We were scheduled for an induction on Wednesday. They told us to call in a 5:30 am to get an admission time. At 5:30, we woke up and called in. I had Peder do it because I was too nervous that they’d say we ‘d have to do it another day. They told him we should call in again at 9:30. Okay. So we get some more sleep, call in at 9:30, try back at 11:30. Grrr.
We decide to go get some breakfast at my favorite place, Bread & Chocolate. After breakfast, we hit Target to get a few more snacks for the hospital bag. As we were getting ready to call in, they call us. Try again at 1:30. They still think they can get us in today, but they just had 3 more women come in. Double grr. At least there is still hope, right?
At 1:30 Peder calls and they still can’t get us in and it doesn’t look good for today, but try back at 3:30. That is it. I completely break down. We were supposed to have our baby today. I am so huge and miserable and this is the day I was counting on. I head to the bedroom and just cry for almost an hour. But then I’m done. I have accepted it won’t be today.
I had Peder call in to ask how it works if we don’t get in today. Turns out we go to the bottom of the list for tomorrow. Oh my God! That is so unfair! I could not believe that we would be at the bottom of the list even though our induction was scheduled earlier! I was outraged. But again, I had accepted that baby will not be coming today. 3:30 goes by and we are told to try again at 5:30.
I called mom and she offered to take me out. We went to a second hand store and I found a few more cute gowns for baby. We had a dinner of wild rice soup at Panera and stopped in at Joanne fabrics just to look around. Then I started to feel a little strange. The weird twisting in my pelvis I felt the day before. So we headed home. It was 5:40 and I hadn’t heard from Peder yet so I gave him a call. He’d been sleeping. He called in. While I waited for him to call back, I said to mom “Watch, they’ll tell us to come in and I’m gonna have to freak out. Lo and behold, they said if we could get there by 7, they’d start the induction. Wow.
Mom got me home and I started to gather stuff for the hospital. Peder was making himself a dinner of Kraft alfredo. I was ready to go and worried that they’d turn us away if we were two minutes late. I offer to drive if Peder will just eat in the car on the way. If we don't make this, the word divorce runs through my mind.
As we drove over, I was nervous and excited. This was actually it. We were going to get to have this baby. Oh my God, we were actually going to have this baby! We were talking on the way over and Peder said “can I tell you something?” “Yes.” He had told me they said we wouldn’t likely get in when we called at 3:30, but the hadn’t said that. They still thought we’d get in. I laughed so hard. He knows me too well. This was one of those occasions where I can thank my husband for lying to me.
We made it to the hospital in record time. Every other time has taken us around 30 minutes, but today, for some reason, we made it in 15. Once we got into the parking lot and unloaded our massive amount of stuff, Peder mentioned that it was pretty obvious what we were there for. We tried to find admitting, but got a little lost and someone sent us directly up to the third floor Family Birth center. The reception people had us wait around the corner in PETU, but no one was there. I was still paranoid that they would send us home. Eventually someone asked if they could help us and took us over to the nurses station. Maybe they felt sorry for us, maybe we just got lucky, but we had the biggest labor & delivery room. They alternately referred to it as “the ballroom” and the “presidential suite” (Where the president would give birth I guess) It was huge. Easily as big as our foyer and living room put together.
They started by getting me into a gown and hooking me up to the dreaded monitor (I hate the gel on my itchy belly). They said I was having contractions, but I wasn’t feeling anything. I was warm though so they Peder turned the room temperature down. Everyone else would just have to freeze. Initially they started describing cerivdil and how that would work. I knew that meant not much would be happening tonight so I held off calling my mom to come in. But after they examined me and pronounced me 80% effaced and “a nice stretchy” 2cm dilated, they started talking about getting pitocin started. Yaaay!
They hooked me up to the pitocin. I’d never had an IV before and honestly it scared me. It felt really uncomfortable, but I wasn’t sure if there really was something wrong, or if it was just me being uncomfortable with the idea of a needle in my arm. They called in an IV specialist, who said it looked great, and they could try it on my other arm, but couldn’t make any promises. Since I was fairly confident that the problem was more in my head than anywhere else, I opted to leave it the way it was. They put a hot pack on it, and eventually I didn't notice it at all.
The pitocin and fluids were started. We called mom and told her to come in. I still wasn’t feeling the contractions. Jodi arrived, and we talked for a while, joked about the pain scale and played some cards. Peder couldn’t find the other deck of cards I packed, so we asked nurse Carrie if they might have some. While she was gone, Peder found the cards and we started playing threes. When Carrie came back, she said she couldn’t find any, and the other nurses had said “If she wants to play cards then she isn’t in labor” -Duh. That’s why we have the pitocin. whatever.
