Labor and Delivery

I said I would post about Ruston's birth, so if you're not interested in that, then feel free to not read this post.  A lot of this is somewhat detailed so I can remember later... so sorry if there's something that's too much information or anything... I'll try not to get TOO into detail. :)

Jason brought me to University Medical Center on Thursday to be admitted at 3pm as scheduled.  Shortly thereafter, Dr. Lanning came in to begin the process of inducing me.  Instead of getting the gel put on my cervix, they used a pill form... part of which was placed on my cervix by the doctor, and part of which I swallowed.  While doing this, the doctor looked at me and said "I don't think he's going to be 9 pounds."  I didn't mind hearing that because he's been delivering babies for at least 25 years, so he's pretty good at estimating things.  Anyway, they hooked up all the monitors to me (external fetal monitor, contraction monitor, IV, and a blood pressure cuff that automatically went off... the most annoying thing ever!!).  Contractions ensued shortly after this, but they were bearable and I could still talk and laugh through most of them.  Even the strongest ones were still very bearable, and things were looking good.  I was no longer allowed to eat solid foods, so it was a good thing we had stopped at McDonald's along the way!  Dinner was less than spectacular, including 2 popsicles, chicken broth, jello, cranberry juice, Powerade, and a Sprite... yay for liquid diets.  We sat extremely bored all afternoon and evening while my cervix was supposed to be thinning out and dilating.  

At midnight, the nurse came in and checked me, and let me know I was no longer allowed to have anything except ice chips... oh joy. I had thinned out some, and dilated a bit too (not much tho), and shortly after she checked me, I started having a lot more contractions that were closer together and more painful, but still bearable.  Jason had fallen asleep on the couch, so he missed all those contractions, but I showed him the paper from the monitor when he woke up, and he was impressed.  I think those were about a minute apart, and VERY consistent in strength and length.  That went on for about an hour, and then they backed off a bit.  At 3:00am, the nurse came back in, checked me (I was 2 cm), and started my pitocin drip.  She wanted to start it earlier, but she had another patient that she was trying to stabilize from going into preterm labor... that baby was eventually born the same day as Ruston, and she's alright (just 4 pounds tho).  Anyway, back to my story... the pitocin drip started, and I was no longer allowed to get out of the bed (precautions of the hospital, once you have a pit drip, no more walking around).  I was still pretty sure I didn't want to get an epidural because the thought of putting a needle in my back creeped me out.  I'm not afraid of needles, but it just doesn't seem natural to stick a needle in a person's spine or near it anyway.  Well, my thoughts about an epidural quickly changed when the first pit contraction came on.  Although it supposedly wasn't as intense as some of the earlier contractions I was having, it sure did hurt A LOT more.  These contractions put me in tears, and trying to visualize things and breathe just was NOT working.  Jason saw it immediately too, and said he felt really really bad for me knowing that there wasn't anything he could do to ease my pain.  I asked the nurse about the epidural, and she talked me in to trying for a bit longer without it.  Well, at 3:30, she came back in to increase the amount of pitocin in each drip, and I asked for the epidural again.  I figured if I was already in that much pain with the pit drip at 2.0, then I was really going to hate it when she increased it to 4.0... and I was right.  She said she'd call the anesthesiologist, and he'd be there as soon as possible, so I just had to wait it out until he got there.  All anesthesiologists that work at UMC are required to live within 20 minutes of the hospital, so I knew it wouldn't be much longer than 20 or 30 minutes.  

When Cory (the anesthesiologist) got there at about 4:15, he quickly ran through all the mumbo jumbo he had to tell me (risks, a quick rundown of the procedure, etc), and then got it going.  It wasn't nearly as creepy or bad as I thought it would be, although it was strange to feel the wire being put down my spinal column.  The needle stung a bit, but Cory said I had good spaces between my vertebrae, so it was pretty easy for him to get it placed properly.  He got the medicine in me, but my body had a quick bad reaction to it (which is common because the body sees it as a foreign thing so it wants to get rid of it) and it made me throw up.  All Cory had to do was put some other medicine (not sure what it was... can't remember really, he told me at the time though lol) in to counteract the epidural some so it wouldn't take effect so quickly, and then I was fine.  Yay for pain relief, and not feeling A THING for a long time.  By the time he was done and I was feeling better, it was 5:15.  THANK YOU CORY!  Oh yeah, and Jason watched the entire thing while talking to the nurse that was assisting Cory... they talked about football because she was searing a Florida sweatshirt... thanks honey! ;)

From that point on I was able to try to get some shut eye since the contractions had been keeping me awake all before that.  Of course, every time I would finally fall asleep, another nurse would come in and check something, so I didn't get very good sleep, and at 7am, Dr. Lanning came in to check me and break my water.  I was dilated to 3.5 cm, which is right where he wanted me; he said I had made his day (which didn't mean much since it was morning and he had just gotten to the hospital!).  My water being broke was odd... I couldn't feel anything due to the epidural, but I could feel the drainage (gross, I know).  Throughout the morning, I continued to dilate and drain, and the nurses checked me periodically as well... nothing very excited happened all morning Friday... checked emails, facebook, etc etc.  Oh yeah, I did have a few moments throughout the night and morning that I had an oxygen mask because Ruston's heartbeat would decrease a bit at times.  Once it would stabilize, they'd let me take the oxygen off, so it wasn't a huge deal.

At about 2:30pm, the nurse checked me once more, and I was dilated to 5 cm.  Jason and I both felt like this was taking forever, so Jason asked the nurse what time she thought we would have a baby in our arms.  After checking the time, she said she was pretty certain we'd have a baby by 5pm because the second 5 cm go way faster than the first.  I was secretly thinking she was crazy because there was no way the other 5 cm could go THAT fast, but I still entertained her statement.  Jason got pretty excited with that news.  By that time, my pit drip was increased to like 8.0 or something, although I didn't notice because I still couldn't feel anything.  The nurse checked me at 3:15pm, and I was at 6 cm, but Ruston was on the right side of my uterus instead of the left, so she had me lay on my left side for a bit to get him to flip over.  Well, after laying on my side for 15 minutes, Ruston moved to the left side, and I dilated from 6cm to 8cm.  My epidural was wearing off though, so those 15 minutes seemed long to me because I could feel the pain and pressure on my pelvis... and I also now knew what it felt like to feel like I "needed" to push.  The anesthesiologist came back in and boosted by epidural because my button wasn't boosting it enough, so then the pain went away again, but it was good to know what the feeling of needing to push was.  My pit drip was increased to a 14.0 sometime in there, although I didn't notice until I happened to look at the number... and knowing that my contractions were a minute apart again.  I went from 8cm to 9.75cm in about 45 minutes, and then a little bit later, they had me start pushing.  Well, I couldn't feel the muscles that I needed in order to push, so like I said before, having the feeling a bit earlier helped me to visualize pushing how I should.  After the first set of pushes, the nurse could already see Ruston's head.  Jason was impressed by this.  The nurse was pretty impressed with how well I was pushing, and she had to call Dr. Roundtree in quicker than she thought.

After only 12 minutes of pushing and an episiotomy, Ruston was born at 4:57pm.  The nurse was right... we had our baby before 5pm!!!  Jason did really well, and although he said he didn't want to watch Ruston be born, I couldn't help but notice that he looked over there a few times, and did watch him come out, although from a much cleaner angle than the doctor had. :)  Ruston tried to cry even before he was completely out, so we were pretty excited.  Once he was out, Jason started crying (which doesn't happen often), and he just looked at me and said "he's ours".  Nothing was better than that... nothing.