Madilyn68
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Typed this up a couple months ago, but thought it would be a good idea to have it "backed up" on here since I haven't printed it off. Sorry about any typos!
Wednesday, April 27th I was 39 + 2 and went in for my usual prenatal appointment at 8 am. My doctor had been concerned about baby's growth since about halfway through the pregnancy, which was triggered by my own weight gain being low and the way I was carrying, Otti always measured extremely small. This was the third ultrasound she was doing just to check her growth. Since the last two had turned out with no complications she was just simply small (runs in both mine Jared's family), I had no concerns as Jared and I walked into the doctor's office. We got started on the ultrasound and my doctor quickly noted that the amniotic fluid was pretty low. She explained how that worried her as it was telling her Otti wasn't peeing enough. She told me she was going to push for getting me in for induction that morning and rushed out the door. She came back with orders for a NST and sent me out to grab a bite to eat then go down to the hospital for the test. I was shaking uncontrollably as we walked into the store. Jared held me and assured me it was all going to go just fine. We called the not-so-distant future grandparents on the way to the hospital with the news. As I lay on the hospital bed waiting for the nurse to come back in and tell me how the baby was doing, I gazed at the clock wondering when I would meet my little one. About a half hour passed and she came back, told me the baby looked great, un-strapped me from the monitors and said they couldn't get us in for induction today but would call soon and let us know when. We got home and waited a couple of hours before they called back and said I was scheduled for 8am the next day. After a nearly sleepless night, we were on our way down to the hospital when they called and told me that they couldn't take me in that morning at all, and they would have to call me back later and let me know when. So here we were again, waiting around for a phone call. I'd had a bit of bleeding earlier in the morning but hadnt worried too much about it since I was headed in for the induction. Since I would have to wait who-knows-how-long, I was trying to get a hold of my doctor the entire morning to let her know about the blood. Their phones were down, and eventually their voicemail box filled up as well so I couldn't even leave her a message. My stress and frustration built up all morning and into the afternoon as nobody was calling me back. Finally I called the hospital to see if they could give me any advice about the blood, but all they did was tell me to call my doctor. I did finally get an answer about the induction - they had changed it to 8pm that night instead. Jared and I left early to go see a movie (the new Jungle Book) so that I could relax and calm down a little before we went in. Right before we got to the theatre I got a phone call from the hospital asking if we could come in at 7 instead of 8, which I agreed to. We left the movie about 10 minutes early to get to the hospital on time. When I got there they monitored some things, then used a pill to soften the cervix and possibly induce labor on its own. They waited for that to run its course before they checked me again around 11 and decided to give me another dose. That one didn't do much either, so around 1 she decided to stop for the night and told us to try to get some rest. They came back in around 6 to check on me, then the new nurse took over at 7. She went a little more aggressively; using another dose of the pill then when that didn't do much she started me on Pitocin. My body still didn't react much, but we went at it for most of the day. I was having contractions, but I didn't really feel them much. In the late afternoon one of the doctors from my doctor's office came in and chatted with me about options. Since the induction wasn't really working, we agreed to go ahead and stop trying, send me home, and try again in a couple days. He did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid, and while it was low, it wasn't dangerously low, so he decided it wasn't very urgent to get the baby out. We went ahead and packed up, and left the hospital. We grabbed some subway then headed home. It was disappointing to have spend all that time in high hopes that things were going to be happening soon, but it was nice to be home and be able to sleep in my own bed. We crashed at around 8:30. I woke up suddenly at about 10:30. Something seemed wrong. I noticed a contraction and thought it seemed worse than before. The bed felt slightly damp, but not soaked so I didn't think it could be my water. I got up and went to the bathroom, and had another contraction less than a minute later. It hurt. Bad. I noticed a small gush during the contraction too. I put a pad in my underwear and went back to bed. The contractions kept coming, and they were bad enough I