I never did make is to my doctor's appointment on Friday - because on Thursday, Elizabeth Jane Abernathy decided she was ready to start on her way to the world! She officially joined us on Friday, January 12, 2007 at 2:04am!
And now for the story...
Thursday morning I woke up at 6am to pee, like usual. Nothing seemed different - just the normal having to go to the bathroom. Two hours later I wake up again, feeling the need to pee, but this time it's really strong, and I am rushing out of bed because I just feel like I can't even hold it to get to the bathroom. I found this odd, because I'd just gone 2 hours before, and hadn't had anything new to drink since then. I manuever my way out of bed, taking care not to pee on the bed. As soon as I stood up I had a gush of fluid - and it dawned on me that I wasn't having to pee - my water had broken! I headed to the bathroom, try to clean myself up a little and then grab the phone to call the doctor's office. I told the nurse that I wasn't sure, but thought my water had broken. She asked if I was having any contractions, and when I said no, she said to come on into the office and the doctor would check me out. I made an appointment for 10am and decided it was time to wake Todd up. I now had about an hour and a half to get myself ready before I had to be at the doctor's office. So I took a shower, finished packing my bag and made a few phone calls.
When Todd and I got to the doctor's office, I was now 100% positive that my water had broken, and I'd had a couple of mild contractions. Dr. Crandall took a look, advised that I was 3 cm dilated and decided to hook me up to the fetal monitor for a non-stress test. I still wasn't really having any contractions, so Dr. Crandall said to go home, ride it out and keep in touch over the next few days. I then said "so my water didn't break?" I think he may have confused me with another patient, or just didn't have passed on to him that I thought my water had broken. When I described what had happened, he decided that my water had broken, and decided that changed things! Todd then joined us, and Dr. Crandall said that since I wasn't having contractions to go ahead and go home - have some lunch, see what happens with labor coming on and enjoy our last afternoon just the two of us, because this baby was coming! He said that if nothing had happened by 4:00 to call in, and see what Dr. Shlachter wanted to do, as he was the OB on call.
So Todd and I came home, even though Todd was a little uncomfortable with that at first. We had some lunch, watched a movie and just tried to kill some time. At 4:00 I called the MDO, and they said they'd have to check with the doctor and call me back. At about 4:30 I got a phone call from the doctor - he said that since it had now been over 8 hours since my water had broken, to come on over to the hospital, and they would get me started on some drugs to get labor started. So we grabbed our stuff, took one last look at our child-less house and headed to the hospital!
Once we got to the hospital we headed straight up to Labor and Delivery. There was one woman at the end of her delivery when we came in - we could hear her really yelling, and I have to admit, it made me a little scared of what was to come! It took a couple minutes for them to get me settled, because it was a busy night on the floor. They had me go into L&D Room 5, change into a johnnie and then hooked me up to the monitors. Dr. Shlachter came in to say hi and do a quick check. He wanted to confirm that my water had broken and check to see how dilated I was. He had to use the speculum which was NOT comfortable at all. He let me know that I was 4 cm dilated, asked about a birth plan (which we were bad and didn't really work one out). I just told him that I wanted an epidural if the pain got too intense, that Todd didn't want to cut the cord and really that was it. He told me that if I wanted the epidural that was fine, but to keep in mind that I was already almost halfway dilated, and got there with minimal contracting, and that I might be one of those women who just doesn't need it. I kept that in mind, but still planned to take it!
By this point I was hooked up to the monitors, still not really having contractions and waiting for them to start the Pitocin drip. So Todd and I just played a few rounds of 20 questions, watched some TV and just waited. At about 7:30 they started Pitocin. By this time the nurse that would guide me through my labor, Laura, had come on duty. It took about 45 minutes for the Pitocin to start kicking in, with the first big contraction that I can remember coming on at about 8:30 when my mom called. Within about an hour the contractions were getting strong enough that I asked for some pain meds. I didn't feel the need for an epidural, but wanted something to just take the edge off. Laura gave me a shot of Nubain, and that did the trick. I actually slept for a while, waking when I'd have a contraction, but not feeling it so strong that I needed to even open my eyes as I breathed through it.
At probably close to midnight, the contractions were getting really strong again, and I still wasn't feeling a need for an epidural, but took another shot of Nubain. That ended up being the last of what I would take for pain meds. At about 1 am the contractions were coming hard and fast - at this point I did ask about an epidural, but Laura told me it was probably too late - I was already 9.5 cm dilated, and would start pushing soon. She assured me that the contractions were now as strong as they were going to get, and if I could make it through these I'd be just fine. She also told me that at this point even with an epidural I'd still feel most of the what was going on when I pushed, and that I'd been so strong all night, that I could and would get through this. Did I mention Laura was awesome?
At about 1:15 I got up to go to the bathroom, and while on the toilet felt the need to push. Laura said it was probably the change in position, and not to push yet, but to let her check me back on the bed. Through this whole time, Todd pretty much kept back, was great at being supportive and encouraging of me, and just did whatever Laura told him to do! At about 1:25 I started pushing. In Todd's re-telling, he said I was great - I never really screamed - just let out some loud moans. I was able to do about 3 good hard pushes with each contraction. According to Todd I pushed through about 10 contractions total.
As we neared the end, I could feel the baby crowning, and knew that if I could just do one or two more good strong pushes, through the "ring of fire" as it was described, I would have the baby's head out. I did pause for a bit, because I was a bit afraid of the pain, but Laura and Todd were both encouraging me, and reminding me that once this was done, I'd be holding our baby in my arms. So I gave it all I had, and felt the head come through. I was told that the baby had alot of hair, and that with another small push we'd find out what we had.
At 2:04 am, we were told "It's a girl!" and Elizabeth Jane Abernathy joined the world. She screamed right away, and I immediately knew that it was all worth it. After some time to bond with me, I handed her to Todd, who brought her to a second nurse, Janice, to get all her stats. Technically she weighed 6lb 15.6oz, but they rounded that up to 7 lbs. She was 19 inches long, had a pretty full head of light brown hair and in my eyes is the most perfect and beautiful baby ever born. And just by being her, she proved me wrong already, as nearly the whole pregnancy I thought she was a boy.
It was a crazy, long day, but I wouldn't trade a second of it, because it's what brought our little girl to us! Elizabeth, Mommy and Daddy love you SO MUCH, and you've done nothing but bring us happiness every day since you joined our family!
