Now, if you're ready to read a novelette on a blog, enjoy our birth story. :)
At 39 weeks, we went in for an elective induction. We saw Dr. Hinton the day before (Wednesday) and I asked what her thoughts were on inducing on Claire's due date, Thanksgiving Day, if she wasn't here by then. She said something along the lines of "we might not be able to do it then, so why wait that long?" She then told us that we could be induced Friday, Monday or Tuesday because we had made it to 39 weeks, and we jumped on that. Dr. Hinton was on call for Friday, so we said, "absolutely for Friday!" I asked many a time if she thought this was a good idea, if she thought I was forcing myself to have a c-section and if she thought I should just wait. She told me that she thought my cervix was good to go, that the baby is just fine from a health stand point and that she would do this with her own children. To help move things along, she went ahead and stripped my membranes to see if that helped start labor. I did have a few contractions. After that appointment we called our families and did things around the house to get ready for baby girl who was really coming very soon!
On Thursday, exactly 39 weeks, I slept in as much as I could. I woke up with cramps, nausea, and needing to use the restroom all night. Mix that with a racing mind and you don't get the best night of sleep. I got up and threw on some clothes so that I could have breakfast at briar rose with Leslie and AJ. We had a divine cinnamon roll with some decaf coffee and just a good talk. When I got home, Brody and I went for a quick last walk just the 2 of us while I talked to my sister. At lunch, Jamie and Millie came over. Millie is miss personality and I love to watch her. Jamie brought me cookies and we just sat and talked and Jamie cried (of course) because she's so excited about baby Claire! Before she left she prayed for us, and that means the world to me. When they left I got the phone call about us needing to check in that afternoon at 4:30. I finished a load of laundry, took out the trash, ran the dishwasher and tried to rest. Andrew got home around 2:15. He blew off the drive way where leaves were collecting. We both showered at the house and finished getting everything ready for our hospital stay. I took my final weekly picture and a couple of bare belly pics to remember. Around 4:00, we took Brody to his favorite place, the Flangan's. We were happy to know that he will be having tons of fun while we were working on meeting his sister. Jeremy also prayed for us, and then we made our way to the hospital!
We got to the hospital and checked in at the front desk. I had to correct my SSN, but everything was pretty smooth. We went to our room, room 26, and Nurse Donna checked me (still a 2), asked some questions and went over consent forms. *note: if you have a living will, bring a copy!* She was not super thrilled that we were having an elective induction and wasn't afraid to show that on her face. Nurse Vanessa came in and hooked up the IV. That hurt! I've had a lot of shots, but I guess the weird spot where she put it into my arm just made it painful. She also had to ask a lot of questions and what not. By the time she was done, we were hearing Claire's heartbeat, I had my first dose of Cytotec to help soften my cervix, had the IV fluids and my blood pressure was constantly being monitored. I was even showing contractions already!
Around 6:30 Blake and Leslie brought us pizza and then stayed and hung around for a little while. I'm so glad they did because contractions were getting stronger and they were keeping my mind off of them. They started coming every 3-5 minutes and I would say the pain was about a 4/5. It just felt like a really bad cramp. They left around 9, and I got up to use the restroom and wash my face. The contractions kind of slowed down after that which discouraged me a little, but the new nightshift nurse, Page, assured me that it's all normal! Andrew and I got ready for bed, he made up his special bed, and I took some ambien around 10:00 (and that did not help me sleep).
Page, the nurse, came in around 12:00am to do a cervical exam. She said I was still a 2 but she could feel a little change. I was discouraged, but she said it's totally normal. I took the next dose of Cytotec and she helped me get cozy in the bed by laying on my side. Miss Claire decided that right when mama needed some rest she would stay away from the monitors, so the nurses kept having to come in to readjust to keep a good monitor on her. I think from 12.30-4:30 I got some sleep...I don't really know how much! The contractions were getting stronger again and I just kept feeling like I needed to pee, and peeing was quite the experience because I had to unplug all the monitors and wheel in my IV.
Around 6:00am on Friday, Page checked my cervix and found that I was a 3 (almost a 4). She was excited that the pills worked and was ready to start me on Pitocin. We got that hooked up through the IV and Dr. Hinton came in to talk to us. So happy that she was there!!! We met our new nurse Jodi. They told us that they would keep checking me and and monitoring things.
This next part is where things started getting busy. I was progressing and seeing nurses a lot. We had several visitors. The 12 hours of labor FLEW by, so I just wrote things down as a "list".
- Doug and Cherri arrived around 8:45
- Epidural at 9:00. **I wasn't really ready for the epidural when I got it. My pain level was not bad at.all. The nurse explained to me that the anesthesiologist was making his rounds to give epidurals that morning before going to the surgeries. She thought it would be best for me to go ahead and get it while he was available instead of waiting until I was in a ton of pain, and then have to wait on the doc for an hour or more. So, I went ahead and got it and it.hurt. You aren't supposed to move when they poke you, but I couldn't help but flinch. I wish I had waited.**
- Mom and dad arrive around 9:30
- Water broken by Doc at 12:15. Still a 4, and 70%.
