I went in Monday at 6am to Summerville Medical Center to be induced for mild preeclampsia. The plan was to start cervidil to soften my cervix since i was stuck at 1 cm for 3 weeks and not effacing. My blood pressure had been up and down a little, I had major swelling, and some protein in my urine. Dr. Reeves didn't want to take a chance on me getting any worse and at that point i was in so much pelvic pain, not sleeping, dealing with PUPPPs rash, and was just ready. Once the cervidil softened my cervix enough then we would start the Pitocin and get labor going. Dr. Reeves warned me that this could take a few days depending on how my body reacted to the cervidil. It could go quick or it could go slow. So I was prepared to be there at least 3-4 days. Monday morning I got registered and sent upstairs and set up in room 3 where I would give birth to our baby. The first nurse that came in got me situated in the room, but that was about it before shift change at 7am. The next nurse, Sarah, got my IV started which was seriously horrible. She first tried in my right forearm and my vein rolled and she could not get it in there so she had to switch to my left hand. Being stuck the first time I had no idea what to expect since I've never had an IV before. I was thinking it wouldn't be any different than a regular blood draw! Man I was wrong. The second time she had to stick my in my hand I knew what was coming and was so dreading it. Anyway she got that going and my blood pressure and fetal monitors hooked up. She checked the monitor after a few minutes and asked if I felt anything because I was having regular contractions, but they weren't that strong. I told her I did feel some tightening, but didn't think much about it because it didn't feel too much different than when Lakelyn would poke body parts out as far as she could. She decided to go ahead and check me to see if I had made any progress since my last appointment on Thursday, March 5th where I was still at 1 cm and not effaced. At 8am when she checked me she was a bit rough and I had bleeding for the first time which I didn't like too much, but assumed it was a good way to help get things going. She said that I was 2cm and 70% effaced and at a -2. Dr. Givens (which was the dr. on call for my practice) was the one that came in and was supposed to start the cervidil. When he got there he decided I didn't need to because my body was actually starting labor on its own and we would just go ahead and start the Pitocin and we would have a baby that day, Monday, March 9th! That was the first time I got nervous because it was literally getting real!
The nurse came back in at 9am and started my Pitocin for me. Then this is where it starts to blur a little and things got weird. Once she started the Pitocin we could see and I could start to feel contractions. I did have a couple that were kind of long, but maybe only 2 that I knew were like that and as for what was shown on the monitor it didn't seem like there were that many either. Well she would come in and turn my Pitocin down saying I was contracting for too long. This went on ALL day long. Sometimes between then and 1:30 I made it to 3cm. Dr. Reeves came in at 1:30 and decided to go ahead and break my water so that it would help speed things up and he again said we would be having a baby by the end of the day. That was the weirdest thing. At first my response was "that's it" because it was just a little trickle. They said that it would eventually keep coming out and oh man did it. Next thing I knew i was gushing water and it was warm like pee, but like a water faucet that i couldn't turn off. it was so gross and I went through so many towels! It did provide for some laughter though! After he broke my water the contractions really started to pick up and they were the most painful things ever. I asked the nurse about the epidural and she said she wanted me to wait as long as possible before getting it because I would be confined to the bed at that point and could be there for a long time. At that point I didn't think much about that comment because I was in pain and I guess naïve. If I would have thought about it, both doctors had told me I would have a baby that day and here it was already after 2 pm and they said the longest part was getting to about 4cm and then getting to 6-7cm was faster and then from 7-10 was even faster and I was already getting close to 4cm. But, I didn't know any better and just went with it for a bit longer. Next thing I knew I was bawling my eyes out in pain and needed something. So she came back in and gave me pain medicine in my IV which was the WORST mistake I made. It did not help with the pain and completely knocked me out and I literally was still crying in pain and asked for the epidural not long after getting the pain medicine anyway. I really don't remember from here exactly where I was with dilating and effacing because I was so in and out of it from the pain medicine. I just know at this point the nurse was STILL upping and downing my Pitocin for some reason and at this point my mom was there watching the monitor and did not see any contractions lasting that long, but we were still trusting them because this is what they do for a living and we understand protocols.
