So as promised here is the story of our little lady's birth. Warning it is very long!
I stopped working a couple of days after I was 36 weeks pregnant which just happened to make my first day of maternity leave Labor Day weekend. Thankfully there was no labor on labor day for me. My last couple of weeks of work were fairly uncomfortable so I just figured this was what I was in for for the rest of my pregnancy but once I was on maternity leave most of the uncomfortableness subsided due to the extra rest I was able to get. That was a nice surprise.
She was due on September 25th but that date came and went with no signs of labor. I wasn't super uncomfortable so I wasn't in any rush for her to make an appearance but the just waiting was a little bit stressful for the planner nature in me. I went to the doctor at 40 weeks and they said everything looked fine and I was not dilated at all though I could go into labor at any time. They set me an appointment at 41 weeks to see the doctor and do a non-stress test and then said hope we don't see you. They also had us set up a tentative induction date just in case it came to that.
Went back at 41 weeks and everything still looked fine and still no signs of labor. Set another non-stress test for a couple days later and if I still hadn't had the baby by then and the tests still looked fine then my induction would be on the date we chose. We chose Sunday October 6th as our induction date which would make me 41 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Since we knew inductions usually took some time we picked this date knowing it would give us the best chance of her being born on October 7th which also happened to be my husband's birthday. All the tests were fine so on Sunday October 6th we got up nice and early and headed to the hospital for my 7 AM induction.
We got all checked in and since they were pretty full in labor and delivery we had to be in a triage room for the first few hours of the induction. Triage rooms can have 2 people in them but we were the only ones in the room. I got all checked out, monitors hooked up and my IV was set up but not hooked up to anything yet. They did a check and I was still not dilated at all and was not having any contractions so they gave me the first dose of a pill to help start labor at 10 AM and at this point they hooked the IV up too to some saline to keep me hydrated. If I had been dilated at all there would have been some choices/options as to how to proceed with the induction but since I was not dilated at all there were no choices to be made at this point.
The pill can be given every 4 hours up to 6 times so at 2 PM I got the second dose of the pill. Sometime before the second pill I was moved to our actual regular delivery room. All I felt during those first two doses of the pill were some cramps that just felt like period cramps. Not super bad cramps but enough to feel them. Since nothing exciting was going on my husband left for a little while to go get us some food since I was still allowed to eat whatever I wanted. At 6 PM I got another does of the medicine and continued waiting for labor to start or really just anything besides a few cramps to happen.
The cramps with the third dose of medicine were a little more noticeable but still nothing more than period cramps. They can give up to 6 doses of the medication but when it was time to give the 4th dose at 10 PM the midwife came in and told us they couldn't give me any more of the medicine because during the 3rd dose the baby's heart rate had dipped a little bit.
We were told that the two options at that point were to either have a balloon inserted to help dilate me and start a low level of pitocin or just starting the pitocin with option 1 being the preferred option. I had not heard good things about the balloon option so I was not exactly excited that it was being presented as the next best step. To do the balloon you have to be 1 centimeter dilated and when they checked I was still not even at 1 centimeter so there was again no decision to be made.
They started the pitocin and I tried to get some sleep without too much success. The beds are designed for labor not really designed for comfortable sleeping so my hips were killing me. We tired to make it better with lots of pillows and towels and eventually one of the nurses said they had egg crate mattress toppers we would use and that made it much better. My IV was also bothering me quite a bit so in the middle of the night they took it out and moved it to my other hand. It was rough night but eventually I got a bit of sleep.
The next morning they checked me again and while my cervix was softening I was still not at 1 centimeter dilated so they just continued to slowly up my dose of pitocin. The contractions were starting to be a bit uncomfortable but nowhere near unbearable. Sometime in the early afternoon they checked me again and I was finally 1 centimeter dilated. This meant I could get the foley balloon inserted.
After talking to a different midwife than the one we had talked to the night before and telling her our concerns with it often not being very effective and the pain associated with the insertion she was able to give us options/solutions that made us more comfortable using the balloon as the next step. She confirmed our thoughts that the insertion and first hour or so of having the balloon are really not comfortable but that they could give me some pain medication before starting. I got a dose of fentanyl before they inserted the balloon and I was very happy with my decision. Funny thing about this is that during my childbirth class fentanyl was the type of medicine that I thought I probably wouldn't want and it ended up being the first pain medicine I had. I didn't think I would want it because it can only be given early in labor because it relaxes you and makes you sleepy which can also make the baby sleepy. Just goes to show that you can have all the plans you want but need to keep an open mind.
After giving me the fentanyl they put the ballon in and said it usually takes 6-12 hours for it to dilate you to 3-4 centimeters and once it does the balloon will just fall out. Since the fentanyl just basically makes you feel very relaxed for an hour or so I decided to take advantage of that feeling and sleep while the medicine was in my system while the balloon did its work. My husband and I both took much needed naps for about an hour and a half and then I woke up and needed to use the bathroom though my husband was still asleep.
I called the nurse and they helped me get to the bathroom with all my cords and such. Not sure if it was due to the ballon or the pain meds or just labor but my bladder felt full but my body wasn't letting me empty it so I decided ok I will just go back to the bed for a bit and try again later. As I was walking towards the door of the bathroom the balloon (and a bunch of blood) fell onto the bathroom floor. I got to the bathroom door and called out to wake my husband up and told him to get the nurse. I also told him don't come in or look into the bathroom because it looked like a crime scene in there and I wasn't sure if it would freak him out. It took less than 2 hours for the balloon to fall out so after all the negative stuff we had heard about this procedure it actually worked really well and really quickly for me.
Since I was now presumably 3 or 4 centimeters dilated the nurse said I could be unhooked from all the machines for an hour or so to take a shower and then eat dinner before getting all hooked up again. A shower sounded great so I got unhooked, put a glove over my IV port and took a nice long shower.
After the shower I got all dried off and was about to put a clean hospital gown on when there was a big whoosh of water on the floor because my water broke. It happened exactly how it does in the movies! Again I went to the bathroom door and told me husband to call the nurse. From the time they put the balloon in until the time my water broke was less than 3 hours so things were moving along. At this point it was about 5 PM or so on the 7th so I had been in the hospital a day and a half already.
I didn't get to stay off the monitors once my water broke but I did get to eat dinner. After dinner the pain started to get pretty bad and I decided to have another dose of fentanyl to help with the pain. Around 10 PM I decided to get the epidural. We didn't know how long it would take the anesthesiologist to get there so I opted to get one more dose of fentanyl to tide me over until the epidural since they work differently and can be used at the same time. The anesthesiologist actually got there a few minutes after the last does of fentanyl so I probably didn't need it but it made getting the epidural painless.
The epidural took effect and it was much more comfortable. I was still only about 4 centimeters dilated so I had a ways to go. We decided to try and get some rest before the main event and by 2 AM I was dilated 6 centimeters and by a little before 7 AM on Tuesday the 8th I was 9 centimeters dilated.
Finally mid morning it was time to push. At this point I had been in the hospital over 48 hour and it had been right about 48 hours since they started the induction process so I was excited it was time to meet our baby girl.
I pushed and pushed and pushed some more and still no baby. After 3 and a half hours of pushing (at the time I had no long I had been pushing) they said the baby hadn't made any progress in the last hour so my two options were to keep pushing and use either suction or forceps to see if we could help her or to have a c-section.
At this point I was absolutely exhausted since I had been pushing for 3 1/2 hours and was also totally over people touching and checking me so my husband and I decided it was time for a c-section. As soon as I made the decision I signed paperwork and they started prepping me for surgery. I would have liked to have a few minutes to catch my breath and stop crying but everything from this point on seemed to be rush rush rush.
I went into the operating room to be prepped for surgery and my husband couldn't come with me until I was all ready for surgery. It seemed like I was in there forever before my husband was able to join me. I was still having contractions even while they were prepping me and my back was killing me so much that I couldn't even lay flat on the table so they had to give me some pain meds during the prep. Near the end of the prep they were putting up the curtain to block me from seeing the actual surgery and it was so close to my face that it was against my nose. I always had seen it kind of at chest level but they said this is where it had to be. Fortunately my husband came in right after that and was able to hold it so the curtain wasn't actually touching my face.
They started the c-section and while I could feel it I didn't feel pain at the beginning. They got my baby girl out and I got to see her for just a minute before they took her to the other side of the room to do whatever they do. At this point I was starting to feel more pain and they had to up the dose of medicine which started to make me dizzy and almost like I was hallucinating. All was fine with the baby so she and my husband headed off to the recovery room so he could do skin to skin with her while I was getting sewn up. I was so full of medicine during this part of the surgery that I don't remember exactly what happened but I remember thinking I was dying though they finally finished sewing me up and I started to feel better as the medicine started to wear off.
I got wheeled to the recovery room where my husband and baby girl were waiting for me and I was so happy to see them and hold my beautiful girl. I had to wait just a minute before I got to hold her because they were taking her footprints but soon she was in my arms. As expected she was the most beautiful little thing I had ever seen and I was so in love.
So 56 hours after we got to the hospital we had our little girl at 3:10 PM. She was happy and healthy which is all you can ask for. She was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long so even at almost 42 weeks she was a petite little thing. We sent out a quick text to our families while we were in the recovery room since they knew I had gone in for the c-section and we thought they might be getting worried but other than that we just soaked up our time with our little girl.
After we were moved into our room we got settled and gave our families the okay to come visit. My sister in North Carolina was actually the first one to "meet" our little girl since we had to Facetime her instead of her getting to visit in person. Everyone arrived and ooood and ahhd over her. That first few hours was a blur but I was so happy.
If you made it to the end of this congratulations!
This week was my second week back at work from maternity leave. While my office is very mom/family friendly and has its own lactation room for pumping I was still nervous about going back to work and having to leave my baby girl. A silver lining to all of this sheltering in place is that because I am working from home I am still with my baby. I am home to feed her when she is hungry so I don't have to worry about pumping or using my freezer supply of milk yet.
Working from home with an almost 6 month old is interesting but we are working on her being able to play independently so my husband and I can get some work done but there is a lot of taking turns being in charge of her. She is almost mobile so even when she is playing on the floor someone has to be nearby in case she gets herself into a position she can't get out of or gets near the edge and could hit her head on the floor. We have a play area thing for her ordered and it arrives next week so then she will be a little more safely contained. 
