Trying to get this all typed up before I lose all track of the details, It all seemed to happen so quickly! (You know after it took that dreaded extra week and a day to happen.)
Anyhow, my induction was scheduled for Thursday, March 6th. We were told to arrive at the hospital at 5:30 to get registered and get checked in to start the induction. On Wednesday my mom picked up Addison after work to keep her for a few days. Tony and I ordered some Chinese take out for dinner and I was doing my normal I can't get comfortable so I'm going to take a hot bath routine which had become my life. The hospital called while I was in the tub to tell us we needed to be there to check in earlier than planned 4:45 for check in but that they would call us in the morning if anything changed overnight and they needed to bump me back. Nothing like an early start! Of course I couldn't sleep to save my life, and may have finally fallen asleep around 12:45. My alarm was set for 3:45.
We got up in the morning and got around ready to leave, after we hauled all the crap to the truck and I heave hoed by butt on in I grabbed my phone to see that my ringer was (as usual) off and I missed a call from the hospital at 4:08 saying that they had a lot of people come in over night and they needed to push back my time. They asked us to come in at 6:30 instead so back to the house we went for a little bit. Tony grabbed a quick nap on the couch and I of course being nervous wasn't gonna be doing any sleeping so instead I did what any pregnant lady who might be facing a no-eating period would do, I made myself a bowl of strawberry frosted mini wheats & did some Pinteresting (yes it's a verb I checked).
We then left for the hospital, yet again. I got myself registered and we headed up to the 4th floor, Labor & Delivery. They put me into what would be our delivery room and told me to change into my beautiful hospital gown. While I was in the bathroom I hear Tony talking to someone and the other voice I hear is our friend Heather who is a RN in labor and delivery (Guess who was assigned to be my nurse by chance?). She was telling Tony that they didn't tell her a name ahead of time so she had no clue that she was assigned to me. She wanted to make sure that I was going to be okay with her being my nurse. When I popped out of the bathroom I told her I could handle it. (MONTHS ago when I first found out that I was pregnant I told her I didn't think I could handle having her be my nurse cause it would be weird, at 41 weeks pregnant I NO LONGER CARED!) In the end it was nice to have someone we knew in the room and she did a great job!
They had me in the room and Heather started hooking me up to the fetal heart rate monitor and the contraction monitors, going over check in questions and setting things up for my IV fluids and Pitocin, we just had to wait for the LPN to come place my IV & draw blood. This is where I wish I had wrote down little notes because by the time he was born I had forgotten what time things were happening. But by about 9am they had gotten my IV in and started my fluids. I had been having contractions on my own about 7-10 minutes apart but nothing that I could even feel. I was dilated to 2cm which is what I was at my last doctor appointment and he was already pretty low, at this point Doctor Farhat broke my water. (Which feels like you are constantly peeing yourself every time you shift or move in any way. yuck.)
Heather started the Pitocin and very quickly after I could start to feel the contractions, she upped the pitocin rate every 1/2 hour and my contractions started to quickly get worse and worse and my lower back started to kill me through the contractions. Heather told me she thought we'd have a baby by lunch time, 2pm at the latest. (you know if you want to make bets about things, and if you know my husband he wants to know when everything is going to happen, even the things you can't control..Mr. ask me 1000 times in the past weeks if I was in labor and when it was going to happen and how long I thought it would take) At about 10am Heather said I looked like I was getting uncomfortable in bed so she brought me in a rocking chair to move into to see if I would be more comfortable rocking/bouncing through contractions. At first just moving into a different position made me feel better but again they pretty quickly became pretty awful in my lower back, even without an epidural to keep me confined, contractions hurt so much I feel like I cannot move when I am having one. Heather had told me to let her know when I wanted my epidural based on my comfort with the pain, that she didn't want me to miss my window so not to tough it out longer than I had to. Then I had Tony tell me to not be stubborn about it like everyone else in my family is about eveything if I didn't want to miss being able to get it. (Apparently even though I can say it's not that bad, one can tell that it is that bad) I have a huge fear of the whole "epidural slowing labor" thing that people talk about so I was trying to put it off as long as I could but I literally felt like I had a knife in my spine through each contraction. I definitely didn't have the same types of contractions that I had with Addison at least not what I