After completing all my treatment paperwork, I put on my gown and hopped in the bed. The nurse came in to insert my IV and I have never hurt so much from something in my life. She was pretty rough putting in my arm and I swear she hit something, whether it was a bone or a nerve. Luckily, the pain passed pretty fast. Dr. Little then came in to check my cervix and see what was happening down there. She said I was maybe 2 cm. So, it sounds like Dr. Miles may have been fudging my progress a little. I was a little disappointed, but since the IV was in my arm I knew I wasn't going anywhere. Dr. Little said I was going to start pitocin and see how that worked for me. The nurse started my pitocin and antibiotics (due to being Group B strep positive at 20 weeks) and left us to hang out. The next few hours were pretty easy so we just relaxed while the drugs did their work. I struggled with the antibiotics because they burned my arm a lot, but luckily the other doses I received that night weren't so bad. Mom left with Aubrey around 7 so she could go home and go to bed and I cried a little when she left. It was so strange knowing the next time I saw her, she would be a big sister. Mom called us and let us talk to her before she went to sleep and I cried again when I told her good night.
My night nurse came in at 7:00 and cranked up my piton and the contractions started picking up. I was able to handle them until about 11:30 when they started getting really painful. Dr. Little checked me and said I was 4 cm and gave the green light for my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in a little after 12:00 to start my epidural. As soon as he walked in, I recognized him from Aubrey's delivery and knew I would be ok. He did a fantastic job with my first epidural so I hoped he could do the same this time. My contractions were every 2-3 minutes at this point and I had at least 2-3 in the time it took him to get it started. I was finally pain free about 20 minutes later so Todd and I decided to try and sleep. Try was the operative word because something about my epidural made me itchy. So I spent all this time trying to scratch and stop the itching instead of relaxing.
After a little bit of quiet, the nurse came in and made me lie on my side because they were having a hard time monitoring Mason's heart beat. However, not only did she put me on my side, she also slightly inverted the bed so most of my weight was on my shoulder. At this point, I had 5 nurses in my room and I asked how many patients were laboring and found out I was the only one so they decided to get give me the "Beyonce treatment" (since supposedly Beyonce was a diva while she delivered her baby and was catered to by all the hospital staff). I tolerated lying on my side as long as I could, but after an hour begged to be moved because my hip and shoulder really hurt. I also started to notice that I was feeling a lot more pressure inside and then the pressure started getting really uncomfortable. I was allowed to flip back to my back and it felt like heaven.
At 3:30, my nurse checked me and said I was making great progress but Mason was still really high. Dr. Little checked me at 4:00 and said I was 9 cm so she was going to break my water. At this point, all hell broke loose. Immediately, the contractions intensified by 1000 and I realized my epidural wasn't working like it should. I started screaming because there was so much intense pressure. They told me his heart rate kept dropping below 100 and he wasn't handling the contractions well. Dr. Little and the nurses were trying to calm me down while they inserted an internal monitoring device on Mason. Dr. Little said if they couldn't get him stable they would have to take me down for an emergency C-section and I lost it. I had never felt so helpless in my life and scared that things were not going to end well. They called the anesthesiologist back down to correct my epidural and I later found out he upped my dose to half of what they give a C-section patient. They also gave me a dose of terbutaline to stop the contractions. Finally, the pain and pressure started to subside and they were able to stabilize Mason's heart beat to the 150's and we were able to relax. Dr. Little explained that Mason dropped from a -2 station to a 0 or +1 in a matter of minutes. His rapid drop combined with several long back-to-back contractions led to the pain and and Mason was not able to handle the contractions well.
