Dr Appt, Inducing, and Labor
This post will be all about my doctors appointment on the 28th, being sent to the hospital, being induced, and the whole labor process. Then there will be a seperate post about our few days in the hospital and first few days home.
So my appointment I thought was going well. My weight was great because I had been sick the day before and not eaten and thrown up and everything else. My blood pressure wasn't horrible, or at least I thought. Mackinley's heartbeat was just fine. I was unfortunately not dilated anymore at all. Still 1cm and 50% thinned. But the doctor I saw that day told me she wanted me to go to the hospital to be monitored again like I had been the week before. At least this time I was a little more prepared for it. However she did say, if things looked bad she wanted to induce that day, otherwise I could schedule to come in the following monday to be induced. I was shooting for monday because I had been sick and wanted the weekend to recover and have some strength for labor.
Anyways, we went over to the hospital, they got me all situated, took my blood, monitored my blood pressure every 10 minutes or so, watched the baby's heartbeat and so on. Then they told me that I had to stay and be induced, because something in my blood (PIH level I think, can't remember?) was slightly elevated, but has slowly been creeping up so they didn't want me to wait until monday. Great great great. I was so sick, so weak and having to be induced. I knew it was going to be a hard labor by that point.
They moved me to a delivery room, room #5 I believe and got me situated again. Then they had to put in an iv, saline lock thing. This was extremely long and painful. The nurse used the HUGE overhead light, and had to prop my arm up on a pillow to do the procedure. She first tried in my forearm and after much pain that I thought she was done, she said she busted the vein or something and had to try a different spot. No suprise, I was told it usually takes about 2 times to get the iv saline lock in. So the second place she tried was clear up at my wrist, like almost on a bone. It was very painful and it was bleeding all over the place. She had to wipe down my wristbands because there was so much blood on them. But it was finally in and didn't hurt anymore. But a long painful process! Then they let me get some dinner. I ordered some fettucine alfredo because it seemed bland enough for my stomach to handle after having not eaten at all that day. And I also got some fruit because something cold and juicy sounded good. I was only able to eat about half of the whole meal. They also flushed like a whole bag of saline into my iv because I was somewhat dehydrated from being sick. Then at 4pm they put a pill thing up behind my cervix which was supposed to do one of three things. One, it could throw me into labor. Two, it could soften the cervix to help prepare it for labor. Or three, it could do absolutely nothing and be pointless. We were hoping for one of the first two to happen.
Through the rest of the night I got cramps like period cramps that got worse as the night went on. I did not sleep much at all that night, I tossed and turned so much. Those delivery beds are so so so uncomfortable. I kept needing to switch sides I was laying on because my hips would start to hurt badly. Then early early the next morning, around 4am, they woke me up to take the pill thing out of my cervix. The nurse who tried to get it out could not get it out because the nurse who put it in had shoved the tail/string up in there so it wasn't hanging out and she couldn't get ahold of it. She had to get another nurse to take it out. This was very painful. Far more than having it put in. And come to find out it had done NOTHING during the night other than give me cramps. It did not soften my cervix or dilate me AT ALL. Then I was allowed to get a shower. I was so tired and weak still by this point that I could barely stand up, I was having bad cramps and so on. I got a very quick shower and then I was given one hour to be out of bed before I would be stuck in it for a while. So I enjoyed sitting up in the chair for a little bit.
