I was right.
It was about 9pm by the time we got settled into our room. Once again we scored a huge room. I LOVE St. Joe's Hospital. The plan was the same as with Lyla. They'd use Cervidil to get things "soft" in there and then they would start pitocin in the morning. Here's how it went down.
10pm - The cervidil was in and Eric and I settled in and put in a DVD that we brought..."SNL. The Best of Jimmy Fallon".
10:15pm - I told Eric that I thought contractions were already starting (this is when I realized the feeling I had all morning really was contractions). This didn't happen with Lyla.
11pm - Serious pain. Major contractions.
11:30pm - Already asking for pain meds but I was told it was too early. To make matters worse, when you have Cervidil you need to lay flat for two hours. I was having such bad back pain at that point and just wanted to move. Nope. Eric was watching the monitor and we discovered that I was having really big contractions right on top of each other. I guess I already knew that but the monitor confirmed it.
12am - Nurse checked me to see if I have progressed I should say she TRIED to check me. After digging around for what felt like eternity, she told us her "fingers were too short". At that point I think Eric was going to strangle her.
1am- Finally got some pain meds. I was only allowed stadol as I still wasn't far enough along for the epidural (about 3cm). They told me it would numb the pain but just for a short time. Awesome. They also told me I would feel drunk. Yep. As soon as she gave it to me my eyes started crossing. I started calling Eric a Fraggle Rock and told him he looked like the Hamburgler. I was with it enough to tell him I knew I sounded like an idiot and to write down what I was saying to him...which he did. Then I fell asleep.
1:45am - Woke up in pain. Serious pain. A nurse came in to check me at which point she told me I was dilated to 1. WHAT!? I quickly sat up in bed really thinking I might knock her on her ass. She informed me that they measure differently on the inside and outside. Bull. I've never heard of that in my life.
2am - New nurse, Jennifer, takes over for "short fingers". Thank God. Jennifer is wonderful and I still think about her often. She got me through the roughest part of labor. Still in pain and no meds, I asked to sit in a chair. Eric (woke up and) came over to rub my head. Let me tell you...I've never had such a good head rub! ha. While it didn't take the pain away, it distracted me.
2:30am - Jennifer tells me my contractions are coming too fast. She orders the epidural. Did I say how much I love Jennifer?
3am - Epidural arrives. With Lyla, it was one poke and done. Not this time. I felt as least three pokes and them actually moving the needle around in my back. At this point, having been up for 24 hours and no food in his stomach, Eric almost passed out and needs to sit down. Jennifer is there to hold me up. Sitting in that position without moving with terrible contractions was by far the most painful part. Immediately after the epidural is finally placed, the baby's heart rate drops. They quickly threw an oxygen mask on me and start turning me from side to side. Things start to stablize.
3:30am - Jennifer tells me that the contractions still haven't slowed down. I ask her if this continued would it lead to a c-section. She tells me she can give me a shot to slow the contractions down a bit which will be better for me and the baby.
3:45am - I get that shot. Contractions slow.
4am - Finally feeling relaxed, I am able to fall asleep. I sleep in 15-20 minute intervals for the rest of my labor.
6am - Doctor Egan comes to visit to check on me. They decide not to start pitocin to speed up the contractions again so we just need to wait it out.
12pm - They bring in the big table with all the scary utensils.
12:30pm - Nurse has me try to start pushing. She's impressed. Doctor Egan happens to come in around then to check and is also impressed. I even remember saying, "I am super good at this."
1:22pm - It's a Girl! Again, surprise of my life. Even the nurses the night before were telling us it was a boy because of the heart rate. There was no question about the name this time. Caroline Clare (CeCe). I have two kids! Two daughters!
She weighed in at 7lbs, 1 oz. Well, that's what the scale said, but they later said her official weight was 7lbs 2oz. 20 inches long.
A few hours later our visitors started to arrive, including big sister Lyla. At first she was pretty interested in the baby, but that soon wore off and she just wanted to run around the hospital room like a typical two year old. After the Laxton crew came later that night, Eric and I spent the next two days just cuddling our new girl We knew that as soon as we came home other responsibilities would cut down on cuddle time so we just soaked it all in.
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| Clearly this says 7.1 |
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| Meeting big sister |
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| Daddy's girl 2.0 |
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| My girl |
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