We arrived at the hospital on Thursday morning, November 18th, at 7:00am. We were admitted, and by 10:00 that morning I had received my insertion of the prostaglandin gel. At 11:00, the nurses asked me to go for a walk, and at noon they checked my progress. I was still only 1.5 cm dilated, and I was only having mild contractions. So, the waiting began. I was convinced that I would be waiting for at least another full day at this point... I WAS WRONG!
My obstetrician came back to check on me at 8:00 that evening, and I was having some pretty serious contractions at this point. I had only dilated .5 of a cm more, so she decided that it would be a good idea to add a pitocin IV drip to get things moving faster. My contractions decided right about this time that they had a mind of their own, and that they did NOT want to have any pitocin added. Thankfully, the printout reading of the intensity of my contractions caused both my doctor and nurse to agree that the pitocin was indeed not needed! Instead, the nurse decided that I needed to get into a hot shower to try to SLOW things down a little bit. After my shower, a bag of penicillin was added to my IV since I had tested as Group B Strep positive. This was also the point in the evening that I asked for some medical intervention for the pain. I very quickly became best friends with the nitrous oxide mask! Ryan kept teasing me and calling me Darth Vador because of the raspy voice that the mask gave me. I didn't care... I wasn't about to put that mask down!
This is when things got really interesting. It was sometime around 10:00 pm, and I wasn't sure what had just happened. I knew it was one of two things... I was either so high off of the nitrous mask that I didn't realize that I was peeing in the bed OR my water had just broken. It was the second option! I was still no further dilated, so I returned to the shower to try once again to gain control of the pain on my own. It was a useless attempt. Once I made it back to the newly cleaned birthing bed, I could only manage to get one word out of my mouth to the nurse between breaths of sucking on the mask. EPIDURAL!
Thankfully, within only a few minutes, the anesthesiologist was walking through my door. At precisely 11:00pm, the epidural was in place and I was ready for my break. With Reagan, once I received the epidural, I was able to sleep for almost 4 hours before it was time for me to push. Not this time. Once the anesthesiologist left, the nurse said she was going to do a quick check of my progress. All I remember is hearing her say in a very loud and shocking voice, "WOW! You are at 9cm and ready to push this baby out." I replied with an expletive that I won't repeat here! So much for taking a nap!
By 11:30pm, my OB was back in the room and was ready to help me deliver. The epidural had not had enough time to take a full numbing effect on me, so I was still able to use my legs. My doctor asked me to stand up on the bed, hold onto the birthing bar, and then to squat over the bed. Easier said than done lady! I held my squat position while pushing for over half an hour before I finally told her that I could NOT do it anymore... my legs had turned to jello!
Once I was again laid back on the bed, all I wanted to do was rest. I was exhausted! But, as my doctor pointed out to me, there was still work to be done. Myers's head had crowned by this point, and, again as my doctor very pointedly told me, it wasn't like I could just leave him there. I very pointedly told her to just get him out of me! I was begging for her to use a local anesthetic and for her to perform an episiotomy. She kept telling me to do it on my own, but my body would not cooperate. After about 15 minutes of pushing with no further reward, she finally made the cut. Moments later, Myers was born!
The next four and a half minutes were the longest minutes of mine and Ryan's lives. Myers was not breathing. He was blue when the doctor placed him on the bed between my legs. Within seconds, she had cut the cord and whisked him away to the other side of the room. Ryan and I could hear both the doctor and nurse working on him, but what we really wanted to hear was the screams of a baby. They went through a series of procedures to try to get him to breathe on his own, and all the while they were bagging him with oxygen. At exactly four minutes and 23 seconds after he was born, they gave him a shot of narcan and within 20 seconds after that he was breathing on his own and screaming like a champion. It was music to our ears!
My obstetrician explained to Ryan and I that the cord had been wrapped around Myers's neck. Also, when I was given the epidural, I had also been given a shot (or possibly two) of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate analgesic similar to but more potent than morphine. It had caused Myers to not be able to breath on his own, and the narcan was administered to remove all traces of the drug from Myers bloodstream.
The doctor handed Myers to Ryan, and after those first few seconds of taking him all in, Ryan announced that we definitely chose the perfect name for him... he looks EXACTLY like my dad!
Finally, Myers was placed in my arms and I was able to hold onto our newest bundle of joy. He immediately began nursing, and has not stopped nursing since! He is a non-stop eater! Born at 12:54am Friday morning, November 19th, 2010, weighing 8 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 21.5 inches long, he is absolutely perfect in every way.
My parents brought Reagan up to the hospital to see us first thing Friday morning, and she is just as proud as can be. She is going to be the best big sister in the world! She wants to hold him constantly, and she is very gentle and protective of him. She came into our room just this very morning and told me, "Go back to sleep Mommy. I've got this. I'll take care of Myers for you."
I'm doing as well as can be expected. I'm very tired and extremely sore, but I'm soaring! Myers and I were released from the hospital on Saturday morning, and we've been settling in at home ever since. I must admit that I had forgotten how often newborns nurse... like every hour on the hour! So I may not be doing a lot of blogging in the next few weeks, but I'll try to stay in touch!
Posts