Around 5:30am it was time to get back in bed and they started pitocin. The cramps from the pill thing in my cervix slowly started going away and I was able to rest a while off and on, because I did not feel contractions very much at all by this point. They did keep coming in though and upping my pitocin every couple hours it seemed. And I was not progressing much everytime they checked my cervix. I wish I had the time to have typed this up sooner so I would remember more details, but I don't remember what numbers I was at, at what time. Sometime late morning or early afternoon I believe everyone had left and taken a break to get something to eat or do whatever and I was by myself resting and the nurses and the doctor come in to break my water. And yes I got the ONE doctor I had not met who worked in a different city. I was not too happy about that, at this point. When she broke my water it was really really strange. It was so warm, I felt I made such a mess on the bed, it was really a weird sensation. They said my water appeared to have some meconium in it, which is the medical term for baby poop, which is not good sometimes. They said it didn't look bad, but that it would change how delivery went. When they pulled her out, she would not be put on my belly, she would be taken straight over to the warmer to be checked out, and sucked out and a pediatrician would be there to assist. So while the doctor was in there breaking my water, she put on an internal contraction monitor, and she put a heartrate monitor on the baby's head because she kept moving around so much that they kept having to come in and move the external monitor.
It was at this time that the nurse told me to let her know when I wanted an epidural because it would take about an hour or so from when I said I was ready for it until I actually got it because of the preparations that had to be made. At the time I felt perfectly fine. I actually felt a little relief from the pain and I felt much lighter after she broke my water. I was suprised I felt good so I told her that I was not ready and doing fine. I don't think it was quite a half hour and the contractions started coming strong! So I paged her quickly and said I was ready to start. They had to flush lots more saline into me. Then she gave me some pain medicine in my iv to hold me over until the epidural was ready. HOLY CRAP that pain medicine was so good. I felt like I was floating. It was such a relief. Everyone was laughing at me though saying I was slurring and not making sense. But it was really nice medicine and helped a bunch!
When they came in for the epidural I started getting really nervous. I think this was the thing I was MOST nervous about for labor and delivery. They made everyone leave but James and told them it would be a 45 minute to an hour procedure. That just scared me even more! Haha. So what they did is raised the bed way way up, like straight up in the air and made me sit up on the edge with James on a chair in front of me. I had to lean forward with my head down and my hands flat on my thighs and James had to kind of hold my hands. So then she washed my back with whatever to make it sterile and put a big sticky sheet on my back, and then marked where she would be going in. I did not jump when she put the numbing needle in, but I jumped when she put the medicine in. I apologized because I was worried I might have messed something up. She said it was okay, that it was the numbing medicine and was hot. So then she did the rest of the epidural and I didn't really feel any of that. Then I was able to lay back down. After that she had to stay in the room and ask me a bunch of questions and keep measuring my blood pressure and pain. Then they had this weird spray thing of cold cold stuff that the nurse would spray on my arm to feel how cold and then she would spray it on my belly and work up and I had to say when I felt it how cold it was on my arm. This was to tell how high up the epidural was.
The epidural started working pretty quickly and I felt comfortable. For a while. But then for some reason on my left side it just slowly started to stop working and got progressively worse and worse and started to stop working on the right side. I was in lots and lots and lots of pain. By this time it was late evening. They gave me a button I could push to give me a little boost of the epidural medicine every 15 minutes or something, but it was not helping. So finally they called the lady back in who did my epidural to change my dosage or fix it or something and she finally was able to get me more comfortable. After probably an hour or two of pain pain pain where it had stopped working. I was so worried I would have to try and push the baby out with it hurting like that and I was like there is no way I can do it.
Shortly after she got it working better though, there was no time to rest, I was dilated and it was time to start pushing. James' mom was holding one foot, my mom was holding the other, and James was helping to kind of push my back up when I was pushing. However James and my mom switched off and on the whole time I was pushing because apparently helping push my back up was hard work and they would get worn out. So the first few times of pushing I was not doing well according to the nurses and the doctor. It took a while to get the hang of what I was really supposed to be doing. They had me lean up with my head into my chest and then try and hold these handlebars to help pull myself. The thing was I was having so much trouble keeping ahold of the handlebar things because my hands were sweaty and sore, and then my belly was just so big I felt like I could only sit up and pull up so far but they kept wanting more.
