On Thursday, September 4th, I had an appointment with Kristin, my regular midwife, and an ultrasound scheduled before that to tell us the growth of baby Sam. We went to the ultrasound and everything looks a-okay with Sam despite the fact that my amniotic fluid was a little on the low side. Kristin and I discussed the possibilities of inducing Sam around 37-38 weeks but we did not make a solid plan on when to bring him yet because we were both doing fine for once in the pregnancy! I asked Kristin to check my cervix then even though she did not plan to do so that visit and 'lo and behold I was at 4cm and 80% effaced! Almost immediately after the appointment, I started having contractions and cramping that turned pretty regular. I thought they were just Braxton Hicks because I was only 36 weeks and 2 days along. But they continued over the night and through the next day so after my mom nagged the daylights out of me to call L&D, I did.
They asked me to come in and when I got there at 7:30pm, I was 4-5cm dilated. Every single room in the triage as well as labor and delivery was full! After being monitored and showing contractions every 3-5 minutes, the midwife on duty Susan, asked if I would go for a 45 minute walk to see how things were. When I returned, I was 6-7cm dilated and my bag of waters was bulging so she decided to admit me to L&D. We went up and I was still having relatively painless contractions so I hung out with Ryan, my mom, my mom's husband, and then my brother came up with one of his best friends who is like a brother to us. We spent the night laughing and joking while trying to convince my water to break.
The next morning, Saturday, a new midwife named Carol came in. Carol decided that she was going to check me and because my contractions were not showing up on the monitor (though the nurse stood there and felt them with her hands), I was NOT in labor. She said I went back to 3-4cm dilated and my jaw just dropped in shock. I was not happy with her at all because she started to immediately act like she was sending us home but she wanted to go talk to another doctor before she made that decision. The actual OB on duty Friday night was talking about just inducing me because of the PIH because I was already that far along in labor but he never made the decision. This was about 9:30am when Carol was in there. Two and a half hours later at 12:30pm, the Carol came back and said she was going to break my water for me and I agreed to that. After that, the contractions fizzled out almost completely which had me in a pacing, bouncing on a birthing ball panic. She said that I had an hour to get contractions going on my own or else I'd be hooked up to the pitocin. I talked her into waiting until 2pm which my faaabulous nurse moved until almost 3pm for me because I explained to her how much I hate IVs. This nurse, Lauren, was the most incredible nurse I've ever met too. She did everything in her power to get me the birthing experience that I wanted and would kind of stretch out the time limit that the midwife wanted to what suited me best. *laugh*
So, at 3pm the pitocin was started and around 3:45pm, I was in agony. It was insane because I went from being fine with my contractions to having a hard time being able to breathe my way through them, to moaning out loud and asking for the epidural! Everyone knew I did not want to do the epidural so my mom grabbed the nurse to ask her about it and Carol decided she needed to come in and check me then. I asked if I could use the bathroom first because I felt like I had to pee and in the 30 seconds it took me to get into the bathroom, I HAD to push. They got me on the bed and they could not find his heartbeat which they were having trouble keeping track of before. So I was a little worried about that but I was in *so* much pain that I could barely think. Pitocin is definitely a LOT meaner than regular contractions. Literally 30 minutes later, after only three pushes, Simon Asher McCarthy was born at 4:15pm! No epidural! He weighed 7lbs on the nose and is 19" long. His apgar scores were 8 and 9 which is great for a 36 weeker. I tore more than I did with Athena but it was along the line of an old scar from childhood so it was pretty easy to stitch and it's not even too sore today. I'm feeling wonderful and I cannot wait to go home. We are trying to talk the ped into letting us take Sam home, she doesn't seem to want to simply because he wasn't quite full-term. *sigh* We'll see, everything has been kind of sped up in hopes of us leaving today.
http://a969.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...75fa8d52f0.jpg
http://a957.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...e827fcff5c.jpg
They asked me to come in and when I got there at 7:30pm, I was 4-5cm dilated. Every single room in the triage as well as labor and delivery was full! After being monitored and showing contractions every 3-5 minutes, the midwife on duty Susan, asked if I would go for a 45 minute walk to see how things were. When I returned, I was 6-7cm dilated and my bag of waters was bulging so she decided to admit me to L&D. We went up and I was still having relatively painless contractions so I hung out with Ryan, my mom, my mom's husband, and then my brother came up with one of his best friends who is like a brother to us. We spent the night laughing and joking while trying to convince my water to break.
The next morning, Saturday, a new midwife named Carol came in. Carol decided that she was going to check me and because my contractions were not showing up on the monitor (though the nurse stood there and felt them with her hands), I was NOT in labor. She said I went back to 3-4cm dilated and my jaw just dropped in shock. I was not happy with her at all because she started to immediately act like she was sending us home but she wanted to go talk to another doctor before she made that decision. The actual OB on duty Friday night was talking about just inducing me because of the PIH because I was already that far along in labor but he never made the decision. This was about 9:30am when Carol was in there. Two and a half hours later at 12:30pm, the Carol came back and said she was going to break my water for me and I agreed to that. After that, the contractions fizzled out almost completely which had me in a pacing, bouncing on a birthing ball panic. She said that I had an hour to get contractions going on my own or else I'd be hooked up to the pitocin. I talked her into waiting until 2pm which my faaabulous nurse moved until almost 3pm for me because I explained to her how much I hate IVs. This nurse, Lauren, was the most incredible nurse I've ever met too. She did everything in her power to get me the birthing experience that I wanted and would kind of stretch out the time limit that the midwife wanted to what suited me best. *laugh*
So, at 3pm the pitocin was started and around 3:45pm, I was in agony. It was insane because I went from being fine with my contractions to having a hard time being able to breathe my way through them, to moaning out loud and asking for the epidural! Everyone knew I did not want to do the epidural so my mom grabbed the nurse to ask her about it and Carol decided she needed to come in and check me then. I asked if I could use the bathroom first because I felt like I had to pee and in the 30 seconds it took me to get into the bathroom, I HAD to push. They got me on the bed and they could not find his heartbeat which they were having trouble keeping track of before. So I was a little worried about that but I was in *so* much pain that I could barely think. Pitocin is definitely a LOT meaner than regular contractions. Literally 30 minutes later, after only three pushes, Simon Asher McCarthy was born at 4:15pm! No epidural! He weighed 7lbs on the nose and is 19" long. His apgar scores were 8 and 9 which is great for a 36 weeker. I tore more than I did with Athena but it was along the line of an old scar from childhood so it was pretty easy to stitch and it's not even too sore today. I'm feeling wonderful and I cannot wait to go home. We are trying to talk the ped into letting us take Sam home, she doesn't seem to want to simply because he wasn't quite full-term. *sigh* We'll see, everything has been kind of sped up in hopes of us leaving today.
http://a969.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...75fa8d52f0.jpg
http://a957.ac-images.myspacecdn.com...e827fcff5c.jpg
:
Good job mama