I had to finish an entire bag of fluids before they could start the epidural and she did turn that up to pump those into me as fast as it could so that I could get it started. It wasn't that long and then Dr. Chris Wimberly came in to do my epidural. I was obviously in pain still and he wasn't all that friendly. He was very short with no personality. In the middle of a contraction he was trying to get me to sign a consent which I obviously had to tell him to hold on a minute and then I asked if he was going to do it between contractions since I had to be still and he says "no". I'm thinking he is joking since I have never had one before and didn't know it took 15ish minutes to do. So I just shut up and let them hurry up and get it over with and I don't believe Tyler was very happy with his bedside manner either. Anyway, Tyler stood in front of me and held me tight as I was rolled up chin to belly as much as possible. The first stick was for the lidocane. It didn't hurt all that bad, but it did make me jump which is where Tyler came into play with holding me still. I felt some tingling for a couple seconds and then the area was numb. I don't know what all was going on back there as I couldn't see, but I did feel and could even hear something going up my back. It didn't take long and that was done and they were laying me flat on my back and whatever else they had to do before starting the medicine. It didn't take long and I could feel a cool sensation in my spine and then nothing from the waist down. I could still move my legs a little and very slowly, but couldn't actually feel much. It was weird, but felt AMAZING and I so wish I would have went straight with that instead of trying the IV meds. I was still in and out from them so don't remember all that much, but if I wouldn't have had them and just had the epidural I believe I would have been more in the know with times and being checked and when they were increasing and decreasing the Pitocin.
Anyway, it was after 4pm and getting close to 5pm which is when my Dr. office goes off for the day and the hospitalist doctor takes over. So Dr. Givens came in again before he left, but honestly don't remember what all he said. I hope it will come to me and I can update with that. I did eventually meet the hospitalist dr and she checked me and said I was still at 3cm which was so discouraging to me considering I had been on Pitocin all day, my water had been broken for a few hours at this point and those contractions were hard (before the epidural anyway). This was obviously because of the way they handled my Pitocin which is very upsetting if you haven't caught onto that by now. I'm not sure anything really happened before the next shift change at 7pm. The next nurse, Amanda, came in and took over. I do remember asking when they would be checking me again and was told they like to do it as little as possible after my water had been broken because it puts me at a risk of infection which would cause a lot of other issues. At some point I guess they did check me and I was progressing, but I don't know to what. I just know at that point Tyler's parents and my mom and grandma decided to go ahead and get dinner because I could soon be progressing faster and delivering soon. I believe I was at 7cm at that point and a -1. So Tyler being the jokester that he is decided to tell my mom in a text when she asked how I was doing that I was 8cm and getting ready to push. So they all are running out of the restaurant in a hurry thinking I'm about to deliver which was far from it and my poor grandma even forgot her debit card and had to go back in and get it. He then tells them he was kidding and that I was still the same. I'm not sure if that was before or after they got back to the hospital. They eventually came back and it was dark at this point and I was getting pretty exhausted from being up all day, not having anything to eat and dealing with labor in general, but I remember the nurse coming in and checking me saying I was 7cm on one side and 8-9cm on the other side which had us ALL confused, but again we went with it and were getting excited that I was getting close to pushing time. I text my photographer and let her know I was 7cm and she decided she would go ahead and come up there because it wouldn't be long. This was around 8pm and I remember that because the bachelor finale came on at 8 and we had been joking that Lakelyn needed to be here before then so we could watch it or otherwise I would have to push on commercial breaks. Needless to say we didn't have to worry about that and we all got to watch the entire 3 hour finale without any issues because once again my Pitocin was still being messed with tremendously and when the doctor came back in hours later she said I was only at 7cm. How in the world I went down beats me, but I guess that is what you get when you have a nurse checking and a doctor checking. So we were all just so aggravated at this point because we knew what was going on with the Pitocin and didn't believe it was right at all. At some point I started to get nauseated I'm assuming from being tired and hungry and also in labor and it was not going away. I knew the Phenergan would knock me out and I didn't want to go through that because the nurse said to us that normally once you get to 7cm you usually progress at 1cm per hour. So we were thinking in about 3 hours I would have a baby and I did not want to be so out of it that I didn't remember that part. Not remembering each check and every time wasn't as important to me as remembering pushing and giving birth to my baby. I also was asking the nurse about the epidural because at this point I have had it for a very long time and I was starting to get more and more feeling in my legs and feet and was terrified it was going to wear off. I had to of asked her 100 times about it and she kept saying that I was fine and if it were any other dr that did it she would be hesitant, but the dr. that did mine does strong doses so I didn't need to worry. I had NO idea that there was a button that I could push anytime it wasn't green to give a boost to the epidural! I couldn't believe that they didn't tell me that.
