My Birth Story (Part One)

So I can remember it, and you can read all about it, here is part one of my birth story:

Baby H was due on Tues, Oct 11 but since I had been dilated 2 cm since 36 weeks, my Dr thought it was possible for her to come a bit early.  I stopped working a week before I was due and spent some time at home doing last minute preparations (including having 3 different crews work on drywall, paint and tile in the house!).  So, you can imaging my surprise when I past my due date and the Dr talked to us about inducing labor.  We settled on Friday Oct 14 so that friends and family could come visit us over the weekend if they wanted.

So, Friday morning whet like this:

4 am - eat light breakfast
5:30 - check into hospital
6:30 - start inducing drugs to make labor progress - I was dilated 3 cm on my own at this point
8:30 - Dr breaks my water - a very weird feeling I might add

 just laying in bed, looking stunning, waiting for the medication to do its magic

In the beginning, everything was going really well and they were happy with my progression, about 1 cm per hour.  I start to feel the contractions more strongly, and I decided to get the epidural.  Before we got there I was not 100% convinced that I wanted it, but 5 contractions were enough for me to know that I did!

Then, things start to get a little complicated and my blood pressure dropped from the normal 120/80 to about 75/55.  They had to give me medication to control it, but it sent Baby H's heart rate soaring from 130 to 190, so that was a concern.  I also had a "window" where the epidural didn't take that well, so I could feel some pain on the left side of my abdomen.  Oh, and I was having trouble breathing so I was on an oxygen mask most of the time.

About 11 hours go by with me just laying in bed.  Family comes in to visit with me, and The Husband is by my side but I am not in the mood for much talking or watching TV.  At 5:30 pm my Dr gets off work, so I meet the on call Dr from her practice.  I should also add that at this point I have had 4 nurses, since they tend to 2 patients at a time and everyone else was having their baby but me.

Finally, at 9 pm I get to start pushing.  Which I did every 2-3 minutes for about 2.5 hours.  I did have a small break in there where they had to give me sugar water in my IV because my blood sugar was so low from not eating for so long.  Pushing was not as hard or painful as I thought, and although the nurses were telling me I was doing a great job, I didn't really hear words of progression so I kinda got the feeling it was not going as well as they had hoped.

After 2.5 hours they decide that the baby just can't made it under my pelvis, and I need to have a c-section.  They also informed me that because I have a fever and infection from my water breaking so long ago, Hadley has to go to the NICU for 48 hours after birth to be treated with antibiotics.  At this point I cried for the first time, the thought of a c-section was somewhat scary as we had never really discussed it before.  And the fact that my new baby would have to got to the NICU was terrifying.  It took about 30 minutes for them to prep the surgery room, so my parents, MIL and SIL all came in the room to comfort me and wish my well.  At about  midnight they wheeled me into the surgery room.

Ok, that is enough writing, tomorrow I will finish up the story with a few details about the surgery and what happened after.