6 years ago
Tuesday, December 29
Tuesday, December 15
He's Here!
Taylor finally made his entrance into the world last Wednesday morning at 3:23 am. It was a long process to get there so let me start from the beginning. I was scheduled to be induced at 7:00 Tuesday morning. At 4:45 I received a call from the hospital to say that they were full and not to come in but call back at 8:00. When I called back I was told they were still full and there was still one person ahead of me on the schedule and that they would call me back when they had an open room. Bryan and I decided to go get breakfast and run a few last minute errands to waste time. They finally called with an opening at 11:00 and we were there by 11:30. Once we got checked in and in our room they got me hooked up to a monitor and started my IV of pitocin at 1:00pm. They checked for dilation and I was not even 1cm so we had a long way to go. They decided to try and insert a balloon catheter to help me dilate faster, that did not work but the pain was intense. They were increasing my pitocin every 15 minutes so the contractions were getting stronger and much closer together but i still wasn't dilating fast enough. They encouraged me to go ahead and get the epidural so that I could relax and not fight the contractions as much. Getting the epidural placed properly turned out to be an adventure of its own but after 5 or 6 attempts I finally felt the relief!
From that point we just had a lot of time to lay there and wait. I could only lay on my right side because if I tried to move, he would lay on his cord and his heart rate would drop. About 6:30 when my doctor came to check on me I was dilated to about 5 cm. The next few hours were uneventful so I'll jump ahead. Around midnight they checked me again and I was at 9.5cm so they had me wait one more hour before we started pushing.
At 1:00am, 12 hours into labor, I officially started pushing. It was hard work but the first hour flew by and my wonderful and amazing nurse Jennifer said that I was doing really well and that he was moving pretty quickly. Some time around 2:30am a nurse came in the room to tell us that my doctor had gone to the ER for a case and that she would be back in about 15 min. I stopped pushing at this point to get a boost to my epidural which had started to wear off.
The dr came back to check my progress and let us know that she was going into surgery with the woman from the ER so I either had to hurry or wait. Waiting wasn't an option so I pushed really hard for the next 20 minutes or so while they were getting everything ready and then it happened.
He turned face up and got himself stuck. They tried to turn him over but it just wasn't going to happen so they told us the best option would be to use the vacuum extractor. I asked if they thought it would work and they said yes and that they would do the same thing if it were them. Once that decision was made we went from having just myself, Bryan and Jennifer in the room to having about 12 people running around like maniacs. I was trying to ignore everything and just focus on getting him here as quickly as possible so that the chaos didn't overwhelm me.
As my dr is applying the vacuum to his head for the first time she tells us that it's hospital policy that if he doesn't come out in 3 pushes with the vacuum it's an immediate c-section. Then I started to panic. I knew that I was exhausted physically and mentally so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. At this point I had no energy left so Bryan had to help me with these pushes. He did such a wonderful job all day but at this point he really kicked into gear. The first attempt failed because it slipped off his head and he has the scrapes to prove it. The second attempt got him close but still not out. I had one last attempt or I was off to have surgery. At this point at least 2 of the nurses left the room in a frenzy to prep the Operating room. I'm not at all sure where I found the energy or the strength for the next push but according to Bryan, I pushed for almost 45 seconds without breathing and he finally came out. I remember the nurse and my dr saying that they couldn't believe it and that they really didn't think he was going to come out that time either. I remember pushing a couple more times to get his shoulders out and then when they finally lifted him up for me to see I was shocked and relieved.
Due to using the vacuum, his head was extremely distorted so I got worried and started panicking. At this point I have been found to be running a fever and so was Taylor so we were told that we couldn't keep him with us, they were taking him straight to the nursery. They did let Bryan take a few pictures and bring him over to me so that I could see him and hold him briefly. Bryan and I were in recovery for about 2 hours before we were moved to our room. It was almost 6:00am before they brought him back to us for the first time. I was overwhelmed with love for this beautiful and amazing little person that we fought so hard to get here.
He spent most of his first day in and out of the nursery but the second day he was in the room with us the entire day. We came home on Friday and have been adjusting ever since.