Time went on and I still wasn't making any progress and at 2:30 am the photographer decided she was going to head back home since she lived about 15 minutes away and when I made more progress they would call her to come back. I felt terrible she had been there that entire time basically for no reason. Tyler's parents and sister went to their car to get some sleep and to get warm because apparently I was freezing everyone out. I wasn't cold except for the few minutes I did get the chills, but they said the chills is a good sign of labor so I think that is what that was about. Other than that I felt great and they were all bundled up like it was snowing. My grandma had also went home and my mom was going to, but I started to get pretty bad at this point and she decided to stay with Tyler to help out because I was starting to get back labor. I fought the back labor for a couple of hours and the nurse said it was because of how her head was. Oh, I forgot to mention when this nurse came on she had me flipping and turning into all kind of positions to "supposedly" help with progression. So every few minutes or hour I was being turned around which I think also lead to the back labor. My mom and Tyler did everything they could think of to help ease the pain and get me comfortable because the nurse literally just stood there shaking her head like she didn't know what to do. At this point she did start hitting my epidural button for me and asked if I wanted to try the IV pain meds again. I was in so much pain and I figured if she gave me the IV meds it would knock me out and I could get a little bit of rest so we went for it and I eventually got comfortable after my mom layed me on my side with a pillow under my stomach. Next thing I knew I was having the pain in my left hip instead of the left side of my back. Some point I'm not sure on the time but they actually turned my Pitocin OFF!! I rolled and moved and I eventually got comfortable again and was able to rest again. Shift change came again at 7am THANK GOD! Although the doctor from my practice was a doctor I did not like and she was very rude I was so glad to have another nurse. She came in and started my Pitocin left me where I was comfortable, moved me so I didn't have to move myself, hit my epidural button everytime it needed to and we were rolling then! She checked me and I was about 8cm! I was able to sleep that entire morning in between her coming in the room up until I was pushing! I was still out of it some from the night before and completely forgot to tell the photographer to come back and by this time I was reminded and was so confused on what to tell her because I was about to start pushing and didn't know if she would make it in time and if they would let her in and I knew I was a hot mess and so unfortunately I said not to worry about it we would get together and do newborn pictures instead which I wish I would have just said for her to come anyway because it ended up being we had plenty of time! At 10am she checked me and said it was time to push! Everyone left the room except for Tyler and I did two practice rounds of pushing before the Dr came in. She checked me and said she could still feel my cervix and for us to wait another 30-45 minutes. So both me and the nurse and I'm sure Tyler too were frustrated, but we listened and the nurse said she would be back in at 10:45. I fell back asleep not thinking to tell Tyler to have the photographer hurry down there! I woke up and saw that it was 11:00 and she hadn't come back in yet. She came in litereally as I was thinking that and said that MY dr (Reeves) was finishing his LAST C-section for the day and if we waited a few more minutes that he could deliver me!!! Of course I was completely fine with that. She said she would be back in the room in 15 minutes and we were having a baby, FINALLY! She came in and got set up and we started pushing at 11:22. Dr Reeves came in there and checked everything out and said he would be back in I think when I was crowning maybe? Not sure, but literally 5 minutes after he walked out she called him back in and we did maybe 2 or 3 rounds of pushes together and at 11:56 she was born! They had my Pitocin up to 10 so that my contractions would come closer together because they were about 7-8 minutes apart, but by the end they were just a few minutes apart.
They laid her on my chest and I was just crying my eyes out! I could feel that last push when she was out and I could see her little butt and back when he was holding her to get her to cry or whatever it is that they do. Tyler said he even teared up too! They took her and Tyler got to get just a couple of pictures while Dr. Reeves and everyone was talking to me while I was delivering the placenta, but all I could do with look for Lakelyn and listen to all her stats! She did do a roll as she was coming out and Dr. Reeves said "she is either going to be a cheerleader or a golfer" and Tyler says "or a fisherwoman" haha. Then they started talking about fishing and he apparently showed Tyler the placenta. He asked if I wanted to see it and obviously i said no! I had a sweet baby on my chest! Tyler got to cut her cord as well! That was by far the best day of my life followed by my wedding day! I was so relieved she was here, healthy and not by C-section! Everything from the day before was forgotten in that moment and we were happy!
