All the Details

So even though B posted a quick post before with pictures and all the basic details of Y, I like to give more details and I know many of you want to know the details. With that said, we arrived here at the hospital about 15 minutes late at 6:45am. They quickly showed us to our room, got us settled, and hooked up my IV and pitocin. This really started the waiting game. I began to feel the contractions, mildly, right away. I let them know that I would definitely want an epidural and was curious when they typically give it. The nurse told me that they don't really give it at a specific time, it's more that they give it to me whenever I felt I needed it. That made me feel more relaxed because I wasn't worried about it being too late when I wanted it or whatever. So, since I arrived at the hospital dilated to 3cm we were thinking that I'd probably progress rather quickly...wrong! Three to four hours later with the pitocin near it's highest level I was still at 3cm. At this point I knew we were in for a long day. Once we reached 4cm (about 6 hours in) I started feeling the contractions more strongly, but still they were very tolerable. The doctor came in and decided it was time to break my water after which he warned that the contractions would get a lot worse so he went ahead and ordered my epidural. Looking back, I wish I had've gotten the epidural before he broke my water! Even after he ordered the epidural it was still an hour and a half before the anesthesiologist showed up. Needless to say, the doctor was write, my contractions did get a lot worst. For that hour and a half I was in hell. I will admit that at first it was fairly easy for me to tolerate but towards the end I couldn't take it anymore. B just sat there wondering what he could do to help and I could tell just by the look on his face how awful he felt having to watch me in pain and be unable to do anything about it. I have never felt such horrible pain as that and at the end all I could really do was cry. But once I got that epidural, I was in pure heaven! He said typically it can take up to an hour to kick in but for me it was instantaneous. I didn't feel a single thing, not even pressure, until later that is. So progression continued to come very slowly and by 11pm I was still only at 6.5cm. I was really feeling the pressure by midnight so they came in and gave me more drugs. I began progressing faster but the pressure was unbearable. Her head was really low in my lower back/butt area and that made it impossible to get comfortable and made the contractions and pressure that much more intense. Anyway, to speed this story up, the doctor finally let me start pushing around 12:30am when I was 10cm, we pushed for 2 hours and made very little progress. We had only managed to get her from a -1 station to a +3 station. So at that point, around 3am, the doctor comes in and gives me my options. He tells me that using forceps is not an option for me because of the gestational diabetes. He also tells me that I can continue to push her out vaginally but that if I chose to do that it would likely result in a 3rd or 4th degree tear. He said my second option was to have a C-section. He was honest to say that either way it wouldn't be easy because if we did the c-section since she was already at a +3 there would be some difficulties in getting her out that way as well. So I chose the c-section even with as much as I didn't want it because the truth is that I prefer a c-section over a really bad tear.

So at that point everything went well and she was born 49 minutes later. I was so exhausted that I ended up sleeping through the entire process, and no, they did not put me under. I went to sleep all on my own. In fact, the entire time I was pushing I would somehow manage to fall asleep between contractions even though they were only like a minute apart. There were several times when I ended up vomiting and others where I ended up having these uncontrollable shakes. But she's here now and it was all worth it. Now I'm just waiting for it to set in that I'm a mom. Life will never be the same, that's for sure! Anyway, Brandon posted all the other details and a couple of pictures below. Don't worry, there will be more to come. She's adorable and has really really thick hair. Right now she is in the nursery because he temperature keeps falling and they need to put her under the warmer. Also because I had gestational diabetes she now has hypoglycemia but they expect that to correct itself in the next couple of days. I'll try to keep you guys updated. Love ya!