Grant is 1 week old!

My son is a week old today!! The past week has FLOWN by. Unlike supermom Mary, I haven’t had an ounce of time to blog! I definitely want to remember this week, so more for my own sake than any of my readers, here’s a recap.

My “birth story” –

Sunday, May 30 – Back and hip pain start and become more noticeable around 2pm. I started timing them around 6 pm. At 9pm, I went to the bathroom and saw blood, so I went to the hospital. It turns out this was my “show”. I came out of the bathroom and told Derek we needed to go to the hospital… he was about to tell me goodnight! He asked if he could shave – ha! I was bleeding!! NO! We had to go!

We got to the hospital around 9:30 pm, where they told me I was 4cm, 70% effaced and having contractions every 2.5 minutes. Of course, finding out this information and getting checked in (with 1 million questions, all of which I had already answered in pre-registration… what was the point in that?!) took about an hour. Once we knew we were being admitted, we called our moms. I guess at that point Derek also texted everyone in the world with his pre-typed text message. It said my water had broke, even though it hadn’t.

At 11:30pm, my mom arrived and I asked for my epidural. My contractions were every minute by then. It took an hour for the anesthesiologist to get to the room, then get the epidural in. The nurse checked me right after and said I was at 7cm. She broke my water and said I was progressing great and it wouldn’t be long!

Between 12:30 and 3, Derek, my mom and I tried to sleep. This would have been IMPOSSIBLE without the epidural. It wasn’t very much or very good sleep, but we all managed to get a wink of sleep. They were monitoring my blood pressure every 30 minutes, which is standard procedure… but it SUCKS when you are trying to sleep!At 3am, the Irish nurse, Kathy, and two other nurses rushed into my room. “We have to get you on your side.” I HATE lying on my side!! I was very irritated at this. Then someone hands me an oxygen mask and Kathy held her stethoscope to my belly. I asked what was going on, but if she answered, it wasn’t clear because of her accent. She listened for a while, then disappeared for a minute. She came back with a shot and said I needed the shot to slow down the contractions. They stabbed my left arm (even though I had an IV in) and continued to monitor. FINALLY (it was probably 5 minutes after rushing in, but seemed like an eternity!), she explained that the baby was in distress because I’d been having contractions every minute for the past 3.5 hours. His heart rate had dropped (I found out later it had dropped a LOT), so they were slowing down the contractions to give him a break. The shot they gave me was Terbutaline – it’s used in preterm labor too (to stop labor). The contractions weakened and were less frequent, and Grant’s heart rate came back up very quickly. SUCCESS!

Around 4 am, she checked and said I was at 8cm. At 6am, the pressure was so bad that I requested more medicine. They gave me a “boost” of the epidural. I was at 9 cm. Some time during that time span, Grant was in distress again. Again, the rolled me over and gave me oxygen. They didn’t give me a shot again (thankfully).

At 7 am, we got a new nurse, Lori. Lori was GREAT! Lori gave me some Pitocin (at a rate of 2, then 3 – both very low apparently). Labor wasn’t progressing like they hoped, and with Grant in distress twice, they wanted to move things along. My contractions picked back up and I was off the Pitocin very quickly (30 minutes – 1 hour). Some time between 7 and 9 am, I had to get a 2nd bag for my epidural. Also during that time, Mom ran to Whataburger and my labor “coaches” got to eat. I was jealous of the food, but probably more jealous of the Dr. Pepper that my mom had! And I remember talking a lot about bacon. Mmmmm – bacon. They didn’t eat in the room, so I didn’t have to be tortured with the smell of real food while I was eating ice chips.

Finally, some time between 7am and 9am, I had to be turned onto my side and get oxygen again. This may have happened once… maybe twice during that period of time… I don’t remember. So I had to eat ice chips, then put the oxygen mask BACK on. My throat was sore from so much oxygen. Derek and Mom took turns feeding me ice chips because at this point, the epidural was NOT effective at taking away my pain. The pressure was so great that I kept pressing the button for more pain medicine… whenever I could find it. Most of the time, I’d ask someone else to press it for me.

Every hour, the nurse would check me. At 9am, I was still at 9cm and the baby was between a 0 and 1 station. He wasn’t dropping and I wasn’t dilating. The nurse said she needed me to consider the possibility that I would need a C-section. She wasn’t 100% whether or not I would have to have it, but wanted to start getting me used to the idea just in case. At that time, it was leaning toward a C-section. I think I tried to push then too, to see if he would drop or if I would dilate… but nothing progressed.