felt like I needed to hold my breath. Jared woke up. I couldn't fall back asleep through the pain so I got up and wandered around the house wondering what to do. There was a small gush of thick clear fluid every time I had a contraction, so I thought it had to be my waters. Jared got up with me and started timing the contractions for me because I was too distracted with the pain to do it myself. I got on a forum and asked what they thought I should do. Everyone said to go to the hospital. The contractions were lasting a minute and a half each, and were only a minute and a half apart. By 1 am, I couldn't stand the pain anymore so I finally decided to listen to Jared and go to the hospital. I threw on Jared's sweatshirt, without a bra, because anything of mine seemed too restrictive and made me notice the pain more. It took me a long time to convince myself to get in the car, because pacing seemed to help me deal with the contractions, sitting made it far worse. Finally after one contraction ended, I jumped in and told Jared to hurry up and drive. I screamed the whole way down to the hospital, which is a half-hour drive. We checked in to the emergency room at 1:30 and I tried to compose myself long enough to give them the information they needed. The girl checking us in was new, so she kept having to ask the guy next to her how to enter stuff. It took a lot of effort to try not to appear like a crazy person through contractions. We got up to labor and delivery and got into a room. The nurse monitored my contractions and checked me. She said that it didn't look like my water had broken, but she would do a test to make sure. I told her that I was pretty sure it was broken, or I didn't know what on earth all that fluid was. The test did come back positive as I thought. My cervix was only barely 1 cm dilated, which is what it was when they sent me home from induction. She left me alone to labor in peace for a little while. I paced around wishing I could just die instead of having to deal with this pain. The contractions were so consistently close together that I felt like I never had a break. The nurse checked back in on me in about an hour and said I had only dilated a tiny bit more. She said she'd be back in at 4 to check on me again, and if there was still no change she would have to start me on Pitocin. I got in the tub, which really seemed to help, although Jared was helping me in and out a lot because I was throwing up. She checked me again at 4 and said I was really only at about 2 cm which wasn't good enough, but she would let me labor without Pitocin for a little longer. She came back around 6:30. I was really hoping for some change by then, and that they wouldn't have to induce me because I knew I couldn't handle any more pain than it already was. No significant change. I fought hard to hold back my tears as I watched her standing at the computer prepping for the IV. I was already shaking uncontrollably in between contractions and throwing up, I felt like my body was already starting to give up on me. She got me hooked up to the IV with Pitocin, then left to switch out with the daytime nurse, as I called my mom. Jared and I had already been discussing possibly going the route of painkillers. He agreed that I didn't seem to be doing well at all. I wanted to ask what my mom thought. I desperately wanted to have a natural birth, but she agreed that when they use drugs that make the pain worse than natural, it makes sense to need drugs to counteract that. After a lot of heartache over it, I told the day and night nurse when they came back together that if they were using this Pitocin I needed something for the pain. They explained the options. Basically they would give me a narcotic that would only last about an hour for the first dose and not be very effective for the second dose, until they could get the doctor in to perform an epidural. They finally got that ready by around 8. I felt so much better the moment it hit my bloodstream. They said it might make me nauseous so they handed me a bag, but as soon as I felt the pain ease up I relaxed and fell right asleep. The contractions themselves still hurt like crazy, but with the IV narcotic I would fall asleep between each one, which helped immensely. This went on for the first 40 minutes or so, till I noticed the drug begin to wear off. The contractions still hurt really bad and I was now shaking again and in pain between them as well. 20 minutes later they checked my cervix. I was about 4cm. They gave me a second dose. It wasn't nearly as effective - this one only lasted about 10 minutes and then I felt the same as before the painkiller altogether. By about 10:30 the doctor arrived to do the epidural. It took a while for him to get ready. I sat on the side of the elevated bed, Jared in front of me holding my hands, the nurse beside me, and doctor behind, preparing my back for the needle. It felt strange, but it was over quick and after one more bad contraction I started feeling better. It was almost 11:30. The