Because I am so popular, I am going to assume you read my last post. :) However, I left this part out. When they scheduled my induction, they gave me a paper with different things to take care of before getting to the hospital. One was to call my insurance company and make sure that no precertification was needed because I was being induced. I am on Joe's insurance and my mom's insurance. So my mom looked at her policy and told me no precertification was required. I called Joe's insurance company on Friday and they informed me that I could not call about that, someone from the hospital would have to call. So I asked them what to do since I was being induced that night. They told me to let the hospital know when I got there, and they would call the insurance company and take care of it.
Anywho, we called the hospital at 5 pm on Friday, and they told us to come on in at 7. We packed up our bags and headed out! When we got to the hospital, we registered and were sent right away to labor and delivery. Now, I was fully prepared to give the girl who registered us my ID and insurance cards, but she didn't ask for them. So I did not ask her about said insurance issue. We got back to our room and I finally asked the nurse who came in what to do. I explained the situation to her and she said "Well we can't do anything about that right now, it's after hours and no one will be there until Monday." So I was like "Does that mean we have to go home?" And she said she would check. So I was irritated already. It took her a long time to get back to us, and she said the doctor on call would come and talk to us. It took him a while to get to us, but he finally did, and talked to us about our options and told us we could wing it and deal with the insurance companies on Monday, or we could go home and come back on Monday.
Well if you know me at all, you know I wasn't going home. :) So we decided to stay. So after all this, they had a couple of issues pop up that kept them from getting to us. So at 11:30 they finally give me cervidil, which is what I was supposed to be on for 12 hours to ripen my cervix. So they gave it to me and we did a lot of nothing. Watched tv, tried to sleep, etc.
The next morning, the doctor on call (who I thought would be the one to deliver my baby) came in at around 8 to see what the cervidil did. So she checked me and....nothing. Still one cm. So she said she would check me again around 11:30 am and then go ahead and start the pitocin about 30 mins later. So of course she checked me at 11:30 and there was no change at all. She started the pitocin at 12 and they upped it every 30 mins. They weren't going to go over 20 (whatever measurement) and only upped it by single digits each time. So the doctor kept checking me and checking me, especially because I started to have some mild contractions, but nothing changed! She talked to us around 5 and told us our options at that point. She said that Bella was in no distress and neither was I, and that they could safely let me go to 42 weeks and have time to go into labor on my own. So our options were 1. Go home. Make an appointment for Monday or Tuesday, and if I didn't go into labor again, come back on Thursday or Friday and do this all over again. 2. stay, stop pitocin around 7:30, take a shower, walk around, eat, and start cervidil again around 9. Then do pitocin all the next day (Sunday). She left it up to us.
I was very discouraged at this point. I felt defeated, like something was wrong with my body, and that I would have to go home and do this all again! And I spent the whole day in bed on pitocin, sitting on my butt because every time I moved to one side they lost Bella's heartbeat on the monitor, they had to redo my IV which is NOT pleasant, let me tell you. And staying meant I faced the option of not eating for ANOTHER 24 hours (at this point I hadn't eaten since 2 pm Friday and was very grumpy), and having cervidil inserted again. It goes BEHIND your cervix, so I will let you guess how great that feels. I talked to Joe, and after talking to my parents and a couple of nurses, we decided to stay and give it one more day.
So they turned the pitocin off, let me take a shower, let me eat (my parents brought me Subway and it could quite possibly be the best meal I have ever had), let me walk around for a while, and then we started the whole thing over again.
They gave me cervidil around 9:45 pm on Saturday, and then basically left Joe and I alone to sleep. We didn't get much sleep either night because I, of course, had to pee a million times and in order to do so, had to take off my blood pressure cuff, unplug my heart monitor and contraction monitor, and unplug my IV. And then drag all that to the bathroom with me. So of course Joe helped! Anyways, around 3 or 4 am I started having irregular, but strong contractions. They felt like very strong period cramps to me, and I couldn't talk or walk when they were happening. I kept getting up and going to the bathroom because sitting in that position felt better. So finally, at a little before 5, I asked to have some pain medicine. I felt like a baby, honestly, because I knew the contractions weren't consistent, and I knew they could be a lot worse, but I asked for the medicine anyways. My doctor came in and checked me at that point, since I was having painful contractions. And, by the glory of God, I was at 3 cm and 100% effaced!! I was so happy I could've cried. So they went ahead and took the cervidil out and started me on contractions at 5 am.
