I had my follow up doctors appointment at 1:00 Monday to go over my high blood pressure and to discuss a possible induction. I still felt completely fine and didn't think Erin was going to make her appearance on her own for a while. My blood pressure was normal and my protein came back ok. My doctor thought that it was a good idea to go ahead and induce since she really didn't see a benefit of keeping me pregnant any longer, since I technically had gestational hypertension. To my surprise she said she was scheduling me to be induced that night! Luckily the doctor who delivered Evan was on call the next day and I was happy to have someone I know and like there to deliver her. She wanted us to go home, get things ready and come back at midnight to have my baby! I was surprised, nervous but above all excited.
She first sent me to ultrasound to check on the baby. I told her she was moving a lot less in the last few days and that concerned me. I think she was just running out of room though. After a few quick measurements by the ultrasound tech she informed me that Erin was about 9 pounds. NINE POUNDS! She said that reading could be plus or minus a pound. I was really hoping for a minus on that one.
So after ultrasound Todd and I went to lunch so we could relax and talk about all the stuff we needed to do. In all actuality we were pretty prepared and the list wasn't that long. We had time to take Evan to my moms and get him settled which I was so grateful for. This entire pregnancy that has been the one thing I have worried most about.
After taking Evan to my moms we went home and both tried to get some sleep. I knew I would have a long night ahead of me. Of course I was unable to sleep, my brain would not turn off.
I was advised to start calling the hospital at 10pm to make sure they would have a bed available for me. My doctor said July has been super crazy for babies and that's why the midnight check in, to make sure I would get a bed. Well they were full at 10 and advised me to call back at midnight. At midnight they were still full. They told me they would call me back as soon as a bed opened up. So needless to say the next few hours I was very anxious.
Tuesday July 19, 2011
I tried to sleep and managed to get a couple hours before they called back at 5am to tell me at 5:30am my bed would be ready. We hopped in the car and were on our way. At about 5:35am we arrived and went to registration. I was taken to my L&D room right away. We got settled and we met our nurses for the delivery - Gretchen and Kirstin, who as it would turn out were so awesome!
They got my iv started and checked my progress, I was still about 3cm dilated. Then at 6:30am they started the Pitocin. About 45 minutes later I started to feel contractions. Pretty painless though.
At 7:45am I got my epidural. It was a little different this time. They had me sitting up this time and I felt some pain when he was putting it in. As soon as the epidural was in my doctor came in and broke my water. I didn't feel anything and didn't even know it was done until she told me.
At this point all we had to do was wait for the medicine to work. They were going to check my progress again in two hours.
At 10am they checked me again and I was at 4cm. They said it would be another 2 hours before they checked again.
At about 10:45am my doctor came back in and hooked me up to a new monitor to read how strong the contractions were. She mentioned the baby was still at -2 (not dropped at all) and my nurses would be switching my position often to get my "fat baby" she called her, to drop.
At about noon the serious contractions began to kick in. I was feeling intense pressure and knew it couldn't be long. When they checked me at about 12:45 I was fully dilated but the baby still had not dropped. They decided to set me up and let gravity work on her, they said this was so I could do less pushing. (fine by me!) I was feeling a lot of painful contractions at this point, about every 2 minutes. I set up for about 45 minutes until the pain became too intense and I felt like I was ready to push.
My doctor arrived at 1:50pm and I began to push. And at 2:10pm my little beauty Erin Sophia was born.
As she was put on my chest I immediately noticed her color. She was really purple. And she wasn't crying. Her eyes were open and she appeared to be breathing so I asked "is she ok, should she be that color, why isn't she crying!" no one really said a whole lot they were just patting Erin clean and about 15 seconds later she began to cry. A wonderful sound!!! And she started to get a little pink so all was well. A pretty scary 30 seconds though. The nurses would tell me later that Erin had the cord wrapped around her neck. Yikes! I guess that would be something they wouldn't mention considering I would have freaked out.
We were all anxiously waiting for her to be weighed and she wasn't quite the bohemeth everyone was expected. 8 pounds 2 ounces.
And she was 20 inches long. And pure pure perfection if you ask me.
