{"id":2492,"date":"2010-06-03T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T22:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eaumaison.wordpress.com\/2010\/06\/03\/jacks-birth-the-not-too-gory-details"},"modified":"2010-06-03T22:51:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-03T22:51:00","slug":"jacks-birth-the-not-too-gory-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/2010\/06\/03\/jacks-birth-the-not-too-gory-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack’s Birth, the (Not Too Gory) Details"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was scheduled to be induced Thursday night.\u00a0 Amanda lovingly entertained me all day to keep my sanity.\u00a0 We went to Cherry Creek Mall where she encouraged me to buy this gorgeous dress with the hope that it will fit by July.\u00a0 (Darn that Glee, while looking for a pic of the dress I found Lea Michele in it<\/a>)\u00a0 We also got our nails done and had lunch at Cafe Rio.\u00a0 Amanda quickly dropped by a clinic to get her shots for Thailand while we were out.\u00a0 (She leaves today!\u00a0 Bon Voyage!)\u00a0 I had painless contractions randomly all day, from 3-15 minutes apart.\u00a0 I hoped this might lead to natural labor but it did not.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Ben and I were anxious but trying to play it cool that evening.\u00a0 I can’t remember what we had for dinner that night.\u00a0 Chipotle maybe?\u00a0 My favorite summer program So You Think You Can Dance premiered that night.\u00a0 Another good distraction while I waited for 9 pm to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 8:40 we put my hospital bag and extra large pillow in the car and drove to Lutheran Hospital.\u00a0 At the ER entrance they transferred me to a wheelchair (totally unnecessary, but kind of fun) and took me up to the L&D unit.\u00a0 This was kind of a nice way to go.\u00a0 They had all my paperwork ready and everyone was expecting me, and I was in no pain.\u00a0 Just a smooth transfer to my room for the next couple days.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I changed into a gown and they took my vitals and checked my cervix.\u00a0 Still a 1, dagnabbit.\u00a0 Now a “very loose” 1 cm.\u00a0 Ben and I laughed that over the past three weeks I had progressed from “almost 1” to “a solid 1” to “a loose 1” to “a very loose 1.”\u00a0 They placed an IV in my right wrist (my first, ironically).\u00a0 They explained the plan of action and assured me that one way or another I wouldn’t need to leave the hospital without a baby, that this induction was going to work!\u00a0 They put me on the monitors for 30 minutes and decided that I was not contracting too much for the misoprostol (a medication that softens the cervix to start labor).\u00a0 I got an oral dose at 10 along with a small dose of Ambian so I could sleep.\u00a0 Ben stayed with me through all this, then went home around 10:30.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 3:30 another cervix check showed no change so they gave me a second dose of misoprostol and I fell back into a groggy sleep.<\/p>\n

At 5:00 I woke up with mild contractions.\u00a0 I stayed quiet in bed but could not fall back asleep.\u00a0 At 6:00 suddenly the contractions were very strong and more painful.\u00a0 I put an episode of 30 Rock on my laptop to distract me but the pain was too much for Tina Fey.\u00a0 I called my nurse and she drew me a jacuzzi bath.\u00a0 The bath lessened the pain to a bearable amount and I labored there for about an hour.\u00a0 Ben called to check in.\u00a0 The plan was for him to take Jem to the dog boarders at 8 when they open.\u00a0 Brian was our back-up to take the dog if Ben needed to hurry in sooner.\u00a0 I told him I was laboring pretty bad, that I was even thinking of getting the epidural already.\u00a0 But it was only another hour until he’d join me and the nurses said there was no hurry for him to come.\u00a0 However, after we talked Brian called Ben and offered to take Jem anyway, so Ben was able to come to me by 7:20.\u00a0 I was so glad!\u00a0 The contractions were escalating fast!\u00a0 I could barely breathe through them now.\u00a0 It was crazy how strong the belly contracted shape and how hard it would become.\u00a0 Ben jumped in with coaching my breathing and called my nurse to start the epidural process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The epidural was placed at 8:40, just in time if you ask me.\u00a0 The contraction pain was scary bad but Ben kept me calm through it.\u00a0 My Australian anesthesiologist was quick and kind.\u00a0 My nurse rechecked my cervix and found I was 4 cm with bulging water sac!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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I tried to nap but didn’t ever fall asleep.\u00a0 Ben kept me company except when I sent him out to get food in the cafeteria for himself.\u00a0 He was also in charge of sending out text updates to people and did a great job.\u00a0 By midday I was 5 cm.\u00a0 My nurse suggested we break my water and start pitocin to ease things along, if I wanted.\u00a0 (I wanted.\u00a0 I hoped to have the baby with my midwife who arranged the induction and was on that day until 5 pm).\u00a0 I countered that we just break the water first and wait on the pitocin.\u00a0 My nurse helped boost me in bed and the act of pulling myself up suddenly broke the water!\u00a0 My nurse stared at it confused for a second before telling me what happened – she couldn’t believe it just popped on its own like that.\u00a0 The water had meconium in it so they watched my monitors closely.\u00a0 Jack had some decelerations, indicating some cord compression.\u00a0 They put in an intra-uterine monitor to track my contractions more accurately.\u00a0 Within an hour he looked better, having “adjusted to his new environment.”\u00a0
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Ben put Singin’ in the Rain on the DVD player for me while I tried to sleep some more.\u00a0 The good thing about that movie is I’ve seen it so many times, I don’t have to see the screen to know what it looks like!\u00a0 While I watched all the routines in my head with my eyes closed the contractions kept doing their thing.\u00a0 I was feeling kind of weak and asked the nurses if there was anything besides ice I could eat or drink.\u00a0 Being a nurse, I knew there’s always some room for negotiation and they ended up bringing me a popsicle.\u00a0 Heaven!\u00a0 <\/p>\n

