When I went for my 38-week appointment, I was still 2cm dilated and my cervix was very thin - of course, we all knew that meant absolutely nothing as far as when I might go into labor. My doctor had mentioned previously that she didn't want me to go past July 7th, so we started talking about scheduling an induction. She gave me the option of July 3rd (before the holiday weekend) or July 7th, which also happens to be our 1-yr wedding anniversary. After talking to Adam about it, we decided to go ahead and schedule it for the 3rd since (a) our anniversary is special and we didn't want to overshadow her birthday OR our anniversary and (b) I was generally done being pregnant! We also knew that we had 2 weeks for something to happen "naturally."
Well, I obviously didn't go into labor on my own, even though at my 39 week appointment I had progressed to almost 3cm. So, it became clear that July 3rd was going to be Emery's birthday! It worked out very well in the long run - I was able to finish up a lot of things at work that needed to be done by June 30th, and the planner in me just LOVED knowing exactly what was going to happen, and when. We went in on the 2nd for pre-registration and talked to the labor & delivery nurse, who explained everything to us in detail. Even though I was sad that my body seemed to be taking its sweet time in the labor department, it was awesome to not be rushed and stressed out about the whole process.
We arrived at the hospital on July 3rd at 7:45am. I was weirdly calm about everything, which is not like me at all - I tend to worry and overanalyze everything to death, but in this case Adam was the one who was jumpy and nervous. He didn't sleep at all the night before, but I actually got some decent sleep (which is good considering what lay before me that day!). We got to the room and settled in, and Dr. Davis arrived a little before 9am. She checked me and I was a good 3cm and very thin, and she explained that according to the monitor I was having good contractions on my own every 3 minutes. I was shocked - I hadn't been feeling a thing! They started the pitocin to get those contractions going a bit stronger. I felt a little discomfort, but nothing unbearable - when the nurse came back at 10:30, I told her I'd hold out for a little while longer before getting any pain relief. She promptly turned up the pitocin. Within minutes, I was feeling strong painful contractions with very little relief in between - they were about 1-2 minutes apart and never really faded...they just kept coming back-to-back. Adam wanted to call her to ask for an epidural, but I figured I could stick it out until she came back to check on me. Of course, she took her sweet time and by the time the anesthesiologist arrived with the epidural I had been dealing with those contractions for almost an hour. Let me tell you, I have no clue how people do a medication-free birth...I have so much respect for them. The epidural was a breeze and very soon I was blissfully unaware of the contractions!
At noon I was checked and had only progressed to 4cm. They told me to try and take a nap because I needed my strength for the big event! I tried, but just couldn't sleep. Plus we had a ton of visitors in & out all day, so it was hard to really focus on sleeping! Around 2:00, I started feeling some pain through the epidural - it got so bad that I called the nurse and she checked me again...I was 10cm! I had progressed from 4 to 10 in less than 3 hours. I was absolutely shocked. They wanted me to "labor down" for a while before pushing, since she was still pretty high. They tilted my bed so that my head was lower than my feet - the nurse explained it like a lime in a Carona...you tip the bottle upside down and the lime floats to the top. It was pretty darn uncomfortable being tipped that way, and she left me there for about an hour. It must have worked though, because I was feeling a lot of pressure (but no pain). After a while she came back, we did a few pushes without Dr. Davis, and suddenly the nurse said "I think I have to call the doctor - you're ready to have her!" Dr. Davis arrived she was born minutes later. I pushed a total of about 15 minutes, which is awesome - and yes, the drugs were amazing and I felt zero pain! Yay for modern medicine.
I stayed 2 nights in the hospital and we came home Saturday the 5th. Emery has been such a joy to us, even though she has her days & nights confused and she is keeping us up all night. We are incredibly exhausted but are hopeful that she will figure it out soon...in the meantime, we have to force ourselves to nap during the day (which I especially have a problem with - I feel like I should be doing something!). She had her first pediatrician appointment on Monday, and she has gained back the weight she lost in the hospital already...she is a hungry girl and nurses GREAT. The pediatrician was really impressed at her progress - she has some reflux issues, which also adds to our misery in the middle of the night, but that should fix itself as she continues to grow. Oh, and her belly button fell off today!
On a different note, Monday the 7th was our 1-year wedding anniversary. Needless to say, celebration was minimal, but having our daughter is the best gift we could ever ask for. Adam got me an incredibly sweet card and he cleaned my bathroom...how great is he? We also watched our wedding video with Emery sleeping in Adam's arms, so overall it was an anniversary to remember.
Overall, things are going really well - even though it's a lot harder than I anticipated. Adam is off from work for 2 weeks and I am so grateful for that. I don't know what I would do without him! In addition to helping with Emery as much as he possibly can (unfortunately he just can't help out with the constant feedings!), he has really taken responsibility for the house and laundry. If it weren't for him, there would be piles of clothes everywhere and the house would be a wreck. He's such a great husband and I can tell already that he is going to be a wonderful father.
Below are some pictures of Emery from the last couple of days. I'll keep everyone updated as we continue to learn about each other! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support over the last week - Adam & I appreciate it more than you will ever know.
Love to you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment