My labor day

I have recorded in great detail the events of this day in my journal, but wanted to quickly summarize with photos here :) May 22, 2013 is a day I will never forget. Despite the pain of labor, I could not have planned for the day to be more perfect. I'm going to try to summarize as briefly as possible :)

Wednesday morning, my midwife Jessica was on call, so she told me to come in and she'd check me again and see where I was at, etc. So, around 8:30, I met Grant at work and we headed up to the labor deck. She checked me and I was still only about 2 cm, but soft and thin and his head was really low. She hooked me up to the monitor to run a 20-minutes strip and Grant had fun watching the contractions and seeing how high the numbers on the toco would go. I was not really feeling the contractions at all, but I was consistently contracting every 2-3 minutes.

She asked what I wanted to do. They would induce me by Saturday at the latest if he didn't come before then. Because my cervix was favorable and I was contracting so regularly, I had a very good likelihood that labor augmentation would be successful, but I had sort of hoped to have the experience of "going into labor" on my own. I really wanted her to decide for me, but knew she obviously wouldn't, so she said we could go grab something to eat and talk about it. We went back to Grant's office and he went to see a patient while I thought and discussed with others about what I wanted to do. Jessica called about 20 minutes later and said she had a room and nurse available and asked if I had decided. I hadn't for sure, but said I was leaning towards doing it, so she told me to come up and we could definitively decide. After I told her that, I felt really good about the decision and when Grant came back we headed upstairs to check in!

Here I am...ready to have a baby!!!
 Because Grant is staff at the hospital, we did get a little bit of extra special treatment and I got hooked up with an enormous corner room with a nice view of the mountains.

I was both nervous and excited...weirdly sad that I wouldn't be pregnant anymore but so excited to meet the little guy that had been growing in me for 9 months! Not knowing what to expect was the scariest part.

-Noon: Midwife (Jessica) broke my water to try and get things moving along... at this point she also said they wouldn't be checking my progress often (if at all) to lessen the risk of infection from ruptured membranes

-I was hooked up to the monitor every hour for 20 minutes. It was sort of fun at this point to use some of my nursing knowledge, interpreting the strip. Again, I could see I was having decent contractions but still was barely feeling them.

-In between being monitored, Grant and I walked the halls. This was SO boring (but I was desperate to get things moving and there wasn't much to do in my room either). Unfortunately the 2nd floor houses the OR, so there is very little room on this floor. We pretty much did laps around the elevators 

-This may be TMI, but if nothing else, walking did finally get my water leaking. Headed back to my room when amniotic fluid started dripping down my legs! (even though I was wearing enough padding to almost be a diaper).

-More monitoring...

-And Grant took this time to catch up on something he'd be missing in the coming days...

-Around 5:30 Jessica came in and asked how I was doing. My contractions were more intense than they had been that morning, but still were not bad. They had even seemed to be less intense than they had been a few hours before. So...as we discussed before she broke my water, we would try that for 6 hours and if I wasn't progressing we'd start Pitocin (which I was slightly scared of since I'd heard some bad stories and knew the pain was definitely going to be starting).

-Nurse came in and started the pit and from that point on I was confined to my bed since I needed to be continually monitored. 

-Breathed through contractions for a couple of hours, upped my dose of Pitocin (but never had to move it above 4 since contractions were getting increasingly strong). 

-Decided to try some IV pain medication (fentanyl). Pain was getting pretty bad but was trying to put off the epidural for a little while longer. Felt pretty drunk for the first 5 minutes after the dose was given, but then that part wore off. My main complaint and reason for needing the meds was that I wasn't getting pain relief between the contractions and felt like I needed a break to endure the contractions. The fentanyl definitely helped with that. Contractions were still strong, but I was able to rest between which helped a lot. Unfortunately, I could only get a dose every hour and it only lasted about 40 minutes. 

-Did 2 doses total of the fentanyl before deciding to ask for the epidural.

-Around 9:30 anesthesia came in and started epidural. The pain for the local anesthetic actually felt weirdly good as it was different from the contraction pain. I laid back and waited for it to take effect. The back of my legs got a little tingly, but nothing else!

-They assured me it would take about 15 minutes to take full effect, but I was not feeling any relief. The contractions were getting MUCH stronger and I was starting to get nervous that I couldn't handle it (especially because mentally I had relaxed a little knowing I should have pain relief soon). Anesthesiologist went out and came back to check on me 20 minutes later. 

-I was continuing to hurt worse and worse, stating that my pain was low and in front. Jessica came in at this point and decided she should check me. Moments later she said, "Let's push this baby out!" I couldn't believe I had progressed so quickly. I thought I would be in labor for several more hours.

-I will spare the details of pushing, but about 30-40 minutes later, we had ourselves a baby!

-Cord was wrapped around his neck once, so she unwrapped and pulled him up onto my belly. Everything became very real at this point. Even through the contractions all day, it hadn't really hit me what was happening. At this moment, it became very real and wonderful. 

-He was covered in vernix (cheesy stuff :) so they vigorously wiped and tried to get him to cry. 

-I just stared at him, all those perfect little features. I couldn't get over how perfect and cute he was! Once they stopped messing with him, he was very alert and content. 

-Grant cut the cord and checked out the placenta (yes, and even touched it without gloves on)-guess he loves me and trusts I don't have any weird diseases :) Really he doesn't get grossed out by anything

-Rowan hung out skin to skin for about 45 minutes before they took him for his assessment, etc. 

-Grant trimmed his cord again once it was clamped and watched them assess him

-Everything checked out perfectly. We have ourselves a healthy little boy :)

-Whiteboard in our room

-They asked us to guess his weight before putting him on the scale. I guessed 6 lb 12 oz, Grant guessed 6 lb 6 oz. He met us exactly in the middle weighing in at 6 lb 9 oz :) Looks like we've already learned to compromise as parents!

-He was SO awake and alert, it was fun to see him just checking out the new world he had just entered. Because of this alertness, I felt like he almost didn't look like a newborn. If you can't tell, I think he's pretty cute!

-All cleaned up and hanging out with mom :)

I was so grateful I was able to deliver on the day Jessica was on call. It's nice to have the OB that's been following you throughout pregnancy get to see the end result. I thought she was an amazing provider and after working in the OB clinic, didn't want to have to think/worry about who else might be working the day I delivered. Obviously I knew any of them were capable, but I was glad to get to share this experience with someone I knew well and trusted.

 Our first photo as a family of THREE! :) It was an incredible day and I was so grateful Grant could be there. Being in the military community, I know there are several couples who don't have this luxury and I am grateful to have shared this experience of becoming parents with him. LOVE THESE BOYS SO MUCH!