). We were warned there was a possiblity we would be bumped and would not be able to be induced if there was a large number of women who were in "real" labor at that time.

Monday rolled around and after nervously and anxiously waiting all day, we called at 4pm to find out if we should come in. Sadly, they told me I was being put "on call" and they would call me back before 7:30pm that evening to let me know the status. I was heartbroken. I had a feeling this meant we would not make it in at all that night, which might mean we'd have to wait until my 41st week of pregnancy to be induced. I knew it was fine for the baby to wait that long, but I really didn't want to be pregnant anymore and I had so been looking forward to having the baby on time.

7:30pm came and went and no phone call, so Tim called the hospital. They told him that they were going to bump us and told us to call at 8:00am Tuesday morning to find out if we could come in then. I had already given up that this induction would occur. I decided to be happy that I could sleep soundly for a few more days and was starting to be ok with it.

At 7:45am on Tuesday I was still in bed. I had no intention of jumping up to call the hospital because I had a feeling I wouldn't be getting any good news. Then I heard Kaitlyn yelling "Mommy, your phone is ringing!". I ran out (as well as a hugely pregnant woman can run) and listened to the message. It was the hospital asking me to call. I called and they told us to come in at 9am for the induction. We ran around, got Kaitlyn off to day care, and headed to the hospital.

At 9:30am we were in our labor/delivery room (Room #5) at Sparrow. My mom was meeting us there. My dad also showed up to keep us company. Our first nurse was Diane. She explained that they would probably be giving me a cervix ripening drug to help get my body ready for labor. The nurse said this could also put me into labor, but if not, they would later plan to administer Pitocin. When I was being induced with Kaitlyn, I hadn't been given anything to "ripen my cervix". They had gone straight to the Pitocin last time and everything had worked. But I trusted the doctors and the nurses to do the right thing.

At 10:10am I got my IV line set up and they drew blood. At 10:20am they gave me a Cytotec pill (for cervical ripening). I started to get some crampy pains, but no true contractions. This pain was the pill working. We sat around for a while letting the drug take effect. Nice and BORING.

At 1:00pm, my doctor, Dr. Halvorson, came in to say hi. There was some confusion about what had been administered to me so far. Dr. Halvorson was under the impression I had already received antibiotics (because I had tested positive for Group B Strep and needed to receive antibiotics to prevent passing it on to the baby during delivery). She went to check on everything with the nurses. At 1:30pm, Peggy took over as the nurse. My previous nurse had a woman who was in active labor, so she needed to tend to her. Peggy started me on Penicilin. The goal was for me to receive two doses before the baby was born. I just heard that as "this is gonna be a long day".

At 2:25pm, a resident, Dr. Sheth, came in to check me. I was dilated to 2-3 cms, which was disappointing because I had been there so long, but then again, it was SOME progression. Finally at 3:30

pm, the Pitocin was administered. Pitocin is administred through an IV and is a synthetic form of a naturally occurring hormone, oxytocin. They started my drip low and turned it up 2 notches every hour in the beginning. I started having smaller regular contractions 3 minutes apart but they were very manageable. During that time, Dr. Hawkins came in to introduce herself as the anesthisiologist. She explained she would be ready to give me an epidural whenever I was ready for it. My dad eventually left to go get Kaitlyn as my mom and husband continued to sit around and wait with me. What troopers!

At 6:10pm, Kaitlyn came to visit with my dad! I was so happy to see her! She came over and immediately gave me a new rock. She gives me "Mommy rocks" and sometimes collects one rock for each person in our family. I had already brought 4 rocks she had given me in the past and added this one to the pile. She had her McDonald's Happy Meal with her and sat down to eat chicken nuggets and fries and tell us about her day. Her presence made me SO much happier. She truly brightened the room.

At 7:00pm, Dr. Tucker came in and said hi. She was the same doctor who had delivered Kaitlyn so she promptly came over and gave me and Tim a hug and said hi to Kaitlyn. She had taken over a

s the doctor on call as of 5:00 and it looked like she was going to be delivering this baby too! I started to be in more pain, which meant it was time for Kaitlyn to leave. I really didn't want her to see me in any pain. We said goodbye and my dad took her to our house for the night.

