My delivery story...finally

Well, I figure that now that Sydney's 5 weeks old I should write my delivery story...the truth is i couldn't bring myself to relive it in detail until now because it was such a nightmare. I honestly remember the whole thing in slow motion and in a dark room...it wasn't until after I got home and talked with Eric about it that i realized that the whole thing happened very quickly and in a very well lit room.

I'll go ahead and start with Thursday morning at my Dr appointment. I made Eric come with me because I was afraid that my Dr wouldn't agree to induce me, and I wanted Eric there to "set him straight" luckily that wasn't necessary. My Dr already had me scheduled to go in around 5:00 to be induced that night. The plan was to start me on cervadil around 8:00 and hope that I progressed to at least a 2 preferably a 3 by 8:00 the next morning so he could break my water and hopefully deliver me a few hours later with an epidural (this was the main reason for induction as braxton hicks hurt my kidney horribley and contractions would be horrible with out an epidural)...sounds like a great plan right? Well here's how it happened...

We went in at 5:00 as planned and the on call Dr inserted the cervidel at 7:00 when she checked me prior to the cervidel I was dilated to a 2 1/2. (I was a 1 that morning) We didn't think much of it, I just thought that it was the difference in Dr's opinions. Looking back now, I should have for seen what happened. I'd been having really hard contractions for a few weeks, I just wasn't progressing. The cervidel is supposed to help your cervix soften so the contractions help you progress.

After she inserted it i had to lay flat for an hour which was extremely painful on my kidney not to mention I felt like I couldn't breath. But the hour finally ended. So, we settled in for the night, Eric had rented Get Smart, and we started watching it. My contractions started getting pretty hard, and I honestly don't remember the movie because I was just trying to stay very relaxed so I wouldn't hurt any more than necessary. After the movie (about 10:00) my nurse came in and gave me a shot of pain killer and 2 ambiens so I could sleep. Well, I felt great right after she gave me the pain medicine but within 15 minutes it started wearing off and my contractions were really hurting. The sleeping pills made me feel really loopy, but I couldn't fall asleep. They came in around 1:00 and my kidney and the contractions were really hurting bad. She checked me and I was only a 3 so she went and talked to the Dr and they decided that given my special circumstances they would give me the epidural then. So they got the fluids going and an hour later the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. I remember being afraid that I wouldn't be able to hold still during it because I was hurting soooo bad. When he put the needle in I felt the most horrible grating feeling it was like feeling the way nails on a chalkboard sound. When he put the medicine in it hurt really really bad and sent this horrible pain down into my right leg ( It still hurts). I told him and he said that it was fine, turned on the drip, and left. They put in the catheter and that was a whole different experience with the epidural not working. after 30 minutes I still wasn't getting any pain relief, and my contractions and everything were getting really painful. Then they noticed that Sydney heart rate wasn't doing what it should be, so they put me on oxygen and told me I had to lay on my left side to help her heart rate. Now remember that my left side is the side that had the stone and stent, It was horrible!!!! I felt like I couldn't breath either. I kept taking the oxygen mask off and the nurse had to keep coming in to put it back on.

After another hour my pain still wasn't being relieved, so they called for the anesthesiologist again. He came in around 4 or 5 and gave me another shot of pain killer into my back and turned up the drip in the epidural. It made my right leg go numb from my thigh down, but nothing else. Once again they told me I had to lay on my left side. The nurse checked me and I was a 5. We called camie to let her know that I was a 5 and to plan on coming for the delivery around 8:00. They decided to go ahead and break my water in hopes that I would be ready to deliver when my Dr got in at 8:00. So at 6:00 or so the on call Dr came in and removed the cervidel which was almost unbearable, "Owwww" I said that alot. Then she broke my water and checked me again. "oh, you're a 7 now, you'll be ready to deliver as soon as your Dr gets here." The pain was horrible I was crying and trying with everything in me not lose it. I felt like I was being torn in half, the pain in my back was unbelievable. The dr turned to the nurse "She shouldn't be in this much pain with an epidural, somethings not right we need to get him in here to redo it!!" They both left to find him. With in a few minutes them leaving The pain hit me like running into a brick wall. I started yelling "somethings wrong I need someone in here!!!!" Then came the worst pain I've ever felt in life!!!! "I need to push!!!! Oh my gosh somethings wrong where's the Dr??????" Poor Eric was trying so hard to calm me down but my contractions were on top of each other and I really felt like I must have looked like one of those movies where someones possessed and they arch their backs in the most horrible looking ways. I felt like I was being folded into a pretzel and ripped apart. Finally my nurse came in and she saw me and ran and got the Dr. They didn't have any of the instruments set up or anything.

Like I said earlier I remember all of this in slow motion and as if I were in a very dimly lit room, and I felt like everyone was really far away. I remember hearing Eric's voice but it felt like he was soooo far away. They had me start pushing, I remember the nurse saying that she couldn't get my catheter out, so she had to pull on it really hard. I pushed a few times and after what felt like an eternity(it was only a minute) her head came out. She had me stop pushing for a sec because the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. After taking care of that I pushed once more and she was born at 6:41 am. They layed her on me for a second and I looked at her and then at Eric who was pale and looked like he was going cry (Which is huge because he never ever cries) Eric cut the cord (which I missed because I was trying to calm down.) Then they rushed her over to the little area to clean her up. Unluckily my pain didn't stop yet. I remember asking them over and over if she was ok and crying because I was still hurting and I was so traumatized and relieved at the same time. The Dr showed us her umbilical cord which had a knot in it. She said that sydney must have swam through it and tied it off at some point. But it didn't cut off her supply or anything. She had to stitch me up because I had torn pretty good, and I could feel each stitch!!! It was not enjoyable. They wrapped her up and gave her to me after a few minutes and we finally got some pictures of her. She was so perfect. But she wouldn't stop crying. In fact they couldn't get her body temperature up. so after trying skin to skin contact (which didn't help) they put her under the heat lamp. She stopped crying as soon as her body temperature went up. Poor little girl cried for the first hour of her life.

Camie was the first to come and see her. Needless to say everything happened so fast she missed the delivery =( then came Alaura with Amanda and Landen. Eric's parents came around 8:00. I was still kind of out of it, and exhausted. But glad that it was over.