Tallen Slade is here!
I’m on my phone but I’m going to try to get the birth story down. It was another interesting one!
So I hadnt made any progress from 1 cm and 50% effaced since around mid December til my appointment on 1/15/18. I was pretty emotional about that because nobody thought Id make it to my due date and I was showing no signs of him coming out. So my dr did strip my membranes in hopes it would help contractions start and help speed things up so I wouldnt have to be induced that Tuesday the 23rd. I wasnt really feeling desperate but it was getting harder and harder to move by the day because his head felt so low. I walked around and bounced on my ball, ate pineapple and took evening primrose oil. None seemed to help. Wednesday 1/17 was the date that was stuck in my head of him coming into the world and that day I stayed home and cleaned and had a big dance party with lakelyn in the kitchen. Nothing really seemed different. That evening after dinner I made a chocolate peanut butter milkshake and after finishing it felt off. Around 11:30pm I started feeling nauseous. I ended up having some diarrhea TMI around midnight. Tried going back to bed but couldnt cause I still felt sick. Went to the living room and tried laying in there and went back and forth to the bathroom but nothing. I eventually got some towels and laid them out and decided i wasnt moving and they were there if I got sick. And around 1am I finally did. I got the cold chills and then I started to vomit. Totally tmi but While vomiting I had a lot of fluid coming out and I wasnt sure if it was pee or waters breaking. But it stopped when I stopped and I threw the towel outside in the trash and went to brush my teeth and get in the tub. I had to wash my hair and everything. After I go out I tried to get in the bed and then Tylers phone started going off a million times. I noticed the contractions and they were different and more painful than Braxton Hicks which I hadnt had in like a week! So I got back up and went into the living room where I text my mom trying to see what I should do. I got a glass of water to drink slowly since I was worried about getting sick again Incase it was the stomach bug. I timed the contractions and they werent completely consistent but they were coming 3-5 minuets apart and lasting 30-45 seconds. Around 3:30 I called the hospital to explain what was going on and she said it was hard to diagnose over the phone but could be real or could be irritated uterus and dehydration from being sick and to try drinking water and laying down to rest and see if they went away. I did and they got a little farther apart. More 7-10 minuets and still lasting 30-45 seconds. Then 5:45 my husband wakes up for work and I let him know he probably wasnt going in that day. I went and got in the bed around 6am and he stayed on the couch so I could sleep. I fell asleep around 6:30 because the contractions had backed off to about 10-20 minuets apart. I woke at 7:30-7:45 and decided to start getting ready cause I knew Id have to be seen by my dr. But they didnt open until 8. So I finally got through and explained everything again reminding them he stripped my membranes that Monday. They said he was over at the hospital doing surgery and to go to labor and delivery to be checked to see if my water broke. So we got ready and packed everything up just Incase and dropped lakelyn off with Tylers mom. We went on to the hospital and got there around 9:30-10. Got registered and upstairs. They monitored me and checked to see if my waters broke and they hadnt. Everything looked good. She said I was about 1.5-2 cm dilated. They checked my urine and she did ask if I had issues with swelling or any history of blood pressure issues with my daughter and I told her yes. Im not sure if there was protein showing up or not but it was weird shed ask and thats it. But the dr there discharged me and I asked them to call my dr to either go over and see him or he could come see me. He walked over to see me and we discussed what happened and what they said. He decided for me to come back to his office at 3:30 for an appointment (it was lunch time at this point) and he would check me again and we would see about moving up the induction date. So Tyler and I left the hospital and went to eat at Cracker Barrel and walked around the mall to kill time. Around 2:30 we headed to the office and figured wed have to wait and be worked in so we got there earlier than the appointment he gave us. It didnt take long at all and they checked my blood pressure which was good and did a urine sample again. Went into the room and he poked his head in and said he could move my induction date to that Monday if I wanted. We said sure. He then came in the room and asked if I was having any headaches. I said no but I did have a dizzy spell at the hospital that morning but didnt think much of it just thought I turned my head too fast. He then told me I was +2 for protein in my urine which means preeclampsia was headed my way quickly. So he checked me and said “do you want to go have a baby?” And I Shockley looked at him and Tyler and said “today?” And he said yep. Youre 3 almost 4cm, 50% effaced and I highly doubt youll make it through tonight and if so you wont make it passed tomorrow. Plus youre +2 for protein and I wouldnt be able to sleep tonight if I didnt admit you. So we said ok and waited for him to call the hospital. Then we went over and got registered again and sent up to labor and delivery around 4-4:30pm and was put in room 2.
