around this time, things were going really well. i was super relaxed from the epidural, everyone was visiting and hanging out, and we just kept trying different positions and checking the contraction monitor to see which were the most effective. as always, i was munching on popsicles and ice chips. i eventually got to a 3.5 and then a 4, but kind of seemed to stall out at a 4. my doctor came in at one point around 6PM and tried to stretch me to a 5, thinking that once we got to a 5 things would naturally pick up, but all she could do was a 4.5. at that time we realized that we wouldn't be meeting our baby before the nurse shift change...and i started to get a little worried, worn out, and emotional about being in labor for over 12 hours at that point, and i was bummed to be losing jenny and getting a new nurse.
the new nurse talked to the doctor and came up with a plan...if i didn't progress in the next couple of hours, we would seriously need to talk c-section. with my not eating for hours and hours and both me and the baby being pumped full of pitocin, they really wanted to make sure not to stress either of us too far. so my new nurse got serious about the whole situation, knowing that i would prefer a vaginal birth. she recommended that we have no more visitors in my room until the baby was born and that we would need to try all kinds of different positions to really get her down into the birth canal.
oliver went to relay the news to our family, and everyone came in one last time to say bye and good luck to me. it was really emotional because i knew i wouldn't see them again until we had the baby! and i was getting scared about having a c-section.
the three of us (oliver, nurse and i) really focused for the next couple hours, trying to get me progressing. the doctor approved us to go up to 40 on the pitocin, when the hospital max is typically 36. the nurse tried backing down and coming back up, moving the bed into different positions, everything she could think of to get me to progress. but i was stuck at that 4.5 with no end in sight.
around 9:30ish they took my temperature and realized that i was starting to have a slight fever. that with the swelling that the doctor could feel in the baby's head really made us decide to go ahead with the c-section. i wasn't progressing anyway and if i got much more of a fever it would mean automatic NICU time for the baby, which i DEFINITELY did not want. so we agreed to go ahead with surgery and had to wait another hour or so for an operating room and for the team to assemble.
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| about to go back for the surgery |
oliver went and told the family that we would be getting the c-section and came back to prep for surgery. around 11 i was getting wheeled back into the OR. oliver had to wait in a special husband waiting room for them to prep me and get the curtain up, etc. i remember asking the anesthesiologist if he could change the station from some pop crap to a brooks and dunn pandora station. i didn't want my baby coming out listening to 104.1! :) finally oliver was let back into the room and they started the surgery. i had a pretty violent reaction to it all and was shaking on the table pretty badly. i had to hold onto the arm holds to keep my arms from flopping around, and i asked oliver to hold my forehead down so i wouldn't hit my head on the table. i also got sick a few times too. the surgery itself was the absolute worst part of the day, by a long shot. my blood pressure dropped really low and i got super tired, cold, and dizzy along with the shaking and vomiting. BUT at 11:34 PM she was out and i heard her cry!!! and she was 7 lbs 11 oz, and 20.5 inches long. and absolutely perfectly healthy.
oliver went and watched them clean her up, weight and measure her, and get her wrapped up before the nurse brought her back to me to hold. i was so scared for them to put her on me because the shaking still hadn't stopped and i didn't want to drop her. i did it though and got to meet my sweet girl. eventually oliver took her and we both just looked at our baby while they finished sewing me up.
after they finished me up, oliver took the baby to go meet our family and i was taken into my recovery room. he and the baby met me there, where we did an hour of skin to skin time and attempted to breast feed. i was still shaking and freezing cold, so my nurse brought me a warm blanket and i had oliver tuck it all around me. at about 2 our post partum room was ready, but we needed an extra person to transport us to the room. so we waited another hour before we were ready to go up. finally at 3AM, we got up to our room. some of our families were still there and they quickly met the baby and left. we were SO exhausted and worn out. we sent the baby to the nursery for an hour or so just to get some sleep...and then at 5AM the nurses, doctors, hospital staff, etc started knocking on our door and didn't stop til about lunchtime on wednesday. to say we were tired that day is an understatement. but we had a healthy baby and healthy momma, and were so happy to have her here with us!