At about 10 am, I asked if I could elect to have a C-section. The pressure was too intense, the medicine too weak, and I was too exhausted to push effectively. Lori said she would have to check with the doctor – if the baby was too far down, a C-section wouldn’t be possible. While the doc was en route, Lori and another nurse turned me side to side while I was in various positions – had me stay there for several contractions… all in an attempt to progress labor. NOTHING happened.
About 11 am, the doc checked me – said I could have a C-section. The anesthesiologist, Dr. Fox, was called in. He asked if I was on my second bag for the epidural – I told him yes. He said C-sections were the norm whenever Mom had gone through 1 bag. I don’t remember a lot of the next part. I remember Derek putting on the scrubs – it seemed he was in them for a long time. I was wheeled into surgery, and Derek had to wait outside a few minutes. During that time, they transferred me to a new table – I remember thinking to do so by myself would have been IMPOSSIBLE! I still had a lot of pressure (all vaginal, which is not ideal – for labor they want pressure like you’re going to poop!).

On the surgery table, I had a melt down. I was SO SCARED! My sis had 2 c-sections, but I wanted to deliver vaginally, so I never paid much attention to c-section information. Plus the idea of them cutting on me, etc. Dr. Fox was VERY comforting. The nurses were going through a checklist of basic information they needed from me. I think I even signed a consent form on the surgery table (which I think is probably NOT enforceable… and I may have told them as much). Finally, Derek could come in. Between him and Dr. Fox, I was able to relax more… which is not to say that I was calm by any means. We chatted with one of the doctors about living on the same street as my friend Anna. There were 2 docs for delivery (Cope and Allen), 1 anesthesiologist (Fox), 2 nurses for me (Lori and Jenny), 1 for baby (Ashley), and 1 floating nurse. Very soon, the curtain was up and they were cutting.

WOW!! The C-section was SOOO painful! I think my epidural was less effective – the anesthesiologist seemed concerned that I had been on it for 12 hours. After they had started, I asked if they could put me under completely, but they said they just needed about 30 more seconds. I told them to continue. Sure enough, about 30 seconds later (at 11:50 a.m.), I heard my baby cry. A few seconds later, they held him up for me to see. Derek asked “So, he was born at 11:51?”, and someone corrected him with 11:50.
I remember the docs saying that Grant was peeing on them. I remember telling the doctors how mean they were to do that to me – to which one of them retorted “We gave you a baby – we’re not mean.” And I agreed. I remember Derek held my hand the whole time – we were both so overcome with emotions. He tried to lay his head on mine, but it made me shake, thus made it more painful for me, so I asked him not to put his head on me. Then he went over to where Grant was… according to him, he saw the placenta (in a bag?), and may have even seen me cut open – awesome. I remember Dr. Fox telling me that he could up my pain medicine since Grant was out. The next thing I remember is being wheeled out into the recovery room. I think Derek may have been talking to me when he was over by Grant, but I don’t really know. In recovery, the nurses inputted all sorts of information. I got to hold my baby the whole time – it was incredible. Lori spent a TON of time with me and Grant teaching us both how to breastfeed. She was so incredibly patient. I also told her how mean she was for pushing on my sore belly! At about 2:15 pm, I was wheeled into my room. This time I had to transfer myself onto the bed, and that was not easy! Derek hung up the banner that Jesse had made, while Janet (nurse) took Grant’s vitals and mine and got me settled. Soon enough our family was able to come visit! Joyce, Mike, Kennedy, my mom, Rachel and Jesse all took turns holding our boy. My sis had seen him in the hallway and the nursery but had to leave. She came back later that evening to hold him, but I had to breast feed, so she couldn’t hold him. The rest of the time in the hospital was pretty uneventful. Doctors, nurses, and visitors streamed into our room at all hours, and we sent Grant to the nursery every night so we could get some rest. I’m SO glad we did that! On Wednesday night, I sent Derek home so that he could rest up (and on a comfy bed) before we brought baby home! That is all I have time for now. I will update more on the first week later, but baby Grant is waking up now from a 3.5 hour nap. He is sure to be hungry!