doctor left. Jared and the nurse helped me get propped up on my left side since the epidural was working mostly on my right side. My skin itched terribly as my body began to numb. The nurse left. Jared's parents and siblings had arrived in Hood River while I was getting the epidural, but had gone to get lunch. I laid there on my side, everything except my pelvic area and face almost completely numb. I was wondering how painful birth would be with the entire pelvic area still aware. Suddenly I felt a strange pressure and pain. I frowned. Jared asked what was wrong and I explained. We called the nurse back in, I told her what was going on, and I told her I felt like I needed to push. She assured me I wouldn't need to push yet (they had indicated earlier that I probably wouldn't be having the baby till late in the evening at the very best, or maybe that night), she said that I wasn't dilated enough to be pushing. I insisted that something felt very wrong, and I really did need to push. She gave in and said she would check me just in case, because I "have had some odd things happen". She gloved up and began to reach in to check the cervix. Her eyes widened as she felt around more. "Oookay!" she exclaimed, "There's the baby head *right there*!" She removed her glove, insisted I do NOT push yet and rushed out the door. She came back with a few other nurses pushing a cart with the equipment. She told me the doctor was on her way and reminded me not to push. I stared at the ceiling, panting with each contraction, focusing so hard on not letting my body push. A nurse poked her head in and informed us the doctor had arrived, and asked the head nurse, Pam, if the doctor had time to change clothes. Pam replied "If she really hurries!" Before I knew it Laura Starrett was there and we were all ready. I could finally push. It only took 16 pushes before the head was out, and one more push with the shoulders and Laura pulled her out at 12:14. Everything seemed to happen in such a flurry. They laid her on my bare chest as she began to cry. Jared cut the umbilical cord. I focused on Otti while Laura sewed up a tear. As soon as she was finished and I could sit up, they helped me get Otti situated to nurse. My legs were still numb, so it was frustrating that I couldn't move. They came back in about an hour and a half to give her a bath and get her stats. Once cleaned up she was weighed. 7 pounds 1 ounce, 20 inches long. The next day she passed all her tests with flying colors. We took her home two days after she was born. After a long nine months of anticipation, little Otti Jean Elvestrom was finally here.
Wednesday, April 27th I was 39 + 2 and went in for my usual prenatal appointment at 8 am. My doctor had been concerned about baby's growth since about halfway through the pregnancy, which was triggered by my own weight gain being low and the way I was carrying, Otti always measured extremely small. This was the third ultrasound she was doing just to check her growth. Since the last two had turned out with no complications she was just simply small (runs in both mine Jared's family), I had no concerns as Jared and I walked into the doctor's office. We got started on the ultrasound and my doctor quickly noted that the amniotic fluid was pretty low. She explained how that worried her as it was telling her Otti wasn't peeing enough. She told me she was going to push for getting me in for induction that morning and rushed out the door. She came back with orders for a NST and sent me out to grab a bite to eat then go down to the hospital for the test. I was shaking uncontrollably as we walked into the store. Jared held me and assured me it was all going to go just fine. We called the not-so-distant future grandparents on the way to the hospital with the news. As I lay on the hospital bed waiting for the nurse to come back in and tell me how the baby was doing, I gazed at the clock wondering when I would meet my little one. About a half hour passed and she came back, told me the baby looked great, un-strapped me from the monitors and said they couldn't get us in for induction today but would call soon and let us know when. We got home and waited a couple of hours before they called back and said I was scheduled for 8am the next day. After a nearly sleepless night, we were on our way down to the hospital when they called and told me that they couldn't take me in that morning at all, and they would have to call me back later and let me know when. So here we were again, waiting around for a phone call. I'd had a bit of bleeding earlier in the morning but hadnt worried too much about it since I was headed in for the induction. Since I would have to wait who-knows-how-long, I was trying to get a hold of my doctor the entire morning to let her know about the blood. Their phones were down, and eventually their voicemail box filled up as well so I couldn't even leave her a message. My stress and frustration built up all morning and into the afternoon as nobody was calling me back. Finally