The plan was to start a very low dose of pitocin and let it run throughout the night and probably deliver first thing Friday morning. Well with it being a bad flu season no children under 12 would be allowed in the area and only 2 visitors at a time including Tyler. So I had a bit of a breakdown not being allowed to see lakelyn. Dr Reeves came over and told everyone the plans there and then went home for the day. The nurse came in around 5 and said if we wanted to grab dinner and stuff before getting started we could. This was new and I was shocked I was allowed to eat. So Tyler grabbed Arbys and we ate in my room. Around 6:30 they came in for shift change and we discussed not seeing my daughter again and I broke down and she said if I wanted to walk to the lobby out of the unit I could see her. So Tyler called his parents and they were on the way. So we decided to wait until about 8pm before starting the pitocin. They got to the hospital around 7:30 and we visited until 8pm with them. Lakelyn kinda seemed sad when she saw my gown and IV. But she was ok after a minute. She wanted us to leave with her which of course broke my heart and made me cry again. I got back to the room and my mom was headed that way at 8:30pm. 8:10pm they checked me before getting things started and I was at 4cm. At 8:40pm we started the pitocin on low at 2. My mom got there around 9pm. We talked and watched tv just me her and Tyler. Tyler fell asleep around 10pm and even though I was so tired I could not sleep. The contractions were coming pretty consistently but nothing too bad. Around 10:30 the pitocin was turned up to 4. His heartbeat started getting pretty fast around 170s when it was normal around 130. It was constantly going up and dropping so we switched positions throughout the night to try to keep him from being in distress. Around 12am we turn off the pitocin because of it. I was still contracting on my own and they were definitely getting harder. We decided to wait longer for the epidural because I still wasnt having a good contracting pattern plus of the distress. Tyler was still sleeping through all of this. The contractions got harder and were consistent at 5 minuets apart still. I definitely couldnt sleep through them and was having to really focus and move during them and it was starting to get bad. Around 2:00am I was close to 5cm and thinned out more and his head had come down more so we were ok with starting the fluids for the epidural. This was the longest 2 hours! I had to get 2 bags of fluid on top of the other fluids Id had all evening and I was peeing so much. The contractions were hard and and I was in a lot of pain during them. Tyler Finally woke up and finally around 4:00am the anesthesiologist came in. He walked in during the middle of a contraction and I was crying during them at this point. He was so much nicer and worked quickly. Tyler held me again during the process so I didnt move much. I had 2 contractions during the time he was trying to do the epidural. He finally got it done and I immediately could start feeling relief. There was still pressure. Which never went away. I dont remember the pressure hurting like it did with lakelyn but I was further at this point than I was with her. My contractions never slowed. They continued coming at 5 minuets apart. We decided to try to turn the pitocin on again. I tried to get some sleep and think I got a good solid hour or so. The nurse Sasha kept coming in and checking and doing stuff. It was because of his heartbeat. We eventually had to have me try oxygen to keep his heartbeat up. At 5:20am we had to turn the pitocin Back off because he wasnt handling it well at all. I was check and told his head had come down more and I was 8cm! So I tried to continue to rest (we all did) but the pressure was still there during contractions and I kept feeling like the catheter was leaking or my water broke. And at 6:00am they were planning to break my water, but it broke on its own like I suspected and really came gushing when she went to check. I was still 8cm she said. Again at 7am there was a shift change and the nurse Sarah (she started my induction with lakelyn) came in and checked me and said I was only 6cm!!!? Talk about disheartening news especially with the heart rate issues we were having! I was getting pretty scared and wanted this process to hurry up. They moved me around but his heartbeat would drop and this time there was no pitocin on so we went back to the oxygen. After about an hour I was getting nauseous and chills and I thought it was from the oxygen so the nurse checked me and I was at 7cm and his head was lower and we took it off for a minute but his heartbeat dropped a lot so we got me into a position of halfway on my back and halfway on my right side with oxygen going. And I didnt move from that position no matter how much pressure and pain I was in. She made me take off my jewelry and started talking about emergency c section and the or was ready. She said we werent going there yet but she wanted me to be ready Incase we needed to move quick. I of course really started freaking out and crying, but didnt move much.
So I stayed still barely moving or talking trying to rest and break deep breaths for my boy! Tylers aunt got there and was there to take photos for us. My mom went to the waiting room with Tylers parents and lakelyn. Tyler went to get my camera from the car because we forgot about it. It was cold and my lens was fogged. She had her camera and we were getting everything ready. His heartbeat did good the hour I didnt move and stayed on oxygen. I then felt so much pressure and it wasnt going away. It was like one really long contraction. The nurse came back in probably about 9am and I told her about it and she said she thought I might be feeling that. She checked me and I was totally complete!! Thank goodness! So she made me do 2 trial pushes of her hand and then his heartbeat dropped so low that it basically stopped. I freaked out she was flipping me and making me breath the oxygen and moving my belly. His heartbeat slowly came back in and she was calling for dr reeves and to get him there now and or ready. Dr reeves walked in about 9:15 and she told him what happened and that she wasnt doing anything else without him. He did the same with having me push his hand out and he said he was definitely ready and his heartbeat was still dropping and they had me breathing deep breaths. I was so scared asking them to just pull him out. I could feel it all and I was hurting. My contractions were coming quicker I guess because I felt like I was ready to push again right away. So he had me kinda up on my right side again and Tyler had my left and the nurse my right. And I pushed super hard. Like I never thought I could push. I could hear his heartbeat dropping and so many commands coming at me an his head was there after the first set of pushes. And then on the second set he came out at 9:37am and I boohooed cried of relief that he came out vaginally without help, without surgery and safe. The cord was wrapped around his neck, arm and leg. I finally heard him cry and it was such a relief. We let the cord stop pulsating which lasted for a long time and Tyler cut the cord! I cried for like 5 minuets. He was perfect and healthy! Everyone was in shock that he only weighed 6 pounds 13 oz (same as lakelyn) they thought he was going to be much larger. He was 20in long. He latched and fed perfectly. I was so grateful and so in love again. It was so bittersweet because I wanted lakelyn there so badly! But it all worked out!
