I hardly got any sleep the night before, of course. I was up at 4am waiting to call the hospital at 6 to see if they were going to be able to admit me. Luckily they told us to come in. We got there around 8:30am on May 26th. They checked me right in to my labor and delivery room. It was super nice! I got hooked up on all the monitors and waited to be checked by my nurse. I wasn't dilated at all and I was 30% effaced. She called my dr. and she came to check me also, with about the same results (except that she hurt me a HELL of alot more!). She ordered cervadil to help ripen my cervix. That was put in around 10am and has to stay in for 12 hours, so we knew we weren't having a baby that day. She said after it was taken out they would let me eat and get some rest and we would start things back up the next morning. I was bummed. Luckily I had a GREAT nurse. At the hospital the same nurse stays with you for her entire shift, so I was glad I would be able to request the same nurse for my next day. Her name was Karen and we loved her!
We mostly just hung out all day. Calvin, my mom, Joanna, Marcus and Calvin's cousin Cheryl were all there to help pass the time. They all left in the late afternoon and Calvin and I just watched TV and hung out. I started having contractions that afternoon, but nothing super painful. They took out the cervadil around 9 and I got to eat finally (after having nothing but ice chips since about 10pm the night before. After that they gave me an awesome sleeping pill and I slept ALL night!
The next morning they woke me up around 6 to take a shower and then the night nurse wanted to monitor me for a little bit before nurse Karen came back on duty at 7. As soon as Karen got there they started me on pitocin, which would start my contractions up stronger. The dr. came in around 9 to check me and I was dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced. My pitocin got upped every 15 minutes. All my visitors returned later that morning and we waited. The dr. did tell me that morning that she wasn't sure the baby would ever be able to decend into my pelvis because she thought it was too small, but we were going to try. It was another boring day for the most part, just waiting and more waiting. My contractions started to get stronger and around 4 I asked if I could have some pain medicine for it. My dr. came in to check me and I was only dilated to a 3. She broke my water and told me I should just get the epidural instead. They called in the anesthesiologist after that and he came within a few minutes. I was not expecting it to be painful, but it was. I am not sure if it was because I had to stay bent over and still during contractions or that it was the actual procedure that hurt (I think it was a combo of both), but it was no fun! It didn't take too long for it to kick in and probably within 20 minutes I couldn't feel much. At that point I got a catheter too. around 5:30 Bella's heartrate started dropping some. We tried all different positions trying to get her moved off of her cord, but not much was helping. The nurse checked me and I hadn't progressed any further. She called in my dr. My dr. didn't check me again and said that with the decelerations and me not progressing it was time to head for the OR. After that everything started moving fast. Karen was so great and telling me everything that would happen and helping to ease my mind.
They wheeled me off to the OR around 7:10 and started getting me prepped. The anesthesiologist bumped up my epidural and made sure I was totally numb from the ribs down. I was so glad they didn't tie my arms down, because I have heard they do that often. They put up a curtain, but I could still see my docs, but just couldn't see my belly. When they brought Calvin in I asked if they had started and he said yes, I was cut open and they were busy working. I couldn't feel anything at all. They told me I would feel pulling and pressure, but I felt nothing. Finally, she was here. When they held her up Calvin and I immediately started crying and so did she! They had a NICU dr. in there because they wanted her to be checked because of the decelerations, so he immediately checked her and she was perfect. They brought her to me while I was still being operated on and let me hold her as long as I wanted. When I was finished Calvin got to wheel her down the hall to meet everyone and take her to the nursery. After they were done they took me to recovery and I stayed there about an hour. They told me Bella would be in the nursery for about 3 hours but not too long after I got in my room they brought her in. I kept her in the room with me all night and loved every minute of it!
During my surgery my dr. put in a drain tube to help drain any fluid out of my uterus and keep down the risk of infection. They also changed out the meds on my epidural and gave me a "walking" epidural which would allow me to be able to move my legs and walk, but not feel any pain. Nice!! The next morning they came in and took out the catheter and a couple hours after that I got up to walk. I was so worried about having a c-section because of the pain afterwards, but honestly, it was nothing. When I would first get out of the bed the first 2 mornings, I was stiff and sore, but once I got moving, I was fine. I had to end up staying 4 nights in the hospital because of a screw-up one of the nurses did, but overall I really did like the hospital. Everyone was so nice and took such great care of us.
Everything I went through in this pregnancy was SO worth it! In the end, look what we got to bring home with us!