I called the hospital to see if they could give me any advice about the blood, but all they did was tell me to call my doctor. I did finally get an answer about the induction - they had changed it to 8pm that night instead. Jared and I left early to go see a movie (the new Jungle Book) so that I could relax and calm down a little before we went in. Right before we got to the theatre I got a phone call from the hospital asking if we could come in at 7 instead of 8, which I agreed to. We left the movie about 10 minutes early to get to the hospital on time. When I got there they monitored some things, then used a pill to soften the cervix and possibly induce labor on its own. They waited for that to run its course before they checked me again around 11 and decided to give me another dose. That one didn't do much either, so around 1 she decided to stop for the night and told us to try to get some rest. They came back in around 6 to check on me, then the new nurse took over at 7. She went a little more aggressively; using another dose of the pill then when that didn't do much she started me on Pitocin. My body still didn't react much, but we went at it for most of the day. I was having contractions, but I didn't really feel them much. In the late afternoon one of the doctors from my doctor's office came in and chatted with me about options. Since the induction wasn't really working, we agreed to go ahead and stop trying, send me home, and try again in a couple days. He did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid, and while it was low, it wasn't dangerously low, so he decided it wasn't very urgent to get the baby out. We went ahead and packed up, and left the hospital. We grabbed some subway then headed home. It was disappointing to have spend all that time in high hopes that things were going to be happening soon, but it was nice to be home and be able to sleep in my own bed. We crashed at around 8:30. I woke up suddenly at about 10:30. Something seemed wrong. I noticed a contraction and thought it seemed worse than before. The bed felt slightly damp, but not soaked so I didn't think it could be my water. I got up and went to the bathroom, and had another contraction less than a minute later. It hurt. Bad. I noticed a small gush during the contraction too. I put a pad in my underwear and went back to bed. The contractions kept coming, and they were bad enough I felt like I needed to hold my breath. Jared woke up. I couldn't fall back asleep through the pain so I got up and wandered around the house wondering what to do. There was a small gush of thick clear fluid every time I had a contraction, so I thought it had to be my waters. Jared got up with me and started timing the contractions for me because I was too distracted with the pain to do it myself. I got on a forum and asked what they thought I should do. Everyone said to go to the hospital. The contractions were lasting a minute and a half each, and were only a minute and a half apart. By 1 am, I couldn't stand the pain anymore so I finally decided to listen to Jared and go to the hospital. I threw on Jared's sweatshirt, without a bra, because anything of mine seemed too restrictive and made me notice the pain more. It took me a long time to convince myself to get in the car, because pacing seemed to help me deal with the contractions, sitting made it far worse. Finally after one contraction ended, I jumped in and told Jared to hurry up and drive. I screamed the whole way down to the hospital, which is a half-hour drive. We checked in to the emergency room at 1:30 and I tried to compose myself long enough to give them the information they needed. The girl checking us in was new, so she kept having to ask the guy next to her how to enter stuff. It took a lot of effort to try not to appear like a crazy person through contractions. We got up to labor and delivery and got into a room. The nurse monitored my contractions and checked me. She said that it didn't look like my water had broken, but she would do a test to make sure. I told her that I was pretty sure it was broken, or I didn't know what on earth all that fluid was. The test did come back positive as I thought. My cervix was only barely 1 cm dilated, which is what it was when they sent me home from induction. She left me alone to labor in peace for a little while. I paced around wishing I could just die instead of having to deal with this pain. The contractions were so consistently close together that I felt like I never had a break. The nurse checked back in on me in about an hour and said I had only dilated a tiny bit more. She said she'd be back in at 4 to check on me again, and if there was still no change she would have to start me on Pitocin. I got in the tub, which really seemed to help, although Jared was helping me in and out a lot because I was throwing up. She checked me again at 4 and said I was really only at about 2 cm which wasn't good enough, but she would let me labor without Pitocin for a little longer. She came back