At 8:40 we checked in on the 3rd floor and we signed our life away. Tons of paperwork as we were admitted. All James wanted was a bracelet. He didn't get one. ;)
At 9:15 we entered into room P302, our labor and delivery "hotel suite" with Nurse Julia. The labor and delivery room was huge and very nice. Everyone at the hospital was so nice - we did not encounter one rude or unwelcoming person. It was lovely! From here they just did some general work up stuff and started the IV.
Around 10:40 I started the Pitocin along with IV fluids. I was 3cm at this point. Not a whole lot of progress! James and I just waited, talked and passed the time.
At 11:45 James ate spicy chicken sandwich from Chik-fil-a. (Oh, and a cookie.) He said it was delicious! He didn't bring it up to the room, though, because I was starting to get HUNGRY!!
Sometime after this Merilee, the midwife from the OBGyn broke the water and I was 5cm. This was a very strange sensation. Apparently, all during this I was having contractions and wasn't feeling them. Who knew?!
Around 2:45, I had been feeling the contractions for awhile and they got decidedly tougher to breathe through. It was time for the epidural given by Dr. Fishman. Apparently he was very generous with his amounts. The nurse even commented on it when I told her that I could not move my left leg AT ALL. I had no control over it and it was so weird. I was also super, super itchy. I felt like I broke out in a huge rash. They assured me that it was normal. It did go away shortly after the initial epidural was given.
At 3:00 I received ephedrine because Jack’s heart rate was low which is common when given an epidural. :( Otherwise they said that he looked perfect.
At 7:15 our new nurse, CiCi, came in. She was hilarious and would announce her arrival every time she came into the room. "It's Cici!". :)
At 8:15 I was 10cm dilated, at the zero station and 100% effaced. I pushed for a few times but nothing was happening. I think Merilee had Dr. McClendan come in and check me out. He was another doctor on call from the OBGyn. He thought we might have to have a c-section but James and I talked and I wanted to keep pushing and wait and see if Jack descended at all.
All of the sudden, at 8:25 I was super nauseous, I received Zophran. It totally helped and I felt back to normal. We waited another hour or so in a sitting up position, to see if Jack came down at all. I pushed for about an hour and half leading up to around 11:15. Then the hard part came. We had to really decide if we wanted to do a c-section or not. I just had a feeling that nothing was going to happen if I kept on pushing, we had no additional progress. I took one look at James and broke down into tears. C-section was not a part of the plan! I really wanted to have a regular birth. I knew the end result was the same - we would get to have Jack - but that didn't make it any easier. I tried to pull myself together as tons of people flooded the room to get me ready.
Everyone was so great and so kind. We were ready in a matter of minutes and wheeling into an OR. I had a hard time keeping the tears and emotions in check. I was shaking uncontrollably from the anesthesia. After they got me all ready, they let James into the OR, thank goodness. He just said all the right things to calm me down.
At 11:35 Jack was born!! Hearing his cries was the best sound in the world!! I was so nauseous from the medicine, though, that I couldn't focus on anything. All of the people in the room congratulated us a million times - it was as if they had never seen a baby before! They were all so wonderful. The anaesthesiologist was SO, SO nice. He made tons of nice comments and just kept talking to me.
We were wheeled back into labor and delivery, where I have no idea what happened and then they took us upstairs to the mother and baby floor.
Phew. There you have it! Jack has entered the world!! The feelings were so overwhelming and wonderful. Although things didn't go as planned, we ended up with our wonderful bundle of joy.
