My Birth Story!

The final belly shot!

If you had been reading my blog, you knew that I was supposed to be going in to HP Regional Hospital on the morning of the 17th. I was supposed to call at 6am that morning and they would tell me what time to come in to be admitted. Well, that didn't happen like it was supposed to! 
Apparently, Dr. Eisenberg meant to tell us we were having a NIGHT induction instead and we were supposed to be at the hospital on the night of the 16th. So, as I'm finishing up last minute to-do's and I've just taken off my make up and my contacts and am getting into bed, I get a phone call from the hospital asking me why I never called in to come be induced! I was in shock. I thought I had one more night in my own bed!! But no, my doctor had told me wrong so I had to call Ben who was just finishing up at work and we packed up the car and headed to the hospital Wednesday night.
We got to the hospital around 10:30PM. The way a night induction works is they give you cervadil to ripen your cervix and you keep it in all night and in the morning they take it out and start the IV with pitocin. 
So after answering a million health questions, strapping me to the monitor that reads the baby's heart rate and my contractions and getting some blood drawn, the nurse puts a tampon-like thing with the cervadil on it up near my cervix and I go to sleep. She had ordered a sleeping pill for me because they really want you to be well rested for the next day but I was so tired I didn't even need it. 
The sleep wasn't very comfortable but since I'd woken up so early that morning and had made myself walk around Target and do a lot of laundry, I was exhausted and slept pretty deep. 


