Here's my birth story for anyone that wants the details. More pics are below.
Monday morning I woke up just after 8am and had to pee. So I go, and after I stand up liquid starts rushing down my leg. It wasn't pee, so I assumed it was amniotic fluid. It wasn't a gush, just a trickle. I called my doctor's office, and they said to head to labor and delivery to be checked. My poor H had only gotten to bed at 7:30am, so he had about 45 minutes of sleep before he had to get up again.
We got to the hospital just after 9am. They hooked me up to the monitors to check for contractions and his heartbeat. I was having contractions but I could barely notice them, and they weren't consistent or time-able. I was 3cm, which was more than I had been at my previous week's checkup. They checked the fluid and it wasn't amniotic fluid, but they didn't have an explanation for what it was. After monitoring me for an hour, plus lots of extra waiting we finally got discharged around 1pm. We headed home so that H could get some more sleep.
Just after 5pm I started timing my contractions since they were starting to be painful. Using an online application I timed them for an hour, and they were around 5 minutes apart and about a minute long. So I called my doctor's office and left a message about my situation. After waiting a half hour for a call back and not getting one I called a 2nd time and left a more detailed message. After waiting a short time for a call back again, I decided to call labor and delivery to see what they said. Labor and delivery said that I could go ahead and come in to be checked, and they would get ahold of my doctor. Note- I never heard from my doctor's office that night, or even saw the doctor on call.
I woke H up around 7:30pm and told him what was going on. I had been timing my contractions for the last 2 hours, and they were staying about the same. And they were really painful in my lower back and top of my hips. He decided to shower and eat something, so we didn't get to the hospital till 9pm Monday night.
We went to triage where I had been monitored earlier that morning, and within 20 minutes they were admitting me. My contractions were more than they had been (obviously), plus I was now dilated to 4cm. I was surprised that they moved that quickly. H went to find a place he could get cell phone reception so he could call my mom and his parents. I had called my mom before we left home, just so she had a heads up that we were heading back to the hospital because of my contractions.
I was moved to an LDR room, which stands for Labor, Delivery and Recovery. So I would do everything in that room till 2 hours after delivery when I would be moved to a postpartum room. I would stay in that room till we checked out. Once in my room I had an IV to make sure I had plenty of fluids and I had to receive penicillin since I had tested positive during the GBS (Group B Strep) test. It can be a problem for baby, but penicillin takes care of it and baby will be fine. That crap burned going into the back of my hand.
I managed the contractions, mostly by walking around. At 12:30am my nurse De started me on pitocin since I wasn't making further progress. While this was going on we also had the TV on. We were watching a local news channel since we could see lightning flashes out the window. According to the news there was pretty severe weather headed our way. Then we hear the tornado siren go off. My nurse comes in and says that we have to go out into the hall until the tornado warning is over. So H carries the rocking chair out and we sit in the hall. We ended up having to stay out there until almost 2am. My mom and sister arrived during the tornado warning. Luckily they didn't have to drive in the pouring rain. They got to the hospital just as it was starting.
Back in my room my contractions were continuing to increase in pain, so I opted to get Stadol via my IV. The pain meds helped some, but by 4am I couldn't handle the back and hip pain so I decided to get the epidural. I seriously have a lot of respect for women that go medication free. Getting the epidural was the worst part of the whole night. I had tears running down my face and if I could have handled the contractions without the epidural I would have called it off. Once the epidural was in things improved greatly.
My nurse, De, kept upping the amount of pitocin I was receiving to try and get me to progress. She checked me at 5:15am and I was at 7cm. But while she was checking me my water broke, and I regressed to 6cm. And no matter how much pitocin she gave me, that didn't change.
At 7am the day nurse, Danielle, came on. She decided to start cutting back on the amount of pitocin to see if she could get my contractions to increase in intensity even if they decreased in the time between them. She also started changing the position I was in, since the baby's heart rate kept fluctuating every time I had a contraction. After almost 2 hours of messing with the pitocin and my position, Danielle called my doctor and she ordered a c-section.
Just before she came into the room to give me the news I told H "just knock me out and take the baby out." The epidural was wearing off, I was feeling pressure in my lower back and I was starting to feel the contractions again. I was so over labor, that I was ready for it to be over. Even if that meant a c-section.
The c-section went well. Kaden was completely healthy, and I'm recovering.
