our last office appointment with dr. o'nan was thursday, august 4th at 9:30am. my first question to her was "are we still on for me being induced tonight?" she looked at my chart and explained that we'd have to be a little sneaky - see the hospital has this rule that you can't induce your patient more than a week before their due date. well i was already 10 days ahead of my due date at that point so i was a little worried that it wasnt going to happen. she advised me that we would need to get an ultrasound because of 'lack of fetal movement' - with that documented in my chart she had free reigns to induce me early. YIPPIE! so not only did i get to see my sweet little angel one more time before i had her, i was going to be having her soon, very soon!
after the ultrasound checked out good, dr. o'nan asked if i wanted her to strip my membranes - i've heard my friends talk about their membranes being stripped and how very, very uncomfortable it was. i was less than thrilled about it, but she said that it could possibly start my labor on its own and i wouldn't need to be induced. OH EM GEE!! it hurt sooooo bad! i almost had her stop before she was actually done with the procedure, it was horrible pain...those 30 seconds it took do it seemed like 30 minutes! she sent us home and told me to get as much rest as possible. said i would probably cramp and have some spotting but it was all normal - if my water broke i should report to labor and delivery but if not then to show up at L&D at 9:30pm to be induced.
we went home and i tried to sleep the day away but my mind was racing and i felt like i had so much to get done around the house because the next time we would be there we'd have our little bundle of joy with us and i wanted it to be perfect. i dont remember what time but sometime that afternoon i started having contractions - they weren't that strong but they were pretty consistent. i tried to remember my breathing techniques that i learned in our comfort measures childbirth class but all that went out the window when it came time to use it. my parents took us out to eat for my last meal and during dinner i was definitely having contractions - they were getting stronger and were roughly about 6 minutes apart. robbie and i both needed to take showers and finish packing our bags for the hosptial so we rushed home and before we knew it we were in the car driving to the hospital.
we pulled into the parking garage and lucked out, we got a parking spot right on the first level! we made our way to the second floor and checked in to the labor and delivery hall. we got settled into our room and met my nurses. they started my IV which i was terrified of - but it ended up not being so bad. they put all of the monitors on me, the baby monitor and the blood pressure cuff. my nurse taught me how to unhook and hook it all back up for when i needed to get up and go to the bathroom. then she started my pitocin. she told me that it was a very small amount that would jump start my labor but i should still be able to rest and be ready to go in the morning. well i guess where dr. o'nan had stripped my membranes and i was already contracting that "small amount" of pitocin was already causing me to be extremely uncomfortable. i tried to ignore it and rest but every time i moved the monitors would get messed up which would bring the nurses in to fix them. robbie on the other hand was sound asleep on his little uncomfortable, fold out chair. finally about 1:45am i needed to go to the restroom. i unhooked all my cords and wheeled them all into the bathroom. i had to wake up robbie to help me get them all hooked back up so i could get back in bed, as i rolled into a comfortable position my water broke! somehow between the time of getting me back on the monitor and me finding a comfortable position robbie had dozed back off to sleep. i had to wake him up and tell him about my water breaking and asked him to call in my nurse. i dont think he believed that my water had actually broken - he was hesitant to call the nurse but i insisted that i didnt just pee all over myself. the nurse came in and used her little test strip to make sure it was amniotic fluid and not just urine - as i rolled onto my back for her to test the rest of it came gushing out! she said "yep! your water defintely broke" i started to get really nervous now.
my friend had just had a baby boy six weeks prior and she gave me the advise that when my water broke to go on and ask for my epidural. well i didn't listen to her. i tried to wait as long as possible before asking for the epidural because i was TERRIFIED of getting it. my nurse just gave me some pain meds through my IV and told me it should be enough to take the edge off of my contractions but...she lied! my contractions were already so strong and i was kicking myself for not taking kate's advise. i immediately woke robbie up for the third time to get him to get my nurse -- i was ready for my epidural. he tried to be so kind and supportive in my time of pain by rubbing my shoulders and back but i didnt want anyone touching me and i shewed him away - i was clinched to the handle of the bed holding on for dear life, i was in some major pain. at 3:30am robbie was never more happy to see the anesthesiologist. once i got drugged up i was golden! i was finally able to get some rest, something that hadn't happened since i showed up at 9:30. but i was up and at 'em by 8am the next morning when proud gran and pawpaw decided to show up.
i dont remember being in any pain when i woke up the next morning but i do remember feeling like i had to poop. if i said it once i said it a thousand times "i need to poop...i'm about to poop all over myself...i NEED to poop!" i called the nurse in i dont know how many times to tell her, i need to poo! she kept telling me its just her head putting pressure down there, you dont really have to go. she was also telling me that if i tried to go that it could cause some damage so i just dealt with the poo pains and made it clear to everyone around me that i really felt like i need to go poo!
around 10:30ish my epidural machine was beeping saying it was out of medicine - i immediately freaked out and said i could NOT go through this delivery without an epidural, my nurse quickly calmed me down and said everything would be fine, the anesthesiologist would be in to re-fill it and it would be back in business before i even knew it. when the anesthesiologist came in he asked how i was feeling, i too told him that i was really feeling the urge to go number two so he increased the amount of my epidural and said that it should help ease the pain. well not even 5 minutes after he did that my nurse checked me and i was fully dialated and ready to push, she could already see Aniston's head!! i felt like if she had checked me a little more often during all my "i have poop calls" i could have had her sooner...but she didnt.
we kicked everyone out of the room and they put me in the stirrups - i was about to have my baby!!! the nurses had already been telling me that since this was my first child i could possibly push for hours and not to expect a very fast delivery. well my nurse had me start pushing before dr. o'nan got there and she immediately had me stop pushing - which by the way is not a very easy task! when you feel the urge to push and they tell you not to, its very difficult. dr. o'nan finally showed up and literally no more than 5 pushes later Aniston was born at 10:55am weighing 7 pounds, 13 ounces and was 20 inches long. HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE. PERIOD!
they put her on my chest and i just started crying, it was love at first sight. she was perfect.
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