Our nerves were high the entire day before the induction. Karen was in town so she and I had lunch. JB was home sick with food poisoning from Blue Mesa. My mom went shopping to pass the time because she was so anxious - I think she may have purchased some regrettable Cole Haan’s. Monday night we made sure we had packed everything and were ready to go. Sleep wasn’t easy but we managed to sneak a few hours in especially since JB was still in recovery mode.
We woke up early on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 thinking "today is the day our baby will be born." Boy were we wrong…
The morning started innocently enough. After waking up at the crack of dawn, JB drove me to the hospital with much anticipation. We arrived around 7:30 AM and checked in up front. They then took us back to what would be our labor and delivery room aka torture room #1. I changed into my gown (which my butt, of course, hung out of) and laid down to get strapped into all of the monitors. Once I was hooked up, I met my labor nurse, Tiffany, who proceeded to tell me that I was actually already in labor. While at first I was quite skeptical about her ability to help me push out a baby considering her blonde hair and petite nature (read: She looked like a middle school cheerleader), she ended up being absolutely fantastic! After Tiffany got me set up, another nurse came into the room to put my IV in. We shall refer to her as Wicked Witch #1. It wasn’t that she was rude or anything, it was that she missed – twice. As in, poked me with that (huge) needle for the IV on two separate occasions and then proceeded to figure out that “those veins won’t work”. Yep, this was a rough start to what would turn out to be an even rougher 24 hours. After she couldn’t find another vein to use, she had to bring in the actual anesthesiologist who got me hooked up quickly. At that point, my only concern was how much this little anesthesiologist extra visit was going to cost me but in the middle of that thought, the IV was finally in and I realized there was no turning back. The Pitocin was on and off we went.
For those of you who haven’t experienced induction, they start you off pretty light and increase the amount running through your veins in intervals. Early in the day, Tiffany told me she had never seen anyone go past a 32 and that most people started good labor around 24. Dr. Monti came in about 10:30 and broke my water and then Melissa, our doula, showed up to start helping. Well, hours passed and I kept having lots of contractions but no pain. Things were moving slowly. Had lots of visitors – my parents and JB’s parents and Erin. Byron was so sweet and brought me the new Bon Jovi album that had just come out that day. He said that he wanted me to have something that was actually about me, not the baby. You mean someone actually remembered I was involved in this whole process?? It was a truly touching gesture. We put it on the speaker and listened to the whole album. We all talked and told stories and Dr. Monti and Tiffany would come and check on me throughout the day. Finally, around 4pm, Dr. Monti came to check the progress again. At that point, I was in so much pain from the checking (no pain from the contractions) that I requested the epidural. That made things so much better – for a while. At about 7pm, Dr. Monti checked again and I still wasn’t progressing so she said we might have to do a c-section. I remember crying a lot because the C-section wasn’t what I wanted so we kept upping the Pitocin until we started making progress. I remember starting to severely shake about that time. It was the worst part. Dad tried to keep me entertained by donning a surgical mask and hat and taking pictures. While it was quite funny, it only distracted me short term. One of my favorite memories is hearing about all of our friends vigorously checking Facebook to get updates. Apparently, it was like waiting for election results and watching the electoral states pop up on the screen. How much is she dilated? Is she pushing yet? Any news at all? I’ve never had anyone so concerned about my cervix!
Remember that statement Tiffany told me about a 32? Yeah, I had to go to a 42 before I was ready to push. At about 10pm, Dr. Monti checked me again and said I was finally ready and that we would start pushing in about 30 minutes. The alarm sounded and everyone rushed back in to cheer me on one last time. Byron called Gail to come back up (she had gone home because she wasn’t feeling well earlier) and all the parents gathered in the waiting room eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first grandchild.
