August 25, 2008

So…I thought I would finally take the time to post about my labor and delivery experience while it is still pretty fresh in my memory, like I could really forget. I guess you could forget little things, but anyway…I didn’t tell every little thing, some things I did, but not everything, and there’s no yucky details.  If you really want to know, just ask and I will share.

So I go to my regularly scheduled weekly appointment Monday August 25 and my appointment was later than usual and the office was busier than usual. My appointment was at 10, but I get there early to try to hurry and get to work. Yes…working and almost 39 weeks pregnant! It was a yuck day that day, mostly because of Hurricane Faye. I get to the doctor’s office and wait and wait and wait. It was taking forever. I was just talking with a few people in the office that I knew. Finally I got called back and did the usual finger prick and pee in the cup. Back out front til there was a room ready. I don’t think I saw Dr. Edwards til 10:30 or 11 and I had been there since about 9. When I finally saw him and he checked me he said, “Wow…you’ve been contracting!” I had dilated to 3cm after being 1cm for over a month and I had also thinned out considerably. And my blood pressure was a little high and I was pretty swollen. He asked me if I could go on to the hospital and I was completely shocked!! I totally wasn’t expecting that. I mean I felt fine. I was even going to go to work. I wasn’t in any pain or anything. The whole time I had been thinking he was just going to tell me he would see me the foll0wing week and I would be over 40 weeks and miserable. But no, he told me basically what I wanted to hear and I couldn’t believe it and was questioning him. He told me to go get my bags and head to the hospital. He would go ahead and call and let them know that I was on my way. So I put my clothes back on and call Chad. He didn’t answer!! I called him again and Ashleigh (she goes to our church and works with Dr. Aswell who also goes to our church) answered on speaker phone. He was at the dentist and I had no clue! I told him that he was sending me to the hospital and all 3 couldn’t believe it! I make a trip to the bank and then head home to finish packing my stuff.


We head to the hospital after making one stop at Arby’s for Chad to get some lunch. I can remember feeling so nervous and anxious about what would take place in the next couple of hours. Would I be in a lot of pain? Could I handle it? Would I have to have a C-Section? Wonder what she will look like? I’M GOING TO BE A MOM????


We made it the hospital around 12:30-1:00 with my parents not to far behind us. We found the nurses station and they take us into the room where everything took place. Right away they made me take all my clothes off and put on the lovely gowns, get in the bed, ask a thousand questions, draw my blood and start iv fluids. The nurse checked me and I was still at 3cm. Then they started the potocin. I think around 3pm Dr. Cynthia Jones, the on call doctor came by and broke my water. I think that was the order. That is probably the weirdest thing ever. I was like this huge stream of warm water gushing out of you. It was crazy. I remember kind of laughing about how it felt and it would just come harder. It didn’t take to long for me to get uncomfortable. I just felt really sharp pains in the lower half of my stomach and pressure in my bottom, almost like I was fixing to let out a lot of gas. It didn’t take too much of that for me to want the epidural! I had to finish the iv fluids before they could give it to me, but they went ahead and let the anesthesiologist know. I remember taking some kind of medicine like pepto to coat my stomach before taking the epidural and that made me sick. I only got sick one other time and I think it was after I had the epidural. I am so glad of all mornings I didn’t eat breakfast. That could’ve been a lot worse. So I was finally able to get the epidural and it is probably the best thing ever. I was really nervous about getting it, but it wasn’t bad at all. It almost like you and your body know that you really want it so you will do whatever it takes to get it. I actually felt relief to sit up on the edge of the bed. So I curl my back up like a shrimp to take the epidural and remember him tapping my back to find the right place. It was taking a little while and he asked me if I was having any back spasms. I said no, I didn’t think so. I started to get nervous that something was going wrong. He just asked me to curl up as much as possible. He kept tapping around and finally found it. It did hurt for just a few minutes, but it really wasn’t that bad. Then he used like an entire roll of tape on my back to make sure it wouldn’t come out. I was fine with that. I didn’t want it to come out either! Now this ended up being the only that Chad didn’t get to watch. He watched everything even the doctor breaking my water and when I got my catheter. He was a little aggravated at the doctor when he didn’t get to watch him put the epidural in, but he got over it and just stood in front of me and held my hand. I think I did about squeeze it off when it was getting the epidural. So after getting the epidural everything was great! I basically laid in the bed and talked to everybody and my nurses. All of my nurses were wonderful! They were all fairly young and so nice. Around 8pm I was at 10cm with just a little bit of cervix left. The nurse told me that we could start practice pushes and move that cervix out of the way. We did that for about an hour. It really wasn’t bad. I remember her laughing at me, because in between contractions I would just lay there and play with my hair. I kept saying, “I can’t believe I am doing this?” Around 9pm the nurse called the doctor and I pushed a couple of times for her. They started getting everything ready, putting the cloth on me and at 9:19pm Olivia was born! It felt like such a relief when she came out. It was an amazing feeling seeing her for the first time. I couldn’t believe that was our baby and that I actually had her! She was beautiful!! She weighed 7lbs 12oz and was 19 ½ inches long.

She is the best baby! I don’t think she could be any better. She is so laid back and easy going. We are so in LOVE with HER.