We always knew I was going to have to be induced if I was able to make it full term and by the grace of God, I made it the full 37 weeks. To be honest everything about this pregnancy and what the future held for Beckett frightened me. With that, comes bringing him into this world. And I know that's what my body was made to do, but I am incredibly stubborn, and I wanted it to be done my way...which was certainly not through an induction.
Yet here we were, 37 weeks, getting the call to come into the hospital to start the process and finally meet this boy who has been prayed for for so long. I was excited, but again, so terrified. It wasn't natural, so why did it have to happen this way? (I knew it was for the health of our boy, but that didn't make it any easier).
When I delivered Lincoln, it was less than 5 hours from when my water broke at home at midnight, to him being born at 4:51am so I knew I could do it. I was just so scared to not progress and end up having a C-section to recover from on top of all the emotional side of everything we were about to be facing.
We arrived at the hospital and they got us to our room, I changed into the gown and socks, and my nurse started taking my vitals about 4pm on January 24th. The first step in the whole process was to see if Beckett could handle the contractions by doing a contraction stress test. It consisted of putting me on pitocin, waiting until I had 3 contractions within 10 minutes and making sure his heart rate stayed normal. Which it did. After passing the CST, the doctor came to check me to see how far along i was. This would determine what options we had for the induction. I was only 1 cm, and 25% effaced, so we had a long way to go. We could either stick with just the pitocin (used to dilate) which the doctor said could add another 12 hours to my labor, or they could put in a foley bulb to dilate me, and put cytotec at my cervix to help soften my cervix. Two birds, one stone. I definitely liked the sound of a shorter labor, so we went the foley bulb route.
They inserted the foley bulb, not a pleasant experience, and then we waited for it to do its work. This coincided with a four hour time period where I had to be off the pitocin because of the cytotec. During these 4 hours, I continued to contract and dilate further. The thing about the foley bulb, is it can only dilate you as big as the balloon they inserted, which is 4 cm. So after those four hours, they came back to check me and I was 4 cm dilated, so they took out the foley bulb and started the pitocin back up. By this time it was about 10pm and I was back on the pitocin, contracting away. The doctor came in about an hour later to check me and I was 5 cm which meant it was time to break my water.
Now here's the thing. Everytime the doctor would check to see how far along I was, I would shake uncontrollably from the pain for about 10 minutes after. I knew that in order to break my water, she was going to have to go in again and I was going to shake uncontrollably all over again. So I wanted to get the epidural first.
The anesthesiologist was down the hall and I was next in line to get mine done so we waited about 30 minutes for him to come in.
There was a knock on the door and it was my turn. He came in and got set up, and put it in my back. Easy enough. I laid back down to allow the medicine to do its job. But then something started to feel off. I got very tired and weak feeling. My nurse came rushing in because my blood pressure had dropped down to 80/40. Not good.
They had to call the anesthesiologist back in and he gave me a shot in my leg to try and bring my BP back up, which it did. But I didn't feel any better. They had to give that medicine time to work before the doctor was willing to come in and break my water.
My nurse came rushing back in again because my blood pressure dipped down again to 75/45. There was nothing else the anesthesiologist could do, so they had to turn off the epidural. I was not looking forward to that, but when they turned it off I felt so much better. And I would rather feel the contractions than what I was experiencing with the low blood pressure.
Once that all settled down, the doctor came in to break my water. By this time it was 1:45am. Thankfully the epidural hadn't worn off completely so I didn't shake uncontrollably after she broke it, but I definitely felt soaked. TMI? Sorry.
Now that my water was broken, I knew we only had 24 hours before the risk of infection would make me have to have a C-section, but I felt I had taken to the induction pretty well so far so I was hopeful we could finish this out strong.
By about 2:30 I started feeling a lot of pressure, which I knew meant we were close to pushing. The next time the doctor came in, she asked how I was doing and I told her I wasn't sure it was time to push but I definitely felt a lot of pressure. (I had an epidural with Lincoln so I didn't know what this was supposed to feel like). She said she was just going to check and see how I was doing and see if it was time. Well she checked and I was fully dilated. She had me do a practice push and said it was time, he was right there.
With Beckett having to go into the NICU, they had to call the NICU team to be in the room to evaluate him once he was here. That consisted of two nurses, a respiratory therapist, nurse practitioner, and neonatologist.
This hospital was also a teaching hospital, so in came all the residents. And my nurse. And my Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor, who thankfully was there to deliver me after spending this entire pregnancy monitoring me and Beckett. And Regan. It was a full house.
Once everyone was in the room and set up, we waited for the next contraction to start pushing. Well next came a contraction, so I pushed once, and out came Beckett at 3:25am.
He immediately cried and they put him on me. What an emotional journey. I could finally hold this boy who I was able to grow in my belly for a whole 37 weeks. There was so much anticipation for his arrival.
The NICU team took him to check him and make sure he was breathing, his color was good, and everything else they check to make sure he could come back to me versus having to go up to the NICU immediately.
After all the chaos of the actual delivery, everyone left and we were able to have one hour together. Then it was up to the NICU.
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