The Story Goes... Part 1

Hello all! It has been nearly 6 weeks since my beautiful daughter came into this world... and I was thinking its time I get back on the blogging wagon. :) I am home all the time and yet I still don't find the time to blog. Its a shame and I apologize.

I was thinking I would fill you in on the birth story (even though I'm sure anyone who reads my blog is already aware of the days events...) Well, I want to preface this with saying that I absolutely loved it and I am really sad that I will never again get to feel labor or attempt to push out another one of my stubborn babies. The story goes like this: So I went in on Sunday night 11/8 to get my cervidil and the plan was to take out the cervidil in the morning and start my pitocin. So I get to the hospital and my wonderful friend Shellie is there to greet me and be my nurse (how lucky am I??!!). She told me the plan for the night which was pretty much nothing.. a little cervidil, a little monitoring and then attempt to get some good rest for the long day I had in front of me. Shellie did notify me, however, that anytime she gives someone cervidil- their water usually breaks around 3am. I guess that normally your water doesn't break and you don't usually go into labor- strong cramping yes, labor no. But Shellie has her way with things and she has a habit of knocking us preggos into labor and breaking our water. :) Also.. did you know that cervidil is like a long piece of scratchy paper? All this time I thought it was some type of cream or gel- who knew! And also that the cervidil is removed after 12 hours- what the heck?! I also thought that business stayed in you and it just dissolved. Let me tell you- I learned a lot during my hospital stay! So I get my cervidil around 8ish at night and I had to lay in bed for a couple hours and be monitored. Whenever the cervidil is placed you have to lay in bed for 2 hours ( or so.. I can't remember the exact amount of time). You can't even get up to go potty. Also, they don't let you eat or drink during those 2 hours either. So after 2 hours I was able to get up and use the restroom and such, but I had to continue to be monitored via fetal monitor. It was nice to be able to hear Addies heartbeat all the time... but it was a bit loud to try and sleep to. Joey had went and got me a little something to eat and my parents and Joeys parents stayed to keep me company. It was nice. :) Shellie had went home to get some rest since she was going to be my nurse in the morning and the charge nurse took over my care. Around 11:30 Joey decided to head home to try and get some rest and I was suppose to do the same.... I just kept laying there and I could not get comfortable. Those birthing beds are brutal! They are stiff and lumpy. I also kept having to go pee, those fluids were just going right through me. I had been warned about the potential of pretty bad cramping and I definitely had started to notice it around 12:30ish. They didn't help with the sleeping and trying to get comfortable.. I had been offered Ambien or Morphine (what!! Morphine.. really.. just to help me sleep. Oh heavens!) to help me get some rest since Cervidil can cause cramping and such, but I declined. I didn't want anything making me extra tired in the morning and I knew I wasn't going to be able to get a full 8 hours of sleep since the cervidil was going to be removed around 5:30 in the morning or so. That meant Ambien was out and that left me with Morphine. I would have been willing to take morphine if I wanted to make my baby tired and pretend to be a druggy... but I decided I would just be normal and take nothing.. since I'm not a drug seeker. :) So the cramping kept getting a little bit stronger and at times I would look at the monitor to see if it was a contraction. I had NO CLUE how to read the monitor so I would always see 0 and assume I was just being dramatic and I needed to go to sleep. After going potty for the 20th time I decided I should just try to rest in the recliner. I thought that would be a little more comfortable than my bed. I also decided to put on some pants. I only had on my hospital gown and I thought maybe I wasn't able to sleep because I was going camando (Im not a fan of not wearing something on my lower half). I went pee and when I did I felt something funny- like a gas bubble had come down but couldn't come out... it was weird. I then went over to the recliner and leaned back in the chair and then pop. I felt something really funny (down there). I went to the bathroom and when I sat down to pee a big gush came out. I was pretty sure my water had just broke. The water was kinda cloudy and it definitely didn't look like urine. However, I thought it was just wishful thinking, but I thought I should call the nurse in just in case. When she asked what I needed I said "Um.. this is probably really stupid, but I think my water just broke". She came in and looked in the toilet and decided she should check me, and if water leaked out afterward then my water had definitely broken. She checked me and YAY! My water had broken!! I always wanted to know what it felt like. After that the rest of the night if I moved very much more would come out, or if I had a contraction more would come out. It felt really funny.. like I was peeing my pants or something. Needless to say, I was now in active labor- HIP HIP HOORAY! The contractions started coming about 5 minutes apart and were about a 3 on the pain scale. I called Joey around 2:30ish and let him know my water had broken at 1:45. He asked if he should come up and I hesitantly said "No, I guess I will just call you if they get stronger". Around 3:45 they were getting stronger and I felt like they were back to back. The nurse said they were about every 2-3 minutes apart. I was just starting to think I wanted to call Joey and ask if he would come up- and then he walked in the door. YAY! I knew he couldn't do much to help, but I just wanted him there to sit with me. The contractions continued and just kept getting stronger. Finally at about 5:30 I asked the nurse to come check me because I felt like there was no break between contractions and they were really strong. The nurse said "I saw you were having some pretty good contractions, but I didn't want to bother you because I thought you were sleeping". Im glad she agreed that the contractions were "pretty good". :) She checked me and said I was a good 2 cm dilated. WHAT! Only a 2?! Yikes- I had a long day ahead of me. She offered me IV pain medication but I definitely wanted to hold out for the epidural. I didn't want anything that would affect my dear Addie! Joey and I went for a walk and then when I came back to the room my nurse offered me my epidural (by now it was close to 6:30). I asked if it was ok to get it since I was only a 2 and she had previously said most wait until they were a 4 and she said "Oh ya, usually people wait until they are a 4 because their water hasn't broken yet. Since your water has broken you are in active labor and can get one anytime". She also said that since I was having consistent contractions I would be fine to get one. At about 5:45 my wonderful friend Shellie showed back up so she was there for the epidural. Next- in comes the anesthesiologist. I got the epidural at about 7am. Can you say AMAZING! WOW!! He did such a great job!! When I got the epidural I rated my pain at an 8-9 and within a minute it was back to a 3.. then a 0. I can't even describe the feeling- pure bliss. I could barely keep my eyes open I felt so good. Any ache or pain I had previously had vanished. I didn't even realize how many aches I had until they were gone. I stayed in this blissful state for almost 2 hours- after that I started to feel pressure with every contraction.

I know this has been a long read- so I am going to stop here and pick back up a little bit later. :)