I was scheduled to be induced at 5:30 am on Monday July 13th. The day before, I kind of had a melt down at church when I realized I could potentially die. I mean, I realize we could die at any point, but child birth kind of increases that chance.
The night before, I slept surprisingly well. I woke up at 5 am and got ready. At 5:30, I called the hospital because my doctor told me to call before going in. The nurse who answered said there were a lot of women in labor and to call back in two hours. I did, and no one had delivered yet. Come on ladies! I called back every two hours for a while, and there was no progress. Waiting wasn't so good for my nerves. By 2pm, I had given up.
My mom, sisters and I went out for lunch. I hadn't eaten all day because of the potential for a c-section, and I was starving. I got a BLT and some fries and immediately felt kind of sick. My nerves were stronger than ever. I got home and Timmons gave me a blessing. I felt comforted by what I know to be the Holy Spirit, and I knew everything would be okay.
Right after the blessing, the hospital called to tell me they were ready for me. It was 4 pm. We got there, checked in, and they took me to my room. I got in the hospital gown and got all hooked up to the machines to monitor my vitals and baby's vitals. A nurse came in to start an IV, but she had trouble finding my vein. I guess I probably should have been more concerned when she eventually said, "good enough", and taped it to my arm.
I was already in early labor when I came in. 3 cm dilated and 50 percent effaced. They started the pitocin and labor progressed pretty slowly until they broke my water around 5:45pm. Until then, I kind of just relaxed, watched the best new station around (KIDK) and chit-chatted.
Pretty soon the contractions picked up. I handled them for about an hour until they became too intense. The nurse told me I could get my epidural (hallelujah!) The anesthesiologist came in and he was the best! If any of you talked to me before, I was probably more scared of the epidural than anything else.
Seriously. They poke a giant needle right next to your spine. What part of that sounds pleasant? But it really was no big deal. The guy administering it was very patient and explained everything he was about to do before he did it. I mean everything! Before he put iodine on the area he told me. He pointed to the exact spot he was going to poke and made sure I knew exactly what was happening and when. It helped a ton.
Within five minutes of getting the epidural, labor was pretty pain free. I could still feel something happening, but it wasn't bad at all. I did throw up afterward, but I pretty much expected that. I cleaned up, and it was officially time to kick back and wait until Ender was ready.
Time flew by pretty fast. Around midnight I told the nurse I was feeling pressure. She checked and I was dilated to an 8. A minute later, I had mom Timmons call her back in. I felt like I needed to push. She checked again, and I was almost fully dilated to a ten. I just had a little more to go.
The nurse went to go tell my doctor that I was almost ready to push. She came back and asked me to try not to push, but instead to wait 45 minutes or so -until the doctor could be there. She said waiting would also naturally push Ender further down the birth canal and shorten the time I was pushing. I don't know if that's true. All I know, is that waiting to push hurt- epidural or not. My body wanted him out and he was ready to come.
I made it 30 minutes trying to keep him inside and told her I couldn't wait anymore. We got ready to push. Timmons held one leg and my mom held the other. Jordyn got her camera ready for the big moment. I pushed and right away they could see his little head. He had hair! It was really weird, but I got to reach down and touch the top of his head before he was out. Kind of cool.
I pushed a little longer and the nurse said I should stop until the doctor came in. She went to get him, and after a few more rounds of pushing he was out (at 1:25 am)! I pushed for 55 minutes. Honestly the pushing part was no big deal after trying so hard to keep him in. It felt so much better to push, and I didn't even feel him come out. I just felt a gush of fluids and I knew he was here.
They put him on top of me right away so we could have skin to skin. Then they suctioned his nose and mouth and Timmons cut the chord after a minute or so had passed. Finally, we heard his sweet little cry.
I delivered the placenta and the doctor started to stitch me up. I tore pretty bad. My mom said she stopped counting the stitches at around 20. It's kind of a blur from there. I know that they let me nurse him right away. After a while, they took him across the room. The nurse gave him a bath, weighed him and did the APGAR test. He was 8 pounds 4 oz and 21 inches long. His head circumference was 14. His first APGAR score was 8, and five minutes later it was a 9.