I ended up pushing for like 2 hours and the doctor said she was trying the vaccuum to get her out, but if that wasn't working that she was going to do a c-section. They even called and had them start preparing the room. By this point I had her head showing, I just couldn't get her past the pelvic bone. But I had it more difficult than some, because the baby was "sunny side up" as they call it at the hospital. She was facing up and should have been facing down. This just makes it a little more difficult to manuever her around the pelvic bone. Anyways, she hooked on the vaccuum and first push I had, the vaccuum apparently slipped off. The doctor said she would try ONE more time and I really really gave it all my effort to get her out of there because I did not want a c-section.
With those last few pushes we were able to get her past the pelvic bone and she was hanging half out of me about to her waist. Now this was THE most strange thing I had felt in my entire life. She was hanging half out me but moving, on the outside AND the inside. It seriously felt like there was a seizure going on in my lower belly or something. I can't even explain it. It was so so weird. So with another few small pushes they pulled her the rest of the way out and let James cut the umbilical cord then took her to the warmer to take care of her. She cried right away which they said was a good sign that the meconium did not affect her lungs or anything. She was born at 12:19am.
This is the point when I pretty much zoned out. Labor was done, I was exhausted, the next few hours were just a blur. I layed there hearing the baby, not really able to see her over across the room, while the doctor pulled out the placenta, weird, and then blood clots. So here comes something else strange. I thought that feeling the baby hang out of me and moving at the same time was the weirdest feeling I've ever felt in my life, but I was wrong. When the doctor reached inside to grab blood clots, I swear it felt like the blood clots were moving around and shaking. If you have seen the Harry Potter movies, imagine when Harry grabs the snitch in quidditch, how it moves around and shakes and wants to get away. That's what it felt like inside of me. Now I know the blood clots were probably not moving and that it was probably my muscles freaking out or something, but that's what it felt like. WEIRDEST thing I've ever felt in my life.
Then the doctor literally stitched me up for about 45 minutes. Apparently I tore REALLY badly. I'm still afraid to look down there and see what it looks like. I don't wanna see how bad it is. Although James says it doesn't look any different but you can see the stitches still. Oh and by the way, I got the one doctor I had not yet met and was not happy about it, but after delivery, I think things went really well and I really liked her, so I was perfectly fine that she was the one who delivered the baby for me. I don't even quite remember them bringing the baby to me to hold after I was all done being stitched up. Then they tried to get me to breastfeed her, for like a half hour or more. The nurse just talked and talked and talked trying to explain this and that, and I just pretty much was falling asleep as she was telling me all this. I could not keep my eyes open, I do not remember a word she was telling me, I just could not function AT all. I just asked to be laid flat on my back, and I shut my eyes and zoned out while everyone came in and checked out the baby.
I was actually relieved when everyone left and James was then able to go with the baby to the nursery for her bath. I was hoping for a nap, but that didn't happen. The nurse brought me in a pain pill, a percocet, which made me start feeling much better (pain-wise). Then they wanted me to get up and go to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I started to stand up with them but I was way too dizzy and could not yet walk to the bathroom. I had not eaten a thing in like 36 hours, and before that I had two half meals the day before, and the day before that was the day I was sick and had pretty much nothing also. So they gave me like 3 packs of graham crackers and three things of juice and after eating that I felt SO SO SO SO SO much bettter. I did not feel zoned out anymore, I did not feel so tired anymore. I was ready to get up and go to the bathroom to get cleaned up and I was ready to actually hold my babygirl and pay attention and remember.
After getting cleaned up and all my stuff packed up, the nurses took me to the post partum room, and at this point it was like 4am. The nurse over there then took all my vital signs, asked me all kinds of questions, talked to me about certain things I need to do, and gave me some paperwork to fill out. Shortly after she was done, James and the baby came back from the nursery and it was like 6am and we thought about sleep, but the baby was up every couple hours so we really did not get much sleep at all our whole hospital stay.
That was just the start of Mackinley's life. I will try and post about that last day in the hospital and maybe her first couple weeks of life, since she is already two and a half weeks old now! But as you can see it's taken me that long to post about the labor, so we will have to wait and see. Enjoy my labor story. It's really more of a memory post for me so I remember all about my labor, but I'm sure you found it interesting.