Todd and I were able to get some rest until 6:00 when Dr. Little checked me again and gave the good news I was complete at 10 cm. She said she wanted me to labor down some to make it a little easier to push and give my epidural time to wear off some so I could feel the urge to push. She also warned she would have the vacuum ready in case Mason stopped tolerating the contractions and needed to come out fast. Around 6:30, we did a few practice pushes and she said I made a lot of progress with those pushes and she thought he would be coming soon. A little before 7, I did a few more practice pushes and the next thing I knew the room was filling with nurses. I was starting to feel my toes and they knew my epidural was fading so we started pushing. After the first set of pushes, Dr. Little told me she was putting away the vacuum since I was moving him so well myself and Mason was doing ok. After what seemed like only a few more pushes, Dr. Little asked me to stop pushing and Todd told me his heart sank when he looked down because Mason's head was out but the cord was around his neck. Dr. Little tried to distract me by saying he had a head full of dark hair. I was so out of it that I gave Todd this confused look because I didn't understand how he could have dark hair. Then I realized, duh, husband has dark hair and it made more sense to my tired brain. Todd said Dr. Little quickly clamped the cord and had me push 1 more time and before I knew it he was out. After 8 minutes of pushing, Mason James was born at 7:04 AM. I immediately started crying in relief not realizing they were rushing Mason to the warming table. I still had no clue about the cord and later found out there was also meconium in my amniotic fluid so they were observing him for any signs of distress. After a minute, I heard his glorious first cry and wanted to hold him. Unfortunately, they took a long time to clean him and do their assessments so when they were finished Dr. Little was still stitching me up. She said I did have a 2nd degree tear along with some superficial labia tears and it seemed like it took forever to stitch. The stitching was not comfortable and all I wanted to do was put my legs down which made me irritable. I was afraid to hold him while she was still stitching so Todd was the first to hold him. Finally, 35 minutes after he was born, Dr. Little finished her repairs and I was able to hold my son for the first time. It was an amazing experience to see his beautiful little eyes staring back at me. While it wasn't like the first time holding experience I had hoped for, it was still so special and instantly relaxed me. After 5 months of trying to get pregnant and 9 months of pregnancy, our son was safe and sound in my arms and there is no better feeling than that. After all the staff left, Todd and I were able to just sit and enjoy this new little person and relax from the stress of the past few hours.
Around 9:00, my mom brought Aubrey to the hospital. I was attempting to nurse Mason for the first time when she walked in and she gave the craziest, unhappy look. After I finished nursing, we let Aubrey open her big sister present from Mason (a necklace that says Big Sis and has her birth stone) and she also opened Mason's present from her (his little brother onsie). After presents, the rest of the family start coming in to visit. Aubrey held Mason for the first time and I thought my heart was going to explode into a million pieces of happiness. She was so gentle and so sweet and seemed to love him instantly. I was so scared about what her reaction to him would be but she proved that all those fears were pointless. The nurse made Aubrey's day by letting her help with Mason's first bath and she ate it up. She had such a blast helping that I could see this would be a new favorite activity at home for a while.
The nurses got me up and moving while the family visited and I was amazed that I felt pretty good considering what I had been through. The rest of the day was a blur of nursing and visitors so by 7:30 that night I was exhausted and gross feeling. We sent Mason the nursery so I could get a shower and take a short nap.
The rest of the hospital stay was focused on getting Mason to eat because he was soooo sleepy. They delayed his circumcision to Monday instead of Sunday because he went 6 hours without eating on Sunday. The nurses and I worked really hard on his eating and by Sunday evening he had made some progress.
Monday morning, they took Mason back for his circumcision while I started to pack up. Todd said when he got to the hospital, he heard Mason screaming in the nursery and this broke my heart. Even though it was a decision we both made together, it still hurt to hear that our child was in pain. After they brought him back to my room, the nurse started our discharge work and by 10:30, we were on our way home.
Aubrey was so excited to see us when we walked in the door and the dogs were ecstatic. I was so happy to be home and it hit me that this was it. Our little family is complete and perfect. I have never been so happy in my life.
Love snug as a bug baby
After a little bit of quiet, the nurse came in and made me lie on my side because they were having a hard time monitoring Mason's heart beat. However, not only did she put me on my side, she also slightly inverted the bed so most of my weight was on my shoulder. At this point, I had 5 nurses in my room and I asked how many patients were laboring and found out I was the only one so they decided to get give me the "Beyonce treatment" (since supposedly Beyonce was a diva while she delivered her baby and was catered to by all the hospital staff). I tolerated lying on my side as long as I could, but after an hour begged to be moved because my hip and shoulder really hurt. I also started to notice that I was feeling a lot more pressure inside and then the pressure started getting really uncomfortable. I was allowed to flip back to my back and it felt like heaven.
At 3:30, my nurse checked me and said I was making great progress but Mason was still really high. Dr. Little checked me at 4:00 and said I was 9 cm so she was going to break my water. At this point, all hell broke loose. Immediately, the contractions intensified by 1000 and I realized my epidural wasn't working like it should. I started screaming because there was so much intense pressure. They told me his heart rate kept dropping below 100 and he wasn't handling the contractions well. Dr. Little and the nurses were trying to calm me down while they inserted an internal monitoring device on Mason. Dr. Little said if they couldn't get him stable they would have to take me down for an emergency C-section and I lost it. I had never felt so helpless in my life and scared that things were not going to end well. They called the anesthesiologist back down to correct my epidural and I later found out he upped my dose to half of what they give a C-section patient. They also gave me a dose of terbutaline to stop the contractions. Finally, the pain and pressure started to subside and they were able to stabilize Mason's heart beat to the 150's and we were able to relax. Dr. Little explained that Mason dropped from a -2 station to a 0 or +1 in a matter of minutes. His rapid drop combined with several long back-to-back contractions led to the pain and and Mason was not able to handle the contractions well.
