I have a baby!

OK I know this is almost 2 weeks late but did I mention I had a baby? I had no idea how hard it is to find time to do anything (even though everyone says "they sleep all the time"). I'm finding that I have to prioritize everything (e.g., do I want a shower OR breakfast) but today I am up, showered, fed, and he is still sleeping. So finally I can tell you the rest of what happened...but yes, getting to the punch line, I had the baby.

I'm actually using the birth story my doula wrote up for me to cheat a little to fill you in on the rest of the details (although I did notice some of her details were a little off as well) it's just so strange how you forget things! Everything is kind of in a blurr, but especially the concept of time. My husband, doula and I were all trying to figure out the order of when things happened so anyway....this is the best that I can remember!

My doula wrote a lot about us discussing the concept of inducing with the doctors. It actually was a pretty long drawn out process because they really just wanted to go ahead and induce (and thought it was strange that I didn't want to) but I just really wanted to have a natural labor and ultimately, no c-section. But another thing I learned about the birth process is you have to be flexible because things aren't always going to be able to go the way you want them, and ultimately, I want to have a healthy baby. So we started with the cervivil (the thing that softens the cervix) which was supposed to stay in for 12 hours (at that point they can put another one in, or else try something different). The cervidil actually looks just like a tampon (it even has a string) and it fizzes at the end to soften your cervix that way. Well it worked really well on me (probably because I was already having contractions on my own - they said they were about 2-4 mins apart when they hooked me up to the fetal monitor, although I couldn't really feel them) and my water broke at midnight. The funny part was that I was so confused (because I had been sleeping) that I thought I just wet the bed....and then I was like "oh, my water must have broke because I'm still dripping all the way to the bathroom". So at that point they had to take the cervidil out. They told me that it didn't do much in the short time that it was there (they could get their finger through the cervix though now). But at this point I notice my contractions are a lot harder (this happens once your water breaks because the cushion isn't there anymore). So I start trying to do my relaxation techniques (e.g., using the birth ball, walking around). I ask the nurse if I can get into the shower (the suggestion of my doula over text) and they come back and tell me no :( At this point the doctor comes in (around 2am) and tells me she wants me to stay in bed. Um...what? How am I supposed to manage the pain if I'm strapped in bed? (For some reason, the place where it feels the worse is laying in bed) but they were concerned that since my water had already broken and that his head was still high in the pelvis that the cord could get trapped in betweem (likely? Probably not...but these were the doctors I had to work with). The doctor also tells me that she wants to start Pitocin to increase my contractions (at a low dose) rather than have me labor on my own. With the Pitocin and the bed bound orders (with the Pitocin they also had to put an IV in which restricts your movement) the doctor convinced me to get a "walking epidural" (it's an epidural that doesn't paralyze you and actually allows you to walk around although they don't let you do that). At the time I felt defeated about it, but at the same time I was worried if I didn't progress with my water already broken that it would end up in a c seciton which would be worse. So at around 3:45am I get the Pitocin and Epidural (I can't remember which happened first but it was all around that time. In any case, the epidural wasn't placed properly so I didn't actually get the epidiural at all until 6am when they re-did it and put in a new one). When I got the 2nd epidural it was good because it actually allowed me to sleep a little bit. I still didn't call the doula to come back yet because I wanted to sleep (if I could) as much as possible and I felt like at this point there wasn't much she could do.

Although I had the epidural it definitely did not take the pain away! So for any of you thinking this is the easy way out it is definitely not (although much easier than nothing at all). I could still feel all the contractions and I still had to use my yoga breathing through each one. The best I can describe is that it takes the edge off of it. At about 9am the doctor came back and told me my cervix was "paper thin" and about 3 cm (she said 3-4 when I looked really disapointed). She acted really excited about it but all I could think was all that time and I only got a few cm??? She also told me that she thought my pelvis was narrow and that I might have difficulty pushing him out (great). But that there was more room in the back (whatever that means) so it was still possible. I told this to my doula so she could help come up with a good position to push him out. The nurse told me she'd be back to check me again at 1pm so I text my doula to tell her I'll probably get her to come then.