So my appointment I thought was going well. My weight was great because I had been sick the day before and not eaten and thrown up and everything else. My blood pressure wasn't horrible, or at least I thought. Mackinley's heartbeat was just fine. I was unfortunately not dilated anymore at all. Still 1cm and 50% thinned. But the doctor I saw that day told me she wanted me to go to the hospital to be monitored again like I had been the week before. At least this time I was a little more prepared for it. However she did say, if things looked bad she wanted to induce that day, otherwise I could schedule to come in the following monday to be induced. I was shooting for monday because I had been sick and wanted the weekend to recover and have some strength for labor.
Anyways, we went over to the hospital, they got me all situated, took my blood, monitored my blood pressure every 10 minutes or so, watched the baby's heartbeat and so on. Then they told me that I had to stay and be induced, because something in my blood (PIH level I think, can't remember?) was slightly elevated, but has slowly been creeping up so they didn't want me to wait until monday. Great great great. I was so sick, so weak and having to be induced. I knew it was going to be a hard labor by that point.
They moved me to a delivery room, room #5 I believe and got me situated again. Then they had to put in an iv, saline lock thing. This was extremely long and painful. The nurse used the HUGE overhead light, and had to prop my arm up on a pillow to do the procedure. She first tried in my forearm and after much pain that I thought she was done, she said she busted the vein or something and had to try a different spot. No suprise, I was told it usually takes about 2 times to get the iv saline lock in. So the second place she tried was clear up at my wrist, like almost on a bone. It was very painful and it was bleeding all over the place. She had to wipe down my wristbands because there was so much blood on them. But it was finally in and didn't hurt anymore. But a long painful process! Then they let me get some dinner. I ordered some fettucine alfredo because it seemed bland enough for my stomach to handle after having not eaten at all that day. And I also got some fruit because something cold and juicy sounded good. I was only able to eat about half of the whole meal. They also flushed like a whole bag of saline into my iv because I was somewhat dehydrated from being sick. Then at 4pm they put a pill thing up behind my cervix which was supposed to do one of three things. One, it could throw me into labor. Two, it could soften the cervix to help prepare it for labor. Or three, it could do absolutely nothing and be pointless. We were hoping for one of the first two to happen.
Through the rest of the night I got cramps like period cramps that got worse as the night went on. I did not sleep much at all that night, I tossed and turned so much. Those delivery beds are so so so uncomfortable. I kept needing to switch sides I was laying on because my hips would start to hurt badly. Then early early the next morning, around 4am, they woke me up to take the pill thing out of my cervix. The nurse who tried to get it out could not get it out because the nurse who put it in had shoved the tail/string up in there so it wasn't hanging out and she couldn't get ahold of it. She had to get another nurse to take it out. This was very painful. Far more than having it put in. And come to find out it had done NOTHING during the night other than give me cramps. It did not soften my cervix or dilate me AT ALL. Then I was allowed to get a shower. I was so tired and weak still by this point that I could barely stand up, I was having bad cramps and so on. I got a very quick shower and then I was given one hour to be out of bed before I would be stuck in it for a while. So I enjoyed sitting up in the chair for a little bit.
Around 5:30am it was time to get back in bed and they started pitocin. The cramps from the pill thing in my cervix slowly started going away and I was able to rest a while off and on, because I did not feel contractions very much at all by this point. They did keep coming in though and upping my pitocin every couple hours it seemed. And I was not progressing much everytime they checked my cervix. I wish I had the time to have typed this up sooner so I would remember more details, but I don't remember what numbers I was at, at what time. Sometime late morning or early afternoon I believe everyone had left and taken a break to get something to eat or do whatever and I was by myself resting and the nurses and the doctor come in to break my water. And yes I got the ONE doctor I had not met who worked in a different city. I was not too happy about that, at this point. When she broke my water it was really really strange. It was so warm, I felt I made such a mess on the bed, it was really a weird sensation. They said my water appeared to have some meconium in it, which is the medical term for baby poop, which is not good sometimes. They said it didn't look bad, but that it would change how delivery went. When they pulled her out, she would not be put on my belly, she would be taken straight over to the warmer to be checked out, and sucked out and a pediatrician would be there to assist. So while the doctor was in there breaking my water, she put on an internal contraction monitor, and she put a heartrate monitor on the baby's head because she kept moving around so much that they kept having to come in and move the external monitor.
