I was due on August 6. That date came and went with no signs of labor. I tried everything in the book to induce labor. Went on long walks, had my feet rubbed (I knew that one wouldn't work, just thought it would feel good on a pregnant lady's feet) I even was so desperate I drank castor oil! My doctor told me that he wouldn't induce me until I was a week overdue. It was so frustrating not to have my baby, I tried not to think about it and just keep working up until he was born. My doctor said that he usually would induce women on a Tuesday or Wednesday. It just so happened that I would be 41 weeks pregnant that next Tuesday, August 13. I had a doctors appointment on the 8, well no luck. I hadn't had my baby. At that appointment the doctor said that he would call the hospital and set a time and the hospital would call me and let me know when to come in. Well, that weekend came and gone without hearing from the hospital. Frustrated, I called my doctor on Monday the 12 to find out what was going on. To my surprise, the office was closed! What? It wasn't even a holiday or anything! I was supposed to be induced tomorrow! What was I supposed to do. I tried to call the hospital and they hadn't heard from the doctor. I called Dr. Pead's on call nurse who finally called the doctor. Doctor Pead finally called me and told me we would do it on Wednesday the 14. Ugh, I was so frustrated. I was already almost 41 weeks and so ready to see my baby boy.
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| 41 weeks and 4 days pregnant |
Finally the 14 came. Spencer and I got up at 5:30 to be to the hospital at 7. I wanted to shower and put on some make up, knowing that we would take some videos. I was pretty nervous and excited at the same time. I had a piece of toast for breakfast and a little bit of water. I didn't want to eat too much because I wasn't supposed to. We grabbed our bags and left. The car ride to the hospital was a good one. Hubby and I talked about our life and our baby and how excited we were to be parents. We talked about what we thought he was going to look like and what his personality was going to be like. Spencer even played his song that he only listens to on very important days in his life. We got to the hospital. I hadn't been to the LDS hospital since being born there 21 years ago. I wasn't even sure where it was. We parked and walked in. My nerves were building more and more the further we got inside the building. We took and elevator to the 4th floor and walked up to the nurses desk. We checked in and they showed us to our room. They told me to get dressed in my gown and that my nurse would be in soon. I put on my gown and hopped into the bed. We needed to take advantage of this picture time together. It was only a couple months back that the tables were turned and Spencer was laying in a hospital bed.
The nurse came in and asked me a bunch of billing questions and questions about the care for the baby after he comes. That made me really excited!! The nurse started an IV in my arm, after she was done with the questions. It made me kind of dizzy for whatever reason. She got me a popsicle after the IV was in. That helped a lot. She said that the effects of the pitocin wouldn't happen immediately but slowly my contractions would get more frequent and strong. We took some videos while we were there.
Progress was very slow. Spencer got very impatient and bored. Neither one of us slept we were too excited. Waiting for the doctor to come break my water, it ended up breaking on its own. Such a weird feeling. Spencer helped me get up to go to the bathroom a couple of times. Never did I think I would need so much help doing such a simple thing. My contractions started to get more frequent and strong. I finally decided that I wanted my epidural. The doctor came in to give it to me. That made me way nervous. I heard that it really hurt a lot. The doctor told me that it isn't an exact science and that he just has to feel around to make sure the needle goes in the right place. Yikes! I sat on the bed and bent toward Spencer and tried to just relax. I am just not sure what he was doing back there, but boy did it hurt! I started to tear up but holding Spencer's hand and realizing that I was just that much closer to meeting my baby helped a lot. The epidural was finally complete. The doctor thought it seemed kind of funny going in. Great, just my luck. I was supposed to give my epidural 20-25 minutes to start working. Well, it didn't. It helped just a little bit but not near enough to help me feel better. The doctor came in once again to look at it. He injected some more medicine in my back to help the epidural medicine work quickly. The liquid that he injected just made me feel so sick. I could feel the result of that instantly.
The nurse who kept checking me thought that the baby may be looking up instead of looking down. His head was down but thought that he was just looking the wrong way. That made me nervous. I was tired of being in the hospital. I just wanted to have my baby. They inserted a cord of some sort between the uterus wall and the baby's head. It was telling how frequent and strong the contractions were.
The nurse who would come in my room to check my vitals told me that I was a little bit hot and that I was running the risk of a fever. Ugh. I felt as if nothing was going right. She left to call my doctor to find out what he wanted her to do. She came back later to start me on ampicillin, an antibiotic. They didn't want to run the risk of passing the fever on to the baby. They made me put on an oxygen mask to help control my breathing and to make sure I was getting enough oxygen throughout my body.
Finally, around 7 pm, it was time! Completely dilated and effaced. Time to start pushing. At that same time, Spencer's family arrived at the hospital and were able to come to our room to wish us luck! The nurse quickly coached me on what to do. This was it! My nerves were really kicking in. I was scared because I was still having problems with my epidural. The medicine was turned up and was pumping through my body. So, I started to push when the nurse told me to. I couldn't believe what was happening. It felt so weird. I was about to have a baby. Reality was finally setting in. I pushed for a half hour. I wasn't getting anywhere. The nurse decided to turn off the medicine in my epidural so that I could feel what I was doing. MISTAKE! The effects quickly wore off and I could feel everything! I was in so much pain. The nurse called the anesthesiologist in and he added medicine through the epidural. That helped a little bit, but not much. Back to pushing. Dr. Pead came in shortly after. He was rough. He was not kind and kept me pushing longer and without breaks. (Clearly he has never given birth) Dr. Pead thought that he needed to give me an episiotomy. No! I was completely normal, not numb at all. I knew that would have hurt. He stuck a needle in my flesh to numb the area before he cut. Ouch! I pushed even harder. By this time, I had tears running down my face. I didn't want to do this anymore. The baby's head came out and I tore naturally. Dr. Pead didn't cut me. Phewf. A couple more pushes and he was out. The doctor quickly cut the umbilical cord and rushed the baby off to get checked for a fever. I heard him cry. It gave me chills. The feeling was so unreal to finally see my baby for a glimpse before he was gone. Spencer was great through it all. He held my hand and told me how great I was doing. Couldn't have done it without him by my side. Crew didn't have a fever. He was just perfect. They brought him over to me and I just got to hold my baby and finally relax. No more pushing no more pain and best of all, I wasn't pregnant anymore. It is crazy that you can feel so much love toward someone you have just met. I was so excited to be a mom. Crew was born at 8:00pm and weighed 6 pounds 13 ounces. He was 21 inches long.
