Labor and Delivery

I just walked past the pack and play where Grey is napping this morning and caught him grinning in his sleep... must be gassy but he's so darned cute!!!

A few people have asked about my labor, so I thought I'd write it down for posterity. Mike and I took notes during labor so that we'd remember it afterwards. Thank goodness, because it's all starting to blur. Feel free to skip this post if it's too much information!

We arrived at the hospital at 7pm after dinner at home and a quick trip to the photo store to pick up our last set of artsy pregnancy photos. We had called at 6 to get the go-ahead and they said to come on it. Well... by the time we arrived at the hospital they were in the middle of several emergencies and didn't have room or time for us yet. So we sat in a waiting room and made a few phone calls and waited for them to come get us.

Nurse Jodie came about 45 minutes later and got us. She settled us into Labor room #5, directly across from the nurses' station, we did some paperwork and she started me on the cervidil - basically a little strip of medicine that they put right up against your cervix. Dr. Lincourt came by and was happy to see me, she's the one that was patient with me and tried to be flexible with scheduling the induction. The cervidil was in place at about 9:45pm and we watched bad tv until midnight and then tried to sleep. Between asking for help to use the bathroom (because of the IV and fetal monitors), the uncomfortable bed, and the excitement, we didn't get much sleep. Poor Mike, all 6'3" of him was in a reclining chair by my bedside, tossing and turning and trying to get comfortable. He said he dreamed about finding a comfortable position, then would wake up sad that it was all a dream. There were a few more emergencies that night, and we heard a women in a room next door wailing and sounding really awful. I wondered if I would sound anything like that.

In the morning (Thursday, November 8th) we had a new nurse, Gig, and Kristin was helping her. Dr. Dukes came by at 9am to check me out. My cervix had softened but had not dilated anymore. He removed the cervidil and tried to break my water with the long scary knitting needle, but no luck. I was 1cm, 50% effaced. At 9:30 they started the pitocin by IV. They increased the dosage every half hour. I started having contractions and they got to be about 30-60 seconds, and 3-5 minutes apart. This is the point at which normal people would head to the hospital, but here we were 15 hours into our stay. No wonder we were bored in that little room.

Mikey went out to the car to get a snack and while he was gone my water broke and I started leaking. I called for the nurse and Dr. Dukes walked in at that moment. He examined me and said I was 1-2cm, 70% effaced. Progress! Mike missed it all and by the time he came back I was breathing through stronger and longer contractions and considering an epidural. We made a few little video clips along the way to document the experience, those should be fun to look back at someday.

At 3:15pm Gig came back after an absence to deal with another labor, and I told her it was time for the epidural. Amazingly, the anesthesiologist was there within 5-10 minutes, although it took a while to get set up and get me prepped and get the needle in and then get the drugs flowing. After that 20 minutes of activity, the contractions started easing and I got settled in bed again. At 4pm Kristin put in my catheter, such an intimate job to be a labor and delivery nurse!! Gig checked my cervix and said she still felt a membrane, which she ruptured and gush, my water REALLY broke! It made a giant mess and Gig and Kristin had to change my sheets while I lay there numb. I was 3cm, 100% effaced and had a little nap.

At 5pm, the contractions started getting worse and I was having breakthrough pain. At 6pm Dr. Dukes came again and pronounced me 6cm, 100% effaced, and 0 station (head even with the opening of the pelvis). I pushed my little button to get more epidural drugs, but the pains kept getting worse. Gig had me push the button again and again until we determined that the pump was not working! It took a little while to get an anesthesiologist back, and she disappeared for a half hour while I whimpered in pain. Another anesthesiologist came and still didn't fix the problem. At 7pm, nurse Jodie came back for her 2nd shift with us, and she saved the day! She pushed a manual override button on the pump and got me some more drugs, but they took a bit to kick in. Then the second anesthesiologist came back and gave me a different combo of drugs that made my arms and chest a little itchy and numb - but the pain got weaker!

Jodie told us she had a bad day and arranged for someone to cover her shift starting at 11pm, so she might be with us for the birth if the baby came by then. At 7:35 she pronounced me COMPLETE - 10cm, 100%! She said the baby would come soon and let us "labor down" for an hour - during which time we watched some tv and rested. At 8:30 she started me pushing, rotating from side to side and showing me the head in the mirror she set up. Mike was quite the trooper, holding my leg while I pushed and even watching the whole process. We didn't realize he's be so instrumental in helping hold my leg and that he wouldn't have much choice about being really involved. Jodie was amazed at the blond hair she saw on this baby's head as he moved down. There was something on the monitors that Jodie said would bother my doctors, so she had me on an oxygen mask to make sure baby was doing alright.

We pushed until 10:30 and nurse Pam came to replace Jodie. Dr. Dukes arrived and I was in a lot of pain. Jodie got me more drugs and let me rest for a half hour. At this point I was really tired and in pain and was secretly hoping for a c-section - thankfully I didn't say that out loud! I was just so done, I didn't think I could push my baby out.

But after the half hour rest, I was ready to go. Dr. Dukes and Nurse Pam and Mike coached me through the pushing. I swear, they had me convinced that every push was going to be the last one. We were making bets on whether the baby would be born on November 8th or 9th. I knew all of our friends and family were wondering about us by this point, but it sure wasn't a good time to make phone calls!

Finally, at 12:32am, November 9th, Greyson Patrick was born. It was the strangest sight to look down and see his little head sticking out of me for a minute until the rest of him was born. They put him on my chest and my first comments were about his pretty little lips. They took him to measure him across the room and Mike took pictures while I got stiched up. I asked if I tore, but Dr. Dukes said he gave me an episiotomy - much to my surprise! Mike saw it but realized I had no idea when it happened. In hindsight, it's better than a c-section but I'm still not thrilled.

Baby had to go to the nursery because they were a little worried about his breathing and they had to start testing his blood sugar. He spent a minute on my chest before he left, and Mike went with him. I think there were 3 babies born within 2 hours that night, and Mike said the nursery was FULL of little newborns. He was only gone about a half hour, while I drank my well-deserved glass of ice water and snacked on some yummy graham crackers and made my two mid-night phone calls to my mom and brother. Pam helped me get ready and wheeled me over to room 3115 in the Mother & Babies unit. We got settled in and enjoyed Grey's first sleepy day. He didn't take to the breastfeeing until we were almost ready to go home. New babies like to sleep, not eat. Things changed once we got home. Now he eats constantly and sleeps in strange spurts. I wish he were one of those every-three-hours feeders, but he likes to cluster feed and then sleep hard.

I'm so thankful for all of our doctors and nurses, and bummed that Jodie, Gig, and Kristin never got to meet little Grey. I'm hoping to write them a nice letter and send pictures so they can see what they helped me deliver.

OK, thanks for sticking with me, I'm sure in the future I'll appreciate having this record of Grey's birth. All in all, the labor itself was a pretty average 12-14 hours - we just did all of the work at the hospital.