We went to our doctor appointment on Thursday afternoon (I was 40 weeks, 2 days). The baby checked out fine and I checked out fine though only dilated to 2 cm. Shane had just gotten back from working out of town and we had been so worried the entire time that I would go into labor while he was far away. We discussed our options with my OB and finally decided the best choice for all of us was to schedule an induction at 4 PM on Friday night. We switched our hospital choice at the last minute but that worked out well in the end.
We went in as scheduled on Friday afternoon and they checked me. I was still just 2 cm. They had to have 3 people try to even reach my cervix (which was oh so much fun!) and finally decided they needed to give me some meds to get things started orally instead of through the cervix as originally planned. They gave me the Cytotec and it started making me contract pretty quickly. The contractions weren’t bad and felt more like cramps. We laid around and talked and I texted people updates and read my book.
We both dozed on and off and the contractions continued through the night. My contractions slowly started getting more and more intense (though still manageable). I knew I would feel better if I could get up moving and it would also help progress. I asked the nurse if I could walk and/or take a bath (these were things the nurse who taught our childbirth class had discussed). She called my doc and got the OK. I took a walk around the L&D floor and took a bath. At the end of that, it turned out I had made basically no progress. They started the pitocin at that point. My doctor came in the morning around 7 AM or so and told us we could either go home and try again later or she could break my water. We decided that since the timing worked better, we were already in the hospital, and my sister was in town, we would go ahead then. I don’t know that I could have gone through all that again anyway! So the doc broke my water.
I labored all day with my family visiting some. At one point Shane went downstairs and bought a few things in the gift store. He bought me a single red rose and put a note with it that said, “You’re doing a wonderful job! I <3 you!” He also got a gift for my big sister whose birthday was that day. I thought it was so sweet and cute!
Sometime in the late afternoon, my contractions started getting closer and closer together. I had a harder time dealing with them with no time to recover in between. My nurse told me they were actually 30 seconds apart! I decided it was time for an epidural. My mom and sister were there and they went to the waiting room or something while they got all that started. They gave me Stadol (a painkiller type drug they do through injection) so I could stay still for the epidural. I DON’T like Stadol. It made me feel very out of control and kind of like being drunk…but not as fun ;) . Shane was great though and held me and wiped my brow with a wash cloth the whole time. Once they got the epidural in, I felt MUCH better. We have video of me sitting up in bed texting and not in any pain once I got the epidural.
They had to turn me from side to side after I had the epidural because I was numb from the waist down so I couldn’t turn myself. One time when they turned me onto my left side, Dillon’s heartbeat disappeared from the monitor. We had an internal monitor (basically, they screw a monitor under the top layer of skin on the baby’s head…I didn’t really want it but it turned out to be a good thing.) on Dillon so it was definitely that his heartrate had gone dangerously low not that we just couldn’t track it. They immediately started flipping me around to get me in a position he liked better. I wound up sitting straight up and forward a little (not easy at 40+ weeks pregnant!) and an oxygen mask on me. My mom and sister were visiting with all of this going on and my best friend showed up shortly after they put me on oxygen. We all started talking and laughing again and everything was fine until I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up. I took my oxygen mask off and told Shane. He grabbed a small basin and I threw up into it. Unfortunately, I also threw up on the poor guy’s hand!! I began to shake with chills right after I threw up. They wouldn’t let me have ice chips, water, or anything once the chills started and wouldn’t even allow me to cover in a blanket. They said because they needed to monitor my temperature better. Apparently, I had developed an infection. It never showed any other signs of infection during the hospital stay but the vomiting, slightly raised temperature, and chills indicated a fever. My water had been broken for over 12 hours at the point so it would not have been unusual. They finally let me brush my teeth at least and I talked the nurse into letting me swallow just a swig of water afterward.
With all of this scariness going on, my sis, mom and best friend left the room to let the doctors work. My OB showed up and she said it was time to talk C-section. I had not progressed much and with an infection, the baby’s heartrate fluctuating (it was now HIGH because of the infection), and the fact that we knew Dillon was not small, the C-section was the best course of action. She left it up to us but we decided to go ahead. They prepped us for the C-Section right away. While they were prepping me, I realized my epidural had completely worn off. They wheeled me to the OR, gave me more anesthesia, and generally prepared me/us.
At 9:04 PM on Saturday, 10/04/08, with a nurse on top of me tugging (according to Shane), Dillon Chas was lifted out and held up over the sheet so we could see. Shane went with him to another area where he had his Apgar tests (8 and 9) and they put footprints on everything.
He kept telling people “That’s my son.” The nurse told him, “I know.”
I was breathing hard and crying and my OB asked if I was ok. I told her yes just overwhelmed! I can’t imagine how they deliver babies all the time….so much emotion to have to experience so frequently. I know he is mine so it was more significant but birth really is such a miracle. I gave kisses to Dillon and off he went.
I was in surgery and then recovery for a few more hours then finally saw my baby at around midnight. His first visitors were my mom, my sister (his 10/4 “good buddy”), my best friend, my brother and sis-in-law, and Autumn and her mom and grandma.
We found out while in the hospital for recovery that Dillon’s cord was wrapped all around his chest and body when they took him out. That is likely the reason we lost his heartbeat when they flipped me on my side. I am so thankful we wound up having a C-section because he may not have made it through a vaginal birth. It was truly the most miraculous experience of my life and I’ll never forget it.
