On July 6, 2010 (at 2 1/2 weeks overdue), I went in for my last dr's appointment, where we were going to discuss induction, and got an ultrasound. The fluids were reading dangerously low, so my midwife Lisa sent me straight over to the hospital to start being induced. We got to the hospital at around 2pm, and basically just sat around and got all checked in/poked up with an IV until around 6pm when another midwife, Kathy came in to put the bulb catheter in my cervix to help encourage ripening and dilation. My friend Chris, DH (Kevin) and his mother sat around with me, joking around and all that. At about 10pm they gave me an Ambien to help me sleep, which didn't work, cause I was WAY too keyed up, but I did end up going to sleep at about 1am on the 7th. At 2:30 am I got up to pee, and the bulb catheter fell right out of me, but I didn't want to wake anyone up , so I just left it on the counter and decided to tell my nurse about it in the morning. I woke up every hour after that, just cause I couldn't seem to get comfortable.

At 5am my nurse came in and told me to eat something and take a shower since they were going to start the pitocin at 6am, so I ate and showered, and they started the pitocin and checked me, but I was only 2cms and 80% effaced and he was at -3. I fell back to sleep around 7:30-8 am, and slept utill almost noon, when I woke up because of the contractions, which were 2.5 mins apart, and lasted about 45 seconds. I worked through contractions like that for about 2 hours with the help of Chris, who ended up being an AMAZING coach (I don't think I could've made it that long without him) until they were so intense that I was crying, so I finally asked for the Epidural. Let me just say here, that Epidurals were invented by Greek Gods, and they are uh-maz-ing. After the epidural was in place, Dr. Campaigne came in and checked me and broke my water, I was at 3cms, still 80% effaced, but he had moved to -1. I knew I was going to need my rest, and I was exhausted anyway so I went to sleep again. My concept of time got kind of screwed up at this point, but I think I woke up around 5pm because I had some visitors. My epidural was still working well and all that jazz, so we just sat around and joked. At about 7pm, I was starting to feel some pressure, was really nauseous, and I could feel my contractions a little. We (and I literally mean we as it was a group effort) somehow managed to talk my nurse into getting the doctor to let her check me, and I was only 5 cms, and still 80% effaced. The nurse gave me something to help keep me from throwing up everywhere, and I went back to sleep. I woke up again around 10 or 11pm cause my epidural had almost completely worn off on my left side, since I had somehow managed to get completely on my right side while I was sleeping and I was feeling searing pain in my left hip/stomach. I got the shivers, and I was on the verge of vomiting, but I had also gotten a new nurse while I was sleeping and didn't know it, so she checked me without asking the doctor for permission (thank goodness, or dr. Campaigne wouldn't have let her, since she didn't want to risk infection) and I was at 8.5 cms and I would go to 9cm everytime I had a contraction. I got back on my back, and got the epidural mostly evened out again, and the nurse gave me Phenegren for my nausea, so I almost instantly fell asleep since that stuff makes you SUPER tired.

I don't know exactly what happened while I was sleeping, but I woke up at around 3am to the nurse forcing oxygen on my face, and making me lay differently, while she was holding the fetal heart monitor to my stomach. I was still really drowsy, and going in and out of it, but she told me that Jude's heart rate was too high, averaging at 190-200 bpm and I heard her say something to the charge nurse (who she had call dr. C to basically FORCE her to come to the hospital to check on me) about me bleeding too much or something.

The nurse told me that I needed to know who I was going to keep in the room with me when I was pushing, just in case the doctor decided it was time. Dr. C got there about 5 minutes later, checked me and said that she wanted to "try pushing", I instantly woke up and told Chris and Kevin to stay in the room. I have never seen two grown men look so terrified in my life. While they were putting my legs in the stirrups (cause for some reason my right hip and thigh were completely numb, but I could feel everything else) dr c told me that I needed to see the finish line and push like I was trying to get him out and all that jazz. She gave me the impression that she didn't think was going to be able to do it (especially since I heard her tell the nurse not to get some stuff ready cause she was expecting a c section).

For some reason, I looked at Chris' watch right before I started pushing and it was 4:04 am. After my second set of pushes, dr. C suddenly got very positive and was telling me that she could see his head a little when I would push. She was stretching my perineum with olive oil (which was also helping me remember where to push, since I wasn't so confident in my ability to do it right without the pressure of her fingers there to guide me) about two sets of pushes later, she went and got all of her gear ready, and had the nurse help me push through two more sets. At about this point, the contractions were lasting longer than they wanted me to push cause Judes heart rate was starting to drop, and I was struggling with the pressure, since my epidural had somehow almost completely worn off, except for in my right leg. Something about Kevin's voice kept making me annoyed, so I kept telling him to shut up, even though he was apparently telling me the same things that Chris was (I could hear Chris talking, but for some reason, I just wasn't processing what he was saying.)

When he started crowing both Chris and Kevin decided to check out what was going on down there, and then suddenly both of them, dr c, and the nurse were cheering me on through my pushes, and they were letting me get in more pushes (probably cause I couldn't keep myself from doing it). My last set of pushes were completely self guided, although Kevin and Chris were both counting to 10, and by the 5th push, I felt slight relief from the pressure, and heard/felt a whole bunch of popping in my hips and back, then Jude was on my chest. The neonatal nurse starting wiping him off on my chest, but he wasn't crying, and we could hear him choking on something, so she took him to the warming table in the room to suction his lungs out better. While Jude was being weighed, and Kevin and Chris were taking pictures, dr campaigne delivered the placenta (which literally consisted of her pushing on my stomach twice then saying "oh, here it comes" and the placenta falling right out of me)

The nurse called out his weight (9 pounds 15 ounces), and dr campaigne looked at me and said something to the effect of "seriously?" then she told me that I had a first degree tear, and that I would only need about one stitch. She told me that I just pushed out a 10 lb baby in one hour with an epidural, and that I was just somehow "made for having babies"

Jude ended up with group b strep (although I tested negative at 36 weeks), meconium aspiration, and erbs palsy from a clavicle break, the entire experience was amazing and terrifying. There are definitely a few things I'd like to change about it, but I don't think my son would be the same amazing baby he is today if he hadn't been given such a tough beginning.

 

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