started out with with hers cause they were a lot more bearable for a lot longer with her. Around 10:45 I finally said ok I'd had enough and I was ready for the epidural if I could have it. I climbed back into the bed so they could check me to see if I was dilated enough for an epidural and not too much. Dun, dun, dun, I was only a 3....ugh that seemed redunkulous considering the pain. But at a 3 I could get my epidural, or as Heather said a 3 is epidurable, THANK GOD. So they called the anesthesiologist who came up and kicked Tony out of the room to place the epidural, He took longer to set his stuff up than he did to get that sucker in, pretty impressive. Within just a few minutes of the epidural being placed around 11:15 the contraction pain I was feeling in my back went away. I soon noticed that I had a small patch in my left side that wasn't numb. It was pretty much from the lower part of my stomach through my inner thigh/pelvis like a 5 inch circle area that I could feel each contraction. VERY quickly they became insanely painful for just being a small area! Heather had me push my morphine button on the epidural (which I NEVER had to do with Addison) to see if an extra boost would help with numbing that area, while it helped a little it quickly wore off and about 10 minutes later I had already pushed it again and was feeling the contractions in that patch regardless. So we tried to tilt me to one side to see if just re-positioning myself would help, and pushing the morphine button again. I went about 10 minutes without feeling one and then I started feeling them again.
When Heather came back into the room I let her know I either didn't have any contractions or for 10 minutes it worked, she looked at my screen and told me I definitely didn't have any contractions for 10 minutes. She mentioned calling back the anesthesiologist to try and readjust my epidural but that she was going to check in with Dr. Farhat first to see what he wanted. She came back into the room and told me that Farhat wanted her to check me and see if were I was, that he thought based on my contractions that I could be at least at a 7 or more. So she checked me and surprised the hell out of me by saying that I was fully dilated and he was super low, I was ready to push. Seriously it had only been just over an hour since I had gotten the epidural! Last time I got my epidural it took FOREVER for Addison to be born. They also had me push for about 30 minutes last time before they even called the doctor into the room to let him know I was ready. This time Heather called the doctor and the nurses showed up for the baby and everything in the room got a little more exciting. When Doctor Farhat got there at about 12:20 he started setting all his things up, checked me and said yes fully dilated and baby ready to come out, he says I think we can get him out on one push! WHAT?! He then starts joking with Heather saying "Aren't you going to ask me how I knew from the phone conversation that she was going to be ready? Don't you want to know why I'm so good at my job?" I guess something about that 10 minute lul in contractions when she re-positioned me told him that I had progressed quickly. (I have no clue) This is where Tony called my mom to let her know that they were ready for me to start pushing (this was a 45 minute process last time) so that she could head up to the hospital with Addison to meet her brother.
So as soon as the doctor and the nurses were all ready they positioned me in the stirrups and continued to tell me that I could get him out in one push, just to wait for the contraction and push with it. Literally pushed with the first contraction I felt and apparently he was almost out, had to wait for the next contraction to push out shoulders and in two contractions worth of pushing at 12:43pm Alex was born. (less than 5 minutes of pushing, say what?! I thought this whole being induced thing was supposed to be HORRID!?) I couldn't get over how round his face was, chubby little cheeks! Tony called my mom back to let her know that he was here and she was shocked at how quickly he came, they hadn't even left Mason yet!
Differently than with Addison they left him on my chest for skin to skin contact for the first hour so we didn't have stats right away but with them only wiping him down quickly and suctioning his mouth and listening to his heart it gave us time to oggle him and let him nurse before things got crazy with visitors. Meanwhile they were dealing with things like delivering the placenta and stitching me back up, I re-tore what was torn when Addison was born. (yay for stitches in your lady bits, not.) Dr. Farhat said it's a good thing you decided to go with the induction you may not have made it to the hospital and had to deliver at the train station up the road if you waited to go into labor at home. There's a terrifying thought. After the hour of snuggles, breast feeding, baby admiring were up they came in to measure, check do footprints etc. He weighed in at 8lbs 14oz, 21 inches long with a 14" round head. They kept saying he was a good sized baby but he seems pretty tiny to me! :)
At this point is when Grandma Gail, Grandma Sharon and Addison had made it to the hospital to meet baby Alex.
