I knew she would be late - I told the doctor so the first time I met him. The pregnancy went really well. I was moderately sick at the beginning, and lost a few pounds, but the nausea was gone by the end of the first trimester. I never felt super uncomfortable - probably because I never got very big. The day she was born, I only weighed 2 pounds more than I did the day I got pregnant. Doctor visits were very routine, with everything looking good and healthy. This doctor did an ultrasound almost every visit, so it was fun to see her so often. I will confess that I was hoping for a boy, but ultrasound after ultrasound showed otherwise. I think I've come to terms with it. ;-)
The doctor started checking my cervix at 37 weeks. Nothing was happening. I wasn't surprised, but he was. I guess he expected different with a fourth pregnancy. At 38 weeks, he told me I was dilated to a 1, and 50% effaced. I was so excited!! That was the first time I have ever dilated AT ALL before my due date. So that whole week I was all anxious and antsy thinking that this time might actually be different. Every little twinge was suddenly me thinking I might be going into labor. I wasn't. At 39 weeks, I was exactly the same. The doctor had told me in the beginning that he wanted to induce me at 39 weeks. He wanted to avoid the same situation that happened with Deacon where his collar bone broke at delivery since he was so big. Well, Taylor wasn't measuring big at all, so he left it up to me whether or not I wanted to be induced. I told him we might as well let her grow a bit more. I didn't want to evict her before her time was even up. I was also still hopeful that I might go into labor on my own. At my 40 week appointment, the doctor was shocked to see me. I told him I would go late! He did an ultrasound and said that the fluid was getting lower and the baby was getting bigger and he didn't want to let her go another week. I was fine with that, and told him to go ahead and schedule an induction.
Jason and I had discussed it, and he really wanted the induction to be done on Thursday afternoon. That would give him the most time off while taking the least amount of sick days. (He was planning on taking 6.) It would also get us out of the hospital by Saturday morning. That was important to me because my parents would be watching my kids and they had to leave out of town for a choir festival on Saturday afternoon. I was worried about all the upheaval for Deacon already, and didn't want him to have to be bounced around from house to house. Well, I found out that that is not how induction works at Mercy SW. They call your doctor and tell him your appointment time, and then you have to call that morning and see if they will actually be able to honor the appointment. It usually takes several days of calling before you eventually get in. They do it first come, first served, no matter what your due date is. If I had known that, I would have had them start trying to schedule it the previous week! Anyway, that was annoying and was going to put a kink in our plans. My doctor's appointment was on Tuesday, and by Thursday morning (Oct 9), the hospital still hadn't even called with a tentative appointment. I was having a lot of pretty good contractions, but I knew I wasn't in labor. Jason wanted me to just go try to get in, but I felt guilty about "cutting in line" like that. But, I talked to my mom and Jason and a good friend of mine, and they convinced me I was legit. I also prayed about it and felt like it was what we should do. So we ended up at the hospital at about 12:30pm on Thursday, October 9th. They monitored me for a bit, but my contractions weren't in an active labor pattern, and they didn't have any open beds, so they were going to send me home. I was surprised, because I had felt really good about coming. I told Jason that I still thought I would be admitted. The nurse said that they had to have a medical reason to keep me and induce me, and there wasn't one. Being past your due date doesn't count until it's been 9 days, and it had only been 5. She called my doctor to let him know they were sending me home, and he ordered an ultrasound just to make sure everything was okay first. They did a very detailed ultrasound. After the doctor got the results, the nurse came back in to tell me I was staying. Apparently, there was nothing emergent, but a few things were borderline enough to warrant my admission.
I finally got out of that awful triage bed and into a delivery room at about 6:30pm on the 9th. At this point, I still thought there might be a chance that she'd be born on the 9th. Each of my kids had been a little bit faster than the last, and I had actually made some progress on my own this time, with way more contractions than ever before. However, they didn't come in to start Pitocin until 8:30. I had been there since 12:30, hadn't eaten too much before then, and was starving. So they let me eat a sandwich while they gave me fluids and didn't actually start Pitocin until 9:30. At this point, I was certain that she would be born the next day - 10/10. Cool birthday.
I was on Pitocin for about 15 hours. It was so strange!! Nothing happened for several hours at first. Then I started having painful contractions every 2-5 minutes, but they weren't crazy painful and they never developed a regular pattern. They were painful enough that I couldn't really relax. I asked for an epidural a couple of times, but they explained that they can't give it to you until you are actually in labor because it's not good to have an epidural for too long. They offered me some IV pain medication. I remembered getting some when I was in labor with Deacon and it did NOTHING. But, I went ahead and said yes anyway. It took the pain away completely for about 2.5 hours. Then I got another dose and it lasted another 2.5 hours. I guess it worked so much better because I still wasn't in labor. Anyway, I was able to get a little bit of rest, but those delivery beds are SO uncomfortable, and I was so nervous and anxious about why the Pitocin wasn't working. They nurses were really confused too. They did explain that inductions don't always work, but it was strange that I had had 3 previous successful inductions. My body should know what to do by now! After 15 hours on Pitocin, I was only dilated to a 2.
At about 2:30pm, a nurse came in and told me that they needed to stop the Pitocin. It wasn't working. They were going to try something else. There is something called Cervidil that they insert vaginally and it is supposed to help ripen the cervix for induction. It needed to be in for 12 hours. I was so exhausted, stressed out, hungry, and uncomfortable at this point that I about cried thinking about being there for another 12 hours. The alternative, however, was a C-section and I really didn't want that. One plus was that while I was on Cervidil I could eat real food. Also, the nurse said that many times the Cervidil itself will start labor - particularly for women who have given birth before. They put it in and the wait started at 3:30pm. I barely slept that night. I kept waiting to go into labor.... nothing. Not even any cramps. I just hoped it was doing something. I was so over being in the hospital. I was counting the minutes til 3:30am. It FINALLY arrived. The nurse came in and took it out and checked me. Still a 2!!! She didn't seem phased by it and just said I needed another 12 hour dose, put a new one in, and left. Oh my goodness, I about had a breakdown.
I finally was able to doze off for a little bit, and then a new nurse came at the 7am shift change. Her name was Danielle, and I truly believe that God sent her to me. The first thing she asked me was how I would feel about taking a shower. Was she serious?? I had been chained by monitors to that crazy uncomfortable bed for 2 days, and a shower sounded like the best thing in the world. She explained that Cervidil wasn't nearly as potent a medication as Pitocin, and they didn't need the constant monitoring. She just wanted me to be willing to be monitored for 30 minutes on, 2 hours off. On my two hours off, I could shower, walk around, stretch, etc. The baby had been looking really good on the monitors the whole time, which is why they hadn't insisted on a C-section yet. It was also why she felt comfortable letting me be off the monitors. I was so, so grateful to her. She was chipper and funny and she really cared. It was more work for her to come in and hook/unhook me so often. The previous nurse hadn't been willing to do it. She seriously saved my sanity that day. I felt so much love for her.
What would have been a miserable, long day, was actually somewhat enjoyable. At this point, we knew we were in it for the long haul, so Jason went and got some Redbox movies. We ate, talked, watched movies, walked around... I got my shower!!! The time passed much quicker than it otherwise would have.
At 3:30pm on 10/11, I was dilated to a 4 and somewhat more thinned out. They felt comfortable starting the Pitocin. This time, it went much more like I was used to. Contractions started getting painful much more quickly. They still had to get special permission to give me more than the "maximum" dose, though. Before her shift changed at 7pm, Danielle made sure I finally got the epidural. The anesthesiologist was really cranky and kinda rude. He kept saying "Don't jump. Don't jump." We discussed later that that just makes you more anxious waiting for it to hurt bad enough that you're going to want to jump! Danielle was great and held my hands and talked me through it. Again, so grateful for her.
It was the worst epidural I've had. It mostly just settled in my right leg. I couldn't move it at all. I've never been that numb before. I could still feel quite a bit in my left leg, although it was much better than nothing. I was able to get a little sleep that night. At one point during the night, my new nurse came in and checked me. I was still only to a 5. She took the time to strip my membranes several times. When she checked me again at about 6:30 the next morning, I was to a 7 and almost completely effaced. She was so excited! :) At 7:30, the doctor FINALLY showed up. (I had only seen him once for about a minute on the first night.) He broke my water and things really started moving. It was SOOOO painful!! The most pain I have ever, ever had. That dumb half-epidural... Anyway, things moved quickly from there and after about 7 pushes, Miss Taylor Lynn was born at 8:30 am on Sunday, October 12th. Brooklyn's birthday!! We tried to avoid that, but she had other plans. 10/12/14 is a pretty cool date to be born, though.
I was so happy and relieved that Taylor was finally here!! They had a NICU team in the room in case there was a problem with her shoulders getting stuck like with Deacon. They took her right away instead of giving her to me like usual. She took a couple of minutes before giving a good cry like they like, but her APGAR scores were good and she looked just great. Little peanut was only 19.5 inches long and weight 7lbs 10 ounces - my smallest by far! You would think that my due date was off, but I know for a fact that it wasn't. She just wanted to be different I guess.
The new nurse cleaned her up some, put a hat on her, and wrapped her up like a burrito before finally handing her to me. I thought that was REALLY weird, because there were signs all over the place talking about how and why the hospital practices skin to skin right after birth. That's the way it has always been with my others. Oh well, I just unwrapped her and put her on my chest and nursed her right away. I had been a little indifferent about the pregnancy the whole time. I didn't really feel pregnant because there weren't many symptoms, and I was always hoping that the ultrasounds were wrong about the baby being a girl. Once she was born, though, I felt instant love and confirmation that she was exactly the little one who needed to come to our family. She's a beautiful, perfect baby, and I am so, so grateful for her!
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