August 8, 2012, started out at 2:30 am when my alarm went off. The protocol for delivering at Columbus Regional is that they schedule you to be induced but you still have to call that morning to make sure you can come in... to make sure they have a bed for you. So, I got up at 2:30 in the morning and called the hospital. They gave me the go ahead so I got showered and ready. What a crazy feeling to KNOW that in the next 24 hours, this (the pregnancy) will all be over and that big belly will result in a HUMAN BEING. Nuts.
Mary got up and took our picture before we left the house at 3:30 am. I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 4 am to get checked in.
Here I am at 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant... at 3:30 in the morning. :)
We got to the hospital, got put into our room, and got the party started. The first nurse, the night shift nurse, Ashley, was super sweet. She had a bit of a hardened exterior but once I made a few inappropriate jokes and once she found out I was a nurse, she was fabulous. They got my IV started on one stick (HOLLA) and we were ready to roll. When she checked me to see what I was dilated (the MOST PAINFUL EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE), I was dilated 2 centimeters and the baby was extremely posterior. She almost couldn't feel the head bc it was so far forward. When she called the doctor, the doctor changed the plans and ordered for me to be given cytotec...which is a pill inserted near my cervix(also extremely painful due to the baby's positioning.) So, at 6:30 am, she inserted the pill and we got the ball rolling. We had to do frequent blood pressure checks because of my high blood pressure during pregnancy AND they had to do blood sugar checks every hour.
At 8 am, we got to meet our wonderful day shift nurse, Jamie. She really was amazing. (I told Ashley to make sure I wasn't stuck with some wiener of a nurse for day shift. She promised she had gotten me the best.) Jamie came and got to work. Her and I discussed the plan of care and she just asked me what I wanted to do. I told her my thoughts on everything as far the medicine they were giving me and blood sugars being every hour. Her and I developed our own plan of care. At 10:30 am, Jamie checked me to see how far I had progressed with the first pill of cytotec. I was 3 cm and the baby was no longer posterior. My contractions were only like a 2-3 pain level. They were coming every 5 minutes or so.
Updating family on the progress I had made :)
The baby's first bed :)
All of the small details...and my name plastered all over everything.
Feeling fabulous. I had already been up for 8 hours at this point :)
One last belly shot...
So after she checked me, Jamie called my doctor, Dr. McPherson, and gave her an update on how much I had progressed. She discussed our plan of care ideas to the doctor, and the doctor agreed. Blood sugars every 2 hours now and we were going to start IV pitocin to get the contractions more intense and closer together. Here we go!! This will gives us a baby MUCH sooner than the cytotec.
Great plan Doc!!!!
To pass the time, we looked up baby girl names on the internet (we did NOT have one picked out.) Alex tried to get Jamie a good car deal bc she didn't want to drive her gas guzzling car anymore. I also talked on Skype with plenty of peeps. I talked to Charlotte who was pretty confused as to why momma was in the computer now. I also talked to mom, Mary, Aunt Kathy, Grandma Ann, Katie, Melia, Aunt Michelle, and Kyla. Since the Olympics were on, we had that on in the background the entire time. And then we also broke out the Ipod with some fabulous college tunes.
Around noon, the pitocin was finally hung and going in. The nurse kept increasing it per protocol. My contractions were becoming closer together and slightly more painful but they were only a 4 maybe for pain level. The doctor had been at the office all morning and had to perform a Csection at noon. Finally at 2:00 pm, she came in to see me. She checked me and I was only 4 cm. So disappointing. But she went ahead and broke my water to get things going. Immediately after she broke my water, the contractions doubled in intensity. My pain went from a 3-4 to a 7-8 with the contractions. After only probably 5 contractions like this, Alex said I needed the epidural. Me, I was willing to wait a big longer but Jamie and Alex just said that if I am going to get it done anyway, why even deal with all of this pain. So, anesthesia was called.
Getting ready for the epidural... I look a bit more pained in this picture, right?
And this picture was during a good contraction. Why wouldn't you want to be married to this??
The anesthesiologist was very nice. Jamie said he was one of the best they have on staff (I'm sure they say that about all of them.) But he was cool. He was dancing to our music that we had playing. He got all set up and I informed him how scared I was of needles. Jamie informed him I was a nurse. Perfection. So, the worst part of all of it is the lidocaine they use to numb you for the epidural. HORRIBLE. Got that part over with. He inserts the catheter. Gets blood back in it (not supposed to have that happen). He repositions and gets a new catheter. Inserts it. Blood returned. He informed me that I am in the 2% of the population that blood vessel cross over their spine. Perfect. He informed me we would have to move up and stick again. I asked if that meant more lidocaine. He said yes. I said curse words. So, lidocaine again. Catheter inserted again. And, BOOM, it's all good. Naturally I was freaking out that he might have paralyzed me the entire time so I moved my toes the entire procedure. He was very nice though. Naturally during the whole process my heart rate and blood pressure went up. So as soon as the epidural was in place, to my left side I had to go... Right about that time, Aunt Bare came to hang out, help out, and be the photographer during delivery.