around 6:30. I was really hoping for some change by then, and that they wouldn't have to induce me because I knew I couldn't handle any more pain than it already was. No significant change. I fought hard to hold back my tears as I watched her standing at the computer prepping for the IV. I was already shaking uncontrollably in between contractions and throwing up, I felt like my body was already starting to give up on me. She got me hooked up to the IV with Pitocin, then left to switch out with the daytime nurse, as I called my mom. Jared and I had already been discussing possibly going the route of painkillers. He agreed that I didn't seem to be doing well at all. I wanted to ask what my mom thought. I desperately wanted to have a natural birth, but she agreed that when they use drugs that make the pain worse than natural, it makes sense to need drugs to counteract that. After a lot of heartache over it, I told the day and night nurse when they came back together that if they were using this Pitocin I needed something for the pain. They explained the options. Basically they would give me a narcotic that would only last about an hour for the first dose and not be very effective for the second dose, until they could get the doctor in to perform an epidural. They finally got that ready by around 8. I felt so much better the moment it hit my bloodstream. They said it might make me nauseous so they handed me a bag, but as soon as I felt the pain ease up I relaxed and fell right asleep. The contractions themselves still hurt like crazy, but with the IV narcotic I would fall asleep between each one, which helped immensely. This went on for the first 40 minutes or so, till I noticed the drug begin to wear off. The contractions still hurt really bad and I was now shaking again and in pain between them as well. 20 minutes later they checked my cervix. I was about 4cm. They gave me a second dose. It wasn't nearly as effective - this one only lasted about 10 minutes and then I felt the same as before the painkiller altogether. By about 10:30 the doctor arrived to do the epidural. It took a while for him to get ready. I sat on the side of the elevated bed, Jared in front of me holding my hands, the nurse beside me, and doctor behind, preparing my back for the needle. It felt strange, but it was over quick and after one more bad contraction I started feeling better. It was almost 11:30. The doctor left. Jared and the nurse helped me get propped up on my left side since the epidural was working mostly on my right side. My skin itched terribly as my body began to numb. The nurse left. Jared's parents and siblings had arrived in Hood River while I was getting the epidural, but had gone to get lunch. I laid there on my side, everything except my pelvic area and face almost completely numb. I was wondering how painful birth would be with the entire pelvic area still aware. Suddenly I felt a strange pressure and pain. I frowned. Jared asked what was wrong and I explained. We called the nurse back in, I told her what was going on, and I told her I felt like I needed to push. She assured me I wouldn't need to push yet (they had indicated earlier that I probably wouldn't be having the baby till late in the evening at the very best, or maybe that night), she said that I wasn't dilated enough to be pushing. I insisted that something felt very wrong, and I really did need to push. She gave in and said she would check me just in case, because I "have had some odd things happen". She gloved up and began to reach in to check the cervix. Her eyes widened as she felt around more. "Oookay!" she exclaimed, "There's the baby head *right there*!" She removed her glove, insisted I do NOT push yet and rushed out the door. She came back with a few other nurses pushing a cart with the equipment. She told me the doctor was on her way and reminded me not to push. I stared at the ceiling, panting with each contraction, focusing so hard on not letting my body push. A nurse poked her head in and informed us the doctor had arrived, and asked the head nurse, Pam, if the doctor had time to change clothes. Pam replied "If she really hurries!" Before I knew it Laura Starrett was there and we were all ready. I could finally push. It only took 16 pushes before the head was out, and one more push with the shoulders and Laura pulled her out at 12:14. Everything seemed to happen in such a flurry. They laid her on my bare chest as she began to cry. Jared cut the umbilical cord. I focused on Otti while Laura sewed up a tear. As soon as she was finished and I could sit up, they helped me get Otti situated to nurse. My legs were still numb, so it was frustrating that I couldn't move. They came back in about an hour and a half to give her a bath and get her stats. Once cleaned up she was weighed. 7 pounds 1 ounce, 20 inches long. The next day she passed all her tests with flying colors. We took her home two days after she was born. After a long nine months of anticipation, little Otti Jean Elvestrom was finally here.
