So...100th post! It's gotta be good right? I have been debating on what I was going to do with my biggest post yet! It's not going to be THAT interesting, but I know I'll be glad I did it in the future.
After reading someone's birth story the other day, I got to looking back on my blog, and I never did that. I SOOO thought I had. I guess I put pictures up but never put it in words, hour by hour what went on. I wish I would have done it back then because it would have been so fresh on my mind and I wouldn't have forgotten ANY details. I am going to try and retell the story now...6 months later, so that I can look back and read it one day, as well as lil Ryder man! =)
Tuesday September 8th was another boring, uncomfortable day at our house. I just laid on the couch and just hoped there was something good on TV to help me pass another day. Ryder was currently 9 days late and I was nearing 42 weeks. I had been to the Dr. that Friday and was not effaced & had not dilated at SINGLE BIT!
My plan had always been to go to the hospital when my contractions had been 5 minutes apart for one whole hour. Starting at about three o clock I had a contraction that didn't hurt AT ALL for about 45-60 seconds. This continued to happen every six minutes ON THE DOT. This lasted all the way up till 4 o clock. My mom called when she got off work to just check on me, and I told her what had been going on, and she said why don't you call your nurse and see what she thinks you should do. I was trying to be so chill because it really didn't hurt at all. Just a few lil Braxton Hicks is all it felt like to me....even thought I was 41 weeks pregnant! HA!
I called Cornerstone and had to leave a message, and told them what was going on and asked them to call me back. I just prayed that I wasn't one of the messages they didn't get to that day and would have to return my call the next morning! Luckily they called back shortly after. She told me with the contractions for sure being there, and being 41 weeks pregnant and nearly and hour away from the hospital, we should probably head to LR to get on a monitor and stuff. Luckily my bags were pretty much packed except for everything we used day to day.
I called Jake and told him what was going on and he was very calm and chill about it all. He did that so I wouldn't freak out, cause if he had freaked out, I would have too! He told me I should probably take a shower and enjoy it and that he would head home right then. He had worked harder that day than he had all summer. Little did he know what the night and next day held!
I got in the shower, put on some make up and got all the final things ready to go and loaded up in the car. Jake got home and did the same, and by 5 o clock we were on the road!
Jake had called his parents but told them not to leave the house or head this way JUST yet.
We got to the hospital, parked, only took in what I needed right then, headed up to the maternity floor and signed a few things since I had already pre-registered online, and I think there was only one room left that I got to go in! Room 12, right in the middle of the floor, the only room with no windows. I got in there, got a gown on and propped myself up on the bed. Our nurse got the monitors hooked up on my belly for Ryder, and then started me on my first IV ever and oxygen as well cause Ryder's heartbeat wasn't as high as she would have liked it. She checked me and I was like a one. BOO! That's when our night began! If I would have known they weren't going to let me eat once I got there, I would have CHOWED down on my way there! Ice-chips was as good as it got for me! All I had eaten that day was a Hot-Pocket. Sick.
I started reading magazines, and Jake just watched TV. Bunky & Linda Sue got word and came to say hey since they live near by. Linda Sue is ALL about some numbers, and told Ryder if he waited till the next day (9.9.09) then she would give him a hundred dollars! Jake's family got there a little later and all hung out in the room. Jake was starving to death, and someone brought him a steak, mash potatoes all the works, and I had to sit there and watch him eat it! ARRRGGHHH!
I would probably say about ten o'clock the contractions started getting very very painful. I had to get up and go to the bathroom a few times, and I had to wait for one to end, unhook everything, wobble in there, go, get back to the bed, hook everything back up, before another started. I got trapped in the bathroom a few times in the middle of a contraction which was NOT fun!
They kept checking me and it wasn't moving very fast at all. And I honestly thought I had to wait till I was a 5 or 6 before I got an epidural. But a nurse asked me when I wanted pain medicine, and I said just whenever I can have it! And she said...you can have it whenever! I was like NOOOOWWW!! She said there were a few people in line ahead of me and then I would get my epidural! WAHOO!!
By this time I was in so much pain, and having everyone in the room just talking and laughing and cutting up was NOT helping, but I didn't want to be rude and kick them all out. No one knew I was in so much pain. Jake's friend Jason Fulfer was over there with me most of the time holding my hand and letting me squeeze his hand as hard as I could. I honestly just wanted to shattered it to a million pieces. Jake finally came over there and took over and was being very supportive. He hates hospitals and everything about them, and I think it was just hard for him to see me in so much pain. At one I was holding one of his fingers and he said it felt like I just about snapped in half. On...I can remember so vividly lying on my side, scrunching up my face, just trying to get past this ONE contraction, only to know there was another one coming shortly after.
The anesthesiologist still hadn't been to my room, so of course Jake went out on a hunt to find his wife some pain relief! Lucky for the guy, he was rolling in the room right as Jake left!
The positition you have to get in to get an epidural WHILE BEING PREGNANT isn't so pleasant. It wasn't THAT bad, but it was hard. I had to concentrate on so many different things. Squeezing my knees together, keeping my neck down as far as I could, pushing my belly button to the wall--I think that was about it! He told me to tell him if I felt a burn. He also told me I had a bony spine, which I LOVED being 9 plus months pregnant! HA! I did feel a little burn on the right side, and he corrected it, then I felt the cold water trickle down my spine, and the tubing going in & all was good! I knew I would feel so much better soon!
I kept getting checked and still no change. Luckily my Dr. was on call that night & would be there with me! =) I could have handled someone else, because that's juts this way it is, but he knew how bad I did NOT want a c-section! He came in around 12:30 and broke my water. This didn't even hurt and was done before I knew it had even started. I was so numb everywhere by then I guess I didn't! I didn't even feel the liquid running out or anything.
My mom and Naynee came up there about 1:30. Jake was trying to get some sleep on the couch because he had just worn himself out working hard that day, and would have never worked so hard knowing what the night held! The nurses came in all through the night to check me, and I only dilated like a half cm every 2-3 hours. It was RIDICULOUS! I was up ALL night, I don't even remember what I did, I think just read magazines and ate ice chips! I was soo HUNGRY!
Dr. Singleton came in in the morning during rounds before he got off shift to check on me, and told me his daughter was having surgery that morning and he wouldn't be able to be here for the delivery, but Dr. Simmons would be. Surprisingly I was okay with that, I guess cause I knew I had to be.
Jake's side of the family had stayed the whole night in the waiting room, including Jason, but he got up and left early cause he had to mow that day. I know it was a long, uncomfortable night for them in those little chairs!
My dad came up there pretty early, I'd say 6:30 or 7. I was still wide awake with my oxygen on and everything. By this time I think I was about a 7 or so. Ryder was all up on my right side and you could definitely tell by looking at my belly. I was still eating away at my ice chips, sending Jake or my mom for more when I ran out.
I don’t remember all the times exactly…but maybe around 10 o clock while I’m laying on my side shutting my eyes just trying to relax and pass the time, nurses & all these other people I had never even seen before flood my room telling me to flip over to the other side (which mind you, I can’t do alone AT ALL) and put my oxygen mask on, and they start doing all these crazy things on the computer monitor. Come to find out Ryder’s heart rate had dropped very low, and the nurses at the nursing station caught it and ran in there to help.
It's kinda hard to see but on the left hand side of the screen, where the lines drops below the blue marking is where he heart-rate got too low. Of course I was freaking out and panicking, and all I cared about was Ryder being okay. The thought of them wheeling me to have a C-Section crossed my mind, but at that point I really didn't care. Everyone was trying to get me take deep breaths so he could get the oxygen he needed.
To my surprise Dr. Singleton walks in and is getting all the details on what had happened. His daughters surgery was @ 10:30 and I was like what is he still doing here?! You could tell he was eager to get this baby out, and that he did not need to stay in there ANY longer. They checked me and I was a 9 or 9.5. They gave me some Pitocin right then and there, and told me we were about to get the show on the road.
They pulled the end of the bed off and scooted me all the way to the end, all the little baby nurses came in and were ready to go. Dr. S got all his lovely dubs on and got his lighting just right and I started pushing @ a 9.5. Jake was right up by my head the whole time...he did not want to be scared for life. My mom and Naynee were in there coaching me along the whole time. Candice, a student nurse that we actually knew held one of my legs up and my mom held the other.
I started pushing at about 10:15...Apparently I was a pretty good pushing, and I seemed to know what I was doing (even thought I don't know how!) I think I pushed two times per contraction. My throat was getting soooo dry because was grunting so hard while I was pushing! HA! Naynee dumped a few drips of water down my throat a few times to help me make it through. Dr. S was great...I just LOVE him, and was SO SO SO thankful he ended up being there with me. I would do it all over again with him any day. Dr. S asked me if he could help Ryder out a little bit and I said yes...DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO! HA!
About 20 minutes later @ 10:38 he yells at Jake telling him to cut the cord and Jake grabs the scissors from Dr. S's slimmy hands and cuts the cord--& Ryder's handed off to the nurses! While Dr. S was finishing things up with me, the nurses in the yellow scrubs left, and he said that's a good sign when they leave because their from the NICU. Ryder was screaming which was a good thing...I was crying a little bit, but I was just glad to hear that cry and know that is was all over with!
Jake walked over to the heating lamp to see him and Ryder immediately grabbed Jake's finger when it put it down there for him.
We later found out that the cord had been rapped around Ryder's neck, as well as him having pooped his first poop in-utero. This is what had caused his heart-rate to drop so low. He was in distress. And I had been in there past my due date, I probably would have to!
After what seemed like forever, Dr. S pushed on my belly and pulled on the umbilical cord a little bit and out popped the placenta! It had actually started to darken, and didn't look healthy at all. It was because I WAS past my due date, and the placenta starts to go back after a certain time.
I was so glad Dr. Singleton ended up being there with me. I think if I would have had ANY other Dr. I would have had a C-section. He helped me out SO much, and seemed to know exactly what to do, and he put forth the effort he didn't have to, that most other Dr.s wouldn't have done. I'm sure he did that because I had been so on top of him about NOT having a c-section for SO long! That is why I was almost 42 weeks, and hadn't been induced yet!...in fear that it wouldn't work and I would HAVE to have a c-section! OHHH I JUST LOVE HIM! =)
After all things were done with me down there, and Ryder was pretty well cleaned up, our main nurse laid him on my chest and gave him the chance to nurse for the first time. I don't remember much from there. Jake said I was crazy from all the pain medicine, and they had to reduce it from 2 pills to 1 cause I was just crazy talking! Ha!
I'm so glad I finally got all of this written out for my sweet boy to look back on! & I hope I didn't leave anything out! I also hope my next delivery goes JUST as smooth! =)