On Weds 3/14, I had a doc's appointment at 3:30 where they did a fetal non-stress test. Right near the end of the test, she rolled onto her cord and her heart rate dropped... this was enough concern for our doctor to send us to Triage to get checked out. We were kind of excited, because this might mean they would want to induce, but chances were slim. After a couple hours there, everything checked out just fine and we were sent home around 6:30. On our way home we stopped and met some friends for taco night, and got home around 9.
At 10:30 that night, I was in bed and just drifting asleep... and my water broke!!! It wasn't a huge amount at first... I was able to make it to the bathroom without making a huge mess. I was in there for about 15 minutes just leaking nonstop... and I knew I just had to grab a towel and get ready to get the show on the road! I came out and Ben was sleeping... I said, Hey Honey, my water broke! He half-woke up and said, "Where?" HAHA. He thought a pipe broke somewhere and water was spraying in the house... He soon figured out what I meant. I called the hospital and got ahold of the on-call doctor and he told me to come in. We grabbed our bags and headed out the door (and my water was going all over the place...). We arrived at Munson around midnight and had to go through the ER because the main doors were closed. When I was getting out of the car, another huge gush came out... the wheelchair guy looks at me and asked if I was ok. I just said yep, my water broke... He goes, "Oh my..." haha. We made our way back to Triage again, and this time they kept us! They determined my water had broke (which I was well aware of) and I was dilated to about a 1.5. They admitted me and gave me a 1/4 pill of Cytotec to get things going. About half hour later, the contractions started. They weren't horrible, but they were enough to keep me awake all night. They were about every 3-4 minutes apart. In the morning, they told me my contractions were consistent enough that I wouldn't need anymore of the drug and that I wouldn't need Pitocin.
We had a great nurse that night, but things changed the next morning... At 11 am, they changed shifts. Right off the bat, I could tell that this lady would not be nearly as helpful. She wasn't trying to help me with dealing with contractions (which were getting pretty intense at this point) and just wasn't keeping us very informed. I had the fetal monitors hooked up to me every hour for 10 mins. During the night, I would move and sometimes they'd lose the fetal heart rate, and the nurse would come running. This was no longer the case, and it was kind of worrying us... at one point, Ben hit the call button because there was a big question mark on the monitor.
So, the doctor came in around 8am and checked me, and I was at 5cm. He said he'd be back in around noon to check... well 1:00 came around and still no check. I had no idea where I was, and I was about ready for an epidural at this point, mainly due to pure exhaustion. I wanted to make sure I was at a 7 though, so I didn't slow down the labor. I asked the nurse about getting me checked, and she said she could do it... she said I was at a 7, Perfect. I asked for the epidural. The nurse first had to give me an IV, which she was very unsuccessful with... she missed the vein and was probing around with the needle in the side of my wrist trying to hit it. This was almost more painful than my contractions! I asked her to stop, and she went to get another nurse to start the IV. This one took 2 tries, but she got it. 20 mins later, I got the epi and was able to sleep for 2 hours which was amazing.
At about 4:00, the doctor came back to check me. He said I was at... a 5!!! I hadn't progressed at all and the nurse was wrong. The epidural had slowed things down, and I now needed Pitocin. After I got that, the contractions started getting more intense and I was starting to feel them again. I asked the nurse if she could bump up my epidural a bit. She had to shut the pump down to do this and was punching buttons for about 5 minutes... and my pain was getting worse and worse. She said it was all set, and I'm pretty sure she forgot to turn the pump back on because my pain went through the roof. Ben said he didn't see the epidural bag moving at all either... I asked her a couple times to check it and she said it was fine. UGH. I asked her about getting a catheter because I hadn't gone to the bathroom since I got the epidural. She said oh, we'll do that at some point. Well, I got to the point where I had to start pushing and she went to grab the catheter, and she was trying to get it in (very painful) and realized she couldn't get it around the baby's head anymore. So I got to give birth with a full bladder which I guess makes pushing more difficult...
The doctor finally came in when I was in the pushing stage. He said I'll be right back, and went to deliver another baby. He got back just in time. I gave birth at 6:55pm on 3/15 and it was the most euphoric, happy, (painful), incredible moment I could have imagined. As soon as they put her on me and she was crying, none of that pain I went through mattered anymore. All that mattered was that we had a beautiful, healthy baby girl in our arms.
Claire weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz and measured 21 inches long. She passed all of her tests with flying colors. Ben and I decided to get home as soon as we could, so we were discharged around 8:30 on Friday. The rest of the nurses we had were all great... just had the one who made things much harder for me. But we delivered our perfect baby girl, and that was all that really mattered to us :)
I've heard a lot about the love you have for your child... but I really never understood it until now. I love this baby girl SO much, its impossible to put into words. I also felt the love for my husband grow as I watch him be an amazing Daddy :) We are so incredibly blessed... GOD IS SO GOOD!
