We knew on Friday we would be going in for an induction on Monday evening. We were scheduled to check in at 5PM on Monday, things would be pushed bright & early on Tuesday and baby should be joining us some time Tuesday. When we arrived they started one thing to move things along. My labor & contractions started immediately and came on full force! It was scary and painful.
The contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes and getting closer together and stronger. Unfortunately my cervix & the baby were not as active. Nothing was progressing Monday, into Tuesday. I attempted to get some rest through the night, but the contractions were getting pretty painful. The doctor ordered for the meds he prescribed to kick off labor and start dilating, to be stopped, because of how quickly the contractions took off for me. Baby wasn't really enjoying the medicine anyway, as every time I would get up his (or at the time it could have been hers) heart tones would drop. Even after stopping the meds the contractions were still taking off for me and coming quickly and even more painfully. They. Were. Unstopping.
We didn't want to start the epidural too early, so they gave me pain medicine. The pain pills worked for about an hour for me. I was able to sleep for an hour, but then the contractions came back, stronger, more often!! Now baby's heart tones were dropping again with every other contraction and they didn't want to give me pain medicine anymore. It was about 5AM by this time and neither myself, nor Ryan, had gotten any sleep. Twelve hours of labor and no real progression. Lucky for me I have a very loving husband who stood by my side, holding my hand and trying to be as supportive as possible as I was brought to almost tears with every contraction.
The epidural was ordered and it took two tries due to the contractions I had consistently through the procedure. But once it was in... Hey Ladies, why would you EVER pass up an epidural? It was a life saver for me!! Unfortunately for me the procedure for the epidural was difficult. Not only did it take two tries, but the aftermath of the epidural was rough!
My blood pressure dropped. A lot! I got very nauseated, very sick, luckily I couldn't feel contractions anymore because I was passing out from the drop in BP alone. I rested, they cooled me off, I waited and finally my numbers started getting back to normal again! They waited a few more hours longer than everyone had planned to start the Pitocin, but I needed normal BP, I was not progressing without Pitocin and baby was staying "normal"... Once I was able to get my blood pressure back up I started feeling better. They decided to start the Pitocin and see what happens...
Of course the Pitocin had a side effect with baby, the heart tones were dropping again. Luckily no serious side effects for me, but we had to stop the Pitocin and get baby's heart rate back to normal. We stopped the Pitocin and they gave me oxygen again (I had been on & off oxygen for a few hours through out the night). They warned me "we may have to do a C-section if we can't keep the heart rate constant" we were going to wait until baby's heart rate remained normal before any decision, I may have just lied there and cried. Hearing baby may be in harms way, feeling sick because of your own BP and knowing you may not get to make any final decisions on your own is very overwhelming-- especially after a night of no sleep and lots of pain. Baby got back to normal, they wanted to introduce Pitocin again. Once we got up to a certain point baby reacted negatively again. We were trying to not have to do a C-section, but on & off Pitocin wasn't doing anything for me. And it certainly wasn't helping baby at all.
The back & forth felt like hours!! It was endless, I just wanted my baby out and I was exhausted. I may not have been feeling any pain, but I was so ready to get the baby out. I wanted to see him (or her) and wanted all these wires off! They monitored my blood pressure, my pulse, I had an IV, epidural and catheter. I was so over being attached to wires. The machine automatically takes your BP and it was so annoying, because if you move even a little it would have to restart. They would then come in and say they were monitoring baby's BP and there were issues. JUST GET THE BABY OUT... PLEASE!!
Around 4PM the doctor came back and we made the final decision... it had to be a C-section. I could have put it off and tried to progress, but it wasn't worth putting my baby's health in harms way. My parents arrived, my dad beat my mom here-- shocking (as my mother tells the story of the day I was born, he almost didn't make it to my delivery)! They got me all ready to go, wheeled my bed down the hall, I saw my mom in the hallway, got a kiss good luck and off I went to the surgery room. Ryan had to wait outside until they had me completely prepped-- then he came in and held my hand as I lied their shaking from being freezing cold.
We were behind the screen and of course I couldn't "feel" anything, but it felt like I was a piece of leather luggage meant to hold a couple day's worth of clothes that someone was trying to pack for a month long vacation! I really don't know how else to explain it, just pulling & tugging. It didn't hurt, but it was scary!!
I'll spare you the details, but they finally announce "BIG BABY!" and "Ryan, do you want to tell her what you have here?" Ryan peaks over the blankets and sees "it's a boy! I told you so!!!" he says! They take him out, clean him up. I can see him over in the corner with the nurses-- Ryan is still holding my hand and tears just start pouring from my eyes. I felt like I was in shock-- I didn't really feel like it was real. I didn't feel like I was there. I wanted to see my baby up close, but I was feeling very sick. They hand him over to Ryan who gets to hold him until they are ready to have him walked down to the nursery! Ryan snaps a few photos and I finally get an up close look at my baby. As I lied there getting stitched up & cleaned up they told my parents to head towards the nursery and they stood there as Ryan walks in with our big baby boy! As Ryan left the delivery room I said to him "if you drop my baby I will kill you"... or at least that's what I'm told I said-- I don't remember too much. After Ryan left the room my teeth started chattering, they stitched me together and I could hear voices. One of the Dr's kept asking for warm blankets for me, but my eyes must have been closed. I felt like I was awake, but when I finally opened my eyes the Dr said "Oh good, you're awake, I thought you were taking a nap on us!"
Our Big Boy weighed in at 9lb 8 oz & 22inches big baby boy!!
After surgery I went back to my room to recover and we waited for Conner James to make his appearance with the family...
My blood pressure was low again and they kept a close eye on me. They brought Conner in for us to meet him but had warned me his blood sugar was low. They wanted me to nurse him often and they would keep testing his blood sugar. After every attempt nursing him they would wheel him away for a couple hours, to monitor him. They told me if his numbers didn't climb they were going to put an IV in him and have to keep him in the NICU-- ummm, my baby is a big boy and he's mine, he stays with him. They kept him, bringing him to me just to nurse, until finally he had 3 solid blood sugar numbers AND my BP balanced back out. Now we finally have a big, healthy boy, who loves to snuggle and loves to suck (his thumb & pointer finger), he has a perfectly round head (the upside to never attempting to make his way out the "normal" way) and he pushes his head back to "look" around, even if he isn't seeing anything. He came out with a very strong neck or at least a strong desire to hold his head up a lot. His little baby noises were sweet sounds to our ears and we are so blessed to have Conner James here with us!!
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR PRAYERS! We feel very blessed to be surrounded by such loving, caring people and to have such a sweet, big, healthy baby boy in our family!!
