Anyway, So.... on July 5, we went into the hospital for the induction.
I was dilated to 4cm when we got to the hospital. I might have been in early labor already, I was cramping and contracting all day on the 4th it just wasn't too regular. When I got to the hospital I was having some contractions but they weren't real consistant. They were just stronger than before.
The nurse asked me about my birth plan and I told her about the cord clamping thing (I wanted to not clamp the cord for 3 minutes so he could get as much of his cord blood as possible) and that I want the pitocin set real low. She set it on a 2.
It didn't really seem to affect my contractions a whole lot, they were not really more frequent but a little more regular. I probably sat that way for about 2 hours.
Next the anestesiologist (sp?) showed up for my epidural... I so wanted to try it natural, but I was SO worried about doing with pitocin AND I could tell with the little contractions i was having that it was back labor. They weren't real painful at all... just crampy, but my back was hurting pretty bad.
The epi went fine, at first, but then when I laid down my heartrate shot up to 120 and my bp dropped to 80 over something... um scary... and AWFUL. So they had to give me meds to make my bp go up... how ironic. It was awful. Steven and the kids said I lost all the color from my face, I felt nautious... and dizzy.. ick.
Then I felt GUILTY! Like such a wimp for needing the epi that I just put myself and poor Joshua through that! I have never had a reaction like that before.
At the same time my Dr showed up to break my water.. he said I was 5-6cm (with no pain up until that point!). After that the contractions sped up and were on top of each other. Then I was thankful for the epi. I don't know if I could have done it! I mean I know I could have, but they were constant! So they lowered my pit down to a 1 and that slowed them down. They were still pretty close together though... I think it was probably 3 hours before I was a 10... but right about that time Joshua's heartrate dropped down to a 60 which was scary. My Dr wasn't there yet, but I told the nurse that if things didn't change fast I was pushing the baby out!! Luckily she was a nurse experienced with delivering babies. Also, his heartrate went back to normal pretty fast. It just freaked me out for a second there. I felt so helpless!
Then the Dr got there and I pushed through 2 contractions and Joshua came out sunny side up! Little stinker... but it wasn't as hard as pushing Elise out so I was glad. I bet that is why my back was hurting.
The Dr put him on my chest... that was my first experience with that and it's SO wonderful! I can't believe I had 6 babies whisked away from me right after birth and didn't even know what I was missing! :(
He waited over 3 minutes and asked me if I was ready for him to clamp the cord... I felt happy with that (I don't think it was done pulsating at that point though) so I told him it was okay. Then I just held him for the longest time. He SCREAMED! Eventually the nurses took him from me to get him somewhat cleaned up and weighed and then gave him right back! He weighed 7lbs 5oz... same as his bday 7-5! :)
It was overall such a great experience and I felt a lot more in control of it... they asked ME what i wanted before they did everything compared to the past where they just ran the show. All it took was just speaking up and telling them what I wanted.
Also Katie and Danielle were in there the whole time... this is the 3rd sibling they have seen delivered. They did great. Katie had a moment of not feeling very well, but after some rest and food in her tummy she felt better. She was the photographer. Danielle was hilarious, had all kinds of funny stuff to say. Stinker. :)
My regrets of course were having to use the pitocin (probably breaking my water would have been enough) and of course the epi. Don't know what I'll do in the future if there's any more babies.... At this point I still think I'd get the epidural, but who knows, if I actually went into labor on my own mabye I coudl do it.
I really enjoyed the time in hospital, the food -- YUMMY!, the nurses... I just love them.... the time alone with baby, sleeping... It was all great. I miss it, haha!
I think that's it, in a nutshell!
Beautiful Baby!





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