Birth Story

This version of my birth story is as good as I can get it. I was there for 3 days to be induced and another 3 days before we could all go home!

11/19 Thursday - 41 weeks

6am - We got to the hospital to sign in and get things moving. They skipped me over the triage room since I was there for induction and put me right into a labor and delivery room. And then the internal checks began. I was 2cm and my cervix thinning out a bit, but not a contraction in sight!

7am - They started IV fluids and got the fun monitors hooked up to my belly. One for my contractions (non existant) and one for baby's heart rate. This kid was hiding though because little did we know how many times we would need to readjust the baby heart rate monitor throughout my stay!

730ish am - Started me on misopropal (similar to cervadril) to try to get my cervix going. Like cervadril it gets shoved up you know where to work its magic.

I had a wonderful day of doing nothing but waiting, watching tv, and screwing around on the internet. S and I watched some movies. I drooled over the food he got to eat. I may have even made him give me some bites without the nurses knowing.

9pm - Around this time they took me off the monitors and medicines to let me eat some food and shower. They were going to start the medicines again at 5am. As luck would have it, the night nurses were having a party! YAY! Bitches were right outside my door eating cake, ice cream, cookies, chips, a big frigging pot luck, and I'm trying to sleep during my horrible induction at 2am. Excuse me for trying to rest. Note to self (and anyone) bring ear plugs and eye mask to hospital just in case.

11/20 Friday - 41 weeks 1 day

5-6am - Started me on pitocin to get the show on the road. I had made very little progress Thursday.

730am - My cervix was 50% effaced, dilated 2-3 cm, and weak contractions about 2-3 minutes apart.

12pm -  Still only about 50% efface and slow moving dilation at about 3cm. The contractions were coming in more steady and starting to get more painful.

4pm - I was asking if I should get the epidural. Thank god one of my nurses strongly suggested I didn't get it yet! They gave me some pain medicine to help me get through the day a couple times. I loved it. I think it was called stadol or something. Made me feel drunk and then I slept for a bit.

8pm - They checked me again. I had no real changes in dilation or effacement. They said I was 60% effaced, but really, how accurate can they be when shoving their hands up there to guess these things? The doctor said the baby is way high up still and doesn't seem to be in a rush to get out.

They took me off the pitocin and monitors to let me eat, shower, rest, etc and start again in the morning at around 5am.

11/21 Saturday - 41 weeks 2 days

The nurse let me rest it off a bit more since she saw me up earlier having trouble sleeping. Good thing I was up and about walking around for a while. I was able to wander down to the mother infant unit and check out the rooms. I was also able to let them know I worked for the hospital system (AHS) and got one of the big suites with a king size bed far away from other people. Score!! They reserve them for VIPs, doctors, and employees that know to ask for these rooms.

730am - They checked me out and no changes since last night. Damn.
Back on pitocin at its maximum dosage. Fun. Contractions were getting stronger. I think they were about 2-3 minutes apart still, but pitocin contractions are so sharp, I was ready for the epidural.

11am - Got news that a friend that was pregnant had her baby! She was due 2 weeks after me. She had her baby in 4 hours. With no pain medicine. I went a little mental and lost it completley. S realized he should not have told me that news!

1130am - I was waiting on the epidural doctor. I don't remember his name. He wasn't that spectacular, he kind of yelled at me, but he got the epidural in and that's all I needed! The yelling came when he was trying to put the needle in, he was having me sort of hunch over, and that was hard to do when you're 5'1"ish huge with an overdue baby, and dealing with contractions. Like it should be EASY for me to stay still. Ugh.

140pm - The nurse checked me and said she could feel water bag and baby's head during exam and that I was a solid 3cm. Still very litle change, very dissapointing!

4pm - Still only a solid 3cm, maybe almost a 4, -1 station. The doctor broke water to try to move things along. I finally started to feel a bit more positive.

The doctor came in to check me out and said she could also feel the baby move on her finger. Aww, cute.

430pm -  Contrax 1 1/2 - 2 minutes apart and getting stronger. According to the monitor at least, I could barely feel them! Yay for epidurals.

5pm - S was visiting with his parents in the waiting room. We had decided we didn't want anyone else in the labor and delivery room with us. Our baby, our decision, too bad! So I had texted him to check on him and ask what he was doing. He responded "Just chatting about the beautiful girl in labor on the other side of the double doors! " Too sweet. I think he knew I was hungry and to not screw with me!

530pm - I started feeling a lot of pressure on right side in my hip area. I thought that with the epidural I shouldn't feel any pain. Not cool.

6pm - Finally I was 100% effaced and baby's head was "right there" according to the doctor. I was still only about 5cm dilated though.

7pm - Killing time watching the LSU football game because it was a rest week for the Gators. So far I was in good spirits, even with the pressure in my right side. But the pressure kept increasing on the right side pelvic bone area and went from pressure to very painful.

