HE'S FINALLY HERE!

Saturday began as usual with a quick breakfast (cherry coffeecake and milk--I know my diet has a lot to be changed!) and heading to the hospital in a rush because we were late as always. Avery and Mom stayed at the house since we were just going in for a non-stress test, or so we thought. I got there about 8:15 a.m., got hooked up to the monitors and just waited and watched his heartrate for about an hour. The nurse periodically came in to check my blood pressure and his tape and then would leave. Come to find out, everytime I'd have a contraction, baby's heartrate would dip down. They told me that if he had so many dips then they'd automatically have to keep me on the monitor for another hour. What ended up happening was he was considered to be in distress, so they gave me some oxygen, admitted me, and then the show was on the road.

They had 2 people try 4 different times to get an IV in me, then started the Pitocin. Same as last time, his heartrate would dip with every contraction. I'd been in labor for about an hour when it dipped low enough that Dr. Minudri told them to take me off the drip to allow baby to stabilize his heartrate. At that point he gave us our options: he could break my water to hopefully start labor, start Pitocin again (which he didn't recommend since baby wasn't tolerating it well), or have a C-section, which could be an option for all choices if baby wasn't doing well. I immediately started crying because I really didn't want a C-section, but I wanted baby to be okay. We chose to have my water broken and wait to see what happened. Dr. Minudri was able to puncture part of the sac but baby's head was pushing close against it and he couldn't go completely through. I ended up starting labor contractions on my own, and was successfully breathing through them for several hours when they suddenly stopped. Nothing.

Dr. Minudri had been watching my stats from home, so when the nurse called him, he said they could try Pitocin again to kick start labor since baby was tolerating my contractions okay. I was about a 2 at 3 p.m., so they started the Pitocin at a very small dose and clicked it up every so often. I was starving since they hadn't let me eat anything all day being in labor and that coffeecake had worn off a long time ago. Thankfully, Becky (also another of Avery's nurses) let me have some apple juice and a Minute Maid frozen lemonade (I love her too!) The contractions were getting stronger and closer together but baby was still fine. Just when I didn't think I could take anymore, Brittanie checked me and I was about a 3.5, and said I could have an epidural if I wanted one--I told her to get that guy here as soon as he could!

The angel with the drugs came at about 9:00 p.m. He started to try to explain the procedure but I cut him off. He asked if I'd had one before, I said yes; he asked if I was allergic to any medicines, I said no; I signed the paper and he went to work. The contractions were so hard that my knees and legs were shaking and almost giving out on me. Scott, the drug angel, had some trouble getting the needle in: bumped into some cartilage and bone, and then barely hit a nerve that shot to my hip. I didn't care because sweet relief was on it's way. I finally was able to relax a little after the epidural kicked in, but I was so exhausted from the contractions and I was suddenly freezing and I couldn't control my teeth chattering. The nurses brought me some warm blankets, which helped me a little, and then that's when things started to get interesting.

Suddenly, baby's heartrate started going all over the place or get lost, so the nurses had me move to different positions to try and re-establish the heartrate. They had cranked up the Pitocin in the meantime, so I was having huge contractions but couldn't feel a thing. Brittanie checked me at about 11:00 p.m. and I was dilated about an 8 or 9. Baby's heartrate was dipping really low with every contraction, so much that they gave me oxygen to help him out. The other issue that was coming up was that my cervix hadn't fully pulled back on one side so it was preventing baby from moving down. Brittanie and Angie, our baby nurse, worked with every contraction to move it out of the way. Dr. Minudri showed up (poor guy--he'd obviously been asleep because his hair was sticking up in the back) just as my cervix had been moved, my epidural was starting to wear off, and baby was not doing very well.

They had me start pushing at about 11:30, oxygen mask and all, while lying on my right side since for some reason baby was tolerating that side better. It all came flooding back to me, except this time I actually knew how to push. Baby was slowly coming, but they had to use the vacuum to help him out since they said he had a big head (thanks Todd!) I pushed for about 10-15 minutes, and at 11:58 p.m. on Saturday, April 26th, 2008, our son was born.