Friday - August 15th, 2008

I had been diligently working on preparing for the arrival of my mother on Saturday morning and of course my original induction date starting Sunday night at 8PM where I was to be administered cervidil to hopefully get my cervix to move forward and get the first stage of the induction well on its way to start 100% at 6:00AM Monday morning. I also had told Scott to make plans to play golf with his dad and brother’s Saturday morning because he probably wouldn’t get to for a while..... He was SUPER excited about that!

Well..... Ashton had other plans.... Not to mention, it was a FULL MOON!

Friday I dropped the girls off at my MIL’s and came home to do some laundry and try and rest up a little bit, but there was a lot that I still needed, take that back, wanted to get done. Nesting had really really set in and was taking over all rational thoughts. By the afternoon I was a wee bit tire and started to have way more Braxton Hicks than “normal”..... something in my gut told that I more than likely was not going to have to need an induction, and much less hold out over the weekend. By 3:00 I was starting to have contractions, maybe one – 2 every hour and I had already repacked my hospital bag and gotten the girls gifts “from Ashton” together and already in the van just in case.

I picked up the girls from my MIL’s and made a comment that I was starting to have some contractions, or what I thought was contractions because they were definitely NOT Braxton Hicks. She said “You just had your appointment on Wednesday, so not much would probably change between now and then....” I was hoping that was the case!

The girls and I came home and just relaxed around the house... I was putting away the last of the laundry and doing a couple of small loads just to have it 100% DONE so it wasn’t piling up for a few weeks, or having my mom being inundated. By 6:30 I've had some pretty intense contractions the past 4 hours.... about 3 - 5 an hour I was REALLY trying to relax because I didn’t want my mom to miss the entire birth as she wasn’t flying in until Saturday at 12:45! Good thing I got most everything done that I wanted to get done, but Murphy’s Law really bites sometimes!

Scott was at home by this time, and I was having a hard time just sitting and relaxing. I couldn’t really even eat dinner because I was having contractions, not painful ones, through dinner, just didn’t sit right with my stomach. He kept telling me to relax and take it easy... at one point I DIED laughing when he said “I’m still holding out for golf tomorrow!!!! You never ask me to go play.... Unless you are getting ready to go into labor!” hehe

After doing our normal nightly routine of baths, bedtime stories and putting the girls to bed I took a warm bath to try and get some rest and see if the contractions wouldn’t slow down, this was around 8:30..... but by 9:55PM I started keeping track of how often the contractions were coming.

9:55
10:08
10:19
10:26
10:33
10:44
10:55
11:07
11:19
11:23
11:27
11:30
11:37
11:40
11:43
11:45
11:51

Needless to say....... I was waiting for Julie to call me back.

Within 5 minutes she called and the first thing she said was “He’s not supposed to be here until the 18th!!!” LOL I agreed, and then she asked me a few questions, as well as how often the contractions were coming... just general run of the mill stuff to make sure I was FOR SURE in labor. Then she told me to wait until they were painful enough that I really couldn’t talk/breath through them..... which I knew was the case, but I wanted to give her a heads up that I would be delivering on the 16th! She apologized that she wouldn’t be there when I got there, which I knew was fine, because she didn’t come on the floor until 2AM..... but I knew I wasn’t going to be giving birth by then, so I wasn’t worried.

After I hung up with her my contractions continued....

11:55
12:00
12:02
12:05
12:09
12:11
12:14

I took my LAST belly pictures for this pregnancy right before heading downstairs...

Saturday – August 16th, 2008

I called Julie again, and I really REALLY couldn’t talk through these now, and it was some INTENSE back labor starting. GREAT. Julie told me to head on over to L&D. Scott called his mom to have her come over to spend the night with the girls and called my mom to let her know that I was in labor. I was worried she was going to be devastated, but she wasn’t, she was more concerned that Ashton and I were going to be ok which was sweet.

