Needless to say I didn't get very good sleep that night. I ran to the car trying to cover up my sobbing until we were in a private place. There were so many thoughts running through my head.
I didn't like knowing that this was our last night as a family of three. This was the last night I would be reading to Addyson as she falls asleep next to me. The last time I would feel those kicks and hiccups before we would bring this baby into the world.
Induction.
One word I hoped to never hear.
With Addyson I had a completely natural child birth, no pitocin to progress labor, no epidural to take the edge off, no nothin. And that was my intent with our second baby.
The most prominent thought in my head; I am scared to death. What scared me most was not only the health of our baby but the road to getting that baby out. I was afraid of the un-predictable part of induction because it's not your body telling you it's ready, it's medicine making your body do it. I have only heard horror stories of Pitocin. If I had to be induced I was going to try other methods to get labor going without the use of Pitocin. My midwife understood my concerns and introduced a cervical ripening gel to get things moving. This gel was used to help me soften or "efface" since I was only at 50% when checking in and you can't dilate if you are not effaced. I was administered the first dose at 9:30pm and it was not a pleasant experience. I'm not going to go into the details but it's not something I would wish on anyone. Good news is the "issue" didn't last long and I was able to try and get some rest before the next dose would need to be given.
It was a sleepless night. I was hooked up to monitors and every time I turned over something would get messed up so the nurse would come in to adjust things. So I tried to stay as still as possible and that meant being severly uncomfortable and staying up most of the night. At 3a.m I was given another does of ripening gel, this time a different brand, and things went much better. By 7 a.m I was in active labor. I was feeling great so we walked around the hospital many may times and progress was starting to slow. With the threat of pitocin looming over my head we continued to walk and pray until we decided to have my water broken in order to see if things progress. Can I just mention that my nurse during this time was amazing? She totally knew what I needed to hear during each part of this ordeal and I couldn't have asked for a better experience.
After getting my water broken things started to pick up again and get more painful but we continued to walk, and walk, and walk until the nurse wanted me in bed to be on the monitors for a while. I was at 5 cm at this point and getting very frustrated with the lack of progress. All of the sudden the contractions started stacking up but my monitors were not reading them so no one believed me =) I really felt like I needed to push. Of course my nurse went on break at this time so I had to have someone else check me and she said I was only at 6 cm and I guess that made me mad because 25 min later I was at 10 and ready to push. This is probably going to sound weird but that first time I pushed it felt amazing. My midwife just kept saying do what your body is telling you and it felt so nice to have that control. That with each contraction I knew what I needed to do without someone telling me it's time to do this. And 3 pushes later...
Landon Thomas was welcomed into the world at 2:37 PM on May 7, 2011
5lbs 12oz and 20 inches long
Love at first sight. He's my boy and I feel so blessed to have him in our family. Labor was so much better then with Addyson despite all the complications leading up to this point. And just for future reference I adored having a midwife over an OBGYN. The one-on-one contact and personalized experience made everything just amazing.
He passed all the tests with flying colors and we were able to bring him home after a total of 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital (I tested positive for strep b so we had to stay until he was 48hours old).
Landon is very bald, he is just long and skinny (but eats like a champ), and I find it hard to remember life without him.
Hope that didn't draw out too long! I have a lot to share and so many details to never forget.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment