Adam's Birth Story

I suppose since it's almost been 3 weeks, I should write down Adam's birth story before I forget a few details!  I'm warning you, it's kind of long and wordy, but I wanted to get in every detail that I could remember.

We were scheduled for an induction on December 23rd.  We were to arrive at the hospital on Wednesday, December 22nd at 6:00 pm.  When we arrived, we were shown to our home away from home for what would be the next 4 days! 

We went through all of the necessary paperwork (which by the way, I have no idea how people do this when they are already in labor! Holy crap!) and then came the IV.  I can honestly say, I think this was the worst part for me.  They were going to insert a heplock? so that when they needed the IV they wouldn't need to put one in.  This nurse felt for my veins in my hand and decided it would be a good idea to put it on the side of my hand.... Anyone who knows me, knows I HATE needles and that I've passed out a number of times because of them.  She started to put the needle in and it hurt like you wouldn't believe.  Hubby was squeezing my hand and that's when it happened.  Everything started to get blurry, I couldn't hear anything, I started to sweat like crazy and I knew I was passing out.  Turns out, she got the needle in, just in time for my vein to blow.  Awesome.  Hubby got really nervous, because he was talking to me and I was not responding at all.  So, after they fanned me for what felt like an hour and I was able to communicate with them, they called in someone who was apparently really good at doing IV's.  She came in and I did not pass out the second time, which was a +.

The doctor came in next; she first checked me and I was still at a 1 and 50% effaced, she then inserted the cervidil and off she went.  I had to lay in bed for an hour before I was able to get up and walk around.  Jesse and I hung out in the hospital room and watched Elf while we waited for the hour to be up.  After that, we took a walk around our floor.  I was only allowed to have clear liquids and Popsicles so we picked up a few things for me to "eat" and then headed back to our room.  I needed to be monitored every hour for 15 minutes for Adam's heart rate and my contractions.  After about 2 hours, I could start to feel the contractions become much closer together and a lot more painful.  The nurse came in and checked my chart and it seemed as though I was having contractions every other minute lasting for 45 seconds.  They got more painful as they went and I was sure that this process was going to go much quicker than anyone had anticipated.  She checked me again at 9:00 pm and I was at about a 1.5, but she said that the process would probably go quicker now that the contractions were so close together.  At that time, she removed the cervidil and said we would monitor things throughout the night.

At 11:00, I was sure my water broke, but it didn't....  Hubby and I were watching Christmas Vacation to try and take my mind off things, but that was not working. I held on until 1:30am when we decided it was epidural time!  Holy ouch!  I know, what was I expecting, right?  But, it did not hurt as bad as the first failed IV attempt.  After that, I was starting to feel pretty good.  We decided it was time to try and get some shut eye.  Just as we were starting to fall asleep, my water broke at 2:30am.  Nurses came in and checked me, I was at a 3.  At least we were making progress.  After this, we were finally able to sleep for a little while.

They proceeded to check me every few hours, contractions were not slowing down at all and continued to be quite painful by the looks of the screen, but I was feeling just fine.

I moved up to a 4, then a 5.  By the time my parents arrived at 11 on Thursday, December 23rd, I had gotten to a 6.  The nurses were sure that by 5:00, my baby would be here.  Well, by 1:00, I was at a 7, then moved to an 8 pretty quickly.  By 2:00, I was at an 8 and 100% effaced.  I was at a 8 for almost 5 hours by the time they realized I was not progressing on my own.  Before this, they had inserted something inside of me to connect to Adam to get a better heart rate and they inserted something to more closely measure the rate and severity of my contractions.  They had upped my pitocin as much as possible and did not want to go any higher.  Adam's heart rate was now consistently in the 170's-180's which was too high and I was starting to run a fever and risk infection.  The doctor came in and explained our options.  She said we could wait it out another hour or two, but she didn't see me progressing any quicker.  She suggested the best option for baby and me was to have a c-section.  At that point, after 22 hours of labor, I was exhausted and just ready to meet my little guy.   Once I agreed to a c-section, they pumped me so full of "stuff" that it was ridiculous.  They gave Jesse his necessary scrubs to wear, got me prepped and headed off to the operating room.

After about 30 minutes in the operating room, we were finally able to meet our baby boy, Adam James Crane, at 7:01pm on Thursday, December 23rd, 2010.  It was the best feeling the world and I would go through all of it again for him.

We were in the hospital until December 26th, when we were discharged at 3:00pm.  Christmas was spent in the hospital, but my parents and Brother & SIL all visited on that day.  Best Christmas present I've ever gotten!

The c-section wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I think I'm healing very quickly.  It really hurt to get in and out of bed for the first few days, but every day it got easier. 

All in all, we are adjusting to being a family of 3 pretty well.  We're tired most of the time, but we love our little guy and wouldn't trade him in for all of the sleep in the world.