6/19/12 We woke up at 5:20 AM, grabbed what we had packed in the baby bag and added the things from our "last minute adds to bag" list. We stopped at McDonalds for a last supper (breakfast..) We got to the hospital at 6:30 AM. Our room was 455A in St. Elizabeth. My cervix was 2 cm and I was 70% effaced. I got an IV a ways up on my right forearm which actually didn't bother me! They placed a cytotech to help with effacement at 7:25AM and then we were free to go on walks coming back about every half hour to check the baby's heart rate. I had lots of painless contractions. At 12:10 they broke my water (snag the bag haha) which basically felt like I peed out the Pacific Ocean. I was between 2 and 3 cm dilated. This is what really kickstarted my contractions, they began to be really painful and were about 4 minutes apart. At 2 PM I was between 3 and 4 cm and 90% effaced. At 4 PM I was 4 cm and 100% effaced. We snuck quite a bit of food throughout the day haha, mostly crackers. I also took advantage of the jacuzzi tub, but that got uncomfortable after a while as well. At 5:30 I was 5 cm and I started to get really shaky. We had to plug my IV line into some phenylephrine in order to keep my blood pressure up. I had really wanted to avoid getting an epidural but I was in sooo much pain so at 6:02 PM I got an epidural. It was so easy and painless I don't know why I was so scared, I wish I had gotten one earlier. My epidural was at 12, whatever that means. At 6:35, I got a catheter which was a little uncomfortable being put in but wasn't bad once it was there. I was almost 6 cm dilated. My contractions were 2.5 minutes apart and during contractions your head was at a 0 station. 7:40 my blood pressure was 94/46. At 8:35 PM the epidural was changed to 8 and I was between 6 and 7 cm. At 9:10 I was between 7 and 8 cm. His heart rate was low and so they put me on the oxygen mask every now and then which seemed to help his heart rate go back up. They did a test to see how high up the epidural has gone where they take a little wet (or cold I can't remember) stick and see how high up you can feel it. On my left side I could feel it above my chest! 11 PM I was between 9 and 10 cm and I got the shakys really bad again. I also got more blood pressure medicine.
6/20/12 At 12:50 AM We switched to ephedrine to help to maintain my blood pressure which was 88/47. I was 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit and almost 10 cm. My labor nurse was amaaazing. She was so nice and supportive, it makes me want to become a labor nurse! At 1:50 I was 10 cm dilated and we started pushing. At 2 AM we used pitocin to help hurry things along. Pushing was quite possibly the worst experience of my life. It was soo painful, the epidural didn't even seem to be helping this portion of it. We tried a few different positions. During each contraction I would push for ten seconds, take a deep breath, push for 10 seconds, deep breath, push for 10 seconds. When my OBGYN came he used forceps which caused more pain than I thought humanly possible. The first time it didn't work and he said that if the next time he couldn't get the baby out we were going to have to do a c-section because the baby had been in the birth canal for too long and it was putting a lot of stress on the baby. The second time he yanked so hard I was afraid he was going to take your poor head off. BUT the doctor got you out at 3:52 AM. Chris cut the umbilical cord and my heart just melted as soon as the doctor laid you on my chest. You looked like you were covered in old Brie cheese but that was absolutely fine with me. I didn't even noticed getting stitched up ( I tore in four directions..ouch!) I was so entranced by sweet little Dominic. You were 8 lbs 7 oz..alot more than the 6 pounder we had been expecting! You were also 21.5 inches long. You had some cuts on your little head from the forceps and some bruising on your face :( One of the cuts on your head is still a scab (currently 4 months). When people would ask what happened Chris would tell people that you got in a fight with another baby at the nursery haha I have began to forget a lot of the labor, I think that is God's way of trying to make sure that people don't only have one baby. I can't even really remember how painful it is! It was totally worth it anyway :)
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| His poor puffy eye :( |