Finally, it was time, and JB and I were convinced Abby would be born just before midnight on 11.10.09 but we were wrong again. I pushed for 2.5 hours and it was excruciating as the epidural had worn off and they refused to give me another one (bastards!). We didn’t seem to make any progress with the pushing and eventually, our dear, sweet Abby decided that it was time for that stubborn gene to crop up. She turned the wrong way and Dr. Monti couldn’t get her back. JB came through like a champ. He was great and I never even got irritated with him for a second. After trying and trying, Dr. Monti called another OB in to help her turn Abby (again, cue “how much is this going to cost me?”), but all of their combined efforts were to no avail. They could see that she had a full head of hair (seemingly encouraging at the time) but we were never able to make enough progress. At the end of the 2.5 hours, Dr. Monti said it was time for a c-section. JB rushed off with Melissa to change clothes and get ready for the surgery. At that point, I had so much medicine in my system and had the shakes so bad, I didn’t know what exactly was going on but I knew I was nervous and ready to get her out.
So at 1 am on November 11, 2009, they wheeled me into the OR and started cutting. I gave JB my glasses so I couldn’t really see much but I sure knew when they took the knife to me. You know how I knew that? Because I could feel it. Yep, I was the chick on the table going “Umm…am I supposed to feel that? If not, please give me more drugs because it kinda hurts.”
While the pain medication was worthless for the actual physical pain and I still felt everything, the effect it had on my brain was so strong that I didn’t really know what was going on. Apparently, she was born at 2:04 am. I don’t remember much after but I do remember hearing Abby cry for the first time and this overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. They called Jonathan over to the table where they were cleaning her up so he could look at her for the first time. They measured and weighed and cleaned for a while and then he finally brought her to see me. She was beautiful and looked like a little cherub and he was crying. I expected her to look somewhat like an alien but this was surprisingly not the case…at all. She was chubby cheeked and squishy and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
After they finished putting me back together, I got wheeled back to recovery and got to hold her on the ride there and feed her for the first time when we go to the room. All the grandparents were there and all got to hold their new grandbaby. Gail was sick so they all donned masks just in case, but each grandparent got to hold her for a few minutes before the headed home for some much needed rest. At about 5 am, we finally got taken to our room where we would stay for the rest of the week. I remember this poor nurse coming in and giving us this speech about how things worked in the wing but I was so sleepy, I couldn’t keep my eyes open to take in anything they said. I just signed some consent form and then finally got to go to bed for a little while as they took Abby to the nursery for 3 hours. When I woke up at 8 am, I was officially a mom and the adventure began!
We woke up early on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 thinking "today is the day our baby will be born." Boy were we wrong…
The morning started innocently enough. After waking up at the crack of dawn, JB drove me to the hospital with much anticipation. We arrived around 7:30 AM and checked in up front. They then took us back to what would be our labor and delivery room aka torture room #1. I changed into my gown (which my butt, of course, hung out of) and laid down to get strapped into all of the monitors. Once I was hooked up, I met my labor nurse, Tiffany, who proceeded to tell me that I was actually already in labor. While at first I was quite skeptical about her ability to help me push out a baby considering her blonde hair and petite nature (read: She looked like a middle school cheerleader), she ended up being absolutely fantastic! After Tiffany got me set up, another nurse came into the room to put my IV in. We shall refer to her as Wicked Witch #1. It wasn’t that she was rude or anything, it was that she missed – twice. As in, poked me with that (huge) needle for the IV on two separate occasions and then proceeded to figure out that “those veins won’t work”. Yep, this was a rough start to what would turn out to be an even rougher 24 hours. After she couldn’t find another vein to use, she had to bring in the actual anesthesiologist who got me hooked up quickly. At that point, my only concern was how much this little anesthesiologist extra visit was going to cost me but in the middle of that thought, the IV was finally in and I realized there was no turning back. The Pitocin was on and off we went.
