The last week of my pregnancy was miserable. I'm sure many of you can empathize. My face and feet were so puffy, I wasn't getting any sleep, my hips were sore, and I couldn't walk around for very long without getting exhausted. I just wanted my baby to come!
He was due Tuesday, March 26th. I had been so prepared that there was literally not a single thing left to do. For three whole weeks we had our bags packed, baby bed set up, and car seat in the car. I made 20 freezer meals. Every 3 days we deep cleaned the apartment. We ended up cleaning about 7 times—our apartment was spotless. All my preparedness did not pay off, it just made the waiting that much harder! My doctor was certain I would deliver early, and continued to tell me so at each appointment.
But she was wrong.
My due date came and went, and we went to see the doctor on Friday, the 29th. She checked me again, and of course, no progress. My mom was arriving the next day and could only stay a week, so we decided to set a date to be induced. I was told to check into the hospital the night of Monday, April 1st, and then they would induce me in the morning. This was a good plan to me. It gave me a good 3 days to get things going on my own but it still ensured that both my mom and Lizzy still be in town for the baby. Lizzy is my close friend who had flown into Austin just to take pictures of the birth and of my baby once he was born (http://lizzyjeanphotography.com). She had already been in town for a week and a day, and still, no baby! So this was another great reason to be induced.
Despite me feeling very uncomfortable, we had a great weekend. My mom came into town with my little brother and sister. We spent Easter Sunday as a family, which included a large breakfast, Easter baskets, pre-church lounging and movie, church, and then dinner at my in-laws. It was nice spending so much time with the family.
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| Can you tell I look absolutely miserable? |
About to go to the hospital
We checked into the hospital at 6:30pm Monday night. It took a while to get me all set up, and it was 8 o'clock before the nurse came in with the Cervidil. Cervidil is like a little pill that would ripen my cervix, making it soft and ready for the induction the next day. Before the nurse put it in she checked me. I was at a 3! I had been stuck at a 1.5 for 3 weeks, even after getting my membranes stripped and doing everything in the book to get labor started. Glen and I were both surprised since just a couple days earlier I had made no progress. She also said that my cervix was very soft, and didn't know if it could even get any softer.
The nurse sat and thought for a long time. This ended up being a very pivotal moment in our delivery story. She was trying to decide whether or not to insert the Cervidil, considering the fact that I was dilated to a 3 already. Usually they would use Cervidil on someone who was not dilated at all, and at the most, dilated to a 2. But at the time she did not seem to know that. (She got in trouble after, so she definitely knows now!) She spoke her thoughts aloud, wondering what the doctor would tell her to do if she asked him. I could tell she didn't like asking him questions and would rather save herself the trouble and make a decision on her own. The doctor on-call was not my regular OB. My doctor would be coming in in the morning. The nurse decided just to insert it anyway. Had she decided not to use it, I probably would not have delivered until the next day.
So that was at 8:00 pm. By 9:00 pm I was starting to have contractions, although I did not know they were contractions at the time. I had not recognized any braxton hicks previously so I still wasn't sure what a contraction felt like. I just knew my stomach was starting to hurt, but the nurse said the monitor wasn't picking anything up.
At about 9:30 Lizzy and her sister came to visit! We were all so happy this was finally happening, as she was leaving town in 2 days. So, I told her what the doctor had previously told us: we would spend the night and they would start me on pitocin around 7 am. My doctor expected that I would deliver between 3 and 7 pm the next day. So she came in just to wish us luck and to chat for a few minutes. While they were there my stomach started hurting more and more but I tried to stay distracted by their visit.
They left around 10:00 pm and my stomach started hurting more and more and coming in waves. This is when I knew they had to be contractions. Glen and I had taken a Lamaze class so I was breathing through each contraction really well. The nurse came in and checked me again. I was at a 5! We were all surprised because we were not planning on being in actual labor through the night. She decided to take the Cervidil out, realizing that this is what was causing me to go into labor. Her hope was that by taking it out it would slow the contractions from coming so quickly and maybe I'd still get some rest before delivering the next day. Plus, I REALLY wanted my regular OB to deliver me, so I was all for slowing things down. We weren't sure if I would continue to progress or not, so she said I could get an epidural now, but if I could breath through them I should maybe just get a pain killer. She didn't want me to be on the epidural for too long (at this point we were all still assuming I would be induced) and would make the baby really drowsy when he came out and maybe have issues breastfeeding immediately. Not really knowing what was going on and trusting the nurse, I decided to get the pain killer.
