The anesthesiologist and his team arrived about 15 minutes later, luckily they were finishing someone else's epidural so they arrived pretty quickly. I signed a consent form and we got started. Honestly the numbing medication that I was given hurt worse then the epidural placement. The doctor that performed the procedure had terrible bedside manner however was an incredible doctor, according to our nurse Mary who has been a nurse for 15 years, he performed the epidural faster and more efficiently than anyone she has ever seen. I didn't think it was that bad and was extremely glad to have some relief.
From there it was just wait & watch...we just waited for my body to progress and just watched the contraction and heart rate monitor. My sisters were still at the hospital and my parents and in-laws arrived around 5pm, everyone thought we would have a baby by that point.
It was determined that Baby G was sunny side up (her face was facing my belly) instead of facing my back like it should be during a vaginal delivery so the nurse brought me this big blue ball that looked like a giant peanut. I had to lay on my side with that between my legs for 20 minutes and then switch to the other side. This went on for a couple of hours, I tried to sleep during that time but it was very difficult.
Instead of anyone leaving the hospital to eat dinner our parents ordered pizza to be delivered and everyone ate in the waiting room. Throughout the evening our family members would stop in to sit with me but for the most part they all were very considerate of the little sleep Mr. G and I had. I tried to rest as much as I could but the anticipation was keeping me from really getting some good rest.
At 7pm we were introduced to our nurse Erin, she would be on from 7pm-7am and I had hoped that she would be our last nurse. In all honesty I wasn't sure of Erin to begin with, and I can't be sure why, but in the end she (and Jenny from earlier Monday) was the best labor & delivery nurse I had. She kept us updated throughout the evening and let us know that she had been in contact with my doctor and that she would be arriving at the hospital no later than 9pm and would be staying overnight. My parents, inlaws and sisters decided to stay until 9pm to see what the plan would be. Once again I attempted to get some rest...not easy.
At 9pm Dr. J arrived and I was extremely happy to see her, she checked me (only at a 4, not thinned out nor effaced much) and we decided that we would continue to try to let my body progress...if I went 2 hours with absolutely no progress then we would discuss another option. She emphasized my need for rest. My father and inlaws decided to go home to get some rest and asked that we update them at 11pm when I was scheduled to be checked again. At that point my mother, sisters and sister in law decided they were going to wait it out. Actually my mother refused to leave, we told her she was welcome to stay but that she needed to go to the waiting room unless I asked for her.
We turned the lights down and tried to get some sleep, I believe I got about 1.5 hours at that point.
The time gets a little fuzzy at this point so I'm going to make my best guess...around 10:30pm I noticed that the babys heartrate dropped below the blue line. I didn't think much of it but Erin came rushing in, apparently she had been watching it for a while and it had done that with the prior three contractions. I woke Mr. G and was a little worried but Erin assured me that sometimes after a long labor that the baby gets tired and irritable and the heartrate drops a bit during contractions. She said that she had been watching it and would send the info to Dr. J when she checked me at 11pm. Of course I was awake and quite anxious at that point so I sent my mom a text asking her to come back and sit with me. A woman just needs her mom sometimes.
At 11pm I was checked and had made a little bit of progress, Dr. J reviewed everything and ordered me to rest and get rechecked at 1am. Lights off and I was able to sleep on and off for 2 hours while my mother rubbed my arm and hair. Now that I have my baby I can't imagine what my mother was going through during that time, watching her baby preparing to give birth.
At 1am I was checked and had made very little progress and Baby G's heartrate continued to drop slightly with each contraction. Dr. J wanted to give it two more hours, she really wanted to give my body the chance to progress.
** We were over 33 hours of induction / labor around this time.
My mother left the room to go to the waiting room on her way she saw Erin and asked Erin if the doctor decided to perform a csection would it be done the next day or right away. Erin sort of laughed and said that if Dr. J decided that I needed a csection it would be performed immediately following the decision. So my mom asked if she should go to my sisters to get some rest. Erin asked how far that was and my mom told her about 20 minutes, Erin told her she thought it would be best if she stayed put and offered my mom some blankets for the waiting room. At that point I believe Erin knew that we would likely need a csection. So everyone settled in for some additional rest. My mom, sisters and sister in law slept in the waiting room and were able to actually get a little sleep
At 2:45am I woke up and looked at the monitor and noticed that Baby G's heartrate was again dipping with each contraction, at that point I panicked. I shouted at Mr. G to wake up and told him that we needed a plan, I could not watch her heartrate drop any longer. He assured me that the doctor and nurse knew what they were doing and reminded me how much I trusted Dr. J. I was scheduled to be checked at 3am so we just spent some quiet time waiting for Erin to come in. At 3am she came in to check me and informed us that no progress had been made, she was sending the info to Dr. J and that she would be back to let me know what the doctor said.
At 3:15am Erin returned to let us know that our doctor was on her way to our room, I looked at Erin and asked "does this mean what I think it does?" Her response was, "yes, I believe that Dr. J will recommend taking the baby via c-section".
I asked Erin how much time we would have once the decision was made, she informed me that it wasn't much and that they moved quickly once it was decided. So, we asked her to have my family come back after the doctor had been in the room...we wanted to make an informed decision without the opinions of any family.
Dr. J came in and checked me again, confirming that I had not made any progress. She talked to us at length about our options and then told us that she recommended we proceed with a c-section for a variety of reasons. We were comfortable with that recommendation and decided to proceed with the c-section. From that point it was a whirlwind! Our family members were summoned from the waiting room, Mr. G called his parents, my mom called my dad....hugs and kisses were exchanged and they were told where to go to wait for me.
There were 6 nurses, Dr. J, the anesthesiologist, the CRNA all working around the room. The lights were turned on, Mr. G was packing all of our belongings and I was signing forms. I believe I was rolled out of my room at about 3:40am, it was amazing to me what was done in less than 30 minutes.
The c-section was pretty straight forward, I threw up from the medication and my right arm and shoulder went number because a nerve was hit when they were taking out the baby.
At 4:20am Olivia Renae Elizabeth G. was born (although she did not have a name at that point), she had a full head of brown hair and the cutest cheeks ever! When Dr. J got to her I heard her say, "look at those cheeks...and all of that hair!!"
She came out crying, weighed 8lbs 3 ounces and was 21 inches long...she was perfect!
Dr. J came to see us in post op and informed us that Olivia would never have come out vaginally as she was stuck. Her feet were wedged up near my rib cage and the umbilical cord was wrapped around an ankle and then up around her shoulder. She was unable to drop down far enough to put pressure in places that pressure was needed.
Oliva, Mr. G & I spent two hours in recovery alone, we loved on her and read her a book and attempted breastfeeding for the first time. It was wonderful that we had that time to ourselves without any other family members.
Part 3 of the birth story coming soon...
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