Tuesday, December 6, 2011:
We are eagerly anticipating our 41 week appointment. We hope Dr. King has good news for us today. I was 1 cm dilated and 40% effaced last week. I had been having some good contractions over the past week, nothing to set off any alarms, but they were stronger and longer than they had been before, so I was feeling positive that we could expect some forward progress. I even had some good contractions before we met mi familia at El Jarro last night, so we took our bags with us (just in case). But Monday night came and went and I did not have another contraction. Booage.
So, as we listened to Dr. King tell us that I was 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced, I couldn’t help but be super disappointed. I mean, I “realized” that I have no control over anything at this point, but I just had a feeling (a hope really) that I was farther along. I had done my best to mentally prepare myself for the possibility that I would not be admitted to the hospital for my induction at any time before 4:00 pm tomorrow, but it was still hard to hear the news. We left the appointment, totally discouraged, but knowing deep down that we were one step closer to meeting our Chloe.
Andrew left the appointment and headed to work to grab what he needed for his paternity leave (thank you, Sinkin & Marvel). I went to lunch with my mom and brother and then home to rest. (At lunch, my mom told Chloe to make a move and apparently she was listening!) Andrew got home from the office a little before 5:00 pm. Things were uneventfully humming along until 5:30 when I had a debilitating contraction, longer than any I had felt before. Woah, I thought… sweet. This was followed by another contraction 21 minutes later lasting for 1m6s and another 21m later lasting for 2m2s; then things got exciting and painful: another contraction 6m14s later for 41s, another 14m6s later for 1m27s, another 10m43s later for 1m28s, another 8m30s later for 1m39s and another 7m27s later for 1m31s. For those of you who are keeping up, we are now at 7:00 pm on the dot. (Andrew felt it important to include these times. Hopefully all of you are taking notes for the "Chloe’s Birth Story" exam.)
Aaaand you may be wondering how in the world I know this annoyingly detailed information. Well, we found the most amazing iPhone app in the world for anxiety-ridden mothers: “Fullterm.” It is a contraction counter that allows you to be psychotically accurate. In fact, the hospital staff laughed out loud when we arrived that night and they asked how close my contractions were at that point. I pulled it out and boldly noted, “4 minutes and 23 seconds.” Whatever… no one is shocked. Let’s move on.
Over the next hour and a half, the contractions got more intense, more frequent and lasted longer. I feel like I skipped the whole 5-1-1 stage of labor. Andrew called the on-call doctor and explained my symptoms and she suggested we make our way to the hospital. This would have been an exciting moment in this journey but for the fact that I was in excruciating pain. We called our family and told them we were on our way to the hospital. The moment had finally arrived.
Once at the hospital, we were checked in and I did my best to answer questions while I felt like my insides were being ripped apart. We were assigned room #7- our newest lucky number! We got situated in the room, meaning we all moved in. And when I say “we,” clearly I mean the Murphy-Ross army brigade. [Enter: Mom, Dad, Sherri, Steven, Patrick, Andrea, Taylor, Alisha and Alan.] We ALL proceeded to pull an all-nighter in one L & D room sleeping on couches, in chairs, and of course, some not sleeping at all.
Anyway, I digress. Once the epidural was in, contractions were a piece of cake.
Literally, I cannot handle that women labor without that little piece of fabulousness. I’m sure it makes them more awesome than me, but I don’t want to be known as awesome for that pain. My uterus would be going crazy and I didn’t ever feel a thing. Oh, the wonders of medicine, until of course… it wore off. Ooooh yeah, we’ll get there…
But, the rest of the night was pretty uneventful in terms of pain. I proceeded to dilate slowly and was too anxious to sleep. Instead, my mom and I hung out and laughed while everyone slept but then said, “I didn’t sleep at all.” Yeah right… we totally watched you snore.
So… so far, the hospital staff was amazing, our families were beyond supportive and Andrew was my rock.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011: Happy Birthday, my Chloe.
There really was no delineation between yesterday and today because the entire night just blended together. Every time the nurse checked my cervix, I was dilating properly (about 1 cm per hour). While it felt like forever, when I wasn’t in pain, it was just slow. However, she did note multiple times that I had a ‘bag of steel’ and that water-breaking wasn’t going to happen until it was done so by the doctor. He wasn’t making rounds until around 8:30, but when he (Dr. Theis) did, my water broke and I was promised things would speed up. My hopes were high.
Contractions were still humming along, but Chloe’s head was not dropping as quickly as it should. Her heart rate was nearly a steady 120 bpm throughout the entire labor and she never showed any signs of distress, so Dr. Theis and the nurses decided I should continue to labor. With the help of the nurse I tried different positions with my body to aid Chloe’s entrance into this world, but the pressure was increasing and I could feel it, but so far the pain was not there.
And then it was. Within a span of seconds around 11:00, I became incredibly uncomfortable. The contractions felt as bad as they did when I was admitted to the hospital 14 hours earlier, except now they were only about a minute a part. Again, I would like to reiterate the necessity of an epidural. HOLY COW!! The button providing me with an extra dose of pain meds in my epidural, which was pressed only twice since getting to the hospital, was pressed twice in the last 20 minutes. Oh sure, the medicine would do a good job numbing my legs and feet, but it didn’t touch the pain. So now I had managed to make my entire lower body unusable, but the pain was increasing. Awesommmme. Yet we continue to try and get her stubborn little head into the birthing canal. No dice.
Dr. Theis checked me again around 1:00 pm and said nothing had changed in the last three hours. At that time, he felt there was a 50-50 chance of needing a C-section because he felt Chloe may be too big or my pelvis too small. This was the first time I even considered the possibility of having a C-section, and it scared me simply because it wasn’t in my subconscious plan…you know, the one I said I knew I shouldn’t have several posts ago. Well, apparently I still had one because I got insanely nervous and started to cry those tears of exhaustion. With Andrew completely focused on my health and well-being, I was free to consider Chloe. I certainly did not want her to go through the stress and trauma of several hours of pushing. Frankly, I did not want to go through that either with the thought that I would inevitably need a C-section.
At around 1:30, Dr. Theis came in and examined my cervix for what would be the last time. He said there was not a noticeable change and he was now 90-10 in favor of a C-section. Okay, done. Get her OUT. Andrew and I headed to the O.R. to meet our Chloe.
Okay, now long story short (FOR REAL). At 2:34 pm, I cried the happiest tears as I heard her sweet little cry.
Andrew and I have been on cloud nine since those moments and I am honestly already forgetting the long journey to seeing her perfect face for the first time. As she was being pulled out we heard, “oh my goodness, that’s a big head….woah, look at those shoulders. You’re gonna be glad we sectioned you!” She measured a prize-winning 9 pounds 5 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long.
Andrew brought her over to me and I gave my Chloe a kiss. I was amazed. I cannot believe Andrew and I created such a precious angel. I’m a lucky, lucky mom.
Anyway, the pictures speak for themselves. She’s a knock out and we know it… and aren’t at all biased ☺
But seriously, Andrew and I want to give a special thanks to our parents and family for staying with us and giving us strength and unconditional love. Thank you also to all our friends who were not physically with us but were supportive and concerned all the same. Finally, thank you to the amazing medical staff at North Central Baptist Hospital for taking such good care of Chloe and me.
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