I figured I should try and get this written down before I forget it all. So please feel free to skip this post if you don't want to know all about it. :)
March 29, I went to my doctors appointment. I was 3cm and 50% effaced and she had finally dropped low enough for him to feel her head. Induction was set up for that Friday, but Dr. Armstrong didn't think I would make it that long. I asked him to strip my membranes since it seemed to get things going when my doctor did it when I was pregnant with Colby. The rest of the day I felt different, a little more uncomfortable, no contractions yet though.
That evening I got some major nesting urges and cleaned/organized a bunch of stuff. I made sure everything was ready for me to go to the hospital and for Colby to go to our friends house. I had some cramping feelings earlier that evening that turned into contractions. I can't remember when they really started, but when I look back I now realize they were contractions. I was in denial for a while. Starting about midnight I realized they were really contractions, nothing painful yet. I kept cleaning for another hour and went to bed around 1am.
I slept through contractions for a couple of hours, but around 3 or 3:30 I started waking up with each one. I was trying to ignore them for a while and keep sleeping. I was in and out of sleep for an hour and then I started kind of timing them. They weren't very consistent about every 8-5 min apart. Nothing I was worried about. I definitely couldn't sleep through them any more and I would wake up Mark when I was breathing through them. About 5am Mark convinced me that we should get up and start getting ready to go to the hospital.
So we got dressed and everything in the car. At this point my contractions were at least every 5 min and hurt enough that I had to stop whatever I was doing to breath through them. I just remember Mark coming back in the house and asking me if I was ready and I said I just have to get through this contraction before I can walk. So I know they were getting strong by then. We left the house about 5:30am, we then had to go and drop Colby off at our friends house about 20 min away.
We drop Colby off and head to the hospital which takes about 15 min to get back to that side of town. Now my contractions are pretty painful and are about 3 min apart. So we get to the hospital and check in around 6:30. They asked me if I wanted a wheel chair and I said no, which was stupid. I could barely walk through my contractions. So I get in my room and changed and all hooked up to the monitors. The most annoying thing is the nurses are asking all these questions which they have to ask and I'm in the middle of contractions just trying to breath.
At about 7am they check me and I'm still only dilated to 3 1/2 cm and about 50% effaced. I was kinda frustrated at this point I was really hoping to be a lot further along because I had really been thinking about not getting an epidural. But since I didn't dilated as fast as I thought then I wasn't sure how long this would take and how long I could handle it.
I spent the next hour trying to get through contractions and realizing that I didn't want to do this without an epidural. So I told the nurse I wanted one. She went to get the anesthesiologist, but he was busy with a couple of scheduled c-sections that morning, so I would have to wait a little while longer. I finally got my epidural around 8:30 or so. The anesthesiologist was kind of a strange guy. It was much different from my last one. He had me lay on my side while he put it in. My epidural when I had Colby I was sitting on the edge of the bed curled over a pillow. Also this time it hurt a little when he put it in. I don't remember my first one hurting at all, I just remember being able to feel it going in.
Once I got the epidural I started feeling much better. The nurse told me that my dose seemed a little high for my size but it's not like she could tell him that. I was numb within 30 minutes. But then I kept getting more and more numb, at first my legs were just a little tingly, but eventually they were almost totally numb. My progression was slow for a little while and I was actually kind of bored. It was too light for me to sleep even though I was tired. The nurse or doctor would check me every hour or so and I would be 1/2 to 1cm more dilated. I think they broke my water about an hour after I got my epidural, I can't remember exactly, but I know they did it at some point.
I think it was around 11 or 11:30am that I was at about 7 cm. So I really thought I had a ways to go. I thought it would take another couple of hours. I wasn't on pitocin or anything. A little before 12 Dr. Armstrong came in and checked me. I was 9cm and 100% effaced. He told me it was time to have a baby. I was surprised because I didn't even feel like I needed to push or anything. I was completely comfortable, well it was probably because I was so numb. They didn't have time to turn down my epidural before hand, so I was really really numb. One of my legs I could not move by myself. He said one push and I would be fully dilated. So they got everything set up and I started pushing at 12pm. It was a very strange feeling pushing and being that numb. I really could not feel anything below my waist. I had no clue if I was really pushing or if I was pushing correctly. But I just tried to remember how I did it with Colby and tried to do the same. Dr. Armstrong was there the whole time, so that was a little different. I was used to just having a nurse there at the beginning and then the doctor coming in later. I pushed for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and then Dr. Armstrong suggested we use the vacuum to help since she her face was looking down instead of up. He thought it would be hard for her to get out on her own in that position. And since my legs were so numb that I couldn't really move them, I couldn't change positions to see if she would move.
Dr. Armstrong started using a small vacuum and I one point I was pushing and I heard a pop. The vacuum popped off her head, so they got a bigger one to use. I continued to push until 12:40 when she was born. I only felt a little pressure when her head came out and I felt a little more with her shoulders but no pain at all. As soon as she was born they put her on my stomach with a towel around her. They didn't clean her off yet, so the nurse and I were wiping
her off. I thought that I would hate that part, but it wasn't too bad. I had to check and make sure she was a girl, since I was worried that the ultrasound was wrong. When I saw her she looked different than Colby.
Then they took her to the warming bed and cleaned her and weighed her. She was 9lbs 11oz. I remember looking over at her because she wasn't crying or anything and she was looking around very calm and peaceful. Then they told me that she had a little scrape on her head from the vacuum. After they did everything they gave her back to me. I tried to get her to nurse. It was probably about 30min after she was born. She did latch on for a couple of minutes, but she didn't show much interest in trying. So I held her for about an hour and then they took her to the nursery.
Mark left around then to go and pick up Colby from our friends house. When he got back they moved me to my room. A couple of hours later we got to introduce Colby to Saige. He was interested for a little bit and then just wanted to get down and walk around. He just looked at her and pointed to her nose. Mark and Colby spent a few hours there with me, but then they left to go home. That night Saige wanted to nurse and I spent so much time trying to get her to latch on but she just couldn't do it. Eventually one of the nurses helped me to get her on, so she nursed for about 20 minutes. I was worried about her but the lactation consultant told me that it's normal for babies to not want to or not be able to right away. She just told me to keep trying and Saige would figure it out. I didn't have any problems with Colby when he was born. He was the easiest baby with breastfeeding.
We spent two nights there. She was a little jaundice, but never bad enough for treatment. The top of her head looked like a big blister had popped. It was much worse than I thought it was going to look. When they told me she had a little scrape, I thought it would be little, but it was pretty big. But it started healing fast. My hospital stay was very nice. I was up walking around as soon as my epidural wore off. I didn't tear at all or need any stitches, so that was really amazing. I was sore and swollen, but I felt so much better after this delivery than after Colby's. My doctor was great and checked on my several times. Saige's doctor was also good and checked on her a lot and would come and talk to me after seeing her. I liked this hospital because everything felt so much more personal. It was a good experience.
Our first few nights at home were good. She was a good sleeper and had her days and nights figured out. The first night home our only problems were nursing. She had trouble latching on for a while. She would get so frustrated and worked up that I would have to get her sucking on the binky and then take it out and quickly switch her to me. That seemed to work most of the time. It was kind of rough in the beginning because of that, but everything else was wonderful. I felt almost normal and Mark was able to stay home with us until my parents came to visit and then Mark's mom came and stayed with us when my parents left.
Saige is such a sweet baby and I really feel lucky that she was given to us. Her birth was much easier and faster than I thought it would be. It was a good experience.
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