Lets start from the beginning. I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my OB on Tuesday Dec. 4th. The doc checked me and announced that I was still 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced (I had been for the past week) and also informed me that I had a posterior cervix. This is where your cervix is pointing towards your back instead of down the birth canal. The OB assured me that this was fairly normal and that when I went into active labor it would correct itself. We discussed options and decided to go ahead and induce me on Friday the 7th (Jack's due date). I had been having contractions on and off for the past month and a half and I was ready to meet my sweet boy!
Friday morning we got up at 4:45, packed up the remaining stuff in our bags, kissed Ella and left her with Sean's parents. We arrived to the hospital at 5:30 and were checked into our room by 6. I had made a comment to Sean telling him how much more comfortable I would feel if we had the same nurse this time that we had when I gave birth to Ella. When we walked into our room on the labor and delivery floor Sean noticed that her name was on the board as someone who was working that day. We asked the lady who checked us in if we could request her and she called right away and told her that we wanted her with us again. I cannot express how much relief I felt knowing that this kind woman would be taking care of us again, she was seriously AMAZING with me when I had Ella! She checked me and I was having regular contractions but still dilated to only 2 cm. She started my pitocin drip and said she would be checking on us often. By 10:30 my OB was making his rounds and came in to check me. I was now at 4 cm and 75% effaced and thankfully my cervix had moved up enough for him to break my water.
This is when the fun began :)
The contractions were manageable but very painful. I found it most comfortable to sit on the edge of the bed and let my feet dangle. I like to kick my feet when I am in pain and that coupled with some breathing techniques really helped me work through the contractions. At around 11:30 I was feeling a lot of pressure and asked for my epidural. By 12 I had the epidural in and was laying down trying to rest. I developed what they call a hot spot in my hip where the medicine was unable to reach my nerves due to the way Jack was laying. I felt every contraction in just that one spot ( very weird and uncomfortable) They gave me another dose of the pain meds and got my hips situated in a way that allowed it to reach the hot spot. Just when I started to feel relief the doctor came in and said that Jack's heart rate was going down with each contraction and they wanted me to change positions to see if it would help. They checked me and I was at 6cm and 90% effaced and they made me roll to my other side. Well it helped his heart rate but made my hot spot come back. at around 12:45 I called the nurse back in to see if she could give me another dose on the epidural and told her I felt like i needed to go to the bathroom. She checked me and said "well that is because you are having a baby" I had gone from 6 cm to 10 cm in just 25 min. The doctor came back in and after just 3 pushes Jack arrived at 1:22 p.m.
He was perfect, wrinkly and big! His head was beautifully round and he was crying so hard he turned a nice purple color that scared me half to death! They assured me he was fine and I let them take him over to the warmer to get cleaned off. To me he looked smaller than Ella, but when they put him on the scale he weighed in at 9 lbs 8.3 oz and 21 1/4 inches long! Everyone kept commenting on how pretty he was :) Sean and I were absolutely in love! I tried to nurse Jack after about 30 minutes and he seemed to not be interested. The lactation nurse came in and tried to help, but he kept making a loud noise and you could tell that he wasn't latching properly. They weren't too concerned so they said we would go ahead and let visitors come see him and we would try to get him to nurse later. We let Ella come in first to see him and she kept saying "Oh my baby, my baby" and giving him lots of smooches!
After everyone came in and had left we were moved down to the recovery room. That is where the real adventure began... to be continued.
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