A Day to Remember

On September 5th, I had a follow up appointment with MFM at 12:30 pm at L&D due to low amniotic fluid that was diagnosed on Friday. On Friday, the AFI was 7.7 cm. My cervix was 2cm and 60% effaced, unchanged from a week before. That day, Matt's sister, Abbe, had finally come down to get her furniture out of our storage unit and so the Great Storage Catastrophe was behind us. She was able to watch the Brenn-monster, while Matt and I went to the hospital for the testing.

My NST looked great, Addison was reactive. Matt and I had a nagging feeling, but we chalked it up to being in the hospital. When we went to the ultrasound (conviently located in a maternity room- LOL), Dr. J and S were really friendly- like always. After a couple minutes, I saw the numbers S was getting for the AFI were not high at all... so I asked, "What's it look like today?" She frowned. It had dropped to 3.9 cm. I knew then that Addison was going to be come out today, even before Dr. J said anything.

Due to the risks with IUGR and oligio, Dr. J decided it was time to get this baby out.... and I was officially full-term at 37 weeks. Dr. J called the NICU to see if there was going to be a bed for Addison if she needed it, and her case was accepted. (YAY! One less thing to worry about).

Dr. J walked Matt and I back down to L&D, and we started chit-chatting. Matt and I got hugs from Dr. J and S. It was such a great experience working with everyone at MFM... even if all I did was lay in a chair and be monitored or poked the entire time. :)

When I walked back to the nurses' station, I announced, "I'm baaack! And here to stay!" We went through the admit process, and walked back to our room. When I walked in, completely not in labor, I had the surreal feeling of... "This is where my baby is going to be born..."or rather, "Damnit, I'm stuck in this room UNTIL the baby is born" =P

Since I was on Heparin, they had to draw blood and wait for the results before they could start the induction and I was officially NPO. Matt and I got settled in L&D, and waited. I was contracting on my own every 2-4 minutes.

Eventually, Dr. G walked in and said that the levels were good, and they could go ahead and start the induction. I was 2cm and 60% effaced, so Dr. G decided to go with cytotec to begin the induction. After much discussion regarding cytotec, we eventually decided to agree with the Dr's decision. Matt had gone back to the apartment to help his mom out, and the Dr. wanted to wait to insert the cytotec until Matt had returned. Finally, around 5pm, the cytotec was inserted. The cytotec starting giving me intense contractions (pain scale 6) for the first couple hours, but then it was starting to wane...

At 10pm, I was 2-3cm and 80%, and Dr. G went ahead and started me on pitocin. Within a half hour of starting the pitocin, my contractions had completely stopped. It was super exciting... NOT. Matt and I decided to get some sleep since nothing was happening. While Matt slept, I woke up a couple times throughout the night with some contractions, and was always able to fall back. Throughout the night, the nurses came in and upped my pitocin ever 45 minutes.

At 6am, my pitocin dose was the second highest, and the nurse came in and gave me a choice. They could stop the pitocin, and I could eat breakfast... Or.... I interupted her. Breakfast, please!! I had ice chips all night for dinner, and I was starving....

So I had a light breakfast, showered, and waited around for them to re-start the cytotec. Dr. G's shift had ended, so now CNM B was on for the day.

At around 10am, they started the next cytotec. This time, the cramps did not even match the level that the other cytotec did the previous night. However, the MW stretched me as much as she could, and said that the next step would be to rupture my membranes. At 11am, the contractions were 4-6 minutes apart and very mild... And by noon, they had completely spaced out to 10+ minutes apart.

So, around 2pm, they inserted the third one. Matt had left the hospital again to go tend to his mother back at the apartment. I immediately fell asleep, and slept off the "worst" of the super mild contractions from the cytotec. When I looked at the monitor, I was actually contracting ever 2-4 minutes...Progress? Or not?

At 6pm, CNM B came back in and checked me, and I was completely unchanged. At this point, I was very discouraged.. this whole "labor" process... was LABORIOUSLY long and boring! She did stretch me another 1-2 cm (so now I am 3-4cm dilated) and separated baby's head from the cervix. She also started me on pitocin, and was only going to up the dose every hour. She said she was going to do this slowly. Shortly after that exam, the contractions began to pick up. After four hours, she would break my water.