Linda got to our house around 12:40AM and Scott and I headed to the hospital at 12:43 when I was still having INTENSE back labored contractions.... But I was doing pretty well breathing through them.... They definitely took my breath away, and I had to lean against one of the girls’ riding toys on the way OUT to the van because it was making me weak in the knees.

I arrived at the ER entrance of WRH where one of the lovely nurses coming on to her shift offered to wheel me on up directly...... and the admission person at the ER said that they were having “a run on babies tonight.” Guess there is something to be said about full moons? The long walk up to L&D from the ER was a bit intense, but only a couple of contractions.... As soon as the last elevator door opened I was taken to my laboring room where I was asked to get into a gown and provide a urine sample for Dr. D, the on call OB... though the nurses said that they would hold off because the midwives usually don’t do a urine test unless there are pre-existing conditions. I had a couple more DOOZY contractions which I leaned against the sink and breathed/rocked through..... they were getting way more intense and the back labor was getting pretty painful... I knew I was going to be sore.

1:25AM: There were two nurses on staff, one was getting ready to clock out but stayed to help out... and she wanted to check how much I had progressed. I warned her of my severely tilted uterus and knew I was in for some pain, but good lord, I thought I was going to DIE. Finally she gave up, THANK GOD, and the other nurse came in and within 10 seconds she told me I was between 2 – 3 cm and she was going to monitor me for a bit and call Dr. D to see what she wanted to do, but Julie was coming on in about 40 minutes. Ashton was still really high... -2 Station.

I continued to labor in bed and breathe through the back labor.

2:22AM: Julie wanted me to walk the halls a bit to get labor going a bit more. That was pretty intense. I was freezing and would get 4 minutes around and then had to brace myself against the walls to breathe through the intense back labor. A couple of the nurses coming in and out of the other rooms would periodically ask how I was doing.

2:45AM: My back muscles were so sore, and the contractions were really starting to make me weak. I decided it was best for me to come back into my room and rest a bit and try to labor a bit more in bed.

2:52AM: Scott was so awesome.... He went out and asked one of the nurses for a birthing ball for me! I didn’t even mention it to him, or ask.... But it was a LIFE SAVER! It made things a bit better on my back by relieving some pressure on my pelvis. I only was on it a few minutes before Julie wanted me to be checked again.

3:00AM: I was 3-4 cm dilated and I got back on the birthing ball.

3:14AM: Julie was arriving on the floor and checked in with the nurses to see how I was doing and I was completing of my questions for admission.

3:27AM: Finally I was officially admitted to the hospital. I couldn’t have imagined they would have sent me home seeing as though I was progressing and my contractions were constant and I was in some serious pain and so looking forward to NUBAIN! The blood lab person came in to take a ton of blood and I was pretty happy she was able to get a vein on the first try!

3:42AM: My IV was finally “installed” and I continued to labor on my own. The nurses were awesome and talked me through everything and gave me constant positive responses to how well I was dealing with my contractions, which of course, were “doozies” and I was actually surprising myself how well I was able to breathe through them. Around this time I remember that the nurses were making a couple of comments about how Ashton wasn’t reacting to the contractions like they would like to see, as in he was deviating in his heart rate it wasn’t deceling, it was staying constant. It should be going up and down. They weren’t too terribly concerned, so I tried to stay calm, especially since his heart rate was still in the high 140’s and continued to monitor him and me, though with my complete basketball belly it was hard to keep an external monitor in the proper place because I had a “shelf” that the monitor kept slipping down under.

4:30AM: Julie came in to see how I was doing, and I was telling her that the back labor was pretty intense, even more so than what I remember with Reese because with Ashton is was all over my back, just not on one side. Julie suggested I get into the “prayer position” in the bed. I didn’t know that the bottom of the bed I was in could drop to the floor, so it was like a bench.... Poor choice of wording at this time, but Scott said “Oh cool, it’s like a fork lift!” After some razzing by the nurses and Julie, we did laugh..... and honestly this position did help, and I had counter pressure from Julie when a new contraction came on. It helped, didn’t make the pain go away, but it did help some. I stayed in this position for about 15 minutes before they wanted to check my progress again.

