Lee Ann March 28th, 2016
I went in to see my doctor for my very last appointment. I was already upset because she didn’t induce me at 39 weeks when she told me she was going to. Finally, at this appointment she told me that I was to be induced on Wednesday, March 30th – my due date. FINALLY! The end was in sight! We took care of telling our employers and called my parents. They were coming to watch Leilani while we would be in the hospital. We didn’t tell anyone else because we didn’t know how long this would take and didn’t want people waiting for us. And thankfully we didn’t.
March 30th, 2016
4:50 a.m. – I am woken up by my phone ringing. It’s the hospital calling. Lisa (I’ll never forget that name) rudely told me that I wouldn’t be having my baby that day. (Don’t you think you should have the nice nurse call a 40 week pregnant woman to tell her she’s NOT going to be induced??) I was so angry and tired and upset and had no idea what this meant for us. So I was to wait until my doctor’s office opened and call to see when it would be rescheduled, whether later in the day or later in the week. We sat around and waited. My dad luckily could work from the house and my mom watched Leilani as we sat in limbo. More like, I sat in the bedroom and cried. I so wanted to be done. I so wanted to have this baby! And I wanted my March baby, not an April baby! I called the second they were open and was told to wait for a phone call back. Which never happened. Two hours later I called again. An hour after THAT, I got a phone call from the hospital saying my induction was rescheduled for Saturday. Really?! What about Thursday or Friday?? They told me they were going to check in with my doctor and get back to me. Kevin had gone in to work because there wasn’t much he could do besides sit and wait with me.
Later that afternoon, yes afternoon, I got a call from my nurse. She was explaining things to me and I must have gotten too heated for her because she got my doctor on the phone who explained everything to me again and told me that her patient that was 40w5d didn’t even get induced and to not feel bad. That didn’t really make me feel any better, but I did feel sorry for that woman. So that was it. I had to wait until Saturday. Ugh. And this is why we didn’t tell many people about the induction in the first place. Thankfully, we just had to figure things out with work.
My parents were going to stay until Saturday just in case I was to go into labor by myself. So I worked from home for a few days while my mom watched Lelilani and my dad worked upstairs. Friday night we were supposed to bowl for our couples bowling league, but instead just stopped in to say hello. We spent some time just hanging out with friends and then went home. We stayed up talking to my parents for a bit and then went to bed. I finally fell asleep around midnight.
April 2, 2016
Around 2 a.m. I woke up because I had started to get some pretty strong contractions. This wasn’t too alarming, more annoying, because I had been getting them for weeks. But then they didn’t go away. And they just kept coming. When I doubled over in pain, I woke Kevin up to tell him what was going on. He called the hospital to do our pre-check in and wait for their go ahead to come in. Once we got the ok to come in, Kevin went and woke up my parents and I took a shower. Yep, took a shower. I did the same thing when I was in labor with Leilani, except with her, my water had broken. Kevin ate some breakfast and I probably should have too, but I was too excited to get things going. We arrived at the hospital at 4 a.m. We got checked in and put in a room right away. There was no need to be in triage since I was scheduled to be induced that day anyway. Woohoo! I was going to have a baby soon!
Around 7 a.m. they checked with my doctor to see if we could start the pitocin because it wasn’t going very fast. She wanted me to progress on my own if I could so we waited. And I was starving. I needed a distraction. Kevin was napping on the little couch and I decided to wake him up and go for a walk. My friend Katie had just had her daughter at the same hospital the day before and I wanted to go see her. I wasn’t supposed to leave my floor, but I did it anyway. It was so awesome to see our friends and meet their little girl and most importantly, distract me for just a little bit. Then we walked. I wanted things to progress fast but they just weren’t. I knew this game all too well.
Just before 9 a.m. the doctor there broke my water. What a weird feeling. You’re laying in bed, they break the bag and then it’s like you just pissed the bed. And it just keeps coming! And then when you think it has stopped, there’s more! And you feel nasty. Their hope was that this would speed things along. So…game. on. We took this time to Skype with Leilani. I totally cried because I missed her. I can’t imagine how she felt when she woke up and we weren’t there. Thankfully my parents had been there for a few mornings so she had some ‘normalcy’.