Todd and I were able to get some rest until 6:00 when Dr. Little checked me again and gave the good news I was complete at 10 cm. She said she wanted me to labor down some to make it a little easier to push and give my epidural time to wear off some so I could feel the urge to push. She also warned she would have the vacuum ready in case Mason stopped tolerating the contractions and needed to come out fast. Around 6:30, we did a few practice pushes and she said I made a lot of progress with those pushes and she thought he would be coming soon. A little before 7, I did a few more practice pushes and the next thing I knew the room was filling with nurses. I was starting to feel my toes and they knew my epidural was fading so we started pushing. After the first set of pushes, Dr. Little told me she was putting away the vacuum since I was moving him so well myself and Mason was doing ok. After what seemed like only a few more pushes, Dr. Little asked me to stop pushing and Todd told me his heart sank when he looked down because Mason's head was out but the cord was around his neck. Dr. Little tried to distract me by saying he had a head full of dark hair. I was so out of it that I gave Todd this confused look because I didn't understand how he could have dark hair. Then I realized, duh, husband has dark hair and it made more sense to my tired brain. Todd said Dr. Little quickly clamped the cord and had me push 1 more time and before I knew it he was out. After 8 minutes of pushing, Mason James was born at 7:04 AM. I immediately started crying in relief not realizing they were rushing Mason to the warming table. I still had no clue about the cord and later found out there was also meconium in my amniotic fluid so they were observing him for any signs of distress. After a minute, I heard his glorious first cry and wanted to hold him. Unfortunately, they took a long time to clean him and do their assessments so when they were finished Dr. Little was still stitching me up. She said I did have a 2nd degree tear along with some superficial labia tears and it seemed like it took forever to stitch. The stitching was not comfortable and all I wanted to do was put my legs down which made me irritable. I was afraid to hold him while she was still stitching so Todd was the first to hold him. Finally, 35 minutes after he was born, Dr. Little finished her repairs and I was able to hold my son for the first time. It was an amazing experience to see his beautiful little eyes staring back at me. While it wasn't like the first time holding experience I had hoped for, it was still so special and instantly relaxed me. After 5 months of trying to get pregnant and 9 months of pregnancy, our son was safe and sound in my arms and there is no better feeling than that. After all the staff left, Todd and I were able to just sit and enjoy this new little person and relax from the stress of the past few hours.
Around 9:00, my mom brought Aubrey to the hospital. I was attempting to nurse Mason for the first time when she walked in and she gave the craziest, unhappy look. After I finished nursing, we let Aubrey open her big sister present from Mason (a necklace that says Big Sis and has her birth stone) and she also opened Mason's present from her (his little brother onsie). After presents, the rest of the family start coming in to visit. Aubrey held Mason for the first time and I thought my heart was going to explode into a million pieces of happiness. She was so gentle and so sweet and seemed to love him instantly. I was so scared about what her reaction to him would be but she proved that all those fears were pointless. The nurse made Aubrey's day by letting her help with Mason's first bath and she ate it up. She had such a blast helping that I could see this would be a new favorite activity at home for a while.
The nurses got me up and moving while the family visited and I was amazed that I felt pretty good considering what I had been through. The rest of the day was a blur of nursing and visitors so by 7:30 that night I was exhausted and gross feeling. We sent Mason the nursery so I could get a shower and take a short nap.
The rest of the hospital stay was focused on getting Mason to eat because he was soooo sleepy. They delayed his circumcision to Monday instead of Sunday because he went 6 hours without eating on Sunday. The nurses and I worked really hard on his eating and by Sunday evening he had made some progress.
Monday morning, they took Mason back for his circumcision while I started to pack up. Todd said when he got to the hospital, he heard Mason screaming in the nursery and this broke my heart. Even though it was a decision we both made together, it still hurt to hear that our child was in pain. After they brought him back to my room, the nurse started our discharge work and by 10:30, we were on our way home.
Aubrey was so excited to see us when we walked in the door and the dogs were ecstatic. I was so happy to be home and it hit me that this was it. Our little family is complete and perfect. I have never been so happy in my life.
Helping the nurse with his first bath
Love snug as a bug baby
Our first family portrait
When they are fighting in a few years, I will show them this picture to remind them how they are supposed to love each other.
All dressed and ready to come home
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