At this point, things were progressing very quickly. I wanted an epidural, but I wanted it when they thought was best. At first they gave me a different kind of pain medicine in my IV that made me so sleepy! I kept falling asleep in the middle of texting someone, or talking to Joe. I was crazy. So I dealt with some painful contractions for a while, and felt really nauseous a couple of times. But yet again I felt like a huge baby and figured my pain tolerance was super low. Because everytime I get checked to see if I'm dilated, it is a really awful experience for me. And when they inserted the cervidil, I cried! I also cried when they did my IV. So I was like great I'm a wuss. Anyways, my nurse for the day, Kim, who I love, said she would check me and then see about an epidural. When she checked me (at around 8:30 am) I was 6.5 cms! I was so happy! And I really couldn't believe how was things were happening, especially compared to the day before.
Right before I got my epidural, my water broke on its own! I was really happy about that. Anyways, I got my epidural, and almost immediately felt great. Seriously, it was the greatest thing ever. After that, different people would come in and out and keep me company. I got checked again at 11 and was 9.5 cms! I was so excited, and it was weird too because I couldn't feel anything, so it seemed weird that I was that far along in labor. My nurse then told me that I could be pushing within a couple hours, as long as Bella was low enough! I was so excited and Joe and I were so glad we told our parents to come up early that morning instead of going to church haha.
Over the next 3 hours, Kim the Wonderful Nurse kept checking me and making me do practice pushes to see where Bella was, and if she responded to me pushing. She was at about a negative one station, and she can get all the way to a positive one or two station before they would call the doctor in to deliver her. So basically she wasn't low enough.
At around 2:30, Kim decided we would go ahead and start pushing. At this point, it was just her and Joe and me in the room. I started pushing, and it took a while to get the hang of it. Especially because I couldn't feel anything so I really felt like I was just holding my breath more than pushing anything anywhere, and Kim wanted me to let her know when I was having contractions. The only way to do that was to wait for my belly to get hard. Kim kept feeling Bella's head, and she said she thought Bella was turned slightly to the left, and of course they need her to be head down. As I pushed, Bella would try to turn, but couldn't all the way, so she would slide back in. I made minor progress and got her to about a zero station, but it was taking a lot longer than Kim wanted. She said they usually don't like you to push more than 3 hours. So at 4:30 she went to find the on call doctor, Dr. Reinstine, and see what he suggested. I couldn't believe I had been pushing for two hours. Time flew by when I was doing it, and I was exhausted.
Dr. Reinstine came in and for the next few contractions/pushes tried to turn Bella with his hand, but was unsuccessful. Then he told me my options. 1. Try to use forceps to guide her head the right direction, and if that didn't work, it was c-section time. 2. Just go for the c-section. At this point I pushed for so long, I really felt like choosing a c-section without trying EVERYTHING I could first was just being a failure. It would be just choosing a c-section because I didn't wanna try anymore. So I told him I wanted to try the forceps.
I got really emotional right before we started this, because I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't want anything to happen to Bella, and I didn't want it to end in a c-section, and it was the longest two days of my life!! Dr. Reinstine and the nurses got all set up, and he gave me an episiotomy. He put the forceps around her head and I pushed. She was out in one contraction! I couldn't believe it. I couldn't see her, and I didn't feel her head come out, but I felt her shoulders come out. They didn't let Joe cut the cord, they just cut it and immediately started cleaning her up, because they used forceps and because she was in the birth canal so long.
Then I just cried and cried and cried and cried lol. Joe teared up a couple of times. She was born at 5:32, exactly 3 hours after I started pushing. I was so proud of myself for not going with the c-section, and getting her out with just a little assistance! Even though he cut me, I also tore, so it took a while for him to clean and stitch me up. I was also really shaky because right before he used the forceps, they upped my epidural medicine to make sure I wasn't hurting.
Bella was 8 lbs, 10 ounces. My doctor guessed she would be 8.5 lbs at birth when I was only 37 weeks. I asked Dr. Reinstine again today and he said she was easily 8.5 lbs. That's almost exactly what she weighed! She is a little chunky thing and 21.5 inches long! She is gonna be tall like her daddy. Everyone keeps saying she looks like me, and she definitely has my nose and mouth, but I think she has her daddy's ears haha. And she doesn't have much hair, but what she does have is curly and blonde! I am so in love with her I can hardly stand it.
Looks like we will be here until Tuesday. It has been a long couple of days, but I'm proud of myself, and I knew as soon as she came out that I would do it all over again.
God is so amazing, and I feel so blessed. I really didn't want to have her on 9/11, but now it seems like the perfect day.
Here is my little love:
She's saying "It's okay mom, I'm finally here!" <3
Aw! Congratulations! You did it!!! She missed my birthday by one day, but I'll let it slide ;) Enjoy your new baby girl!!!
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