As time went on I started to feel contractions, but they were similar to what I’d felt over the last few weeks, some cramping, but nothing real strong. Mom arrived, Peder decided to get some sleep and then Jodi reminded me that I should probably try to sleep as the contractions were getting stronger and this might be my last chance. Everybody bunked down. Because we were in the huge room, there was enough space for Peder, Jodi and mom to all sack out on the benches. I asked for my ipod and began to listen to my reike music, which proved to be very soothing. I didn’t really sleep, but I did relax and rest.
The nursing shift changed and we had to say goodbye to nurse Carrie. I was disappointed. I really enjoyed talking with her, and her philosophies fit well with ours. Nurse Lisa came on. I did not like nurse Lisa. She did okay, but was really focused on herself and her predictions of how I would do. She pushed the epidural, like she was working on commission. I decided I’d like to go for a little walk. They got the telemetry unit hooked up and mom and I walked “ the circle” two times. I stopped a couple of times for contractions, but was still quite mobile.
Around 1 am they checked me and decided I was around 3-4cm dilated. Lisa offered to get the doctor to break my water. I asked what the negatives would be and she said pretty much none. I said let’s go for it. Peder was still sleeping, and mom was hanging out by the bed. The resident I had met earlier came in and tried to break it, but couldn’t. Lisa said she’d try to get the OB in because they are usually a bit more aggressive.
About 3am the OB came in and after a minute or so, whoosh! Then the contractions finally began to build. Peder woke up and we commenced breathing through the contractions. At first I opted for the birthing ball through a few contractions. I wanted to save the bath until things got really bad as nurse Carrie had suggested. Then I decided it was time, so I got in Peder sat beside me and helped me through. He was so encouraging. It helped me most when he reminded me that it would only be a minute. I just had to get through that minute. The contractions were just coming one on top of another with barely any time to rest in between the ever helpful nurse Lisa kept offering the damn epidural, while disguising it as a complement. “You won’t need one for your next baby you’ve gone much farther than I thought you would.” I was so determined not to let her be right, but then she chimed in with “it could be another ten hours” I could not do another ten hours of this. So eventually I gave in.
About 4:45 I said I wanted the epidural. My mom was about to go tell them, but Peder (bless him) stopped her. We had agreed that I could say whatever I wanted during a contraction, but no decisions would be made until I was in between contractions. Peder double checked to be sure I really wanted to go ahead. I did. Looking back we both cannot figure out why they didn’t check my progress before ordering the epi. Peder wishes he’d been more aggressive about having them check. While they were getting it in I had no idea how I was going to stay still through the procedure, but it went really quickly. They had me lay back and I realized that the epi was really only taking to my right side. They had me lay on my left side to see if that would help. It didn’t and I am actually glad. It just took the edge off and made the contractions so much more bearable.
They checked me: 8 cm! So freakin’ close! I know I could have made it if I’d known where I was. They called the anesthesiologist back and, like the IV lady, he offered to try again, but no guarantees. Again, I chose to continue the way it was.
Not too much later they checked again and I was ready to go! The resident had been getting ready to move on, but all of a sudden everyone was setting up the bed and getting gloves and masks on. They had me stay on my side to push for a while. They gave me instructions, which I had them repeat so I was sure my addled brain understood what was going to happen. They had us do a few practice pushes. And then we got going. With each contraction, they had me blow out, take a deep breath and push for a count of ten three times. I don’t know how many times I pushed, but I started at 5: 20, and she was out at 5:45. I really could not believe how easy it was. The called her mister at first. Then switched to op, nope, it’s a girl. :o)
They laid her on my chest and got all the stuff out, Peder cut the cord and then they whisked her away to get vitals. My mom stayed by my side while they worked on me to get the placenta out. I kept sneaking peeks over the doctor’s shoulder at my little girl.
I honestly couldn’t believe it was a girl. I had myself convinced it would be a boy. I must confess now, I hadn’t ever said it out loud to anyone, I was hoping for a girl first, but decided I needed to work to make peace with the idea of a boy.
After placenta was out they set about stitching me up. I had a second degree tear. The OB was talking the resident through it. Mom and I just chatted about how amazing it was.
Peder brought Aurelia over to me and I got to hold my little girl for the first time! She was amazingly beautiful and I just couldn’t believe that she was really that thing wiggling around inside of me just a few hours before. She was so big. She didn’t have that newborn look. Her eyes were wide open and she just kept sticking that adorable tongue out.
I was just full of adrenaline. I didn’t feel tired at all. The nurse helped me get started breast feeding. I was so grateful for the breast feeding class we took. It made me feel like I kinda knew what to do and look for. After a few hints from the nurse, she was well latched and sucking away!
Aurelia Ryan
Born 5:45 am, August 23rd, 2007
8 lbs. 15 oz.
Apgar was 8 & 9
