This may be a bit much and very long, but again this blog is a way for me to document our lives and this is certainly one week I don't ever want to forget. I typed it out [finally, a month later after the child is born] and have also documented the story in my "pregnancy photobook" that I made through Shutterfly. It's so neat. Truly a keepsake! You may not want to read all this and trust me, that's a-ok. I don't blame you, but here goes...
Monday | 1.30.12 8:00 am - I had a doctor appointment and wanted desperately for them to tell me they would induce me at some point this week. According to the ultrasound the previous Wednesday, Cade was already measuring 8 lb. I weighed 8.9 at birth, Chad weighed 8.5.We knew it was in his genes and let me tell you, I was scared to death he'd be 9-10lb if we waited another week and then I'd have to have a c-section - something else I wanted to avoid if at all possible. Well the dr. appointment didn't go as I thought. First of all though, my doctor looked over and over at my charts and determined my due date should have really been 2/2, not 2/7. That meant Thursday would be 40 weeks, not 39. She also said she really thought I'd go on my own and if I didn't then I'd come back Thursday [on 2/2 - 40 weeks- my new duedate] to hook up to monitor see how I was doing. They assured me they wouldn't let me go a week over my due date. Errr...thanks. I was of course, a little disappointed as you all know I'm a bit impatient. I remember being so fired up , wanting to take matters into my own hands [can I remind you that I am not very good with NOT being in control] that I did everything I could that day .... and the next ... to induce labor on my own. Eggplant parm, walking miles and miles...you name it.
Wednesday | 2.1.12 6:30 am - I woke up with what I thought felt like intense menstrual cramps, more so than just BH contractions. "OMG this is it" I thought. They weren't that bad or close together, but after I told Chad he decided it would be best to stay at home with me that day just in case. So we sat around waiting...and waiting...and the contractions just kind of came and went. Very sporatic. We even walked another 30 minutes, I did squats, lunges. Nothing. I was so frustrated that evening, thinking it was a waste of a day. They had almost practically stopped by late afternoon. My mom brought me eggplant parmesan again, just in case then around 10-11pm that night, they started up again. Oh and this time, they meant business.
2.2.12 | 40 Weeks | Cade's Due Date
The Sugar t-shirt was not going to stretch any further! It HAD to be time!
Thursday | 2.2.12 6:30 am - So 24 hours later, I had been up ALL NIGHT timing contractions. I almost went to the hospital that night but after talking to a friend who worked at the office, she told me to take warm bath and tylonal to make sure it wasn't false labor. If the pain went away, it wasn't real. Well, the pain persisted throughout the wee hours of the night and by the time 6-7am came around my handy iPhone app was timing them to be a consistent 7-8 minutes apart.[I timed them all night but knew we couldn't go to hospital until they were less than 5 min apart. Knew they would just turn us away and um, we live 40 minutes away so that'd be a waste] Plus I knew I had my doctor appointment at 9am so I tried to just wait it out.
So around 8am we loaded the car with our bags for the hospital [because in my mind I knew good and well we wouldn't be coming back home without a baby] and went to my dr appointment. Sure enough after hooking me up to the monitor, the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and coming on MUCH stronger. I was only dilated 1cm and 90% effaced [if I remember correctly] but they sent us straight to the hospital and at 10:30 am we were checked in and settling into our room. Go time.
Thursday | 2.1.12 - 2:30 pm - They broke my water and I got an epidural. The contractions were intense so I was ready for the EPI. Little did I know that it um...wouldn't exactly work like I thought. I kept having a "hot spot" on my right side that "didn't take" the epidural. Also I could basically feel my entire right side. It was a long afternoon and I wasn't progressing fast enough. They started Pitocin to speed up the process and that's when things got even worse. By late evening I was. about. to. die. Nauseau, shaking because of the intense pain. It was insane. I remember being so mad thinking "I thought these epidurals were wonderful? Why me?!!" After more and more and more epidural meds, they decided next best thing would be just "re-do" the epidural and give me another one. It finally worked better and by 10pm or so I was feeling a little better but it was creeping close to midnight and I was stuck at 8cm. I remember the
doctor/nurses discussing possible c-section. If it had not been for my nurse telling me "Let's try a few more things" and upping the Pitocin [yeah...i had to hold on tight. Holy pain level], then I'd probably have had a c-section and at that point, I so did not care. Go ahead. Book the OR. I was just ready to have this baby!
Friends and family hanging out with us throughout the evening. Seeing me in all my painful glory.
Friday | 2.3.12 - 1:30am - I had gotten a little rest here and there when I could but mostly the pain kept me wide awake. At 1:30am I remember telling them I felt the need to push. "What? Already?" the nurse said. But sure enough, it was time.
Friday | 2.3.12 - 2:28am - After about 45 minutes of pushing, Cade was HERE! [and I was one relieved mama]. He was perfect. Everything we had deamt of and more. Tears of joy streamed down my face. I was more exhausted than I had ever been in my life, yet had more adrenaline than I knew what to do with. It was the most surreal experience ever. I remember feeling as if I had nothing else left in me to give, no energy to push, nada. The nurses I had were beyond amazing. If it weren't for them helping me through it, I could and would have given up.
my amazing nurses! God bless em'
48 hours of no sleep, over 24 hours of contractions, 12 hours of intense labor, 45 minutes of pushing and 2 epidurals later, we had our sweet baby boy in our arms. At one point during the intense pain I remember having numerous meltdowns and looking up at Chad asking "People do this more than once?" I couldn't imagine going through it again and let me just say I have a somewhat high pain tolerance. I rarely ever, and I mean ever, take medicine. I have to have a killer migraine before I even take headache medicine. But I'm pretty sure within those 12+ hours of labor, I walked the soles off my anesthesiologists Nike's going back and forth giving me more meds! She was awesome too by the way. Seriously. BFFs by the end of the night. But after all the pain, as cliche as this sounds - one look into his eyes and I instantly knew I'd do it all over again tomorrow. It really is true. The love you feel for your child is instant and overwhelming. Just amazing!!
We had a room full of friends and family throughout the evening, but at 3-4am in the morning, it was just my mom, my sister, and Chad's parents left in the waiting room. [Chad's sister had to be at home with her kids since her husband was on 3rd shift] They were estatic and couldn't wait to meet Cade. It was a moment we will never forget. God is so good.
will post more details about our hospital visitors and coming home next.
Such a special time. Such a special celebration. Such a special little boy!
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