She hooked me up to the IV to get the pain killer in my system. The contractions started getting worse and worse and very quickly. They came so fast that I didn't get much time in between to regroup and catch my breath. The pain killer didn't lessen the pain but it made me relax better in between the contractions. When I wasn't contracting I closed my eyes and felt really sleepy, but then another one would come and I'd start all over again. Glen was doing the breathing with me and massaging my back. I looked at the clock and it was 11:30 pm. I told myself that I wanted to wait until at least midnight to get an epidural. I wanted to see if the contractions would slow and/or stop, as the nurse said they would.
The next 30 minutes got so much worse. I was no longer able to breath through the contractions, instead I was moaning through them. That was the only thing that was helping lessen the pain, even slightly. The contractions were coming 1 minute apart and lasting 1-2 minutes. I could hardly catch my breath in between. I kept my eyes closed and listened to a playlist that I had made for myself full of songs that usually relax me. Glen was massaging my back, shoulders, and legs. Anything to distract me from the pain. I finally had one really long, incredibly painful contraction. I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. It was 11:57 pm. I told Glen to call the nurse. I needed that epidural ASAP!
She came in and said she needed to hook me up to some fluids before the anesthesiologist came. I was now screaming through the contractions. In my head I heard all these voices from women who had previously given me advice saying "don't wait until you need to epidural to ask for one, because sometimes it takes the anesthesiologist a long time to come." I had waited too long! Why had I not remembered this little piece of advice! I literally thought I was going to die. Literally. I was so unfocused and delusional and wanted to be put out of my misery. I was crying and screaming and felt short of breath. The contractions were coming so fast that I couldn't breath in between. The nurse got on the phone and demanded the anesthesiologist come as soon as possible. The contractions made me feel an overwhelming urge to both poop and throw up at the same time. I told the nurse I needed to go to the bathroom right now, and she told me it was just the pressure from the baby making me feel that way and I didn't actually need to poop. I was so crazy and delusional at this point (really wanting and thinking I was going to die) I ignored her and tried to walk to the bathroom. I couldn't even make it before doubling over and conracting again. I finally made it to the toilet, and of course, the nurse was right. I didn't need to poop. Instead, I was stuck on the toilet and couldn't get up because I kept having contractions. I had 2 long and painful contractions before I begged Glen to help me get back to the bed.
It was now 12:35 and the anesthesiologist had come. At this point things get very hazy. But he had me sit on the edge of the bed and tried to explain what he was going to do. I heard nothing because I was just trying to get through my contractions. They made Glen sit down (because apparently watching an epidural makes many people pass out), but he kept standing up to help me get through each contraction. While the anesthesiologist was trying to set the epidural I had 3 very long and painful contractions. All I remember is trying to keep my back curved like a "C" (the position they needed me to be in the set the epidural) while screaming through the contractions while the anesthesiologist was screaming at everyone else to try to help me breath and do what I was supposed to so he could get it in. Finally he set the epidural and I layed down. The contractions kept coming, but each one hurt less and less. It took a full 15-20 minutes before I was completely numb. It was the best feeling ever. The nurse checked me again...
I was at an 8. ARE YOU KIDDING? I could not believe it. The nurses couldn't believe it. I had progressed so quickly when they thought things would slow down. No wonder I was in so much pain. I was experiencing contractions dilated as an 8, which I knew from our birthing classes that this was pretty much as bad as it gets. From what we learned, an 8-10 pretty much feels the same, but it doesn't get worse. I'm sure it's different for other people, but I definitely felt this way. We could not believe it. Glen quickly got on the phone and called Lizzy and told her to come! We were not prepared for this! We also called our parents to let them know we would be having a baby soon, and not the next day like we had planned.
In retrospect, I think one thing that made the pain so much worse was that I was not mentally prepared to be in labor. I had checked into the hospital expecting to get a good night's sleep (the nurse even wanted me to take an Ambian to ensure I'd get plenty of rest) and instead I went into a hard and fast labor. I was just not in the right mindset, and was thrown into labor without really preparing myself. Instead, we kept preparing for things to slow down. I definitely had more respect for those ladies who choose to birth naturally, but now I definitely know that route is not for me.
Lizzy arrived around 2:30am. Glen was just so tired from helping me through those painful contractions (he even pulled some muscles! It was a crazy experience...), and he had had the stomach flu just 24 hours earlier, so he was dehydrated and definintely needed sleep. Glen pulled out his little mattress bed. Everyone kept telling me I should try to get some rest, especially now that the epidural had fully kicked in. But I could not relax! Our whole plan had changed, and I was going to have a baby a lot sooner than we thought! I was so excited, and also in a very euphoric state after feeling that level of pain and then having all the pain go away. It's also like I had a rush of adrenaline, feeling like I was going to die and then feeling like I survived!
