I wrote this post a year ago, and wasn’t sure if I would post it. BUT, as we celebrate one year with our Little Lady, I felt ready to share our story of induction. Recaps from my Marathon will begin either late this week or over the weekend, but for now.. enjoy.
January 10th,
This is the day that I was “supposed” to be giving birth. Due to a Policy enforcement from the Hospital, my OB was not able to induce me before 39 weeks. Since, I was 39 weeks on Sunday I had to wait. …
Not really a big deal except my OB was going to be out of the office during my 39th week. Therefore, the baby would be delivered by a different doctor.
When I got the news of this Wednesday evening, I cried. I’d spent my whole pregnancy going over EVERY detail with my OB. I was comfortable with her, and was just ready to bring Baby Jimenez into the world with her help.
I nervously waited to meet the new doctor, and was pleasantly surprised when I actually felt a sense of peace upon meeting him. He was nice, competent and very respectful that I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the last minute change in plans.
The Weekend
The weekend was exhausting. Since we were supposed to have already given birth, we had quite a bit of inquiries as to why I was still pregnant. It was exhausting, but we survived and Monday finally came!
Monday, January 13th
My only plans for the day were to get my nails done and sleep. Of course my phone charger had broken, and we realized we had several last minute things to do – so Chris took me to the nail salon for a manicure and pedicure while he ran all over town.
8:30 p.m. – Time to leave.
We excitedly left the house and drove to the hospital. I was so giddy with excitement, even though I’d been warned that inductions take time, I was just so excited and in my mind Riley was going to be here in a matter of hours.
By 9:30 we were taken to our delivery room, and we began the exams, IV’s, blood pressure … etc, etc..
11:00 p.m. – First dose of medication.
11:20 p.m. – A visit from my parents. They visited for a while and then headed to our house to get some sleep.
3:00 a.m. – 1 CM dilated.
8:20 a.m. – 1 CM dilated
10:45 a.m. – The Doctor stopped by, told me not to stress. Sometimes inductions take time, but we were going to have the baby and we were not even considering a c-section.
12:05 p.m. – Let the Pitocin begin. (p.s., still only 1 CM after 3 doses of the first medication) This was very frustrating for me because my contractions were getting ridiculously harder but nothing was happening!
2:30 p.m. – Still only 1 CM, the contractions were out of control. I had just been told that another woman was in the same boat as me (only 1 CM after 3 doses of medication and pitocin) and she just came out from a c-section. I guess that they were trying to comfort me… but all it did was freak me out. When the Doctor told me I was still only 1 CM, I broke down in tears and begged for the Epidural.
I’d had several conversations with the Doctor about the Epidural, and although I was nervous, he assured me that the Epidural would help me to relax and allow my body to progress.
So, the Epidural came. I (of course) cried through the whole thing. My nurse held my hand and told me it was going to be okay, I kept asking why I couldn’t feel my legs, and if I was going to be able to walk again. I think I might have been less stressed if the girl prepping me for the Epidural wasn’t singing “I do what I want, what I want with my body…” But, it was a memory. I also kept looking over at Chris, and thinking “why is he still in here? – I hope he doesn’t pass out”. Chris didn’t pass out and after my nurse assured me about 900 times that I would be able to walk again, I finally relaxed.
By 3:30 I was still only 1 CM and was in no pain, so we allowed some family to come visit. It was fun watching all our family members inspect the room. Of course the medical family members wanted to look at the print out of the babies heart rate, and the non-medical people would explore all of the stuff prepped for Baby’s arrival.
Around 4:30, my nurse came in and I told her that “I peed on myself”. She laughed at me and said there is no way I peed on myself and I’m just feeling the effects of the epidural. Still feeling like I was sitting in a pool of water (gross, I know) I accepted it.
Around 5:30 I still felt like I had peed on myself so I told her again. The nurse said she’d test my glucose levels and then check, but there was no way I could have peed on myself.
Turns out … my water had broken!
What an answer to prayer! At 6:00 p.m., if I still wasn’t progressing, the doctor was going to manually break my water (something I was quite nervous about)
Doctor came in, the nurse explained the situation – we all got a good laugh about my description of my water breaking and I was now 4 or 5 CM dilated!
I was told to take a nap because baby would probably be here around 11:00 p.m. Then, the doctor went off to have dinner and the nurse went to re-chart everything from when I “peed on myself”.
Chris came over, gave me a kiss and I started to go to sleep, while he pulled up netflix on the Kindle.
6:37 p.m. – The nurse RUNS in and says “I need to check you RIGHT NOW!, something strange happened” Now, I’m nervous. … all I could think was something was wrong with Baby!
I’d felt a strange urge to push about the time she ran in – but was now too scared to move.
Chris was on my left side and the nurse shouts out “Oh my God, Oh my God! – I gotta call the doctor right now!” As she takes off her gloves she manages to say “9.5 CM!, get ready baby is coming!”
Pause.
The shift changes at 7:00 p.m., it’s now about 6:40.
The next few minutes felt like an eternity.
- I can hear the the chaos outside my room as they are trying to get ahold of my doctor.
- I can hear the chaos of them trying to see if my evening nurse was in yet.
- I can hear the nurses laughing.
- I can see Chris pacing…
We made the decision not to text the family that she was coming. To be honest, there wasn’t time. Chris had to clean up our stuff, put the couch back together and then it happened.
The doctor arrived. It was now about 7:10 p.m.. He and the day shift nurse prepped Chris to assist with the Birth of Riley while the evening nurse got herself settled.
The doctor had given Chris instructions, and asked him to go over to the couch if he at any time felt nauseated. The doctor then performed an exam to see how I was progressing and said “Look Daddy, she’s blonde like her Mom”.
Now, I’m no doctor. … in fact, medical stuff grosses me out. But … doesn’t that mean that I’m crowning?
Yes. Riley was indeed ready to come.
In the room is still only Chris, 1 nurse and the Doctor. Due to the change of shift, they were still trying to get everyone in place.
With Chris on one side, and a nurse (who I still at this point don’t even know her name) the doctor asks
“Erin, Did you take a birth class”
“yes”
“What do you remember, about pushing?”
In a very frighten, shaken voice I shout “NOTHING”
“Don’t worry, that’s very common! We will help you through this”
5 sets of pushing later, at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Riley Noelle was in our arms. A 6 pound, 3 ounce healthy little girl, full of energy!
As she was being born, the other nurses, and neonatologist arrived and began to introduce themselves to me.
My birth experience was not how I could have ever imagined it, but it was perfect. The Lord blessed me with a quick and safe delivery of our baby girl.