Instead at 8pm, CNM B came in and decided it was time to break my water. After my water was broken, I actually felt like I was in labor for the first time ALL DAY, and things picked up rather quickly. I stayed in bed for a good 45 minutes after my water broke, and then finally crawled out of bed to use the restroom and walk around a bit.

Matt wanted to take me out in the hallway to walk a bit, and I was content to walk back and forth in the room. I was in terrible pain sitting in the bed, laying in the bed, or sitting in the rocking chair... So I resorted to standing up basically swaying from foot to foot.

Around 10:15, I was getting inconsolable. I climbed up on the bed on all fours, and finally found a strange position I was mostly comfortable in. At 10:30pm, I called the nurse in. She nearly dismissed me because the contraction monitor wasn't reading intense contractions, but I was feeling a lot of pressure (but not the "I need to push" pressure). I told her honestly, I've never BEEN through this part of labor before, so I don't KNOW... The nurse was a bitch. She went to get CNM B, and finally checked me... At 10:35, I was 7cm.

I was honestly convinced they were going to tell me I was unchanged, and I was going to be miserable for the rest of the night. I knew I was losing my focus in the pain, so I asked the MW what my options were for pain management. She recommended Stadol, and after I got that I was basically falling asleep in between each contraction, but I still felt all the pressure-- which was exactly what I wanted. Looking back, I probably could have made it the rest of the labor without the pain medication... which only took about 50-60% of the pain away, but it did give me enough of an edge that I could focus again.

At 11pm (or so) I was 8.5cm dilated, and the CNM stayed in the room from that point on and the nurse was busy getting everything ready for the baby. When the nurse turned on warmer lamp for the bassinet, I knew it was real. At 11:15pm (or so) I started feeling like I had to push. It was a completely different experience from what I remember giving birth to Brennan. After 15 minutes of pushing, Addison was born at 11:26pm. After a quick, albeit uncomfortable inspection from the MW-- I hadn't torn at all and didn't require any stitches.

After she was born, she was put on my stomach for a good couple minutes. She was crying, and alert, and it was amazing. I only got to see Brennan for a flash before he was taken off my stomach, so I really enjoyed being able to spend these first moments with Addie. Matt watched the entire labor from my side, and cut Addie's cord. After they took her over to the warmer to get her first check up, and after a couple minutes, Matt came back over to me with Addie and kissed me. "She doesn't need to go to the NICU."

Those were the most amazing words that I've ever heard, after everythinig-- Brennan's pregnancy, delivery, Addison's pregnancy, and this 30+ hour induction + delivery... I felt complete. My baby girl was fine.

They left Addison in our room for 45 minutes or so, and then took her to the well-baby nursery. Matt stayed with me at L&D because the room had to be packed up, and there was no way I could do that! Once we got over to maternity, I told Matt he could go to the nursery with Addison if he wanted to...

The nurse came in and told us Addison was having trouble keeping her temperature up, so she was back under the warming lights. After she was given a bath, she would be kept in the nursery for an hour to make sure her temperature didn't drop, and then she would be brought into our room. It was around 1:30am, and Matt and I decided to catch some Z's while we waited for Addison. At 3:15am, I woke up and freaked out. Had the Nurse come in with Addison and we were sleeping, so they left? Is everything okay?

I paged the Nurse and she said Addison was going to be coming down in a couple minutes, so I woke Matt up. Finally, at 3:30 am, Addison was brought into our room. I started to breastfeed Addison at that time, and finally, around 5:30 am, Matt and I brought Addie back to the nursery so we could catch a quick nap before her next feeding at 6:30am.

From that moment on, she only left our room a couple times... for her checks up (twice a day), and twice when Matt and I needed some privacy (I got a backrub, and when we finally packed up the room to leave on Wednesday)....

It was amazing being able to spend all that time with Addison and Matthew, just the three of us... but I missed my little boy, and I couldn't wait to go home...

It's over, it's finally over... and now, my life as a mother of two can begin.