Tyler and I spent some time together with her before he went out and told everyone that she was here. I was told he walked out there and they said "well..." and he said "well, shes white!" haha.. Who knows where he gets this stuff from! I'm assuming because when she first came out she was blue until she started to get oxygen? Who knows! Anyway, he came back in the room with me and her for a little longer as I started to breastfeed her. After a little bit we were able to let family in 3 at a time. So my mom and Tyler's mom came in first and then everyone else after that!
They took my epidural out and it wasn't long until I could start to feel my legs and I needed to go pee. She made me move my legs to the edge of the bed on my own and helped me stand up. Once I stood I had to shift my weight from one foot to the other and then she helped me walk to the bathroom. Then the joys of the bloody nightmare began which I did not miss for 9 months! The pediatrician came in and saw her while I was in the restroom and Tyler met him and talked to him. I guess everything was fine at that point because I didn't even know he came in! I got cleaned up with a new gown and new sheets and stuff and then everyone left us! It was just me tyler and lakelyn! Tyler passed out sleeping, Lakelyn was sleeping in my arms and we didn't have a bassinet thing and I was so tired!
Not long after that I had to go to the bathroom again and the nurse didn't believe me because I just went. I couldn't really believe me either because things still kind of felt numb and like I still had pressure. So she said she would come back in 30 minutes and if I still felt like I needed to go she would help me. Well 15 minutes went by and I had to GO! I woke Tyler up to hold Lakelyn and I called the nurse and told her I couldn't wait. Another nurse came in as I was standing up and needless to say.. I didn't make it! haha! At this time they went ahead and moved me to my other room. Room 231 which became our home until FRIDAY!!!!!!! Yes, Friday! I was able to be discharged that Wednesday if I wanted or Thursday the latest. Wednesday came and we packed up getting ready to go and the pediatrician said she wanted her to stay another day because she looked a little jaundice and because my water was broken for almost 24 hours they wanted to watch for infection in her. So we were bummed out, but stayed. They did her evaluation and then blood work and her bilirubin results came back at 8.4 and at that age needed to be 8.0. So at 5pm on Wednesday they put her under the light. She had to be under there for 6 hours and then they would do another blood test. She was able to come off only for 30 minutes at a time to feed. So every 3 hours we went in there and got her and brought her back to the room to eat. After the first 6 hours which was 11pm her results were 7.8 which was great and under the level, but just as precaution they wanted to keep her under there for another 6 hours and the check again. So at 5am they did another blood draw and when I took her back after her feeding the results weren't in so I had to leave her there not knowing she would still stay under the light until the doctor came in to do rounds that morning around 8ish. So Thursday around 7 my doctor came in and said I was good to go home that day and was discharging me. Again, we got up packed our stuff and then at 8am went to go get her from the nursery to feed and see what was going on. We caught the pediatrician as he just checked her and he said she was doing great and wanted her to just finish out that last 6 hours and could come off the light at 12pm. He said he didn't want her to go home that day though because he wanted her to be off the light for 12 hours and then check the level again to make sure it didn't go back up after coming off the light. This meant a midnight blood draw!!! He also wanted to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't get an infection which could happen the first 36 hours I think he said after birth. So we were extremely disappointed and I was NOT about to leave my baby at the hospital! I explained to the nurses that I was breastfeeding and could not leave. They checked for a courtesy room and they did not have any available for us. So we were up in the air on what was going to happen. The nurse came in and discharged me, but we obviously didn't leave until we heard from the nursery nurse about what the doctor said once she told him the situation. He wrote an order that I had to stay because I was breastfeeding her and so we unpacked and brought her back to the room for another long miserable day at the hospital. They checked on her every few hours and she was great everytime. They did her blood draw at midnight and came in and updated me that the level was 9 and at that age it needed to be under 12! So at this point I knew we were finally going home! Those last few hours went sooo slow and the pediatrician that came in to do rounds and discharge us took forever! normally they were there between 7:30-8 and this one didn't get into our room until 9:30. She finally checked her out and said she was ready to go home! Luckily, the nurse already had her stuff together and so by 10:00 am she discharged us and let us know when to make her first appointment and her last results including her weight going home which was 6lbs 4oz.
I don't think they have ever seen people leave so fast! Within 5 minutes of the nurse leaving our room we were out the door! We have never been more in love than we are now! And if you read this entire thing you are a champ!
Here are a few pictures!
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