8pm - Or so gave me some more epidural into my IV. It didn't last long, the pressure in my hip was bad. I think the most painful part of my whole labor experience was when they tried to turn me on my side and get baby to move. They had me on my side, bend this leg, straighten this one, push stomach to roll baby around. Didn't really work. Baby's shoulder was wedged into my pelvic bone or something. It hurt!

9pm - I was crying and upset and in pain. So at docs had to decide if they were going to give me more epidural or something else to help with the pain. Or if they were going to take me off the pitocin or do something else. They didn't know at that point. They decided to wait it out a bit more and they would check me again soon.

10pm - The nurse checked me again. Finally!! I was dilated 9ish cm! She said, "You're only 9cm but your cervix is stretchy." I didn't know what that meant. The nurse and the doctor were trying to decide about giving more pain medicine because the hip/side pain was so much worse!

After the nurse told the doctor about my stretchy cervix, and the doctor confirmed that with her check, she asked me what I wanted to do. She said "Do you want to stop the labor and get more epidural or do you want to see if you can just start pushing?"

I think I said something like "Let's roll!" or "Let's get this baby out I'm done!" or something. Whatever I said the nurse and doctor giggled at me a bit. So we got set up to start pushing.

A few minutes after 10 I started pushing. I only had to push for 5 or 6 contractions. The doctor said I pushed like a pro. Thank's Doc! She said that what takes the longest is people figuring out *how* to push. Luckily for me I figured it out quick. (Someone had told me to just pretend you're pooing or something.) I went with that and it worked!

We were "Team Green" and didn't know what we were having until baby was born. I told the doctor and nurses I wanted S to be the one to tell me. I wanted him to get to look at his baby and be the first to say those words. He looked at me a little teary, "It's a girl!", I asked him if he was sure! Ha. She was a little quiet when she first came out, so they had to check her out really quick on the table thing. She scored a 7-8 on the APGAR scale at first and then was a 9 I think a few minutes later, but was a little pale at first.

So, Alligator was born at 10:28 pm weighing in at 7lbs 1 oz and she was 19 3/4" long!

I got to hold her for a bit and try to put her to feed for a little bit right after the pediatric nurses checked her out. They did the clean up on me while I was holding Alligator for a bit. I didn't need much work luckily. My doctor said I only needed some "hemming" down there.

At some point during labor I had a fever of 102 degrees. (ouch!) So they wanted to bring Alligator to the nursery to check her out and make sure she had no infections and monitor her a bit. She had some kind of infection and needed to be put on IV medicines. I was so upset. I just had my baby and I couldn't hold her, be with her, or even see her.

We had also saved her cord blood to be banked for us privately. So while they had taken Alligator to the nursery or NICU we called the service and the courier guy showed up 30 minutes later to pick up our box. It was awesome!

Then we got all our stuff gathered and got ready to move to the mother infant unit. They tried to put me in a SMALL room! AGH! I told the nurse, "Um, I think they were going to give me one of the big suites" and thankfully she believed me and checked. So we were put in a big room with lots of space.

Finally at like 2 or 3 am they brought Alligator to our room. I was so excited to see her and stare at her! They had brought her in while I was going to the bathroom or just taking a shower or something. Poor S was nearby and she was in the bassinet when we heard this gurgling noise. My brand new baby was choking up some mucus. Gross and scary! S reacted perfectly and turned her onto her side and she hacked up the giant booger looking thing. So gross, but the nurse said it is normal.

Her IV was on her teeny tiny little hand for the medicine she'd need for the next few days. I went to try out my hand at some breast feeding. Pop! Out comes her IV and lots of blood. Cue the tears and crazy yelling from both of us. "I'm making my new baby bleed!" We had to call the nurse and she came down to help. They then had to take Alligator back to the nursery to try to redo the IV. They tried numerous times in her hands and her veins were just too little. Finally they put an IV in her head. I cried and cried when I saw it. I felt so bad. She had bruises on her hands and head for weeks!

After the shock of the IV in her poor teeny head, things were a little hectic, but awesome. S and I just kept staring at her. Family came and visited Sunday and Monday. I was discharged Monday night, but Alligator had to be monitored another day. She was a little jaundice and we were a little concerned. She also was pooping but not peeing. Finally she peed Monday and things were looking like we'd be able to leave the next day.

Tuesday we finally got to go home!! S went to get the car to meet me at the valet loop. The guy that wheeled me down went extra slow for me since I was holding Alligator. I got so many compliments on my beautiful baby on the way out. It was so nice! She was wearing huge clothes that were way too big for her and they were green and yellow! Baby girl needed some pink in her wardrobe ASAP! We had a pretty short drive home just the three of us.

And then the fun really began!