Glen dozed off and Lizzy and I chatted for a while. At 3:30am I started feeling drowsy, so I tried to doze off while Lizzy watched a show on her ipad. The nurse came in at 4:00 am and checked me again. I was a 10! However, my water had still not broken. She left to ask the doctor what he would like to do. I yelled to Glen to wake up and he shot up very quickly! I felt so bad, his eyes were so red and I know although I was the one in labor he was also physically drained. When the nurse came back she seemed pretty annoyed. She said the doctor was sleeping and wanted to wait to see if my water would break on its own. I was pretty annoyed too, but as long as I couldn't feel anything I was good.
At 5:00 a.m. then the doctor walked in. He said with a smile on his face "Are we ready to have a baby?" That made me smile so big. I instantly connected with the doctor and was glad that he would be delivering me. The nurse started preparing the room for delivery, bringing blankets to the little baby's station, pulling down the huge lights, bringing in supplies etc. The doctor sat down and broke my water. When he did this he saw some meconium (baby poop from the womb) leak out. This changed things a little. Since there was meconium present they would need to page the on-call neonatologist, in case our baby had swallowed some and needed help getting it out of his body. This further delayed the delivery since we had to wait for her to arrive.
In the mean time, Glen's face started looking really pale, and the doctor commented that he needed to leave and get a snack and some juice in his system. Like I said, the guy hadn't eaten in about 24 hours and was still recovering from the stomach flu. He left, got a snack, splashed some water on his face, and returned looking a lot better.
By 5:45-5:50, everyone was there and we were ready to start pushing! They put me on some oxygen for the first few pushes, and then let me take it off for the remaining pushes. Everyone was so great at coaching me. The supervising nurse was amazing! Since I really couldn't feel anything waist-down, I really needed some help figuring out how to push. She kept saying "Push in your butt, not your face!" This took some practice, but I finally got it down. They had me push for 30 seconds at a time, taking a quick breath at the 10 and 20 second marks. It was a great experience. In between pushing we were smiling and cracking jokes. Finally the doctor looked at me and said "I need to to listen to what I am going to say. I am going to tell you when you push but when I say 'STOP' you need to stop immediately. Can you do that?" I said "Yes." and he said "Okay, start pushing when you're ready."
I took a second to breath, looked at Glen, and then started pushing. The doctor said "Stop!" And I saw him start grabbing and pulling what I assume what my baby's head. All of a sudden I saw this little body shoot out and hit the doctor in the chest, and the doctor caught him! My eyes welled up with tears immediately! I can't describe everything I was feeling. I felt the purest happiness ever. So happy that my baby was finally here, and from what I could tell, healthy. And then all the feelings of relief. Relief that these 9 months were over, relief from the pain I had previously been feeling. Relief that I actually made it, and I birthed a baby! Because of the meconium they had to whisk him away and check him. All the nurses in the room kept saying "Oh my gosh Mom, he is so cute!!" and "He has such a great head shape!" which is something I had never thought about before!
I watched as Glen was escorted over to where the baby was. He had a huge smile on his face, and I couldn't stop crying as I watched him watch our baby get examined. The nurse shouted out "He's a 9.9 Mom! That's just about as high as you can score!" They handed Glen the baby, and Glen just had a huge smile on as he walked over to me and handed me the baby. We both just stared in amazement. We smiled a lot, kissed a lot, and stared some more. He was absolutely perfect.
It took a while for me to get stitched up, but I was pretty relieved when the doctor finished and told us what a beautiful stitching job he did. He was very proud of it and even said "I should've been a plastic surgeon." He even beckoned over some of the nurses, pointing and saying, "Look at what a great job that is." We thought that was pretty funny.
The rest of the day was kind of a blur. We had stayed up all night, and then had to stay up all day. We had visitors all day, and of course the nurses kept coming in and checking me, and then checking the baby etc.
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| I love this lady! |
But even though I was so sleep deprived, and my body felt like I was hit by a train, I was so incredibly happy. My baby was finally here, and he was perfect.
We named him Leo Eric. Leo is after my great great grandpa, Leo Knight, who is the great grandson of the Newel Knight in the Doctrine & Covenants, part of LDS scripture. And his middle name, Eric, after my dad Eric Jones Nielsen, who died almost 6 years ago. He is the sweetest baby with the sweetest face. And we love him. So much.
