The Longest Day of My Life...

Warning...really long post ahead...

BEFORE...




Well, I guess it's been long enough that I can talk about how it went on the day I was induced. I think I needed some time to get over it a little. We went in at 6:30am on Sun. April 27th.


The nurses asked me if I was feeling any contractions and I told them no-i hadn't felt anything. They hooked me up to the monitors and lo and behold I was contracting. I just couldn't feel it. So, around 9am the doc came in and checked me to see if I was dilated any further. I was at a 3, so he broke my water. Weird...that's pretty much all i can say about how that felt. The nurse, Roberta, was an older woman, and she wasn't my favorite nurse. She explained to me the different options of pain meds (epidural, statol in the IV) and told me to tell her whenever I felt I needed something. She made sure I knew also that the anesthesiologist was on call and that he would have to come from home or wherever he was to administer the epidural. He wasn't at the hospital. So...around noon I started feeling the contractions stronger, so I told Roberta to call him up--let's do it. Around 1pm he got there and explained to me the procedure. He said he wanted to start it with me lying down. So, I was on my left side, and he started poking around in my back. He had to work in between contractions, yet he couldn't seem to get it in the right spot. At one point I felt a shooting electrical impulse down my entire right leg, and when I told him this, he was like, "oh, well, we might have hit a nerve there." DUH! So after 3 attempts with me laying on my side, he sat me up to start the whole thing over again. By this time I'm really feeling the contractions, and it's not feeling so great. In order to start the process over, he had to take the tape off my back from the first 3 attempts. I was sitting up, holding on to Lui when he literally tore the tape off. It hurt so bad--I lost it. With the contractions and now this, I just started bawling. Lui actually started to cry also seeing me in so much pain. It was pretty bad. So he did it again, got it in, and I was really praying for some relief at this point. But none came. I think I was out of it for about 20 minutes, but then bam--right back to feeling the contractions. Roberta kept messing with the drip to my side and I remember her saying, "Oh, I hope this works." Why should she have to "hope" it works??? Around 3pm there happened to be another anesthesiologist there so they got them to come in and perform another epidural. I didn't even know what the man looked like cause I hadn't opened my eyes since the first one. He did it, first try with me sitting up, but once again--no relief. So at this point, I'm thinking, "ok, so what's the point of these freaking things anyway??" So the rest of the night was pretty much hell. I felt everything. I don't know when exactly I started screaming and crying during the contractions, but I do know that it lasted quite a while. I remember my throat being so dry--Janie and Lui kept giving me ice to suck on, but I had to be careful cause when I had it in my mouth and a contr. started I had to spit it out so I didn't choke. Around 11pm the doc came in and told me that the screaming wouldn't help...thanks doc. Why don't we switch places and you tell me how it feels. He also told me that he had an emergency surgery he had to perform on a patient that was internally bleeding. He asked me if I wanted to start pushing and I said yes, cause anything was better than just lying there feeling what I was feeling. So we started pushing, and he eventually had to leave for surgery. But I kept it up with the nurses, Jessica and Kathy (I thought that was interesting, her name being Kathy). They were great, Janie was by my side helping count and helping me breathe, and Lui was my "leg helper." My legs were so tired from being in the stirrups for so long I had to stretch them, so Lui would hold my heels so I could straighten them out in between pushes. I remember Jessica saying that she had never "caught a baby" before, but at this point, I couldn't care less who caught her...just as long as she came out soon! So for the next 1 1/2 hours, I heard, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10...good job...you're doing so good." and "look at all that hair!" and "push! push!" And alas at 12:38am Mon morn she arrived. Kathy coached Jessica along, and they both did great. That's right, the doc didn't even make it back in time...Jessica delivered Baylee. They put her on my tummy, Lui cut the cord, and then they took her over to continue cleaning her off and to weigh her.

About 10 minutes after the birth, Dr. Taylor came running in and the look on his face was priceless. He had missed it all. He was very apologetic and sad that he had missed it. They gave her to me one more time and then took her to the nursery.

AFTER...

Lui went with her, and in the mean time, Dr. T took about 45 minutes to stitch me up. I tore pretty bad. The nurse came back about 1/2 hour later and told me that Baylee had a temp of 103 and that she was experiencing some respiratory distress. They sent some blood work to the lab to make sure everything was fine. For some reason, this didn't alarm me---I somehow knew she would be ok. After all was said and done, it was time to move me to my post par tum room. On the way we stopped at the nursery and I got to see her again. Lui was still there with her, just staring and caressing her little hand. A proud papa for sure. She had to stay in the nursery so they could continue to monitor her. The nurse said her O2 levels were good, and that the lab work came back good as well. Her fever was going down and she was breathing well on her own. We were off to the room, yet we had to leave her there. Lui, once again, stayed there with her. I got to my new room and was tired, hungry, thirsty, hurting--what else? Thanks to whoever it was that told me to bring snacks cause it was at this point Janie busted them out. I inhaled several packs of fruit snacks, a granola bar, some crackers, and Jessica even brought me a box lunch. About an hour later, they brought my baby in and I was able to feed her. She was beautiful. So small. A miracle.

It's now almost 2 weeks later, and I'm pretty worried about my legs. Both of my thighs are still numb, and I still feel shooting electrical impulses in my right leg. I'm sure it's from the 1st epidural when the doc couldn't figure out what he was doing.

Needless to say, it was a rough day. But our little angel made it safe, and that's all that matters. At some point after the delivery Lui asked me, "Do you still want to have 5???" I couldn't give him a straight answer...