- At a 6 and 90% by 1:15 and she was down to a -1 station.
- At 8 and 100% by 2:15.
- At a 10 with an "anterior lip" (one part of my cervix was still too thick) by 4:40. She was at 0 station. Jodi wanted me to wait another 20-30 minutes and get checked again.
- Around 6:00 I called the nurses station and told them I was feeling a lot of pressure. A different nurse checked me because Jodi was with another patient, and we were ready! Claire was at a +2!
- Satrted pushing around 6:00 with a different nurse and Jodi came in around 6:15/6:20
- Pushed on (almost) every contraction for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Andrew averaged it to be around 250 pushes! My belly was so round that the monitor wouldn't stay on to monitor contractions, so they would ask me when I could feel one coming and then told me to take a deep breath and push for 10 seconds. I would lay back for just enough time to take a deep breath and then push again. Andrew was so helpful while I was pushing. He either helped push my back, he held a towel behind Jodi and pulled me up or pushed my leg back. I COULD NOT have done it without his help. For real.
- Claire's head was so big that first she couldn't pass under my pelvic bone and then she couldn't get past 2 side pelvic bones. It took a LOT of stretching from Jodi and Dr. Hinton and a LOT of pushing from mama (and daddy who helped tremendously by pushing on my back or pulling me with a towel)!
- Around 8:00, Dr. Hinton decided that she would like to try using the vacuum, forceps or a c-section. Baby girl just wouldn't get past those bones. I agreed to try the vacuum. While she was prepping that, I decided to push some more just to try. I asked if I could keep pushing and I got the go ahead. I had a nurse at each leg pushing pushing back, Andrew helping with my back, a nurse holding to towel and helping to pull me, and wouldn't you know it...she decided to come out without the vacuum!!!! We were all so shocked and SO HAPPY!!!!! She was born at 8:12 pm.
- She came straight to my chest and Andrew cut the cord. Then she went to get wiped off. Andrew went with her, though he wanted to stay with me. The nursery nurses were precious talking about her and Andrew was the sweetest! She weighed 8 pounds and 3 ounces and was 20 inches long (although that was a hard stat to check because sister's cone head is significant). The APGAR scores were 8 and 9. While that was happening, I delivered the placenta (which felt so good, such a big final pressure release), got stitched in 3 places, 2 inside and an episiotomy outside. Andrew finally got to hold her and brought her by me.
(I get teary every time I look at this. It was Andrew's first time to touch his baby girl.)
We talked to the nurses and doctors for a while. We asked them to tell friends and family who were waiting outside the whole time that she was here and healthy, but we wanted to tell them her stats. We took our first family picture and then I tried to feed her. She maybe sucked a couple of times and then was disinterested. After I tried, our families came in and we ooo'd and aww'd over her. It was Meme, Poppi, Lolly, Papa, Lyndsy and Matt. After they looked for a while, they went to get some dinner (it was 9:30) and the nursery took the baby. Nurse Jessica (who took Jodi's place, but was there during most of the delivery) came to help me out of the bed and to the bathroom to get cleaned up. That was a mess, but Jessica was great! Our parents came back with dinner for us (mind you, I hadn't had anything to eat since midnight)! We had sushi! The friends came back by after that. They stayed long enough to hear her first cry and then went to eat. They had to come back by and meet her! It was the Duffields, Carter's, and Snelson's. Everyone left before midnight. I tried to nurse Claire again who still wasn't all that interested, and then she went to spend the night on the nursery. I still didn't get much sleep because I was so excited, but it was nice to rest and recover without having to worry about being up with her. They brought her in to me to try and nurse a couple of times and I do think she latched a little. I didn't get much help from anyone during this time which was frustrating.
Recovery:
We spent Saturday and Sunday morning in the hospital. We had visitors and I got some rest. Mom helped me with my first shower and it was nice to be in the hospital bed next to the restroom those first few days. I tried my hardest to get up and walk around. It's tough when you're sore and walking with an ice pack in your underwear, but I was told it can help with the recovery process. I stayed current on taking Ibprofen and Percocet to manage the pain. They gave me a daily vitamin and stool softener as well.
Every time I used the bathroom I would have to change my "dressing". I had amazing recovery underwear that would hold a ginormous diaper sized pad. This pad would hold tucks pads. After I used the bathroom, I would clean with a squirt bottle and wipe with a damp cloth. I sprayed with dermoplast medicated spray, applied the pad and pulled up the underwear. I wore only nursing gowns or nursing tops with large pants. I write this because it's stuff some don't tell you! Thankfully, I had friends warn me in advance about all of this so I felt (mentally) prepared.
