Birth Story

I finally feel as though I've slept enough to be able to write coherently, so here goes!

I went in for a non-stress test on July 1st (Wednesday) at about 10:45 am (and had just finished a little snack- I would have eaten more if I had any way to know it would be 52 hours before I could eat again!) at Southwestern Medical Center in Lawton. I couldn't see the monitor from where I was laying, but apparently my blood pressure was appalling because my doctor came in and said I wouldn't be leaving. Now the thought had crossed my mind before I left that I should finish packing and throw the suitcase in the car "just in case" but I dismissed the idea, thinking that even if my test results were bad I would be put on bed rest, not induced. Well, I had to call Jason and give him a list of things to pack for me when he got home from the office. I put him in charge of calling his mom, who would call the rest of that side of the family for us and then sent out a mass text message and called my mom (who stubbornly refuses to participate in texting). They put me in a Labor & Delivery room and set me up on an IV of magnesium sulfate to help with my bp and then turned out all the lights and told me I couldn't have any unnecessary stimulation. Sigh. So I sat there bored and trying to think nice, low blood pressure thoughts until Jason finally got there. At that point my bp was 191/106 and they told him if he made my blood pressure go up at all, they would kick him out. I didn't say anything because it wasn't an issue yet, but kicking my husband out of the room was a great way to spike my bp even more! At that point Jason took over all texting and talking and I was only allowed to just sit there. We tried to do some relaxation that he had the mp3 for on his phone but couldn't find the file for the good one. The one he had was hard to do if you are stuck on an uncomfortable hospital bed with an IV, blood pressure cuff, heart monitors, and a catheter. But people started arriving about the time we gave up on it anyway. The hospital allowed people to peek in and say hi but then shooed them to the waiting room to avoid that "unnecessary stimulation." My blood pressure continued to be horrendous during this whole time despite the fact that I was fairly calm. Dr. Jones came back in at about 6:00pm and ordered blood pressure meds (I don't remember what kind) IV ever 20 minutes and said that if it wasn't down by 8:00 he was going to do a C-section.
It finally went down right at about 8:00 (it was still high at 7:45), so I was started on cervidil and told to get some sleep (hahaha) but they finally let visitors in so I got to see my family a little bit. My mom stayed and watched part of Madagascar 2 with Jason and I but left in the middle to go to the hotel because she was tired. Jason dozed on and off but left his cpap in the car so didn't get well-rested even when he did sleep. I napped here and there, but I had people coming in to check various things on me and my machines and draw blood all night long. They started the pitocin drip at 7:15 am and broke my water (at a 1.5cm) at around 8:30 am. That was, by the way, the most painful experience of my entire life. I have broken bones, and it didn't hurt half that bad. I sliced my ankle open to the bone, requiring 3 layers totaling 33 stitches, and it didn't hold a candle to this. After that, I threw the no-meds plan out the window. I told them if breaking my water hurt that bad, then I wanted an epidural. They said they would get one for me when I was at a 4 and would check in a couple of hours to see if I was ready yet. My labor progessed very quickly after that, with contractions quickly becoming more and more intense and closer and closer together. Every time somone walked in the room, my mom would beg them to check me and see if I was at a 4 yet. They reassurred her that I was fine, saying that not only was I not full-term but they had to break my water and put me on pitocin, all of which make for a longer labor. An hour and 45 minutes after breaking my water, they finally checked me. The nurse said she thought I was at a 6 and seemed rather incredulous that I would have progessed so quickly so she went to get another nurse to check. Not 5minutes later when the second nurse came in I was at a 7. They called the anethesiologist to come upstairs. He didn't take long to get there, but by that point I was at a 10 and trying not to push because I was determined to have an epidural by that point. I know that the worst was over at that point, but I was sleep-deprived and in pain and the power of reason could not win over the promis I had made to myself 2 hours earlier that I could have an epidural and then it wouldn't be so bad. :)
As soon as I had the epidural I started pushing. At first this went fine, but it took over an hour to get her past my pelvic bone. Dr. Jones had just said if I couldn't get her past it in the next couple of pushes, he was going to do a C-section. At some point they put me on oxygen. Apparently this is because Emma's heart rate was dropping but I didn't realize that at the time. I thought maybe it was because I was running out of energy and they thought that might help. It's probably best I never knew until afterwards that she was in danger because I'm sure my panic/increased heart rate/increased blood pressure wouldn't have helped at all. I finally got her out and we discoverd part of the problem was the umbilical cord had been wrapped around her- not around her neck so she wasn't endangered by it at all but it was pulling her back after every push which is why I couldn't get her past the pelvic bone.
As they stitched me up from the episotomy (and her tearing me a little past that), they cleaned Emma up. She, of course, was screaming and crying like all babies do at that point. Jason walked over there and started talking to her and she immidiately quit crying and looked right at him. It was the coolest thing ever! They let Jason hold her until they were done with me and then he brought her to me and I got to hold her for a while- longer than I expected- and friends and family got to parade in a few at a time to see her before they took her to the nursery to evaluate her. She was in the nursery for several hours before they brought her back for me to feed her. While we had her, she choked on something- mucous? amniotic fluid? saliva? We're not really sure but her little lips turned a little blue and gave us all a scare. They took her back to the nursery to clear her airways and after I fed her, we sent her back to the nursery for the night because neither of us had slept well and we were afraid we might sleep through it if she choked again.
The next day (Friday) they took out my IV and finally let me eat. It was after lunch time (52 hours remember?) and I was starving. They brought a tray, but my mom went to Chilis to get me good food, so I just snacked on it enought to hold me over until mom got back. They finally let me get up to go to the bathroom (with 2 nurses to help me- they are awefully careful when you've been in bed that long) and change into my clothes instead of a hospital gown sometime shortly before 4:00 and while they halped me, my mom, Jason, and my sister Kylie got all of our stuff moved into the post-partum room where we stayed the rest of that day and until we were released Saturday.
This is getting to be a very long post and Emma needs a new diaper, so the story of being released, our first night at home, and going back to the hospital will have to wait for another time. :)