Thursday- last time waking up in our house just the two of us! I did some chores like wash our sheets and laundry, take out the trash, and got the guest room ready for our guests. I worked today to stay busy and ran to Fete for some Christmas gifts, where I had a great conversation with an employee, Maggie, who also goes to Dr. Combs and made me feel so good about the doctors on call for my induction. She was so nice and so was her mom! Then I picked up a Dtox smoothie and worked the rest of the afternoon. In the final hours before heading to the hospital, I took a shower, read from the storybook Bible to the baby in the nursery because I started feeling a little anxious, and got all of our bags in the car. We stopped at Fellini's for dinner and drove around looking at Christmas lights on the way to the hospital.
Traffic around the hospital was surprisingly super heavy, but we checked in a little after 8. We got settled in our room (room 5) and the nurse (Mary Turner from Dalton) asked a bunch of questions, took my vitals, and hooked me up to an IV. Surprisingly, I was already having some contractions on my own! Once we were all settled, I got the Cervidil, which was like a small tampon, inserted around 9:45. That was not fun and did not feel great. Then we were told we could sleep until she would remove that at 6 am. She offered some sleep aids but I declined. She then explained that I would get 45 min to eat and walk around in the morning before we start the pitocin at 7 am on 12/13! When trying to fall asleep, my lower back was hurting and I started having bad cramps/contractions throughout the night which made it hard to sleep.
Friday- we woke up a little after 5 since it was so hard to sleep. Charles went to get us bagels from Panera for breakfast and I ate a protein bar and a plain sesame bagel. I got the Cervidil removed and checked around 6 am and was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She felt like the Cervidil did what it needed to though. I was able to have about an hour to move around and take a shower before getting hooked back up for the pitocin at 7. There was a shift change and our new nurse was Claire Hadley who was so cute and great. The IV kept randomly beeping for no reason so the nurse had to keep helping us with that (blame it on Friday the 13th!). It was also so annoying because nothing good was on TV, and when we finally found a good channel for Christmas movies, it was the only channel that didn’t have working sound. Again, blame Friday the 13th!! The baby showed a slight dip with a contraction when I was on my back so we moved me to my side and it seemed to do well with that. We were up to 10 units of pitocin at 9:30 and then waited for Dr. Elgammal to come. She finally came around 11 and inserted a balloon to help get things going. That was very uncomfortable and started causing more painful contractions. Bouncing on a ball helped but I finally decided to go ahead and request an epidural. I got that around 1:30 and it was not bad at all, but of course, my lunch was delivered at the same time and I could no longer eat it (although Claire Hadley let me have a few sips of vegetable broth). I also was able to have ice and Italian ice with the epidural. The anesthesiologist Dr. Chen was so cute and nice and kept coming to check on me. My blood pressure was pretty low at this point and the baby’s heart rate was dropping when I had a contraction, so we monitored that for a while before I could take a nap. Mom arrived around 3 and Charles ran home to get a few things. While he was gone, we checked the balloon and it came out on its own meaning I was now 5 cm dilated! My BP continued to be low and the baby was not happy, so we tried a few different positions and some BP medicine. Dr. E came in and said we might have to do a c-section if we couldn’t regulate the heart rate, and I started panicking because a lot was happening and Charles wasn’t back yet (traffic was so terrible). We changed sides one more time, took me off Pitocin, and gave more blood pressure medicine to see if that would help. After they left, my water ended up breaking on its own around 4:30 which was a positive note and good progress. I was 6 cm and they inserted something into my cervix that could monitor the actual strength of the contraction and provide some fluid in there for a cushion for baby. From there, contractions were a little less frequent and intense since I was off Pitocin. I was so tired so just rested and hung out while Mom and Charles ate Gusto for dinner in the room. The Walkers also came to say hey, and then I changed positions to try and get the baby to rotate because they determined it was face up.
Sheila was amazing at coaching me through what pushing would be like and it was just me, Charles, and her pretty much the whole time. I started pushing a little before 10 pm and we tried a few different positions because baby’s heart rate kept dropping during contractions and we wanted to see what was the most effective. It was also difficult since the baby was “sunny side up.” I almost gave up because I was so tired and hungry and Shelia had mentioned possibly having to do a c-section again if we couldn’t get the head going. However, she kept reassuring me that I could do it and that I was making progress, especially when she would say she could see some dark hair. I seriously couldn’t have done it without Shelia, and it was such an intimate thing just the 3 of us in the room. She was so encouraging and I started pushing more effectively. At the point when I saw that it was almost midnight, I was actually ok with the fact I had been pushing for so long so that the baby wouldn’t be born on Friday the 13th! One of my pushes she didn’t expect to be the one, and it was finally time to get the doctor and delivery team in the room. This was the worst part because it literally felt like it was hanging halfway out and it felt like forever waiting for the doctor and team. I could barely hold from pushing and just wanted Shelia to deliver it because I felt like I couldn’t wait anymore haha. The doctor finally came in and it felt like forever watching her put on her gloves. Our baby boy was finally born at 12:28 am on 12.14.24. He was face up but rotated at the last second which was very impressive to them and also had the umbilical cord wrapped around him twice loosely. They immediately put him on my chest and I had ask what it was haha. The doctor spread the legs and Charles said it was a boy! I then delivered the placenta and got sewn up and it felt so good finally not having all the pressure. I was shocked that I only tore 1.5 degrees since I pushed for 2.5 hours and since it was so hard getting him down the birth canal face up. Once we were settled we had our parents come in to meet him since they had waited up in the waiting room. From there, we finally made our way to the postpartum rooms around 2 am. We got settled and baby got all his newborn medications and care in the nursery around 3. The first night was a whirlwind and so exhausting after almost 24 hours of barely any sleep and having to do all the things in the middle of the night, but I surprisingly felt good physically. He stayed in the nursery so we could try and get some rest.
I love him so much already and am grateful we are both healthy and feeling good. It was such a surreal experience and I had the best hospital stay. Piedmont was amazing and I’m so thankful for their team and the safe delivery of baby Charlie. Now we are looking forward to heading to Athens tomorrow for the week as we celebrate our first Christmas as a family of 3!
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