Four Days and a Baby

Well as the three followers that I have already know. I gave birth to my little angel Trinity Elizabeth on April 27, 2009 at 11:37 pm. I was scheduled to be induced on the 24th which I was feeling incredibly apprehensive about. One doctor in the practice was insisting on an Amniocentesis prior to induction which I thought was ridiculous and we ended up forgoing it anyway, but the induction was still on since my blood pressure had all of a sudden risen and hadn't decreased in the last week. I didn't have Pre-eclampsia, but the hypertension topped with the diabetes was putting me in a better category to have the baby early and avoid in complications closer to my due date only a week away.

So I'm starting Friday night with a closed cervix shut tighter than a Chick-Fil-A on Sunday and I was Misoprostol to get the ball rolling and to soften the cervix. Six hours later, nothing. The contractions might as well have been hunger pangs because I wasn't feeling a thing and the cervix was still at about a one. Saturday I'm given the old reliable Pitosin. This does nothing as well all day Saturday and I'm getting tired of sitting in bed and tired of having my blood sugar checked every two hours. My poor fingers were running out of room to get stuck.

Later that evening they try a Foley Bulb to try and open the cervix some more which is uncomfortable and causes cramping and only gets me to about three centimeters. :-(
At this point I ask for a little pain medication and am introduced to Stadol. Ohh joy. This was perhaps the closest I have ever gotten or will ever get to being high. It's the bestest of the best buzz you've ever had without feeling nauseated. Still no movement on the cervix. Sunday I get a bit of a rest to start fresh on Monday.

Then Monday morning the drama builds. My water is broken (an entirely weird and warm experience) and with a little Pitosin the contractions, "the real-deal Hollyfield" contractions begin and I start the huffing and puffing and breathing through them like a champ. By he evening I'm getting low on stamina and patience being so long in the induction process. I can't hold out any longer and go for the epidural, which makes labor easier no doubt and I get a few internal monitors placed while I'm numb "down there." After about thirty minutes, my OB notices a dramatic and prolonged drop in the heart rate of the baby during contractions and concludes that six more hours of this with me at about on four cm dilated isn't good for the baby and I'm whisked off to the OR for a C-Section.

In like twenty minutes the baby is delivered. I was awake the entire time and my husband was doing all he could to keep me calm because I was shaking like a leaf. The anesthesiologist keeps me posted on everything that's happening and I when I finally hear her cry and I am so relieved. She's here, finally. They show her to me with her eyes wide open and mine filled with tears. I'm taken to recovery for an hour and its the middle of the night by now on early Tuesday morning and it still hasn't sunken in yet that I'm a mother.

A week later it still isn't really real, until I got my first Mother's Day card today and I couldn't feel more lucky and blessed.