Here's his stats!
at birth: 7lbs, 11ozs, 21 inches long
at discharge: 7lbs, 3.5ozs
at yesterday's checkup: 7lbs, 8ozs
From that point we just had a lot of time to lay there and wait. I could only lay on my right side because if I tried to move, he would lay on his cord and his heart rate would drop. About 6:30 when my doctor came to check on me I was dilated to about 5 cm. The next few hours were uneventful so I'll jump ahead. Around midnight they checked me again and I was at 9.5cm so they had me wait one more hour before we started pushing.
At 1:00am, 12 hours into labor, I officially started pushing. It was hard work but the first hour flew by and my wonderful and amazing nurse Jennifer said that I was doing really well and that he was moving pretty quickly. Some time around 2:30am a nurse came in the room to tell us that my doctor had gone to the ER for a case and that she would be back in about 15 min. I stopped pushing at this point to get a boost to my epidural which had started to wear off.
The dr came back to check my progress and let us know that she was going into surgery with the woman from the ER so I either had to hurry or wait. Waiting wasn't an option so I pushed really hard for the next 20 minutes or so while they were getting everything ready and then it happened.
He turned face up and got himself stuck. They tried to turn him over but it just wasn't going to happen so they told us the best option would be to use the vacuum extractor. I asked if they thought it would work and they said yes and that they would do the same thing if it were them. Once that decision was made we went from having just myself, Bryan and Jennifer in the room to having about 12 people running around like maniacs. I was trying to ignore everything and just focus on getting him here as quickly as possible so that the chaos didn't overwhelm me.
As my dr is applying the vacuum to his head for the first time she tells us that it's hospital policy that if he doesn't come out in 3 pushes with the vacuum it's an immediate c-section. Then I started to panic. I knew that I was exhausted physically and mentally so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. At this point I had no energy left so Bryan had to help me with these pushes. He did such a wonderful job all day but at this point he really kicked into gear. The first attempt failed because it slipped off his head and he has the scrapes to prove it. The second attempt got him close but still not out. I had one last attempt or I was off to have surgery. At this point at least 2 of the nurses left the room in a frenzy to prep the Operating room. I'm not at all sure where I found the energy or the strength for the next push but according to Bryan, I pushed for almost 45 seconds without breathing and he finally came out. I remember the nurse and my dr saying that they couldn't believe it and that they really didn't think he was going to come out that time either. I remember pushing a couple more times to get his shoulders out and then when they finally lifted him up for me to see I was shocked and relieved.
Due to using the vacuum, his head was extremely distorted so I got worried and started panicking. At this point I have been found to be running a fever and so was Taylor so we were told that we couldn't keep him with us, they were taking him straight to the nursery. They did let Bryan take a few pictures and bring him over to me so that I could see him and hold him briefly. Bryan and I were in recovery for about 2 hours before we were moved to our room. It was almost 6:00am before they brought him back to us for the first time. I was overwhelmed with love for this beautiful and amazing little person that we fought so hard to get here.
He spent most of his first day in and out of the nursery but the second day he was in the room with us the entire day. We came home on Friday and have been adjusting ever since.
Here's his stats!
at birth: 7lbs, 11ozs, 21 inches long
at discharge: 7lbs, 3.5ozs
at yesterday's checkup: 7lbs, 8ozs
Saturday, December 5
Past due!
Taylor was supposed to be here last Thursday but he is being stubborn. At my appointment last Monday he hadn't made much progress at all so the doctor helped me along to get things moving. Unless he comes this weekend, I am scheduled to be induced on Tuesday. I'm relieved to finally have an end in sight and know that I won't have to wait much longer but every day is agonizing at this point. Most of my swelling has subsided with the bed rest but I still feel sore all over and just completely physically exhausted. I've been able to work from home some this week so that has been helpful to keep my mind occupied.
I'm going to work on getting the house clean today and catching up on laundry so that I don't have to worry about that later. It should be a nice lazy Saturday.
God bless and look for pictures of baby Taylor next week sometime!
I'm going to work on getting the house clean today and catching up on laundry so that I don't have to worry about that later. It should be a nice lazy Saturday.
God bless and look for pictures of baby Taylor next week sometime!
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