It was at this time that the nurse told me to let her know when I wanted an epidural because it would take about an hour or so from when I said I was ready for it until I actually got it because of the preparations that had to be made. At the time I felt perfectly fine. I actually felt a little relief from the pain and I felt much lighter after she broke my water. I was suprised I felt good so I told her that I was not ready and doing fine. I don't think it was quite a half hour and the contractions started coming strong! So I paged her quickly and said I was ready to start. They had to flush lots more saline into me. Then she gave me some pain medicine in my iv to hold me over until the epidural was ready. HOLY CRAP that pain medicine was so good. I felt like I was floating. It was such a relief. Everyone was laughing at me though saying I was slurring and not making sense. But it was really nice medicine and helped a bunch!
When they came in for the epidural I started getting really nervous. I think this was the thing I was MOST nervous about for labor and delivery. They made everyone leave but James and told them it would be a 45 minute to an hour procedure. That just scared me even more! Haha. So what they did is raised the bed way way up, like straight up in the air and made me sit up on the edge with James on a chair in front of me. I had to lean forward with my head down and my hands flat on my thighs and James had to kind of hold my hands. So then she washed my back with whatever to make it sterile and put a big sticky sheet on my back, and then marked where she would be going in. I did not jump when she put the numbing needle in, but I jumped when she put the medicine in. I apologized because I was worried I might have messed something up. She said it was okay, that it was the numbing medicine and was hot. So then she did the rest of the epidural and I didn't really feel any of that. Then I was able to lay back down. After that she had to stay in the room and ask me a bunch of questions and keep measuring my blood pressure and pain. Then they had this weird spray thing of cold cold stuff that the nurse would spray on my arm to feel how cold and then she would spray it on my belly and work up and I had to say when I felt it how cold it was on my arm. This was to tell how high up the epidural was.
The epidural started working pretty quickly and I felt comfortable. For a while. But then for some reason on my left side it just slowly started to stop working and got progressively worse and worse and started to stop working on the right side. I was in lots and lots and lots of pain. By this time it was late evening. They gave me a button I could push to give me a little boost of the epidural medicine every 15 minutes or something, but it was not helping. So finally they called the lady back in who did my epidural to change my dosage or fix it or something and she finally was able to get me more comfortable. After probably an hour or two of pain pain pain where it had stopped working. I was so worried I would have to try and push the baby out with it hurting like that and I was like there is no way I can do it.
Shortly after she got it working better though, there was no time to rest, I was dilated and it was time to start pushing. James' mom was holding one foot, my mom was holding the other, and James was helping to kind of push my back up when I was pushing. However James and my mom switched off and on the whole time I was pushing because apparently helping push my back up was hard work and they would get worn out. So the first few times of pushing I was not doing well according to the nurses and the doctor. It took a while to get the hang of what I was really supposed to be doing. They had me lean up with my head into my chest and then try and hold these handlebars to help pull myself. The thing was I was having so much trouble keeping ahold of the handlebar things because my hands were sweaty and sore, and then my belly was just so big I felt like I could only sit up and pull up so far but they kept wanting more.
I ended up pushing for like 2 hours and the doctor said she was trying the vaccuum to get her out, but if that wasn't working that she was going to do a c-section. They even called and had them start preparing the room. By this point I had her head showing, I just couldn't get her past the pelvic bone. But I had it more difficult than some, because the baby was "sunny side up" as they call it at the hospital. She was facing up and should have been facing down. This just makes it a little more difficult to manuever her around the pelvic bone. Anyways, she hooked on the vaccuum and first push I had, the vaccuum apparently slipped off. The doctor said she would try ONE more time and I really really gave it all my effort to get her out of there because I did not want a c-section.
