I had an appointment at 11:30 a.m., and had planned to be told the same.."Sorry, no change", run a couple of inconsequential errands afterwards, and then return home to continue the never-ending waiting game. Boy, was I wrong!
I was taken back to the exam room and all the routine stuff was done. My midwife for this visit was Teresa Demery, someone I had met with before and enjoyed visiting with. We chatted while she checked for the baby's heartbeat, but she couldn't find it after about 2 minutes of searching. Things got real quiet as she continued to search...she asked me if I had felt any movement that morning, I answered that I had not. I could feel the panic start in the pit of my stomach, she looked at me and told me to come with her to the ultrasound room. We moved quickly and quietly down the hall and started the scan. She looked for a good five minutes...nothing...I started to bawl and moan "NONONONONONO" over and over..this couldn't be happening! She tried to calm me down and assured me that she was not an ultrasound technician, and that she was probably just missing something. She personally walked me down yet another hall to Maternal Fetal Medicine where they performed another scan and after five minutes of nail-biting searching, found a heartbeat. She was just fine..just curled in a really tight ball.
The midwife and I returned to the office, the whole staff cheered when they got the news that everything was fine. We returned to the exam room to discuss options. She checked me and found me 80% and 1 cm dilated and asked me if I would consider induction. I was so rattled by what just happened that I said yes. She was rather shaken as well and told me that she just didn't have a good feeling about sending me home to wait this out and she also said that this just doesn't happen...finding a heart beat at 39 weeks right away is the norm, it shouldn't have to be searched for and wasn't a good sign. I was instructed to go get some lunch and to produce myself at Labor and Delivery at 1:30 p.m. to get started.
I called Rob and gave him the heads up, I was still crying and scared. Rob wasn't too happy with my emotional state, but was able to calm me down, and told me he would meet me there in a few hours.
I went down to L&D, got checked in and proceeded to wait. They hooked me up to monitors and watched the baby for awhile and actually tried to talk me out of the induction, but I wasn't budging. At 3 p.m. they hooked me up to Pitocin and there was no turning back. Rob came at 6 p.m. and the contractions were just starting to get painful and much closer together. We walked for a little bit in the halls, but that even got hard to do, as I felt like I was getting hit every 30 seconds. My main plan for pain control, besides movement, was to labor in water. Wouldn't you know it, Labor and Delivery was absolutely slammed, and the ONLY room they had available was a room with a shower! UGH! So, at about 7 p.m. I couldn't handle walking any more, and there was no tub to float mindlessly in, so they brought me a birthing ball and I sat on that and rocked while the hot water from the shower beat down on my back. I had the ball sitting right over the drain and ended up flooding the entire bathroom...most awesome... I hit transition in there, and I have to say...it hit hard! I couldn't handle the pain and became extremely uncooperative. As usual, Rob had his hands full trying to keep me focused, and he was doing a pretty good job assuring me that this pain was getting me closer to my goal and that I was almost done. I didn't feel almost done, but I knew that I was DONE feeling like this, so I asked for an epidural. I said I would forgo one if I was at a 9 (then it's too late!) Angel, the midwife, checked me again..I was a good stretchy 7 cms. But I wasn't a 9, so I was done! I returned to my bed to await the anesthesiologist...it was the worst 15 minutes of my life. I was out of my mind with the pain, but he finally came. It was about 9 p.m. at this point, and I was pretty sure that I still had a good 2 hours to go before I was finally finished. Dr. Kelly Meyer administered the epidural, and he let me remain lying down while he worked. I don't think it was the most optimal positioning for him, and I couldn't remain as still as he wanted me to, so he had to stick me at least 4 times before the catheter was finally placed. He pushed the first bolus of medication in and I felt instant relief, and I was also instantly quiet and that made everyone else in the room laugh....I only said one word...."warm". Dr. Meyer cleaned up all his goodies, and the nurses and midwife set about positioning me in the bed. I was useless at this point with my legs feeling like inflated blimps, but I tried to help with my arms...it kind of worked. Anyway, they got me positioned, and Angel took a peek down at the business end of things, she looked up at me and then at the nurses..."um...umm....weeeellll...she's right there!" She said "maybe two pushes, she's coming folks!" It was a flurry of equipment at this point..Angel was trying to get her gown on and gloved up, there wasn't any time to break the bed down, she just got covered and sat down on the end of the bed and caught the baby as she quite literally just dropped out! The only thing I was aware of was the extreme amount of activity in the room, then the next thing I knew, Rob was at my side telling me he could see the head, then the head was out, then Angel lifted the baby up and onto my belly and I closed my hands around the smallest most perfect little thing I had ever seen. She was warm, squirming and screaming for all she was worth. The next thing I felt was this warm little river flowing down my side as she peed on me, and some warm gooey stuff in my hand that was covering her bum. Well, at least I knew she wasn't broken! About 15 minutes later, the placenta delivered and it was discovered that I had two lobes, so there quiet possibly could have been twins in the beginning, and also my placenta was starting to deteriorate, which explained the scare we had in the morning. It was a good thing we brought her when we did! So, after 6.5 hours of labor, we got ourselves a fine healthy, albeit little, girl!
Haedyn Janae Fox arrived March 31st, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. weighing 6 lbs. 13 ozs. and measuring 19 inches long. She is proving to be a quiet, mellow little thing who likes to sleep a lot so far. We are happy to have her and she is well loved!
