12/10/11

After a few tears and lots of prayer we finally agreed to be induced on December 10, 2011 at 5am.  There were 2 possible due dates and after considering all the risks of "hoping" that we had the date right we decided being induced was best.

After 9, technically 10, long months of praying and preparing for our first born son's arrival, the day had finally come.  I woke up at 3am because I was a nervous wreck.  The next hour and a half just crawled by and I went crazy just trying to stay busy until leaving time at 4:30am.  We arrived at the hospital and so began the day that 2 became 3!


After a super quick admissions process I was shown to my room.  At this point I was starting to get a little freaked out.  I've never been admitted to a hospital before as a patient that was going to stay the night, be hooked up to monitors, etc.  My first nurse, Jenny, greeted me in my amazing "hospital" room and out came all the wires, questions, and of course my nervous laughter.  Jenny was incredible.  She was just wrapping up her shift for the evening but never for a moment complained or even acted tired.  We were very impressed!  By 6:00am the pitocin and fluids were started and so began "labor", naturally (I didn't want pain medicine). 

*If you don't know anything about being induced let me explain how it works...pitocin is given to make the uterus contract.  The amount of pit given is increased until the contractions hit a certain point where they are considered to be "progress making" and causing dilation and helping the baby descend.  The pit level maxes out at 30.  Pitocin causes contractions that are stronger and longer then normal contractions.*

7am:   it was shift change and I was introduced to my new nurse, Brittney.  She was incredible as well.  She joined in singing Hillsong United songs that were streaming from Robert's phone.  It seems like a simple detail to add in but there's just something that was so peaceful knowing that another believer was taking care of me.  ;-)  My parents had arrived at the hospital and prayed with us and Robert's phone was blowing up with calls and text messages asking us how things were going.

Somewhere between 7am and 11am I was able to sleep, snoring sleep, between contractions!  ha!

Fast forward a few hours...11am...still no baby boy yet!  Contractions were picking up intensity as well as the pitocon level raised!  I thought for sure at this point I was going to be having a baby very very soon...we contacted our wonderful doula, Megan, to let her know the contractions were starting to become more challenging to control, still going natural!

2:20pm:  I was so thankful that Megan was there to help.  She reminded me to move around and help labor progress.  At this point it wasn't the pain that was bothering me as much as my intense hunger!  I was sneaking peanuts from Robert, literally!   But it was such a peaceful environment in the room.  We had relaxing music playing on Pandora, an exercise ball, and a rice sock (literally a sock filled with rice that we kept heating up to help).  She kept telling me that I was doing great managing the pain, which I won't lie...I rocked those contractions...but I couldn't have done it without her and my husband.  They remained calm and were so focused helping me stay focused!  Pretty much everyone in my family was at the hospital waiting.  When the contractions seemed to ease up I was able to visit with some of them.

The day kept on going...still pregnant...

6pm:  we were greeted with a call from my dr to see how things were progressing, unfortunately they weren't progressing and because I was going natural the idea of pain medication was being thrown around like crazy.   I still wanted to hold out on getting an epidural so they told me about Nubane (the nurses called it the 30 minute paradise).  I loved the Nubane!  ;-)
*Nubane is a medicine injected into the iv line, it is similar to Stadol except it only lasts for 30 minutes.  It is supposed to take the edge off.*

7pm:  it was shift change and I was introduced to my 3rd nurse, Mandy.  I LOVED Mandy!  She was funny and upbeat!  Jenny, my 1st nurse, was also back at work so she stopped by to say hello!  At this point in the day I was starving, still going natural, and still pregnant.  I wanted the baby out and to eat!

8pm:  my incredible dr came by to check on me and see how things were progressing and if the Nubane I had been given helped.  The good news is the Nubane helped, the bad news is I was stuck again.  No threats or ultimatums from the dr but I knew that my body had to pick it up or I was going to be facing some tough decisions soon.

9:30pm:  I was within an hr of the 12 hr mark from my water being broken.
*the drs rule is 12 hrs max of laboring after water is broken-then it's c-section time.*
Jenny came in the room and gently placed her hands on my knees and said "Stephanie, you've been doing so great but you've got to start thinking about getting an epidural.  It may be all your body needs to get you where you need to be."  I started crying.  I wanted to birth my son naturally.  I had prepared, prayed, and rocked the contractions.  Jenny then said "you need to talk about this with your husband and let me know because it's either epidural or c-section."  I started crying even harder and Robert began to cry with me.
*Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything wrong with an epidural, I just was terrified of the side effects of getting one.  What if I am that one in a million that gets hurt from it.*
The trick to going natural is concentration.  You have to feel the pain and focus on it.  Focus on getting through it and beating it.  The other thing about going natural is that you can't EVER forget to focus.  The second the focus is gone you can't get it back, especially if you are working on you 12+ hour of labor and the contractions are huge.  Because of all the tears and fear of the "epidural talk" I for the first time all day was in true severe pain.  I couldn't get my focus back and I couldn't stop crying.  I was terrified of the epidural that I had just agreed to.  I knew I had no choice.  (Plus there was this lady that came in at 9cm and was screaming bloody murder and her screams may have encouraged me ha!)

10pm:  Epidural was in, on the second try.  I felt amazing, Mandy bumped my pitocin up to 28, and then all hell broke loose.  A small spot on the right side of my stomach didn't go numb.  I could feel every contraction hitting me and they were within 30 seconds of each other.  Mandy called the anesthesiologist and told her to come back immediately.  That my friends was the most painful feeling I've ever had in my entire life, so painful in fact that I had my mom, Robert, and Megan all telling me..."breathe".  Apparently I was crying so hard that I wasn't breathing and in turn lowering my sons heart rate...scary!  Problem was fixed, epidural working properly, got checked and bam...completely ready to go...in 3 minutes...talk about WHAT!!  I couldn't believe that it was finally time.  I felt amazing.  I had my mom help me refresh my makeup, since I had just cried it all off, while Mandy was calling my dr- and she was there in 15 minutes!  She began instructing me on what all was about to happen and how to get through it.  I pushed 4 times and at 11pm our son was here!!

 11pm:  Robert Edward Scrivener II was born!!