At 11am I start feeling the contractions change and I start feeling this urge to go to the bathroom (as in, number 2). So at first I was confused and thought maybe I really did need to go to the bathroom (I think this is how women have babies in the toilet) but then realized that it probably meant the baby's head was moving down. I told my nurse this and she said that it was a good sign and meant the labor was progressing. I text my doula and tell her to come - even though I don't know how far along I am I get this feeling that things are going to start changing soon. When the nurse comes back I tell her that the feeling is getting stronger and she says she'll check me. When she does she finds that I'm 7 cm and in transition! Whoo hoo. She's really surprised though and asks why I didn't tell her early (um...yeah, I thought I did). Ten minutes later the urge gets even stronger so she says she'll check me again (she hadn't left the room yet) and finds that I'm actually 9cm (it only goes to 10 so it is geting close now). She says she's going to call the doctor and not to push (although you really get this super strong urge to push. So when I'm contracting I actually have to "hold" it).

In the meantime, my husband and I had realized in our haste to pack that we both had forgot phone chargers. Since we knew we would want to call people and let them know the news once the baby came we were trying to come up with ways to get a phone charger. At 10am (after we found I was only 3 cm dialated) my husband considered driving home to get them (good call that he didn't because we live an hour away) but then I thought that our friends Tanya and Aaron (the couple that just had their baby 4 weeks earlier) might have the same charger (it's a simple usb charger). So we had called them and they were on there way to drop it off. I kept wondering what was taking them so long (and my doula for that matter) and when the nurse came in and told me I was going to push in 10 minutes I thought that no one was going to make it. Just then my mom called (and then freaked out when I told her I had to go because I was pushing the baby out in 10 minutes) and then Aaron walked in with the charger. He said he and Tanya were taking turns coming in (they had the baby with them) so by the time Tanya came in I was already pushing. My doula wasn't there yet so she asked if she should stay to help until she got there. So that's what she did, and she did a pretty good job! My nurse wasn't the best so Tanya was really great at getting me a cool face cloth and anything else I needed. When the doula finally ran in she actually had to sit down and Tanya ended up staying for the whole thing!

Ok...baby is awake :) I'll save the next post for the "pushing" part of the labor...stay tuned!

Blogging from the hospital!

Yes I'm in the hospital and yes my DH brought a laptop. I must admit that I was not impressed when the laptop went in the car with the rest of the baby gear but now it is coming in handy.

So as you know I've been having contractions since Sunday. Yesterday I got a bad headache so I almost went in to get checked out (a sign of preeclampsia and with my swollen feet, they wanted me to come in) but I went home from work and drank a lot of water and it went away so I held out for my 10am Dr appt this morning. I almost got out of the appointment without anything eventful until he asked me if I had any fluid leaking. I wasn't sure so he did an ultrasound and discovered my AFI (the fluid around the baby) was only 4 (normal range is from 5-22). At this point in pregnancy the thing they do to fix that is to deliver (because technically the baby is full term). So off we go (after a quick stop at Mimi's....after all, who knows when I'd get to eat!) and try to pack what we can when we got home. I had the baby's bag ready (packed that last night. After all those contractions I figured I'd better get it together!) but not my stuff so it was hard to remember to get everything (incidentally, I forgot my toothbrush). Our doula met us here at the hospital which was great because although I wasn't in labor, I really needed the help making the decision whether to induce and how to speak with the doctors about my birth plan. At first they just wanted to induce me right away but I managed to convince them to do another u/s to check the fluid (incidentally, they think he is about 6 lbs 12 ounces). The fluid was a little better (6) but still in the low range (some doctors want to deliver below 8 but apaprently below 5 is the universal cut off). So after a lot of discussion (mainly balancing what would really change in a couple days vs the risks to the baby if he isn't getting the food he needs from the placenta) we decided to stay. They gave me something to soften the cervix at about 5:45pm (that's to get it "ready" for labor) so right now we are hanging out and seeing how that works. Hopefully by morning I'll be a couple centimeters dialated and we can talk about what to do next (e.g., pitocin or some other drug to jump start labor). As it is, I was already having contractions without the cervix softener (although I couldn't actually feel them) and now they are a bit stronger. Still not much happening though so I think I will be here a long time! They said about 1 to 3 days until baby comes. I am worried about my risk of having a c-section increasing but at this point it's somewhat out of my hands because they think I'm pre eclamptic (my liver function came back just a touch high) so yeah....here I am...having a baby.

Send me good vibes! Will be back to send an update when I have more.