Around 9:30 I was told to get up and walk to hopefully get things going even more. Now, once your water breaks, the leaking never stops. So I had a moment of terror when I didn’t know what to do to get out of bed. Ha! And I really had to pee. So I swung my legs over the bed and as I sat up, let’s just say, gravity happened. Kevin looked at me and knew by the look on my face what happened and he giggled. But then something else happened. I had a really strong contraction and then…I just started peeing. There was no stopping it and all I could focus on was getting through the contraction as the pee was running off the bed, down my leg and onto the floor. I looked at Kevin and said, “Yep, that’s happening.” I was so embarrassed but I really couldn’t control it. So Kevin got me into the bathroom and then called the nurse and told her what happened. They see this stuff all the time, but that doesn’t make it any less humiliating. As we were walking out of the room the cleaning lady was coming in and all I could say was ‘I’m sorry’. LOL!
Hours went by and not much was happening. Around 11 a.m. I was only dilated to a 3 and that’s when they started pitocin. The contractions were getting stronger and stronger but I was progressing SO slowly. About 3 p.m. I couldn’t handle the contractions anymore. I was doing my best to breathe through them but I was shaking as they were happening and I was so tired. So I asked for the epidural. They quickly set up and called the doctor in. His name was Dr. Hall. I don’t ever want to forget his name because he definitely made my experience totally different than the last time around. He actually got my epidural in and the best part? It worked! I was able to relax a little.
I don’t know what time it was when my nurse, Melinda (the best nurse ever!) came in with another nurse Gina (another awesome nurse) to put me in a different position. The baby was not dropping and he was definitely not ready to come out and they were afraid that he was sunny side up because of the pattern of the contractions. So they flipped me over to my hands and knees. Not an easy task when your legs are completely dead. I held myself up on my arms as long as I could, but the contractions were pretty crazy. I was only dilated to a 4 when they flipped me. And in the 7 minutes I could hold myself up, I went from a 4 to fully dilated and ready to push. They got me to my side and paged my doctor. She had left because she thought she had plenty of time and was out to dinner. The nurse said we were going to do a test push to see how ready the baby was to come out. During my next contraction I was about to start pushing and she said, “Ok stop. Don’t push!” I had to sit through several contractions and NOT push even though my body was screaming for me to get this baby out. They finally got a hold of my doctor and told her she needed to get there FAST! She said she would be there in 10 minutes. I sat through every contraction telling myself not to push. I literally was shaking as I tried to focus on my breathing. 9 minutes went by and my doctor busted through the door asking, “Do I have time to change?” To which we laughed because the nurse said that was what she would say. So she quickly changed and it was finally time.
While I was sitting through these crazy contractions, trying NOT to push, the only thing I kept thinking was, “Oh $%&^, what did we do???” I was scared. I was nervous. I was excited. I wanted this over with but I knew in order for it to be over, I had to actually push this kid out and that scared the crap out of me. Before I knew it, I was on my back and my legs were up and I was being told to push on the next contraction. During the first push, I heard my doctor, I heard Kevin and I heard my nurse. After that, I focused on 1 single voice and that was it. I heard my husband. He was so encouraging and kept telling me to push, to take a breath, I was doing a good job, etc. 4 pushes and he was out. I looked down and my doctor was cleaning out his airways and Kevin was cutting the umbilical cord. They took him over to the side of the room to clean him up and get him ready to meet his parents. I told Kevin to go see him because there wasn’t really anything he needed to be by my side for anymore. Now came the ‘fun’ part for me, the placenta, the stitching, blah blah blah.
I will never forget when they put him in my arms and I got to look into those adorable little eyes. Landon Warren was born at 5:05 p.m. weighing 9lbs. 5.5oz. and was 21.5″ long. Absolute perfection. I didn’t know it, but a piece of me was always missing and that moment they put him in my arms proved that it was now found. We tried nursing right away and he was doing great. We made a few phone calls to our parents and then we waited for Leilani to show up so that she could finally meet her little brother. Oh and we ordered food for me, because I think ‘I’m hungry’ may have been some of the first words out of my mouth after he was out.
Leilani showed up and Kevin went into the hall to get her. I was so excited to see her and for her to meet Landon! She came in with the biggest smile on her face and crawled right into my arms. I missed her SO much! I don’t think she knew what was going on, I mean let’s face it, she’s 1, but she kissed and hugged Landon and it just made my heart feel like it was going to explode out of my chest!
Our experience this time was totally different. It was more pleasurable, if that is even a word you would associate with labor. Things went much smoother and having the same nurse the entire time was a HUGE difference. She was awesome and really helped me, especially during the epidural which is seriously no fun. And the fact that we had been through these things before, got to have my actual doctor as the laboring doctor, had a much better anesthesiologist, less tearing, etc. helped us feel less stressed out and more comfortable. I physically felt way better than I did after having Leilani, which is a good thing because I had to go home and take care of a toddler and a baby! No one tells you the things you have to endure while healing, taking care of yourself, a baby, a toddler and your house. Tales to come…
