Today marks five weeks that our sweet girl has been alive here on earth. I figured what better way to celebrate than writing out her birth story which will take a few posts to get through.. Enjoy!
Thursday was the day before the ‘big day.’ I was headed out of my room in HRP and down to L&D to have Maizie. The IV Team came into my room in the early afternoon and got my IV started, I packed my final belongings into my bags, and waited until a room opened up. They told me the process was going to be long, but in the back of my mind I knew I had a spot in the OR for a C-section Friday at 3:30. The time finally came and I gave some of my nurses hugs, got in the wheel chair, and headed down.
The room was a lot bigger than I imagined, and seeing everything made me realize it was really happening. I took a video and looked at Jeremy, unsure of what was really about to happen the next 24(ish) hours. The nurse came in shortly and did one last ultrasound to confirm that Maizie was still head down before we began the process of softening my cervix, in the hopes it would kick start my body into labor. I got changed into a hospital gown, which I had stayed out of the last six weeks, and got into bed. It was shift change and my sweet night nurse came in and explained what was going to happen and the things she was going to have to do. First up, ‘checking’ to see if I was dilated at all. Y’all. No. Can we just pause and take a moment of silence for every woman that has ever been checked to see how dilated and effaced they were. I’m just going to put it out there that there has to be another way to do this. Anyways, she checked me and then got the cervadil started. It had to be in place for 12 hours and then once removed, I could start Pitocin. I was in a short window of still being able to have something to eat, and so after a long eight months of waiting, I ordered Jimmy Johns, cried because I had waited for so long for this glorious sandwich, and stuffed my face.
The night went pretty uneventful. It was hot as all get out, as I was used to a crisp 58 degrees in my room upstairs, and when the maintenance man came to check he said there was nothing he could do and I should just get used to the temperature. If anything I figured I’d lose more weight during birth from sweating for hours and hours before hand. Ha. My parents stayed at a hotel close to the hospital for the night in case my body kicked itself into high gear and they needed to rush right over. In between hour cat naps I suddenly found myself looking at a clock that read 6am and knew the nurse would be in to remove the cervadil and ‘check me’ again at any moment. Again, another moment of silence for the ‘checking’ process.
I then had about an hour to get up, get a shower, put some makeup on, and get back into bed. They started me on Pitocin at 7:10am (I kept a note on my phone to jot down a timeline of events) and then it was a waiting game. My parents arrived shortly after and settled in for the long haul. The Pitocin was slow and steady. Every 15 – 30 minutes they would up the amount they were giving me. By 10am I still hadn’t had any contractions. With Pitocin they could only give a certain amount per few minutes without consulting my doctor first. Once I hit the max number (20) and my body still wasn’t progressing, I knew we had a couple choices to choose between. I was inching closer and closer towards 3:30pm, the spot I knew I had in the operating room, or starting this whole process over again.
Around 2pm I broke down. I started crying and couldn’t stop. I was uncomfortable, I had been in the hospital for 43 days, my body wasn’t progressing like it should’ve been, I was convinced she was never coming out, and honestly y’all, I was tired. My nurse came in to see me crying and told me that she was going to call my doctor and tell her how I was doing. She shortly came back and said she had to ‘check me’ one last time to see if anything had changed and to call her back with the answer. Well, after 20 hours of trying, not to mention six and a half weeks of being bedridden making sure nothing progressed, my body was a trap door. Nothing. No effacing, no dilating. Nada. Talk about frustrating. My sweet Dr. showed up a few minutes later. She sat in the rocking chair at the foot of my bed and looked at Jeremy and I. She told us we had two choices. We could stop now and start this whole process over in a few hours, seeing if my body received it this time, or, we could choose a C-section as we still had a slot in the OR. I looked at her without hesitation and said ‘get her the heck out of me.’
What do you think?