Thanks shakenbake for the update for me. It's been a SERIOUSLY crazy 36 hours, but here's the skinny...
First things first, Kadence Jospehine W**ker arrived at 4:36am Saturday November 21st, at 7lb 1oz and 19 1/2". She's absolutely adorable and I can't wait to just snuggle her!!! Sadly, it looks like it's going to be a minute before we can make that happen.
Contractions started right around 6am on Friday morning. My doulas came over around 4pm and I was only at 4-5cm, which was extremely disheartening since I was in a lot of pain but I had only progressed 1-2cm from my appointment on Wednesday. I thought I HAD to be further than that. We filled up the tub and I got in, which helped a bit, but it still seemed really intense.
Turns out I went from 4-5cm to 9cm by 6:30pm, which was the reason for my intense pain. Owwww. About 6:30pm I was a really stretchy 9 and I felt extremely pushy. Convinced that the pushing would move the stretchy lip, my birth team told me to go for it. It hurt like a MOTHER, which I assumed was what it was supposed to feel like. And heck, maybe it is. But I have a sneaking suspicion that pushing against a lip for 3 1/2 hours is probably a kind of pain even a laboring mother isn't supposed to have. Who knows.
At any rate, after 3 1/2 hours, I was D-O-N-E trying to get the baby out that way. My bag of waters had broken in this time, but they were as clear as could be - no sign for alarm. They checked me again and said the lip was still there, and they wanted to try and move it out of the way with my next contraction. Let's just say I responded, uh, poorly to that manuever. (In fact, I kicked someone in the head while screaming "NO! NO! NO! GET THE F(*! AWAY FROM ME! NO!" to the midwife trying to hold the lip.
Oops.)
It was at that point that I decided, confidently and even happily, that we were not going to continue at home any longer. I needed an epidural as soon as possible. "You can do it, vegasgrl!" they all said to me. My response? "I know I CAN do it, but what I'm TELLING you is that I'm not GOING to do it. I don't WANT to do it. And therefore let's get MOVING."
Such a ray of sunshine I was.
It took AN ETERNITY (probably only 20 minutes
) for our birth team caravan to reach the hospital at about 10pm, and then another 20 minutes to get the epidural placed. All the while, I'm at a pushy 9cm, but I'm trying not to push because I now know that the lip is still there. I am SO FORTUNATE that the hospital I ended up at is AMAZING - not once have I felt like anyone treated me poorly for being a transfer. 
hew I was really worried about that, but I was worried about not having pain relief even more. But having that epidural placed was SO SCARY since I KNEW I was going to contract during the placement. (I did. We all lived.) (As an aside, after the epi was in...Me to anestetiologist: "What's your name?" Anasth.: "Dr. X." Me: "Dr. X, I'm pretty sure I love you. Will you marry me?" Anasth: "My wife probably wouldn't approve..." 
It was like INSTANT relief I tell you.)
So I labored in the hospital on the epidural for another 6 hours. I let them add pitocin, since the reason I never wanted pitocin was so I didn't have to get an epidural; since I had already had the epidural, what was the difference?
Baby's heart rate was incredible the entire time. I felt like a million bucks. But the darned lip wouldn't budge, and in fact was becoming bigger since it was just getting more and more swollen with every exam. Throw in the fact that the lip was already horribly swollen from 3 1/2 hours of pushing, and I finally decided around 4am that it was time for the section. I had been at 9cm with a lip for 9 1/2 hours. Enough was enough.
The plan was for mom to go with baby, and me, mom and baby would meet back up in my room after an hour. Yay! My baby!!! Except when they opened my uterus, it was FULL of meconium.
My LO had been swimming in it for at least a few hours, although there had been no traces when my water broke, nor had there been any in any show or anything else we had seen. (They told me her nail beds were green. 
sad) Things got pretty crazy from that moment, as they whisked my girl off to the NICU to help her clear out her lungs and push antibiotics to prevent/clear up lung infection/pneumonia caused by the mec. I wasn't allowed to see her until much later in the day when I was able to walk myself down to the NICU after my anasthesia wore off. 
I didn't get to meet my daughter until she was 10 hours old. (But I fully understand why; it just sucked. I cried a lot.)
So here's where we're at...Kate is in the NICU, and will be for at least a week and maybe two. I can visit her 21 out of 24 hours a day, but I can't hold her until the ventilator and two giant central-line type things are removed from her umbilical area.
She's ADORABLE, and SUPER pissed they're poking her and prodding her. Mommy's little gal already. And I'm trying to heal from a section AND 22 hours of labor in the mean time. :drop
Amazingly, I didn't feel defeated as I thought I would have. I felt like I had been able to make informed decisions at each point along the way, and my birth team was extremely supportive of MY choices. I do find it somewhat ironic that had I labored at the hospital, we likely would have caught the lip sooner and not pushed onto it for so long, and I may have ended up with a vaginal birth. But I'm totally okay with how everything played out. It's just unfortunate.
And I'm REALLY sad that my girl is spending the first days of her life with strangers in a strange place, not being held and fussed over, but poked and prodded.
But I also know they're taking excellent care of her, and the mec was just a freak thing that no one knew was going on, you know? My girl will be good as new soon enough, and she and I can start our new life together!
Till then, I'm in the hospital until at least Tuesday, and she's here until at least Friday. Thankfully my mom went and got my computer today so ya'll can keep me entertained. So what's up???
