(Warning: this post is extremely long and detailed! I wrote this more for me so I could remember this :)
Amelia Grace was due November 8. I had stopped working the week prior to give myself a break and prepare for this little one to arrive so needless to say we were anxiously awaiting her arrival. Joe and I had been taking regular walks on the walking trail in our neighborhood trying to get this baby moving in the right direction. The day before my due date, I even tried some Wii Just Dance but that only produced laughing fits from me instead of contractions. That night we went out for some Chinese food, just in case the Old Wive's Tale was true. I went to bed crampy.
The morning of my due date, I woke up having noticeable contractions every 15ish minutes. During the morning, they would wake me up from sleeping. I had my 40 week appointment right before lunch. I am not sure but I was really nervous about this appointment to begin with. My doctor was out of the office for the week so I was seeing someone completely new and I knew that I was going to have an ultrasound, which I had not had one since 20 weeks. My Blood Pressure was elevated when I got there, like 150's/90's. We had our ultrasound which confirmed she was head down and still definitely a girl. It also confirmed that she had no room and her face was smooshed.
Then we go to the room where they hook me up to do a NST, which confirmed my contractions having every 5ish minutes, but still not more painful. But being a L&D nurse, I loved looking at the strip and seeing a happy healthy strip! :) We saw the doctor who checked me; I had made no change since last week. He looked at my strip but made no mention of my contractions and was about to leave when he saw my BP. He tracked down a cuff and he got the same reading. He had me sit tight then rechecked it a few minutes later and decided to send me to L&D to get checked out. I snacked on some saltines on the way over and got to the hospital.
I was admitted and hooked up to the monitors. I was still having contractions that were getting more painful. After a couple of hour my BP had calmed down. The nurse checked me and I was still 1-2 cm. They decided to go ahead and keep me and induce me in the morning. Now previously I was against getting induced but at that point I was ready to meet my little girl. They let me eat dinner which I scarfed down, but continued to contract. My nurse gave me an Ambien to help me sleep. I have never taken anything like that before. It gave me crazy dreams. I woke up around 2:30 with pretty painful contractions. My nurse checked me and finally I was 3-4, finally in labor making change. The Ambien still made me a little loopy but I agreed to IV pain medicine and to go ahead and get my epidural. The IV med helped and I fell back asleep.
I got my epidural around 5a. They made Joe leave, which I thought was really strange. I was really wondering how it felt to get an epidural. Being a L&D nurse, I see patient's getting epidurals or spinals almost every shift. Some patients act like its completely fine and some act like its the worst thing ever. I personally didn't think it was that bad at all. The nurse checked me afterwards and said I was 4-5. The epidural was great because I could still move my legs but completely numb.
The doctor, Dr Hyde came and broke my water around 7ish and called me 5-6 cm. He said I should have my baby before lunch. The Ambien still made me pretty sleepy so I slept off and on all morning. Around 10:30a, I started feeling my contractions more and soon they became very painful. I was 8-9 cm. My nurse offered me to get redosed for my epidural. I got redosed twice and finally started getting relief. Around 12:15, I started feeling more and more pressure. I tried to hold off calling the nurse, but finally did and the charge nurse check me and said I was 10 cm and the baby was very low. Dr Hyde was called and we started pushing. Even though she was low, I heard him say that I was going to have some pushing to do. He told me that I may even need a vacuum to help since I was small.
With getting redosed, I could feel my contractions but now really feel pushing, the complete opposite of what I needed. I pushed for about 15 minutes before the doctoHr came back to check on me. We decided to go ahead with the vacuum. As I was about to deliver, Joe announced that he needed to sit down. The nurses quickly sat him down and got him a wet wash cloth. Joe told me later that he was trying to suck it up but started to get dizzy since he hadn't eaten anything. Finally at 1:19 pm on Novemeber 9, Amelia Grace was born crying. I got to hold her for a minute before they took her to clean her off. They announced she was 8 pounds and 2 ounces and 21 1/4". Interestingly, my whole pregnancy everyone thought I was small and would have a small baby. Ha!
The yucky part of delivery was I was a really bad tear. The doctor said it was a big baby through a small space. And interestingly, redheads tend to bleed more. It took almost an hour to get me all put back to together again. My epidural bag ran out while I was pushing and had to get numbing shots to get through the repair. At this hospital, they try to give you an hour with your baby and then take her to the nursery for her assessment and first bath. Since my repair was taking so long, I said it was okay to go ahead and send her to the nursery. After the doctor was done, I was still out of it from the Ambien (I have no plans on taking that anytime soon!) The nurse finally got my bleeding under control after a few different medications and Joe and I slept.
My parents arrived around 4:30 and Amelia still was in the nursery. Finally around 5pm she came back to us and I really got to hold my little girl who I waited on. She was perfect and beautiful!
Thank you God for this precious gift of Amelia Grace!
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