Part Two: Tommy is here!
After a few more high blood pressure readings, everyone was ready to get this show on the road. Especially me! I had such an amazing team of nurses and doctors. I saw four different doctors throughout my stay, so I was really curious as to who would actually be delivering the baby.
I was very anxious to start the Pitocin. They wanted to try a couple more things before resorting to that though in addition to waiting until he was officially 37 weeks at midnight. We joked I would hold my breath and we would wait until 12:01 to finish pushing. That was a lof of wishful thinking on my part!
It was recommended that I receive the betamethasone shots before the baby was born. I'd never had the shot before, but those things hurt! I got two shots and they were not pleasant.
They also recommended Cytotec to help speed things up a bit. I hadn't planned on an epidural, but it was strongly recommended because of my blood pressure issues. Once they placed the Cytoec and it started to kick in, I asked for the epi. And I'm so glad I did. That was a new experience of pain.
On Sunday at 9pm I started the Cytotec. I responded to it very well and fairly quickly. After a few hours of monitoring, they finally started the Pitocin at 4am. We were originally told 1am, so we were all very anxious to get things going.
I spent the whole next day contracting. It was frustrating because I would have a good hour of contractions, but then they would fade. They slowly cranked up the Pitocin little by little.
Eventually I was dilated enough to break my water. My previous labors all progressed very quickly once my water broke. This time that was not the case. It was such a bummer.
I hadn't slept the night before (or really in weeks) so I was finally able to doze off here and there. Sometimes I was so delirious that I would start talking nonsense to Thomas. I remember at one point telling him he needed to remember mailing something? It was so bizarre but also hilarious!
I finally started dilating, but it was very slow moving. They also told me I was at a 6, which was promising, but another doctor told me I was at a 4.5. This was a hospital stay with a lot of disappointment, a lot of waiting, and a lot of wondering. But at least we knew at the end of it would be a sweet little miracle.
The rest of the day is honestly a blur. It was a lot of waiting and wondering. They couldn't check me as frequently once my waters were broken, so all I could do was guess and hope I was continuing to dilate.
After a few more hours things were starting to really hurt. Even with the epidural, I could feel so much. I had Pitocin and no epidural when I gave birth to Abbie, but this seemed so much worse.
I started to feel stronger contractions and the baby's heart didn't tolerate it very well. The peds nurse was in and out often flipping me around to make sure his heart was okay. They had me on my side with a peanut ball to help encourage dilation, but some of my positioning wasn't working well with his heart rate.
After checking me again, they concluded the baby was posterior, or sunny side up, so they needed him to flip around. On top of that, I was having some crazy pains on one side, my epidural knocked one of my legs completely out of commission, and they wanted me to get on all fours. Quite the task when you're numb all over and having very hard contractions.
The nurses and doctor even tried putting an ice pack on my belly to encourage him to flip over. I spent about 15 minutes on all fours while they encouraged him to move. I was surrounded by so many people that it was so comforting and so overwhelming. They had to continue monitoring his heart while I was in such an awkward position. It was a very hard moment, but the final moments were finally here with the best reward.
Once he had finally flipped over they rolled me back onto my back. My mom held my leg and I'm honestly not even sure where Thomas was, but I know he was there! I gave a practice push and he started crowning. I gave one huge push (and may or may not have had tunnel vision and started to black out a little bit) and he came flying out. We did it.
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