For those of you who haven’t experienced induction, they start you off pretty light and increase the amount running through your veins in intervals. Early in the day, Tiffany told me she had never seen anyone go past a 32 and that most people started good labor around 24. Dr. Monti came in about 10:30 and broke my water and then Melissa, our doula, showed up to start helping. Well, hours passed and I kept having lots of contractions but no pain. Things were moving slowly. Had lots of visitors – my parents and JB’s parents and Erin. Byron was so sweet and brought me the new Bon Jovi album that had just come out that day. He said that he wanted me to have something that was actually about me, not the baby. You mean someone actually remembered I was involved in this whole process?? It was a truly touching gesture. We put it on the speaker and listened to the whole album. We all talked and told stories and Dr. Monti and Tiffany would come and check on me throughout the day. Finally, around 4pm, Dr. Monti came to check the progress again. At that point, I was in so much pain from the checking (no pain from the contractions) that I requested the epidural. That made things so much better – for a while. At about 7pm, Dr. Monti checked again and I still wasn’t progressing so she said we might have to do a c-section. I remember crying a lot because the C-section wasn’t what I wanted so we kept upping the Pitocin until we started making progress. I remember starting to severely shake about that time. It was the worst part. Dad tried to keep me entertained by donning a surgical mask and hat and taking pictures. While it was quite funny, it only distracted me short term. One of my favorite memories is hearing about all of our friends vigorously checking Facebook to get updates. Apparently, it was like waiting for election results and watching the electoral states pop up on the screen. How much is she dilated? Is she pushing yet? Any news at all? I’ve never had anyone so concerned about my cervix!
Remember that statement Tiffany told me about a 32? Yeah, I had to go to a 42 before I was ready to push. At about 10pm, Dr. Monti checked me again and said I was finally ready and that we would start pushing in about 30 minutes. The alarm sounded and everyone rushed back in to cheer me on one last time. Byron called Gail to come back up (she had gone home because she wasn’t feeling well earlier) and all the parents gathered in the waiting room eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first grandchild.
Finally, it was time, and JB and I were convinced Abby would be born just before midnight on 11.10.09 but we were wrong again. I pushed for 2.5 hours and it was excruciating as the epidural had worn off and they refused to give me another one (bastards!). We didn’t seem to make any progress with the pushing and eventually, our dear, sweet Abby decided that it was time for that stubborn gene to crop up. She turned the wrong way and Dr. Monti couldn’t get her back. JB came through like a champ. He was great and I never even got irritated with him for a second. After trying and trying, Dr. Monti called another OB in to help her turn Abby (again, cue “how much is this going to cost me?”), but all of their combined efforts were to no avail. They could see that she had a full head of hair (seemingly encouraging at the time) but we were never able to make enough progress. At the end of the 2.5 hours, Dr. Monti said it was time for a c-section. JB rushed off with Melissa to change clothes and get ready for the surgery. At that point, I had so much medicine in my system and had the shakes so bad, I didn’t know what exactly was going on but I knew I was nervous and ready to get her out.
So at 1 am on November 11, 2009, they wheeled me into the OR and started cutting. I gave JB my glasses so I couldn’t really see much but I sure knew when they took the knife to me. You know how I knew that? Because I could feel it. Yep, I was the chick on the table going “Umm…am I supposed to feel that? If not, please give me more drugs because it kinda hurts.”
While the pain medication was worthless for the actual physical pain and I still felt everything, the effect it had on my brain was so strong that I didn’t really know what was going on. Apparently, she was born at 2:04 am. I don’t remember much after but I do remember hearing Abby cry for the first time and this overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. They called Jonathan over to the table where they were cleaning her up so he could look at her for the first time. They measured and weighed and cleaned for a while and then he finally brought her to see me. She was beautiful and looked like a little cherub and he was crying. I expected her to look somewhat like an alien but this was surprisingly not the case…at all. She was chubby cheeked and squishy and the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
After they finished putting me back together, I got wheeled back to recovery and got to hold her on the ride there and feed her for the first time when we go to the room. All the grandparents were there and all got to hold their new grandbaby. Gail was sick so they all donned masks just in case, but each grandparent got to hold her for a few minutes before the headed home for some much needed rest. At about 5 am, we finally got taken to our room where we would stay for the rest of the week. I remember this poor nurse coming in and giving us this speech about how things worked in the wing but I was so sleepy, I couldn’t keep my eyes open to take in anything they said. I just signed some consent form and then finally got to go to bed for a little while as they took Abby to the nursery for 3 hours. When I woke up at 8 am, I was officially a mom and the adventure began!
No comments:
Post a Comment