With those last few pushes we were able to get her past the pelvic bone and she was hanging half out of me about to her waist. Now this was THE most strange thing I had felt in my entire life. She was hanging half out me but moving, on the outside AND the inside. It seriously felt like there was a seizure going on in my lower belly or something. I can't even explain it. It was so so weird. So with another few small pushes they pulled her the rest of the way out and let James cut the umbilical cord then took her to the warmer to take care of her. She cried right away which they said was a good sign that the meconium did not affect her lungs or anything. She was born at 12:19am.
This is the point when I pretty much zoned out. Labor was done, I was exhausted, the next few hours were just a blur. I layed there hearing the baby, not really able to see her over across the room, while the doctor pulled out the placenta, weird, and then blood clots. So here comes something else strange. I thought that feeling the baby hang out of me and moving at the same time was the weirdest feeling I've ever felt in my life, but I was wrong. When the doctor reached inside to grab blood clots, I swear it felt like the blood clots were moving around and shaking. If you have seen the Harry Potter movies, imagine when Harry grabs the snitch in quidditch, how it moves around and shakes and wants to get away. That's what it felt like inside of me. Now I know the blood clots were probably not moving and that it was probably my muscles freaking out or something, but that's what it felt like. WEIRDEST thing I've ever felt in my life.
Then the doctor literally stitched me up for about 45 minutes. Apparently I tore REALLY badly. I'm still afraid to look down there and see what it looks like. I don't wanna see how bad it is. Although James says it doesn't look any different but you can see the stitches still. Oh and by the way, I got the one doctor I had not yet met and was not happy about it, but after delivery, I think things went really well and I really liked her, so I was perfectly fine that she was the one who delivered the baby for me. I don't even quite remember them bringing the baby to me to hold after I was all done being stitched up. Then they tried to get me to breastfeed her, for like a half hour or more. The nurse just talked and talked and talked trying to explain this and that, and I just pretty much was falling asleep as she was telling me all this. I could not keep my eyes open, I do not remember a word she was telling me, I just could not function AT all. I just asked to be laid flat on my back, and I shut my eyes and zoned out while everyone came in and checked out the baby.
I was actually relieved when everyone left and James was then able to go with the baby to the nursery for her bath. I was hoping for a nap, but that didn't happen. The nurse brought me in a pain pill, a percocet, which made me start feeling much better (pain-wise). Then they wanted me to get up and go to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I started to stand up with them but I was way too dizzy and could not yet walk to the bathroom. I had not eaten a thing in like 36 hours, and before that I had two half meals the day before, and the day before that was the day I was sick and had pretty much nothing also. So they gave me like 3 packs of graham crackers and three things of juice and after eating that I felt SO SO SO SO SO much bettter. I did not feel zoned out anymore, I did not feel so tired anymore. I was ready to get up and go to the bathroom to get cleaned up and I was ready to actually hold my babygirl and pay attention and remember.
After getting cleaned up and all my stuff packed up, the nurses took me to the post partum room, and at this point it was like 4am. The nurse over there then took all my vital signs, asked me all kinds of questions, talked to me about certain things I need to do, and gave me some paperwork to fill out. Shortly after she was done, James and the baby came back from the nursery and it was like 6am and we thought about sleep, but the baby was up every couple hours so we really did not get much sleep at all our whole hospital stay.
That was just the start of Mackinley's life. I will try and post about that last day in the hospital and maybe her first couple weeks of life, since she is already two and a half weeks old now! But as you can see it's taken me that long to post about the labor, so we will have to wait and see. Enjoy my labor story. It's really more of a memory post for me so I remember all about my labor, but I'm sure you found it interesting.
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