A checkup at the doctor on 11/14/14 turned into "get to the hospital, we're going to induce you today." I was on bed rest for high blood pressure for a week and a half. At my Friday appointment, it was the highest it had been. So, cue panicked calls to the right people. I called Jesse at Amazon and told him it was go time. Even though I was instructed to go straight to the hospital, I wasn't about to go all unprepared. Jesse and I met up at our place and grabbed all of the bags.... good thing I finally got around to packing them! I called my mom and dad and told them I was being induced.
Jesse and I got to the hospital around lunchtime. By 2:30pm I was checked in and hooked up. They started me on Pitocin to get me contracting. Nothing major happened for hours and at 6:00pm the on-call doctor took pity on me and turned the meds off so that I could eat and shower. After almost 4 hours, I was still only dilated to maybe 2cm. So I ate and showered and then they inserted a medication called Cervadil. I hardly slept a wink. Nurses coming in to check the monitors (turns out baby didn't like having their heartbeat tracked so there was lots of monitor adjusting), machines beeping, nerves in high gear. The Cervadil worked through the night and the next morning they took that out and started the Pitocin again. At 11:30am when I was still only 2cm dilated, the doctor came in and broke my water. SO. MUCH. GUSHING. I felt like there must have been 5 gallons of liquid leaking... all day long. Turns out, there was meconium in my amniotic fluid because baby had a bowel movement. The nurse said it may have been due to stress from my high blood pressure. This meant that the NICU team would be called when it was time to deliver.
Well having my water broken did the trick to strengthen my contractions. By 1:00pm I was begging for an epidural. I felt amazing after they got it going. At about 3:00pm when I was still not really dilating, the nurse started to put me into some rather wonky positions. I was on my side with one leg held up in the stirrup and the other stretched behind me. Every 45 minutes or so the nurse would come in a flip me. She also had me sitting up on the edge of the bed. All this to try and get baby to descend further into the birth canal. By 3:45pm when the doctor came to check my cervix, I was 5cm dilated. He inserted an internal contraction monitor so that they could see how strong my contractions actually were.
Finally about 10pm I was 10 cm dilated! It was time to start pushing. Of course, nothing had been easy about my labor so why should pushing be any different? My epidural started to wear off in the throws of pushing. Besides for that going on, I was also very nauseous. In fact, it helped me push baby out because I started vomiting. It really helped get baby in the right position so for that I guess I should be grateful. I have no idea what time it was but when baby was crowning they called Dr. Sabella to come in to catch baby. He was fairly upset when he got setup for delivery only to learn that I could feel EVERYTHING that he was doing. They rushed to get me some more numbing medicine (including shots of local anesthetic right where you're thinking!). He gave me a 2nd degree episiotomy to accommodate baby's big head.
With Jesse's awesome coaching skills, I had kept it together pretty well. But, when baby started crowning, I fell apart. I was screaming, I did a little cussing, I told them to get baby out or put baby back in. By then, I just needed delivery to be over. It's true what they say though, once baby is out there is an instant feeling of relief and boy was it ever! I was so anxious to find out baby's sex and was about to have a fit when what I thought was an annoying gesture turned into a sweet one. Before labor, Dr. Sabella asked what the names were going to be for baby. When baby came out he started singing "Happy Birthday." Of course I just kept asking, "what is it?!" Then I heard it, "Happy Birthday dear Wesleigh, happy birthday to you!" A little girl. Jesse cut the cord and the doctor took his guess that I had just given birth to a 10lb baby. He was close. After some confusion, we finally figured out her stats: Wesleigh Rae was born 11/15/14 at 11:19pm weighing a whopping 9lbs 8.6oz and measuring 21.5in long.
Insert chaos. The NICU team had been called in because of the meconium issue. They started assessing Wesleigh and determined that her breathing was too fast. They were going to take her to the NICU for more evaluation. Jesse had gone over to the baby incubator with her and when I was told they were taking her, I sent him with her. Poor guy didn't know which of us needed him more. As all of this was going on with Wesleigh, I was experiencing a postpartum hemorrhage. I was losing more blood than they liked. After they sewed me up, which I could feel (Ouch!), they started poking and prodding me. From what I remember, the doctor inserted medicine rectally, I was given shots in both legs, they attempted a second IV (even though I told them it was pointless), and they hung up new meds in my existing IV. All I can really remember is I was so dizzy and so concerned about Wesleigh. Nobody was telling me anything because all of the people working on me weren't working on her.
A nurse finally brought her over to me but because they had laid me so far back and because I was so dizzy I didn't feel comfortable holding her. It's a moment I missed out on and I'll always be sorry I did. I only got to see my daughter for a fleeting moment before they whisked her away.
They finally got me to stop bleeding and just like that the room was empty. It was like nothing had ever happened. Jesse came back to check on me when he had to leave the NICU so they could get Wesleigh taken care of. I remember having a melt down. Besides still being light headed, I felt guilty. The nurse had mentioned my high blood pressure could have caused the bowel movement and my hormones were raging. Those moments can go on the top three list for times I felt most helpless and most afraid. And I was literally paralyzed (from the waist down) and couldn't do anything to help either of us.
Thankfully the dizziness subsided. I was able to get a little update from Jesse and he had brought pictures to show me of our sweet little girl. She was covered in tubes and wires but she was beautiful and she was ours. My epidural finally wore off again and I was allowed to be moved to a recovery room after a while of being observed. When they finally got me settled in my new room, they wheeled me to the NICU and we finally got to hold our little girl. Wes was in the NICU for 6 days and that was a whole different experience. I was so relieved when we all got to go home.
So, labor and delivery were nothing like we planned. In fact, in birth class they tell you to write out a birth plan. I could have written 100 birth plans and none of them would have been remotely close to this. I wish so many things had gone differently. The panic, the episiotomy, the epidural not working properly, the meconium, the NICU, the postpartum hemorrhage, not getting to hold my baby, our families not being able to see baby after waiting 30+ hours. I am, however, thankful that at the end of the day we all survived to tell about it.