The next morning (Thursday, the 17th) I was woken up at around 7:30am by Doctor Patel. He told me that they were going to start the IV soon and they were going to break my water. Then he left and our nurse, Kelly, came in. She let me freshen up a little and she talked to us which made us feel really comfortable. I was really nervous and was lucky to have her as my nurse because she was GREAT and talked me through a lot of labor. 
Kelly started my IV in my forearm which didn't hurt as bad and allowed me to be able to use my hands throughout labor which was nice. Then she started the pitocin which would simulate contractions. Then Doctor Mattern came in a checked to see how dilated I was. 
I was still only 1 or 2 cm dilated but I was now 80% effaced which meant that the cervadil had done it's job successfully. She took this long stick looking thing and broke my water with it.
Now, what you see in movies is completely different from what really happens when you have your water broken. In the movies, the star is out and about somewhere and has that "oh no my water broke!" moment and that's that. Well, in real life, it gushes out... and then continues to leak until you've given birth to the baby. Not fun at all! So basically, you feel like you have peed yourself because it's a bunch of clear (and a little bloody) realllllly warm fluid and then every time you move or laugh more fluid will spill out. Just another one of the joys of labor!
So they break my water and then it's just a waiting game. The contractions started and on the monitor you can see the strength of each contraction measured in numbers. The numbers go up as the contraction gets more painful and as it's wearing off it gets lower. In the first few hours the contractions got up to the 50's (starting at like the 30's) and then early afternoon they were more like the 80's.
I didn't want an epidural because of countless reasons so I opted for pain medicine through the IV. In the beginning stages, it was a really helpful because it made me loopy (I basically felt drunk) and I didn't concentrate on the contractions. However, as the day progressed, they really only helped for about 20 minutes and then were pointless for pain. They could only give you them every 4 hours so I had about three doses total.
At one point (about 5:30pm or so) the pain was a lot worse (up in the 90's) so I had Kelly check to see how dilated I was. She had just checked me like an hour before and I was at 5cm so I was praying that I was more than that. She kept telling me all day to let her know if I start to feel more pressure than pain and I thought what I was feeling was pressure so she checked. Unfortunately, I was only 5 1/2 cm. 
Within the next hour, the pain got so unbelievable that I was almost to the point of screaming. The pain was at a point that felt way worse than before and the pain itself felt 'different' for lack of a better word. I had been managing the pain really well up until this point by breathing and mind control. A lot of pain is a mind game so I kept telling myself that it was temporary and as long as I survived the peak of each contraction, it would be over soon after. 
Since the pain was so much stronger and closer together and I was finally to the point where I thought I might start crying (I'd been really good until that point and hadn't shed a tear!), a new nurse had come to check on me since Kelly was helping with another delivery and I finally asked about an epidural. The nurse said that it would numb me and that they'd have to tell me when I was having contractions since I wouldn't feel them. 
If you know me, you know I am terrified of needles and don't like the idea of being numb and was SO determined to have a natural birth, so asking for the epidural was hard for me. But I was practically screaming at Ben to get it and so the nurse goes to get the anesthesiologist. 
This is where everything went downhill for me. The anesthesiologist took FOREVER to get to me since he was the ONLY one and that day had been crazy busy (they had SEVEN c-sections that day when they normally only did two!) and since I was at the point of getting an epidural, it was my breaking point so I really was not handling waiting very well. He finally comes in, they make me get in the opposite position that I was in that made contractions feel better (ugh!) and he does the epidural (ouch!) and I'm supposed to lie completely flat and it should take like fifteen minutes to kick in. 
So I'm lying there, practically screaming every time I have a contraction and the nurse keeps telling me that they are going to get farther apart and not as painful each time. 
Well, I'm waiting... and waiting... and she keeps telling me that it will take effect any minute. 
LIAR! Ah, it doesn't.
So she keeps telling me to wait five more minutes, five more minutes... making up excuses like gravity and blah blah and I'm just getting more mad and sending Ben outside to get her every five seconds because I'm not getting numb and nothing is feeling better. So finalllllly she says that it must not have taken and that she will get the anesthesiologist and see what he says. 
He says he needs to do another one and of course he is in the middle of doing something else so I have to wait a little bit and then when he comes in, he is not nice (not that he was in the beginning...) and is trying to blame the first on me saying my positioning when placing wasn't that good (well, if it wasn't, why did you stick me in that position? sigh.) and is forcing me into the worst position possible again and so he does it and I lay down again. 
And again I am waiting and my right leg is slightly numb but that's about it and the nurse is reassuring me saying that having an epidural not work the first time RARELY happens so there's nothing to worry about for this second one and that the contractions should slowly be getting better.
Well they aren't... again. And Ben asks her if they should check how dilated I am and she says she is going to once the epidural kicks in.
But it's not kicking in and I am feeling like I'm going to die. It was just awful.
By this point, it is 7pm and Doctor Sansing (thank god!) and my nurse Kelly come into the room.
Dr. Sansing immediately checks to see how dilated I am.
She checks me, looks up and says "Well, I can tell you why the epidural isn't working... You're fully dilated and it's time to push!"
That was the single most scary/exciting/full of relief statement I have ever heard in my life! 
I immediately start crying and the look on Ben's face is just priceless. If only I had known I was at 10 cm then I would've avoided the whole epidural process completely!
Both nurses had literally just told me their shift's were ending so I'd be getting new nurses but once Dr. Sansing said that to me, they immediately started getting me and the bed ready to push. 
They put the bed up, propped up my legs and Dr. Sansing put on all her gear and got below me. 
Each time I had a contraction, Ben and the two nurses would pull my legs toward me chest, I held my breath and put my chin to my chest and they counted to ten while I pushed with all my might. They did this two or three times during each contraction.
Dr. Sansing first rotated Jude since he was sideways and he needed to be face down and then he was finally coming out! 
She had to do an episiotomy unfortunately because he had his hand near his head and then I also tore. Luckily, the epidural had finally kicked in at this point (and I mean, JUST kicked in) and I didn't feel the cut. 
Once his head was out, it was SUCH a relief and so easy. The rest of him slid right out and all of a sudden Ben is cutting the cord and they are handing me this slimy, crying baby. 
It was so surreal. I can't even begin to describe all the emotions I was feeling. I couldn't believe that this baby had been inside me for 9 months and I literally just pushed him out of me. It is such a life changing and empowering moment and I was SO proud of myself for doing pretty much all of it without an epidural. 
As I'm holding the baby, I didn't even realize that the placenta came out and Dr. Sansing is stitching me all up. Ben got some pictures of the placenta and it is so gross and I can't believe that it was inside me! 
They let me hold Jude for about an hour, both our parents came in and we took pictures and then Ben went with the nursery nurse and they weighed Jude and did all the technical things. 
He weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 21 inches long! We were surprised he weighed that much since the doctors had been concerned he wasn't going to weigh much. But he is nice and healthy and very long! He has a lot of hair, dark eyes (we can't tell what color yet - either blue or brown), an adorable little nose, long toes, cute lips that he loves to suck in the bottom one, and tiny ears (like me!). He is very skinny but we will plump him up for sure!

So, all in all, it was the best experience of my life because I pushed through the pain and ended up with an adorable baby boy. Jude is just so perfect and I love holding him and just staring at him. He came out with a full head of hair too so that thing about hair causing heartburn is definitely true! He is SUCH a cutie pie :)