It's 7:45 a.m. on Friday, December 17th and Scott and I are sitting in the waiting room waiting for our nurse to call us in. Finally we get checked in and I get hooked up on the monitor to see how my contractions are doing. They had dwindled off since the night before and in a 30 minute period, I only had one. Bummer...the gel wore off and I was going to have to get another dose.
When Dr. Hildebrandt came in, he started talking about what his plan was for me next week. He said he'd bring me in on Tuesday for an induction that would be more powerful than the gel. He said we'd try the gel again today and see what happens, but most likely it will dwindle off and he'd see me next Tuesday. I was so disappointed that he was going to make me wait another 4 days. He gave me the gel treatment and hooked me up to the monitors for an hour.
Contractions started immediately and were pretty intense. Dr. was going to send us home after our appointment, but then said we better stay around the Stillwater area because by that point, he changed his game plan and thought that he'd probably see us back that afternoon. When the doctor left the room I told Scott that I wasn't going to leave the hospital feeling like this. I could tell the contractions were much more fierce than they were the night before and there was no way I was going to be able to just hang out in Stillwater for the afternoon waiting for things to keep progressing. So, we decided to grab some lunch at the hospital's cafeteria. That didn't work out so well because my contractions were getting so close and hurt so bad that I couldn't even think about eating food.
As we left the cafeteria, I started getting another contraction in the hallway and had to sit down and do my breathing techniques to get through it. A nurse seen me in the hallway and asked if I needed a wheelchair...I told her I was having contractions and she said I better get up to the birthing center. So, she brought us a wheelchair and Scott wheeled me up there...this was about 11:00 a.m.
The nurses got me a room and had me change into a gown and one of the first things they asked me was what kind of pain medication I wanted. Jokingly, I told them I wanted an epidural. Little did I know that they would actually give it to me that soon! Sweet! About an hour later, the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. While he was doing the procedure on me, I had a contraction, and he told me that would be the last one I'd feel! I totally didn't believe him, but I laid back down and the nurse told me I was having a huge contraction....I couldn't believe it because I didn't feel a thing! WOW...this was like heaven!! Amazing!!
Soon afterwards Dr. Hildebrandt came and visited me. He told me he was planning on me having this baby today so he'd be born on my birthday...all the nurses agreed! So, that was our game plan the rest of the day...to keep things going so he's born before midnight! A few hours went by and my contractions started to slow down...the gel was wearing off again. Luckily, I was dilated to 3 at that time, so they could give me pitosin to get things rolling faster. It was a slow process, but during this time, I was so relaxed that I took a nap, watched TV, and even had my family in the room for a bit, all the while I was having hard contractions that I didn't even feel!
Things really started to kick into gear after 8:00 p.m. and each time they checked me they said they could feel the baby's head! At this point things were definitely looking good for Jack being born before midnight! By about 9:50 p.m., the nurse said I was dilated enough to start pushing. This was a really exciting moment!! Scott and I both looked at each other and said "are you ready for this?!?" Here we go! The first push we could already see baby's head, and by the third push he was already crowning. I had to stay in that position until the doctor came. The nurse told me that if I didn't have the epidural that staying in that position would have hurt really bad.
About 5 minutes later, Dr. Hildebrandt showed up and I pushed a few more times and out came his head...another push and there he was!! It was amazing...they put him on my chest and Scott cut the umbilical cord. Jack didn't even cry at all...he just had his eyes wide open and stared at me and Scott. It was an amazing moment I'll never forget it!
No comments:
Post a Comment