Before I forget, I wanted to write down Gable's delivery story. Dr. Fogwell, the best doctor in the world, wanted me to induce at 39 weeks because he thought she was looking pretty big on the 37 week sonogram. I was very hesitant to induce before, what I believed to be "full term" (40 weeks on 1/11/11). Even though my doctor announced at the last appointment that he was going skiing until the 12th, after a lot of thought and consideration, I decided to see if we could wait for her to come on her own...besides, I had heard numerous stories of sonographers thinking the baby was 9+ lbs. only to find out the baby was only 6 lbs. when born...and I really wanted the best chance at a natural delivery (i.e. no c-section). At my 38 week appointment, I was 80% effaced and 1 centimeter dilated.
The next week, I went and saw Dr. Hunt, another doctor in the practice the Monday before my 39th week. He checked and said I hadn't made much progress (still 80% effaced and maybe 2 centimeters dilated). He also said that the baby hadn't completely dropped (can't remember what the technical term for this was) and I had probably made a good decision to wait it out.
The Sunday before my due date, my mother came into town. The weather wasn't looking too favorable so she thought she'd come in for a few days, just in case. Even though I was getting pretty exhausted, we kept busy...of course. She and I walked the mall several times, only stopping in a few stores to look at clothes I couldn't fit into.
I called the doctor at the end of 39 weeks and said I was ready to induce. However, because my doctor wasn't back until the 12th, we'd have to wait until then (and miss the 1/11/11 date I was hoping for). On the afternoon of the 11th, I went and saw the third doctor in the practice, Dr. Dulye. She checked and said I was still about 80% effaced and almost 3 centimeters dilated but recommended that I be admitted to the hospital for cervidil (which ripens your cervix). If you think I'm getting too graphic now, I was probably just stop reading (:
I got the call from the hospital saying that they had room for me and I was admitted right away. At this point, I started to get pretty nervous. I checked into my room and Roy left to go get my last meal (I couldn't eat after midnight) at Potbelly's (I craved their chicken salad the entire third trimester). I then called my friend Jen Pettit who had just had a baby earlier that day (Joshua was almost 10 lbs.!). I had visited her earlier that day so I called for a bit of comfort and reassurance. After eating, I urged Roy to go home and get the last night of solid rest before the BIG day. He hesitated but I insisted (although the nurses tried to talk him out of leaving). The nurses then gave me a sleeping pill (which didn't work).
Roy arrived early in the morning - he told me he hadn't slept either (which if I knew that was going to be the case, I would have asked him to stay). I got up to brush my teeth and comb my hair when the nurse came in and said that they were ready for my downstairs. The entire day felt so surreal. I got in the wheelchair (protocol) and was wheeled right down to the delivery room...it was about 7am.
When I arrived, it was better than I had imagined it. There was a bed in a pretty large room. Off to one side of the room was a sort of living room area. On the opposite side was a large counter top with numerous cabinets for surgical instruments (glad they hid them). In front of me was the newborn bassinet and heavy lights where they look over the baby after birth. Within an hour (around 8am) they had gone ahead and given me an epidural (with no medicine yet) and started me on pitocin (which starts the contractions).
After this, everything went pretty slow. My dad had made it in the night before so I did allow my parents in the room for awhile to hang out (I felt bad for them sitting in the waiting room, with nothing to do). Roy's sister and brother-in-law also came up to the hospital and in the room to hang out (they gave me beautiful roses, which brightened my day). Although we started the process around 8am, it was probably noon and I had only dilated a couple more centimeters. They decided to kick in the epidural medicine around then because the doctor decided to break my water (painful). Soon after that, something started to hurt...really bad. The epidural was only working on half of my body. I laid in bed and cried as the contractions started to get stronger and stronger. Roy held my hand as each contraction hit. I definitely felt the pain of natural labor (check that one off my list)...this probably went on for an hour (or so it felt like an hour if it wasn't that long).
We called the doctor in to re-administer the epidural again, which he did. Soon after that I felt better (not great but better). It was later in the afternoon and Dr. Fogwell thought that we'd have the baby by 6pm. I was getting very excited....
However, 6pm came and went...so did 7pm and 8pm... The nurse that had been taking care of me all day left at 7pm and was replaced by some junior nurse that I wasn't as excited about (or was that the pain?). I just wasn't as comfortable with her and got the impression she wasn't as seasoned at this...however, at 9pm, I was 10 centimeters dilated and ready to push.
I pushed and pushed and pushed (this is where I should probably leave out the gory details). Although Gable was head down, her head was tilted upward. I overheard the nurses telling each other that they were surprised the doctor was allowing me to push at all...but, I was determined. I pushed and pushed and pushed. I tried pushing with medicine in my epidural and then they turned off the medicine to see if the pain of child labor would help. I hadn't had anything to eat since the night before and only was allowed ice chips all day. I was exhausted and extremely thirsty. I begged the nurse for water and got mad at Roy when he got me new ice without letting me drink the melted water (I know, I was pretty pathetic). I pushed for 2 hours and finally the doctor said Gable's head was in the right position...and even though we could see her head, she still wasn't budging after more pushing. January 12th came and went and still no baby....they brought in another nurse to see if she could help me.
About 1am in the morning, and almost 4 hours of pushing, Dr. Fogwell said he would try using the forceps. He did say that he wasn't going to pull her out with the forceps but only guide her out if he could. He tried but nothing...he said that she was clearly not budging and any amount of pushing would not get her under my pelvic bone (this had also happened to my mom 35+ years ago). So, I was wheeled in for a c-section. They nurse later told me that she had never seen anyone try so hard to push out a baby...that made me feel a little more like I hadn't failed.
Once I got into the operating room, everything moved very fast. I felt pretty numb and very upset that I was having a c-section after 17+ hours of labor....but, we would soon meet our little girl and I was very excited about that. She arrived at exactly 1:53am in the morning. She was even bigger than we thought (8 lbs, 14 ozs) and really long (21.5 inches)...I guess Dr. Fogwell's 30+ years of experience overshadowed my 0 years of experience birthing babies and guestimating their size.
My parents and Roy's sister were in the waiting room. They all waited for her to arrive and then Roy's sister left (it was just too late to wait until they could see her). Once I arrived back into the recovery room, I was able to breastfeed - she immediately latched on (what a champ). After probably 30 minutes with her, they wheeled me upstairs to the room and took the baby for her bath/check-up, where my parents could see her.
I was in my room for awhile by myself but I was honestly so exhausted I didn't notice much. It was almost 5am before she arrived back in our room....so, we didn't sleep that "night", we just stared at her. It was so much fun and very surreal, our lives would never be the same again.
Welcome to the world, baby girl. You have certainly brightened our life.
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