First things first, Kadence Jospehine W**ker arrived at 4:36am Saturday November 21st, at 7lb 1oz and 19 1/2". She's absolutely adorable and I can't wait to just snuggle her!!! Sadly, it looks like it's going to be a minute before we can make that happen.
Contractions started right around 6am on Friday morning. My doulas came over around 4pm and I was only at 4-5cm, which was extremely disheartening since I was in a lot of pain but I had only progressed 1-2cm from my appointment on Wednesday. I thought I HAD to be further than that. We filled up the tub and I got in, which helped a bit, but it still seemed really intense.
Turns out I went from 4-5cm to 9cm by 6:30pm, which was the reason for my intense pain. Owwww. About 6:30pm I was a really stretchy 9 and I felt extremely pushy. Convinced that the pushing would move the stretchy lip, my birth team told me to go for it. It hurt like a MOTHER, which I assumed was what it was supposed to feel like. And heck, maybe it is. But I have a sneaking suspicion that pushing against a lip for 3 1/2 hours is probably a kind of pain even a laboring mother isn't supposed to have. Who knows.
At any rate, after 3 1/2 hours, I was D-O-N-E trying to get the baby out that way. My bag of waters had broken in this time, but they were as clear as could be - no sign for alarm. They checked me again and said the lip was still there, and they wanted to try and move it out of the way with my next contraction. Let's just say I responded, uh, poorly to that manuever. (In fact, I kicked someone in the head while screaming "NO! NO! NO! GET THE F(*! AWAY FROM ME! NO!" to the midwife trying to hold the lip.
Oops.)It was at that point that I decided, confidently and even happily, that we were not going to continue at home any longer. I needed an epidural as soon as possible. "You can do it, vegasgrl!" they all said to me. My response? "I know I CAN do it, but what I'm TELLING you is that I'm not GOING to do it. I don't WANT to do it. And therefore let's get MOVING."
Such a ray of sunshine I was.It took AN ETERNITY (probably only 20 minutes
) for our birth team caravan to reach the hospital at about 10pm, and then another 20 minutes to get the epidural placed. All the while, I'm at a pushy 9cm, but I'm trying not to push because I now know that the lip is still there. I am SO FORTUNATE that the hospital I ended up at is AMAZING - not once have I felt like anyone treated me poorly for being a transfer. hew I was really worried about that, but I was worried about not having pain relief even more. But having that epidural placed was SO SCARY since I KNEW I was going to contract during the placement. (I did. We all lived.) (As an aside, after the epi was in...Me to anestetiologist: "What's your name?" Anasth.: "Dr. X." Me: "Dr. X, I'm pretty sure I love you. Will you marry me?" Anasth: "My wife probably wouldn't approve..." It was like INSTANT relief I tell you.)So I labored in the hospital on the epidural for another 6 hours. I let them add pitocin, since the reason I never wanted pitocin was so I didn't have to get an epidural; since I had already had the epidural, what was the difference?
Baby's heart rate was incredible the entire time. I felt like a million bucks. But the darned lip wouldn't budge, and in fact was becoming bigger since it was just getting more and more swollen with every exam. Throw in the fact that the lip was already horribly swollen from 3 1/2 hours of pushing, and I finally decided around 4am that it was time for the section. I had been at 9cm with a lip for 9 1/2 hours. Enough was enough.The plan was for mom to go with baby, and me, mom and baby would meet back up in my room after an hour. Yay! My baby!!! Except when they opened my uterus, it was FULL of meconium.
My LO had been swimming in it for at least a few hours, although there had been no traces when my water broke, nor had there been any in any show or anything else we had seen. (They told me her nail beds were green. sad) Things got pretty crazy from that moment, as they whisked my girl off to the NICU to help her clear out her lungs and push antibiotics to prevent/clear up lung infection/pneumonia caused by the mec. I wasn't allowed to see her until much later in the day when I was able to walk myself down to the NICU after my anasthesia wore off. I didn't get to meet my daughter until she was 10 hours old. (But I fully understand why; it just sucked. I cried a lot.)So here's where we're at...Kate is in the NICU, and will be for at least a week and maybe two. I can visit her 21 out of 24 hours a day, but I can't hold her until the ventilator and two giant central-line type things are removed from her umbilical area.
She's ADORABLE, and SUPER pissed they're poking her and prodding her. Mommy's little gal already. And I'm trying to heal from a section AND 22 hours of labor in the mean time. :dropAmazingly, I didn't feel defeated as I thought I would have. I felt like I had been able to make informed decisions at each point along the way, and my birth team was extremely supportive of MY choices. I do find it somewhat ironic that had I labored at the hospital, we likely would have caught the lip sooner and not pushed onto it for so long, and I may have ended up with a vaginal birth. But I'm totally okay with how everything played out. It's just unfortunate.
And I'm REALLY sad that my girl is spending the first days of her life with strangers in a strange place, not being held and fussed over, but poked and prodded.
But I also know they're taking excellent care of her, and the mec was just a freak thing that no one knew was going on, you know? My girl will be good as new soon enough, and she and I can start our new life together!Till then, I'm in the hospital until at least Tuesday, and she's here until at least Friday. Thankfully my mom went and got my computer today so ya'll can keep me entertained. So what's up???
s, mama. your journey took a tremendous amount of courage. Sending prayers for speedy healing your and Kate's way 