Meanwhile, my blood pressure was dropping. They gave me some sort of medicine in my IV to try and get it back to normal, but it didn't seem to be working. I started to notice my arm felt especially heavy. I tried to reach for my phone and I couldn't lift it. Part of it turned purple. I asked my husband to look at it and he immediately called the nurse in. My arm was three times its normal size.
The nurse came in and said my IV came out of my vein and was filling fluid into my muscle tissue. Apparently it was not in "good enough." It hurt a lot, but I was reassured they did not have to amputate. ;)
After a nutrigrain bar and trying to eat the cold cut sandwich they brought me, the nurse told me it was time to move me to my postpartum room (which is something that didn't sound appealing at all). No one told me I was supposed to be in two different rooms. Moving did not sound like a good plan with a giant arm and stitches. The nurse led me to the bathroom where she was supposed to help shower me and all that good stuff. Instead, I ended up puking the blueberry nutrigrain bar everywhere and almost passing out. YAY!
She had to take me back to the bed and give me a sponge bath. I'm pretty sure I just kept repeating, "I am soooooo sorry- this must be really gross." Although, I know she was probably used to it. When that was over, I put on a fresh gown and made my way to the wheelchair. Timmons followed, wheeling Ender alongside us in his basinet.
We got to the postpartum room and got settled in. That's when they started. The contractions. This wasn't something I was expecting. You see, I had read about delivering the placenta. I had even read stories about how nurses rudely push on your stomach right after delivery to push out extra fluid and get your uterus back to the right size. I knew that the first postpartum poo would be a bitch. I did not, however, expect the contractions to continue AFTER he was out of me.
I'm pretty sure I whispered "I think there might be another one", to my husband. Partially because I was having phantom kicks along with the contractions-and partially because my mom told me a story of a lady who had another baby inside of her that doctors missed. So, I got to have the embarrassing conversation with the nurse and find out that this was, in fact, normal. Awkward.
Ender slept pretty soundly in his bassinet for around 6 hours, but all I could do was stare at him. I was partially afraid to fall asleep- and people kept coming in to check my blood pressure and vital signs.
The first night, I remember, I was mostly upset that I couldn't give him his first diaper change. I couldn't really get up at all. I had pictured me nursing him and changing and burping him and that isn't really what happened. I had to ask someone to hand him to me every time I wanted to hold him. If I was holding him and I started to fall asleep, I needed someone to put him back in his basinet. Stuff that seemed so simple was super frustrating because it took all of my arm strength (which is virtually non-existent) to get up. That lasted for a few weeks, but I am almost recovered completely now. Thank goodness!
The next day, family came to visit and meet Ender. He was also scheduled to have health screenings. Throughout the night and early morning, we noticed Ender spit up quite a bit. The nurses told us he had swallowed meconium and they would need to pump his stomach. I didn't really know what was going on, so I told Timmons to follow and make sure Ender was okay. They almost pumped his stomach twice, but the second time, he spit up the rest of the meconium on me. Very considerate. :)
The days in the hospital were all about learning how to take care of my stitches and learning how to breastfeed. The team of nurses were fantastic. There was also a great lactation consultant, Martha, that fought super hard with my insurance to get me a breast pump, and lent me hers in the meantime.
We had a little trouble feeding him because Ender had jaundice and it was making him sleepy. We had to force him to wake up to eat. His bilirubin levels went from an 8.6 to a 10.5, but insurance wouldn't cover bili-lights unless he was an 11. That was pretty nerve wracking for me because after we left the hospital, we didn't really have a way of measuring his levels.
After a few doctor's appointments, Ender's pediatrician ordered a blood test to ease our minds. His levels rose to 14.5. Thankfully, the next test showed they were dropping. We followed what my lactation consultant told us to do and I pumped extra milk to feed him while he slept. Feeding him more pushes out the extra bilirubin. We also put him in the window to catch some rays. By his two week appointment, the jaundice appeared to have cleared up.
It has now been 6 weeks since I went into the hospital to deliver Ender. In that time, we have seen him grow so much, and we have grown to love him an incredible amount. I'm so excited to be his mom and to see what kind of person he becomes. We love you Ender!
-Mo
Live Birth Photos: Think Flowers Photography
Newborn Photos: Jenae Briggs Photography
