The day before she was born:
I was due to have Alaina on October 21st. I had an appointment that morning that I made Gary go to so he could help decided an induction date. Dr. Crawford checked to see how I was progressing and stripped my membranes. She then said "well, I'm willing to bet you'll go into labor tonight or tomorrow" at which point we didn't set up an induction date which was disappointing to all of us!
By Friday the 25th I was still very pregnant and had no signs of labor. Gary and I went in again, this time positive we would be induced soon after the appointment. We packed our bags, cleaned the house and took Ellie to Grandpa's. I saw Dr. Eun this time and she wanted us to have the baby naturally. At this point Gary and I were more than ready to have this baby and told her we wanted the next available spot to be induced. She was a little surprised, as if being 40 and a half weeks pregnant was too soon to be induced. After some convincing she called the hospital and came back into the room to inform us she set up the next available opening which was at 8:30 pm that night. I was so mad! I went in at night with Ellie and we were up all night. I hated how tired we were when we had her so I wasn't too excited to be starting off the same way again. To top it off, the on call doctor wasn't my favorite and I was convinced she'd somehow mess everything up.
We picked up Ellie and had a special day with her. We walked the full mile around Colorado Mills and even let her go on the carousel ride! We even got treats at DQ. We went home and napped and headed over to Gary's parents to attend their trunk or treat with Ellie. She won a goldfish and got lots of candy! At 8:00 we put her to bed at Grandma's and headed to the hospital.
My nurse was Sarah T. She got me all hocked up to the monitors and asked me all sorts of questions to input into the computer. After we were all set up, Dr. Cowles came in and asked me why I was being induced. That was such an awkward moment for me! After Dr. Eun tried holding us off because she doesn't prefer inducing I thought Dr. Cowles was there to convince me again that I shouldn't be induced but at this point I was already admitted and attached to monitors. So I said "I'm 5 days past my due date. I was induced at 40,5 weeks with my first and it went well. I don't have confidence my body will go into labor on it's own so we asked to be induced today". Dr. Cowles basically just said sounds good, I'm going to bed and I'll see you when you're ready.
Later Sarah explained that the hospital doesn't admit people to be induced with pitocin at night because you're guaranteed to have a baby in the middle of the night. She said they usually admit people who take longer to be induced at night, give them some sort of pill to soften the cervix and they can sleep and get the pitocin in the morning. Well apparently I was past this point and was ready for the pitocin. With my last delivery going so quickly they knew I'd have a baby in the middle of the night and that's why they thought it was weird I was there so late at night. I was like "Hello! YES! Why the heck am I here right now? I would have preferred to come in the morning too!" at which point Sarah asked if I wanted to go home and come back in the morning. While it was tempting, I was already on the monitors and had IV. I'd rather be up all night than receive an IV again!
Anyway, here is the birth story:
Gary and I napped for a while and by 1:00 I woke up to major cramps. By 1:30 they were bad enough I had to try to not wake up Gary. Finally around 2:00 I was saying "OW" so loud that Gary woke up. I talked to him about whether or not it was too early to get an Epidural. We called the nurse in to see what she though. She said when she had her baby she just went for it. She said you can't really get it too early. As she was explaining her reasoning I was in enough pain I wasn't paying attention to her. When she was done talking I smiled and said "ok well you've convinced me. I'm ready for an epidural but I'm not in a super hurry. No one needs to run". Within minutes the on call anesthesiologist was in my room. She was cute. She had on her sweats and her hair was evidence that we woke her up. She must have been mad at me or just groggy because it was the worst experience of my life! First of all, I apparently don't take well to Novocaine. I didn't realize it's the same stuff the dentist uses and it might be worth mentioning I usually have to have 2-3 times the dose to numb my mouth. I totally felt the needle hitting and grinding on my bones. Can I just say, worst pain in the world?! Seriously. So as if that wasn't bad enough, it happened 4 times because apparently my vertebrae are too close together.. It was miserable. My wonderful nurse was hugging me and holding me up the whole time. That's why she's currently my hero. Her and Gary were really awesome and encouraging. The epidural finally worked. Since Ellie crowned a few inches in my sleep, they didn't give me a very high dosage of the epidural. For obvious reasons they wanted me to still feel a little.I could still feel pain but my contractions didn't hurt anymore. I could totally feel Sarah trying to insert my catheter which didn't work for whatever reason. Within minutes I was telling her I felt like I needed to push or pee or something. It felt really weird. She checked and said "your dilated to a 7" which was good news. A few minutes latter my water broke. She checked to confirm and I again told her I felt like I needed to push. She called in the doctor and calmly got the room set up for delivery. Nurses came in and Dr.Cowles arrived. They were all so calm, it was lovely compared to the frantic panic of Ellie practically being born while the doctor made her way down. Dr. Cowles told me I have great timing. Apparently she wakes up at 4:00 anyway.
Once everything was set up they told me I can push. I didn't really have to push with Ellie so they had to explain that I had to hold my legs and pull while pushing. UGH! That was hard work. After the contraction was over I had to stop pushing for a minute but since I could feel the head (which was painful) I was anxious to push the baby out and be done! It wasn't long, though it felt like it was, before I could push again. I could see what was going on through the doctor's glasses. That was kind of neat since I was feeling the pain. It was a nice distraction. As I was complaining about how hard pushing is, Dr. Cowles, Sarah and Gary were all making fun of me. Two pushes and Alaina was born. I do realize I'm extremely blessed to have easy pregnancies and extremely easy deliveries! I don't know how women push for hours. That is just nuts.
Anyway, Alaina was born at 4:17 am. She weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 19.25 inches long. She didn't cry a lot so they took her off me and took her over to the heating table to suck more gunk out of her nose and mouth. Once she cried more, I got to nurse her. After about half an hour they bathed her, did her foot prints.Once we were all cleaned up we got to head up to the recovery floor and sleep! Alaina didn't hardly cry. She was so easy going. Later that night she spit up blood and milk a few times at which point the nurse told us we had to go get her stomach pumped and rinsed out. Apparently Alaina swallowed a lot of my blood as she was born and that obviously isn't good for her which is why they pump and clean it out. I was thinking it would be horrible but it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Once her stomach was pumped she was rightfully hungry so I had to feed her a lot that night.
Alaina passed her hearing test the next morning and also got her Hepatitis vaccine. Once the nurse went over all the info on how to take care of myself and the baby, we were discharged.
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