Dr. Tucker came in and broke my water. My contractions started getting strong almost immediately. At 7:20pm, Tamara came in as my new nurse. I started having pain that was extremely distracting and was starting to wear me out so at 8:00pm, Dr. Hawkins put my epidural in place. I didn't need to press the button to administer more. The initial amount was working to quell the pain. I felt some pressure sometimes, other times I didn't feel the contractions at all. However, at around 9:30, Tamara upped my Pitocin and almost IMMEDIATELY I started to have more pain and felt more pressure. I felt the need to press the epidural button. Unfortunately it didn't solve my problem immediately and I had to wait 10 minutes to press it again. I let Tamara know that I was feeling the pain and she said she had been waiting for me to say something. The contractions on the monitor were indicating that I should be getting close. She checked me and I was fully dialted at 10cms. However, the baby had not decended. She was still at a -1 which meant she was still up high.

Despite the epidural, I still had lots of sensation. I could feel each contraction and at times couldn't talk or listen to anyone while they were happening. I gripped the side of the bed during each contraction and tried to remember to breathe through each one. I told Tamara I was having feelings like I needed to p

ush but because the baby was so high, Tamara said we should wait. The baby's heart rate was going way down during each contraction and wasn't bouncing back as much as they would have liked. So they had me switch sides in bed. With the epidural, I could barely move my legs so Tamara and Tim had to help me. It was slightly humorous to see my legs flop around. The baby's heart rate looked ok for a while after the flip, but then looked worse again so I switched again. I flip flopped sides a few times with the same results. They finally decided to put me on oxygen. That seemed to make the baby happier.

At 11:55pm they checked me again and the baby was still up high, but with the heart rate issues and everything else, they decided to have me try pushing. With my first push, they exclaimed that the baby was going to come with just a few pushes. Apparently all she needed was a little help getting down the birth canal! I pushed for a total of 6 minutes (3 sets of pushing) and our baby girl was born at 12:05am on Wednesday, May 11. She had strong cry and looked great (in terms of health). I was so happy. Tim looked like he was in love. And my mom was in tears over the "miracle". Allison Grace was 7lbs and .01oz and she was 18.5 inches long (smaller than Kaitlyn).

We called everyone who needed to be called and spent time with the baby. Allison was making a lot of noise. She was crying at first but then transitioned to moaning with almost every breath. My mom, Tim and I thought this was cute. Tamara did not. After my mom had headed home (around 2:00am) and we were close to heading to our mother/baby room, Tamara explained that sometimes those noises meant the baby was struggling for oxygen. She wanted to bring the baby to the nursery to be monitored. So after some goodbyes, she took Allison to the nursery and Tim and I headed to the mother/baby room around 3:00am.

Tim and I tried to sleep. I'm not sure about him, but I had a horribly tough time sleeping. I was worried, I was sore, I was OVER tired. The nurse checked on me a few times, but the baby stayed in the nursery. In the morning Tim and I both headed to the nursery and said hi to Allison. She was still being monitored but hadn't needed any oxygen. They told us that she might be able to come to our room after the pediatrician from our office showed up.

We had my dad bring Kaitlyn to the hospital during visitor hours (which began at 11:00am). Tim's dad and sister also came to visit at that time. Again, it was WONDERFUL to have Kaitlyn with us. She hung out with us for the majority of the afternoon. We took everyone down to the nursery and held up Allison so everyone could see her through the window. The nurses told us that the pediatrician had checked on her and had hoped to send her to our room in the early afternoon. Finally, around 1:00 (I think) they brought Allison in. Tim's family was still there so they got to see her, although the nurses suggested we be the only ones to hold her. She stayed for about an hour, but then had to go back to the nursery for a feeding and more monitoring.  Later in the afternoon, they returned Allison and said we could keep her in our room. They still had to give her a bath so they planned on taking her back again but until then she would stay with us. This was a relief! My mom visited and also got to see Allison in our room.

That night we had our "special" dinner (an attempt by the hospital at a fancy dinner for the new parents) in our mother/baby room with Allison there with us. She was nice and quiet for the most part and let us eat. :)

The next day we were ready to go home. Even though the baby had only officially been born the day before, since it was at midnight, we felt as if we had spent 2 nights there. And as I said, it was very hard to sleep there. My doctor ok'd me to go home (although I think she thought it would have been better if I stayed for more rest). Allison's doctor wanted to check on her one more time but was pretty sure she could go home too. We waited a little while, had some final tests run, photos taken and then heard Allison was cleared to be discharged.

 We left the hospital at about 12:45pm on Thursday, May 12 to start our lives as a family of four! Well... a family of four humans and one goofy dog. ;)