Once my blood pressure came down (probably 10 minutes later), Jamie put my catheter in and checked me. I was 6 cms!! Progressed 2 cms in 1 hour :) At this time it was about 3:30 pm.
Most of the pain was gone, so I decided it was time to play on the internet for awhile. This picture was taken at 3:40 pm.
Since I was starting to dilate quicker, the baby's tracing of it's heart rate kept getting messed up. If Jamie repositioned the monitor once, she did it 20 times. At 4:10 pm, the nurse checked me and I was 8 centimeters dilated. She was really wanting to have this baby on her shift so that she could take credit for it :)
So she had me sit straight up in bed to try to get the baby to move down much easier. She asked if I would be comfortable enough to do that. I was like, "Um, I can't move either one of my legs at this point and all I feel is a little bit of pelvic pain. Yes, I can do whatever it takes to get this baby out."
So I sat straight up. I tended to my mullet bc the ponytail just wasn't looking good. And then Alex and I took a few pictures.
I prefer this first one. No, that's not some creepy guy that drives a scary van with a ladder on back and minimal windows. It's just my husband.
One last picture before baby...
I then sat and talked to Aunt Kathy on Skype for a few minutes. As I was talking to her around 4:45 pm Jamie came in and said Dr. McPherson was sitting at the nurse's station watching my strip on the computer. She requested that even though Jamie had just checked me 30 minutes ago, she wanted me to be checked again. Soooo, she checked me again. I was dilated to 10 centimeters, 100% effaced, and +2 station. This is my reaction to the news that I was complete and it was time to push.
Yeah, I started bawling. I did the same thing with Charlotte. Kind of a scary moment. An amazing moment, but a scary one. The moment I had been waiting for for 9 months was upon us and for some reason, with both deliveries, when that moment came, I felt overwhelmingly unprepared. So, while I collected myself, my thoughts, and emotions, Jamie called the team into the room to set it up for delivery. She was running around like a mad woman! Alex and Mary got pumped up and we turned the music up! We had my jams blasting again!!!
This is me getting ready for my close up.
This picture was taken at 4:58 pm
Once the room was all set up for delivery, Jamie got me positioned...Alex on my right, Mary on my left. She had me push through one contraction. So, I pushed 10 seconds, took a breath, pushed 10 seconds, took a breath, and pushed 10 seconds. She told me to stop. She called Dr. McPherson in who was sitting at the desk. She came in, washed up, got suited up, and it was time to deliver our baby!!!!
So, deep breath and PUSH!! 1...2...3....4....5....6....7...8...9....10....BREATH...and PUSH....
1...2...3...4....5....6....7....8....9....10
The head is out. The cord was wrapped around the neck.
Daddy sees the baby's face for the first time...
5:11 pm - One tiny push....
IT'S A BOY!!!!!!
Touching my sweet little boy for the first time!
Such a perfect (no longer blue) face!!!
Took about 45 seconds, but once he started crying, he had a good strong cry!!
He's perfect.
Tears of joy. Relief. Love. Exhaustion.
Doing my own assessment while he was on my belly.
I did it :)
Time to get checked out by the nurse!
He weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs 12 oz and was 21 inches long!
He looks a little proud, doesn't he?
Already holding daddy's hand.
Measurements....shots... blood sugars... blood draws.... assessment...
Dr. McPherson with her newest delivery!
Our wonderful southern belle of a nurse, Jamie.
Check out his long fingernails!!!
He totally got the crying thing figured out right away.
Alex got to give Sawyer his first bath.
And then the nurse put Sawyer's footprints on his under shirt.
That is one proud daddy.
Little man LOVED getting his hair washed.... just like Charlotte did.
After about 30 minutes of off and on talking about it and watching him, we decided to name our baby boy Sawyer Weber Jackson.
His first mohawk.
He had hair just like Alex... but Mary didn't get Alex's hair in the picture :) (Nice try, Mare)
The entire delivery process was perfect. The nurses were awesome. They knew I was a nurse (I didn't wear a badge, sticker, or tattoo that said it, it just came up in conversation.) They respected my opinion and involved in my plan of care from start to finish. In fact, Sawyer's delivery/transition nurse was trying to talk to me about what was going to happen after he was born and my nurse cut her off and said, "She knows. That's her specialty. She's got it. She was a Level 2 nurse." So funny. I was so nervous to deliver at a hospital that I had never worked at and where I didn't know anyone. But it turned out to be amazing. I loved every person I came into contact with. It was fabulous just being another patient... not one of their own. I would not change a single thing about our delivery. Everything was perfect.
And now we have a brand new baby boy... Sawyer Weber Jackson.
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