A little while after the movie ended I told my nurse that the contractions had changed quality.\u00a0 I could feel them mounting by chest pressure and slight shortness of breath.\u00a0 Then at the peak I could feel pressure lower, in the birth canal.\u00a0 Another check revealed I was 9+ dilated!\u00a0 It was about 2:30.\u00a0 They let me labor a while longer.\u00a0 The fetal heart rate monitor kept sliding off during the contractions so they talked about putting in a scalp monitor.\u00a0 I wanted to hold off on that a little more.<\/p>\n

At 3:00 I said they could put the scalp monitor in since I could tell they weren’t really getting good data.\u00a0 Also, they started up some pitocin because my contractions were kind of far apart for the final stage of labor.\u00a0 The pitocin was set to the lowest dose and the nurse prepped the probe.\u00a0 She was about to put it in but paused, looking quizzically at my nethers, and suggested I try a push with the next contraction.\u00a0 “Huh, well let’s just do that then.\u00a0 Looks like he’s on his way.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

My midwife and the nursery team assembled in the room and the delivery supply table was brought inside.\u00a0 My midwife had been knocked over by her labrador the day before and fractured her pinky finger.\u00a0 It was bandaged and braced making sterile gloving slightly comical, but I was totally fine with her doing the delivery.\u00a0 Something for us to laugh about.\u00a0 At 3:30 I started pushing with each contraction.\u00a0 22 minutes and 9 contractions later Jack was born!\u00a0<\/p>\n

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When they held him up all bloody and screaming my first thought was “Holy smokes!\u00a0 That thing is huge!”\u00a0 Ben and I were both in shock.\u00a0 Suddenly we were parents!?\u00a0 They wiped Jack down and did the initial assessment in the warmer bassinet.\u00a0 His Apgar was 7 and 9 – really good.\u00a0 A short Chinese nurse bossed Ben around, telling him what to take pictures of.\u00a0 I’m glad she did \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 We declared Jack’s name and word soon got around the unit about our interesting middle name choice.\u00a0 Random nurses popped in to say congratulations and they loved the name.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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The afterbirth was really weird.\u00a0 I was shaking violently but not cold.\u00a0 I tried nursing for just a few minutes and Jack already seemed to know what to do.\u00a0 Ben held him in the rocking chair while I got fixed up.\u00a0 It took an hour of stitching to fix my tears.\u00a0 They saved my placenta per my request so I could look at it before tossing it.\u00a0 I think placentas are so cool.\u00a0 Mine was perfectly round and intact.\u00a0 They let me order lunch so I got a grilled cheese sandwich, sierra mist, and veggie sticks.\u00a0 Ben helped me eat a little but it came right back up.\u00a0 Ugh.\u00a0 My blood pressure had dropped to the 80s systolic and apparently I lost all my color and had purple lips.\u00a0 They let us stay in the L&D room for two hours, twice what it usually takes to recover after the epidural is turned off.<\/p>\n

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I held Jack in my arms while they wheeled me down the hall to the Mom\/Baby unit.\u00a0 Ben somehow managed to carry everything we brought except the lunch tray in one load.\u00a0 Here we settled in for a scary, nerve wracking, exciting, happy two days.\u00a0 I had some issues with heart palpitations and shortness of breath that seemed to have resolved.\u00a0 Other than that it was a standard stay before we came home on Sunday.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I loved my experience at Lutheran.\u00a0 The nurses I had during the entire stay were excellent.\u00a0 My midwife was wonderful.\u00a0 I couldn’t have asked for a better induction experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was scheduled to be induced Thursday night.\u00a0 Amanda lovingly entertained me all day to keep my sanity.\u00a0 We went to Cherry Creek Mall where she encouraged me to buy this gorgeous dress with the hope that it will fit by July.\u00a0 (Darn that Glee, while looking for a pic of the dress I found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}