So it just occurred to me that I haven't posted Nolan's birth story to my blog yet, DER. So I'm posting it now. I suppose it doesn't matter since my only followers are from The Bump!
I arrived for my scheduled induction at 7:30am on Thursday where they got me checked right in and into a room. At about 8:30am they checked me (no progress, of course) and started me on the first round of the pill to start contractions and help me dilate. I forgot the name of it, but it wasn't cervadil. It was supposed to be stronger than cervadil and start labor contrax. Let me tell you, those internals SUCKED! The nurses at the hospital were so rough, and with the meds inside irritating my cervix it made it 100000X worse. I swear I wanted to punch those nurses.
The original game plan was to start me on the pill, and if that didn't work, on to the 12 hour cervadil gel, and if that didn't work, start me on pitocin the next morning. I'm sort of glad I never made it to the pit.
After 4 hours of the pill, they checked me, no progress. Round 2, 4 hours later, no progress. Round 3, 4 MORE hours, no progress. By this time (around 8pm) the contractions are unbearable, they are only a minute apart, and it's back labor. The most intense contractions weren't doing jack sh!t for my cervix. I started getting extremely irritable and depressed at that point; I pretty much knew it was going to end with a c/s. The whole time Nolan's heart rate was steady and doing great. My mom and sister came to visit for a while, followed by my grandparents and my 2 cousins which was great and helped take my mind off the contractions. My seasons of Star Trek Voyager that I got for Christmas helped too ;)
After the pill fail my doc decides to do the 12 hour cervadil and watch me overnight. I contracted with the cervadil until around midnight when they became so bad I finally asked for SOMETHING to help. They pushed Ambien on me, rather than the pain meds, and told me to try to sleep. The contractions were so bad and so close there was no way I would sleep with just Ambien. Ten minutes later I was ringing the nurse to bring me the pain meds. After getting them, I was out.
At different points in the night the nurse would come in to wake me up and make me change positions, saying "baby doesn't really like that side, try to flip over." So I'd flip and go back to sleep. I don't know how many times that happened, but it was quite a few.
Then around 6am my nurse comes in and wakes both me and Cade up to tell us Nolan's heart rate had fallen and spiked at different times during my contractions, and it meant he could be in distress. She had already called my doctor to talk "game plan" and they both decided it was in his best interest to go ahead with the c/s. My nurse had checked me again that morning, and I was still at 0 dilation. The nurses kept asking if I had ever had any procedures done on my cervix, which was very frustrating. No, ladies, my cervix just sucks.
They got me prepped for surgery at 6:45, and by the rushing around everyone was doing, I would guess Nolan was in more distress than my nurse had told me...but I let them run around and do their thing. I figured they would get him out faster if I just shut up and did my job of laying there. DH came in with the camera and they started the surgery. A c/s is the weirdest feeling ever, because even though I was numb, I could still feel them working on me. My doc goes "Alright, here he comes!" and Nolan Wayne was born at 7:04am on Friday, Feb 5, 2010. He weighed 7lbs 12oz, and 19 1/2 inches long. Don't ask me where I was hiding that much baby, lol. His cord wasn't wrapped around him at all, and the amniotic fluid was clear so we got him just in time.
He let out a little cry when they suctioned his lungs out and when they did his footprints, but once he was wrapped up like a little burrito he was just as quiet as could be, looking around the room. When they handed him to me and I said hello to him, the way he looked at me said it all. He knew exactly who I was by my voice and he never took his eyes off me. I don't even know how to explain it, but the whole world disappeared and none of the pain of the 23 hours of labor, and the future pain of recovery from the dreaded c/s mattered anymore. They could have cut off my legs for all I cared at that point. I had my little man, and it was all worth it.
