Oliver Peter born 1/8/14 12:22am

Admitted on Monday, delivered on Wednesday…

After doc appt, we were admitted to hospital to start induction. I had a significant decrease in amniotic fluid from what they think was a high leak. I don’t even remember when I started to think I was leaking, but it’s been a few days. Baby looks fine though, good hb, steady movement, but it was still time to get things rolling though. We had packed before we went to the doctor because I had a feeling this would be it.

I was admitted and they took my temp (98.1), started an IV and gave me antibiotics because I tested positive for group b strep, and inserted the cervidil. (Felt like a plastic band scraping through my vagina-not
comfy, but only lasted seconds).

I had to lie down for two hours, and then could go pee. After I did, about 5 minutes later, I felt another leak at 6:10 so we paged the nurse, and while she was in the room I gushed. So my water has broken. Phyllis was a senior nurse who was helping out and was so sweet and understanding. We wished she could be our nurse, but she was off at 11pm.

Because I was induced, and had the antibiotics, I was hooked up to an IV drip, blood pressure cuff and contraction/ baby heart rate monitor. This meant that I couldn’t walk the halls. I did use the birth ball to sit on and bounce, I stood and leaned against the bed, and tried to lean/dance with Andy.

At 7pm new nurse came on and asked if the cervidil strip has come out yet with the gush, which it hasn’t. She’s going to call the doctor on call to see if she should take it out. Also DH asked if I could still eat, and she said no…. We had already ordered chipotle so that’s a bummer. Our last nurse told us I could eat up through midnight. Sounds like my water breaking has changed that.

After A little while the new nurse that came on at seven so you telling us that she was going to start Pitocin. We were really concerned because we pitocin it was something that you waited until you’re about 4 cm to start. The doctor on call hadn’t come into See us because she wasn’t in the hospital so we were having a real communication issue with the current nurse.

After speaking with a friend of my mom’s who was a labor and delivery nurse, we asked the charge nurse to assign a different nurse to us. That’s when kaitlyn came in. Phyllis came in and checked on us and was a really nice support. She could tell I was scared so she gave me a big hug!

Kaitlyn was a young, cute, but no- nonsense nurse. She showed confidence with a friendly bedside manner. We really clicked with her!
She shepherded us through the next 12 hours, until Kelsey came on for 7a-7p night shift on Tuesday 1/7.

I don’t remember when I got the epidural, but it was so painful. The doctor hit a nerve, I jumped and had the most excruciating pain I was supposed to just sit through. Throughout the night and next day, I had to call the anesthesiologist to give me additional medication because the pain was so great. The epidural was so weird in that the skin was so numb to the touch- when I touched my legs, it felt like someone else’s skin. They inserted a catheter because I couldn’t get up. I kept forgetting and asking to get up and walk 🙂

The external baby monitor on my belly couldn’t get accurate readings on his heart rate, so they had to put a monitor through a wire inserted through my vagina and into the baby’s scalp.The day was filled with contractions and I was sure I was making progress but sadly, each time they checked I wasn’t getting any closer to dilating. Dr. Renzi came and checked on us at lunch and our neighbor Shelley brought Andy a sandwich about 430.

The baby’s heart rate had been dropping periodically and the doctor on call-Apgar said he had concerns about going much past the 24 hour mark 6pm on Tuesday from when my water broke because the threat if infection greatly increases after that point. He was weighing the odds with us about waiting or doing a c-section. Renzi was coming on at 7pm, so Apgar said he’d talk to him and see what Renzi thought. Renzi came on earlier than expected, about 5:30, and thought we could wait a bit longer. I started to progress in dilation and by about 7pm was about 3cm.

Kaitlyn returned at 7pm and was assigned to us again. It was nice to have a friendly familiar face whom we trusted!

I had to have additional pain medication about every hour and a half and finally ended up getting another epidural. This time it wasn’t as painful thank goodness, but this one seemed to work better! I still needed to have additional medication, but not as often.

By about 9pm Tuesday night, I was about 7cm, and 10pm about 9cm. I was so hot that Andy kept putting cold cloths on my forehead neck and back of neck. He was a great coach, advocate and supporter! By 10:45p, they said I’d start pushing! I needed more pain mess but Renzi said no, that I needed to feel when I was pushing…

So about every 3 minutes Kaitlyn and Andy each held a leg and I had to push (holding my breath each time) for as long as I could 3 times until the contraction passed. Usually lasted about 45 secs. At the end, Renzi gave me a local shot and did a small episiotomy.

It was exhausting, but after 1 hour 40 minutes Oliver was born! I was exhausted, and Andy was dumb-founded. He couldn’t believe what we’d done and had tears in his eyes. I didn’t have that overwhelming joy, I was too exhausted from the 34 hours of labor. Andy cut the cord and then They put Oliver on my chest and he instantly began to suck. It was surprising how hard it was. After a few minutes, they took him over to be weighed and we were expecting over 9lbs, but instead he was only 7lb 14oz. All ten fingers, toes, blue eyes, blond fuzz hair and overall precious!!

Bloody show and lots of cramps

Last night I started having lots of cramps that I started timing. They were erratic and hard to tell when started and ended. They were backaches and menstrual feeling cramps. Then at 330am I wiped from a trip to the bathroom and had pink/ red blood discharge. I woke up hubby who was quite surprised, but after a while I realized that these probably weren’t real contractions and told him I was going to try and get some sleep. I got up about 830 to make some breakfast and then hubby went back to sleep- he’d been awake all night. I called the doc and we decided that because these cramps weren’t getting closer together that it wasn’t time to do anything. I’m still cramping at 4pm but I don’t think it’s anything like real labor cramps. I’m afraid that my water broke and is trickling out because twice today after I’ve gone to pee, two minutes later I have a small trickle…waiting…doc appt on Monday at 1230 if nothing happens sooner

Still waiting….

Tmi alert…attack of diarrhea

So we had just finished watching a movie, and I had a gurgly sensation in my stomach so I headed for the bathroom. At first I just thought BM, then for the next 10 minutes it was rolling thunder of cramping and pain. I think it even caused a hemorrhoid. I went upstairs and jumped in the shower, only to start the rumble pain again… I thought…are these contractions??? I got out of the shower and it started again…even worse! I checked to see if the baby was coming out because this felt like labor… After that episode I climbed in bed and waited for another…nothing. So I got dressed and laid down, but no more contractions. The next few hours I rested and napped and now I’m going to have some chicken noodle soup…
Am hoping this is the start of labor