4:45AM: 4 cm dilated ~ 90% effaced ~ -1 Station! We have progress! Though my back labor was really really starting to pick up to the point I couldn’t breathe. I asked if I could start the process to get an epidural and Julie said yes, but wanted me to try “these” which were discussed at one of my prenatal visits a couple of weeks ago...... Sterile Water Papules. In hindsight I now know why she wanted me to do these, she didn’t want me to get my epidural this early with Ashton’s heart rate the way it was.

4:51AM: I resumed the prayer position to labor on my own until Julie and the nurse were ready with their needles. If you aren’t familiar with Sterile Water Papules, http://www.anesthesiologyinfo.com/articles/cbe/blsubq.php, they are 4 injections of saline water injected under the skin in the lower back to help divert pain. How you ask? By creating an even GREATER pain. No this is not a joke. Julie warned me that these would “burn like stink” but it was more like HURT LIKE HOLY HELL AND THEN SOME for 20 seconds each, 2 at a time administered by Julie and a nurse two times..... so 40 seconds of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve given birth 2 times before, torn and ACL and gone through reconstruction and this pain was NOTHING like that. Thankfully Julie and the nurse were awesome and able to get it done within the 40 seconds, even though I wanted to pass out after it was done, but I will say................ IT WORKED!!!!! I didn’t have the horrendous back pain for a while! So well, glad I made the choice to have this done.

4:59AM: NUBAIN! Thank god, it was finally being administered to me. It’s the equivalent to a really good glass of wine, or as Jeni said the “Happy Drug.” I felt like a million bucks and took about a 45 minute nap, the entire time they were still monitoring Ashton’s heart rate, still concerned that he didn’t have a ton of deviation in his heart rate during contractions. The papules were starting to wear off as I was waking up here and there between the back labor contractions.... But I stayed calm and breathed through them.

6:00AM: The nurses wanted me to turn on my right side and gave me oxygen to see if that wouldn’t help out Ashton, or at least keep him steady as well as myself during my contractions.

6:30AM: I don’t 100% remember why I was given sugar water at this point, but the bag was hung up and added to my IV. I’m thinking it may have tried to stimulate Ashton to get his heart rate to cooperate like it should.

7:25AM: I was checked again, 6cm ~ 90% effaced ~ -2 Station. YAY! I made it to my own personal goal before asking for my epidural. And I did just that, to be told that a gal is getting ready for a c-section before me, and the anesthesiologist is already in there waiting for Dr. D to get in. I was kinda worried because I KNOW that she’s ALWAYS late...... and this may have also been a ploy to keep me laboring on my own since Ashton’s heart rate was where it was..... but of course, they never told me this! It was only later, when we were home, that Scott said that Julie at this point took him outside and said “I don’t think we’ll be able to give Sue her epidural.” Scott asked “Do you want your head ripped off?” and Julie said “That’s why I didn’t say it IN the room.”

8:08AM: The best person in the world I wanted to see at the time, though I was in some SERIOUS SERIOUS SERIOUS pain and really had tunnel vision when it came to the next contraction, which were coming every 4 minutes and lasting about 2 minutes, BOBBIE! My anesthesiologist that I had been praying would get in there ASAP! She got everything rolling, during my contractions Jeni started to answer some of my questions. Jeni was my at home nurse 1 week after when I had REESE! So well, we have history, and they know me.... Again, I LOVE MY HOSPITAL. I’m not sure exactly what questions were asked, but I know Jeni said that I had never had any adverse reactions to an epidural before, and then it was a battery of tests, but Bobbie was AMAZING as she said that she’d speak fast when it came to the questions. She understated that! She was awesome.... She read them REALLY REALLY REALLY fast and I answered, even during a contraction and finally said “I agree, just stick it in!!!” Then Bobbie started the procedure. It took about 5 minutes LONGER than it should because I have “tight tendons” and she asked if I ran or played sports because that’s how tight they were! That made me feel good, though at the time, I was pissed for being so well in shape! FINALLY FINALLY it was inserted and then I wanted to vomit and asked Jeni for some zofran pronto.... And she looked at Julie and they both said “8... she’s gotta be at 8.” And then I promptly puked my guts up. Bobbie waited with me for about 30 minutes, and ended up giving me 2 1/2 doses of epidural because of how far along I was, as well as it takes 5 minutes to 1 hour to get everything numb. My right leg went numb almost immediately, my left leg took longer. Bobbie said it was also due to my slight scoliosis in my spine so instead of it going straight up my spine, it curved a little..... it would just take a little bit longer, and it did, and then I was COMPLETELY numb..... SUPER even more so than with Riley! That was unnerving, but I didn’t have the pain in my back, THANK HEAVENS. BOBBIE YOU ROCK!

8:25AM: Scott wasn’t in the room still at this time.... He had gone outside to the bathroom and I think to update everyone on what was going on. A nurse was also staked outside to make sure he didn’t enter because my water was about to be broken and the last time it happened with Reese he almost passed out. Scott did try and enter but everyone in the room yelled “NOT YET!” I was checked, yup, 8 cm.... then Julie broke my water. That was the weirdest feeling ever, and I will never get used to it.

8:28AM: Since my water was now broken and Ashton’s heart rate still wasn’t reacting like it should and Julie thought it best to insert an internal monitor for Ashton and for me to monitor my contractions and his heart rate better. As much as the thought of that had freaked me out since seeing what they were during my birthing classes with Reese, I knew it was for the best to keep an eye on him and of course I agreed. There was this point when Julie and Jeni weren’t 100% sure whether Ashton had already had his first bowel movement as there was discharge in my fluids. So it was a little chatter of whether something was blood or meconium which was a little unnerving because there are dangers with this.... Serious ones. BUT after close inspection, it wasn’t.

8:50AM: My internal monitor wasn’t working, not a huge deal as I still had on the external monitor to measure my contractions. Jeni looked at the ticker tape and said that it was a good thing that I had my epidural because my contractions were 3 minutes long... and coming every 6 minutes! YIKES! But I did manage to now rest and get some rest... but not a ton as Scott and I were talking, more like he was saying stuff making me howl with laughter!

10:00AM: I was checked again and I was right at the anterior lip! 0 station!! Pretty much we were almost there! Julie had relayed the message through Jeni that she wanted me to start pushing around 11....

11:05AM: I was definitely starting to feel pressures to push.... Not uncontrollable, but it was definitely getting about that time. Julie started asking to have another nurse come in, the mirror, warming table, etc. The nurses were a bit sluggish in responding, though Julie was all over it..... at one point it was just she and I in the room and she asked me to take a practice push... and he moved down! I was looking forward to not pushing too terribly long, or at least hoping.

11:15AM: I’m COMPLETE!!! It’s pushing time! Scott assumed his position against the wall / beside me for photos. He didn’t want to hold a leg, which was fine with me... I wanted him to be comfortable too, and he was happy to take photos. I had several contractions and then I began to puke uncontrollably. Ashton was pushing on my ribs AND stomach... I could feel his feet doing it. I heard Jeni say that that’s how she birthed her second daughter... OMG, I thought I was going to die. I didn’t want to puke the ENTIRE time! Jeni and Carrie helped me sit up more, and to ball around when a contraction did come and eventually I stopped puking. Julie had to keep reminding me NOT to close my eyes when I was pushing because I wasn’t pushing correctly then. She had me continue to focus on the mirror to see where Ashton was. Scott was in the corner and I did hear him a couple of times remind me as well, that was really helpful when others were counting. At this point Ashton’s heart rate was doing EXACTLY what it should! Jeni and Julie at the same time said “You stinker!” I was very happy to hear this.

