Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Judah’s birth day (part 1)

Tuesday, September 20th, seemed like any other day.  Justin and I both knew that we would be headed to the hospital before the day ended for my scheduled induction, but it just didn’t seem real.  We spent the day pretty much like normal and even went to our small group at church that evening.  After small group, we came home and packed up the car and I double checked all of my lists.  I tried out the video camera for the first time and made sure the cameras were charged up.  Around 11:30pm we headed out… only to turn around a few minutes later because we forgot the ipod dock! 
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Eventually we made it to the hospital and got checked in right around midnight, September 21st.  I was surprised at how quickly things went.  I expected, for some reason, to have some down time.  But as soon as I got to my room, the nurse had me change into my gown, get in bed, and get hooked up to my IV.  By 1:30am my pitocin was started.  I didn’t feel much different.. things were pretty boring.  Justin went to sleep, and I tried, but couldn’t sleep. I was way too anxious and excited for sleep!  I spent my time playing around on my phone, watching TV, and trying to sleep.
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After what seemed like years, a nurse came in around 6:15 am to check my progress.  I hadn’t made any!  Same as my last doctors appointment.  A little bit later, at 7am, a new nurse came on for her shift.  She was super sweet and helpful.  She informed me that it was a busy day for babies!  There were 5 other inductions and a couple of c sections scheduled besides me.  At this point we were waiting on the doctor to come and break my water.  She ended up coming in about 2 hours later.  My water was broken, and wow did that ever feel weird!  I had progressed to 2cm.. but still felt fine other than being really hungry.  I could only have ice!
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By noon I was definitely feeling my contractions and asked for some pain medicine to be given through my IV.  It made me feel drunk and warm in the face.  I got all of my visitors (just family at this point) to leave so I could go to sleep.  Justin and I both slept for a little while.. but by 1:30pm I was awake and asking for the epidural!  My pain level had jumped big time!
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A few hours passed, and when I was checked I was at four centimeters dilated.  The doctor realized at this point that my body wasn’t responding well to the pitocin.  She had the nurse turn it off to let my body rest.  After they turned pitocin back on, I progressed to 6cm.. but started to really feel a ton of pain.  I couldn’t understand why since I had the epidural.  I can’t even describe how I felt.  I couldn’t talk.. just had to close my eyes, grit my teeth, and breathe.  I just knew something wasn’t right.  Turns out my epidural catheter snapped!  The anesthesiologist said it was his first time to see this happen during his 10 years of practice.  Crazy!  Just my luck :).
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The epidural was fixed, but my pain level never went back down completely.  I was given some other pain meds to help, but I still felt contractions.  The medicine made everything from this point on kinda blurry and hazy in my memory. 
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All I know is that I had lots of people at the hospital visiting me and waiting for Judah to arrive.  It was late evening, and we were all expecting him at any time!  My body, however, had other plans.  More and more time passed, but I just wasn’t dilating like I needed to.  My nurse told me that if I hadn’t dilated completely by 11pm, she would contact the doctor to see what needed to be done.  Well 11:00 rolled around, and I was only at 8cm.  My doctor declared it time for a c section.  So after all of those hours and hours of laboring and waiting… I ended up heading to surgery.  By this point, though, I was so tired and just really wanted Judah out.. so I was fine with the decision!
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They took me down the hall and had Justin suit up in scrubs.  The whole thing was surreal.  I felt like I was in a movie or something.  I was flat on my back being rolled down the hall.  All I could see was ceiling tiles and lights going by.  I actually had a good time talking to the doctors and nurses and listening to their crazy conversations.  I was surprised at how laid back the atmosphere was and at some of the stuff they talked about! 
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1 comment:

Marcie said...

You left me hanging at the best part! ha
Can't wait to hear part 2!