11:33AM: FINALLY Ashton FINALLY crowned!! Julie told Scott to take photos, and then after Ashton’s head emerged, I was crying uncontrollably with happiness, Julie stepped aside and asked me to reach down and pull him out!! I DID!! I DID!! I pulled out my child directly onto my chest!!! In the middle of my sobs I asked Scott “Still all boy?” and the proud dad said “Yes! Still all boy!” Ashton stayed on my chest until he was taken for his check-up and measurements. It was amazing!!!!!! Ashton started to nurse RIGHT AWAY... and did for the next 1 1/2 hours!!! The nurses were amazed at how efficient he was nursing but more so at the size of his hands!!! Julie just had to put 1 – 2 stitches in, same place as 2 births before, and had me take a look at my placenta, even Scott took a photo of it! LOL Pitocin was given to me intravenously to help contract my uterus. It was also confirmed on Ashton’s exit that he had his first bowel movement on the way OUT.... Jeni joked that his bowel movement helped move him on out that last contraction. LOL

Ashton Thomas was finally here! Perfect little man!

Born at 11:33AM
8 lb 6.9 oz
21 1/4 inches long
36.6 cm head circ (14 1/2)
36.6 cm chest circ (14 1/2)
Labeled: 40 weeks LGA (Large for Gestational Age)

I stayed in my delivering room for about an hour and a half waiting for my epidural to wear off, which it didn’t. My right leg was dead as a doornail, though I could feel my toes, and my hip, I just couldn’t feel anything in between.... STRANGE SENSATION!

Ashton was taken over to the warming station to get checked out, measured, stamped and all officially. All 10 perfect fingers and toes, long and lean! Carrie did notice that Ashton did have a slight tongue tie, but the pediatrician would be able to assess that better..... though it definitely wasn’t hindering his eating ability!

I will say that WRH’s food is still awesome! I had stuffed manicotti, carrots, soup and juice waiting for me! Even though I had just puked my guts up during labor I was FAMISHED and inhaled my dinner... and wanted more!

Jeni and Carrie ended up coming back to move me into my real room, and I ended up falling into both of them because I couldn’t feel my legs!!! We all laughed hysterically, but I was glad that Scott wasn’t in there to see that crazy scene, he’d have never let me live that down!

The rest of my hospital stay:

My postpartum recovery was amazing! The nursing staff was terrific as always, though my cramping SUCKED just as much this time as it did with Riley. I ended up having the water heating pad thing on me for most of my stay, along with Tylenol with codeine.

Reese and Riley came by for a brief visit Saturday evening to meet Ashton for the first time, and it also was the time that Ashton needed to get his bath and Hep B shot. Reese was a little taken aback by Ashton’s shrieking during his bath, but we kept explaining that the nurse wasn’t hurting him, it was just how Ashton expresses himself.... Etc. In time she’ll understand.

Ashton was definitely an eater, and NOISY! The nurses all joked that I wouldn’t be able to nurse him in church... and I joked that if the nursery was a type of “Big Brother” he’d have been kicked out for being the roughty late night party animal.

Sunday night, my last night at the hospital, Ashton nursed from 7PM (right after Scott’s and my memory meal, which is a date night) until 1AM and he was angry and frustrated. Ashton had emptied his bowels at around 2PM that afternoon and guess he needed a fill up. I finally succumbed to the fact that he needed to eat, especially since his billi levels were starting to rise and had the nursing staff cup feed him some formula. After he finished eating he had down 1 oz and slept for 6 hours. I tried to wake him, even stripping him down, roughing him up as the nurse showed me, but he nursed for 3 minutes and passed back out...... at 8AM Monday my milk FINALLY came in! Ashton was even more thrilled.

Monday also was my 30 minute massage. OMG, what a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL 30 minutes of my life! I was mush when Pat finished, and she was cute in saying that I definitely needed the message because I was completely tensed up..... yeah, could have told her that before she started!

Our new family of 5 headed home at around 8PM on Monday night!!