Thursday, April 24, 2014

Paige Taylor | 4.21.14


Paige arrived on Monday, April 21st. She is currently sleeping away by my side, making those soft little baby sounds I love so much. On to the birth story... If you want to skip the lead up and such, skip to the picture.

I had an appointment last week on Thursday, and the OB I saw that day checked me. I had been checked at the appointment two weeks prior and I was almost 3cm and 50% effaced so I was curious to know what progress I had made. I had been having painful contractions all week but not enough to do anything. He told me that I was 4cm and almost 100% effaced and asked if I wanted to go on my own or be induced. I told him that we were fine with an induction so he left the room to see when my specific OB was on call. When I left the room he said she was on for Monday and he would have a nurse call me to schedule the induction if she was comfortable with it.

The nurse called that afternoon and started with, "I doubt you'll make it to Monday..." and said my doctor wanted to induce me and they planned to start at 7am, but I needed to call at 6am to see if they had a bed.

Being able to plan for her actual birthday was kind of strange. In one sense, it was great. We had everything ready to go, a plan for the girls that didn't include throwing their schedule off in the middle of the night, and I was able to have a spotless house to come home to. In another sense, it was a little more emotional. I kept thinking of all my lasts and how quickly it was all coming to an end. If I had just gone into labor on my own there wouldn't be much time to think or dwell on things, but I had a whole weekend. I willed my body to make it to Monday as well because I really didn't want to be in the hospital on Easter.

Sunday night we dropped the girls off at Dustin's parents. Monday morning arrived. I woke up to use the bathroom at 4:30am and was wide awake. I watched TV until 6am and called the hospital. They had pushed back my induction to 9am, which suddenly felt like days instead of two hours. Dustin was blissfully sleeping and I woke him up at 7am to start getting ready. He was so calm and collected and I was practically jumping on the bed yelling "It's baby day!!" We loaded the car, did a few last minute things, and we were off! Dustin mentioned that he needed to take something to the bank at 9 so I had him drop me off at the hospital to check in while he did that. It was so strange passing L&D triage and being taken directly to a room.



Everything seem to start off so slow. There was paperwork to go over, information to enter in the computer, an ugly hospital gown to put on. At 10am the nurse tried to put my IV in and blew my vein, so she put a call in to IV recovery hoping they could do it better. They didn't come up until 10:30 and she had to put it in my hand, which is where no one wanted it, but oh well. My OB decided they would do pitocin and break my water together and see if that got things moving quickly. The nurse hooked up a small dose of pitcoin at 10:45 and then got word that my doctor was headed back into a c-section so we would have to wait on breaking my water. We decided to walk the halls instead of just sitting in the bed for awhile, since it helps pass the time. I felt some stronger contractions but nothing that was truly painful. I could tell the pitocin was doing something though.


I passed my doctor around 11:45 and she said she was going to grab lunch real quick. I thought that was kind of funny but didn't say anything [now I know why, which I'll get to later]. We ended up back in the room at 12 thinking she'd be up soon. Did a few more laps, ate some ice chips. She came up at 12:45 to break my water. It was the first time I had been checked and she told me that I was almost 6cm and baby's head was low. She broke my water, which there was A LOT of, and that was an odd feeling. I texted our photographer my progress. I didn't want her to just have to sit in my room and do nothing!

The nurse was very adamant that if I wanted an epidural I needed to tell her right away. It was around this time that I got the idea they thought it would all go very fast, which was why my doctor went and ate lunch before breaking my water. It was also why the nurse had the entire room ready right before they broke my water. She had the delivery light down, the baby crib ready, and all of the equipment out. I didn't feel that way though since, surely, even if I was 10cm in five minutes I would push for hours like with Brooke and Molly. The contractions were almost immediate as soon as she broke my water. That did the trick! They were super painful so I made sure to tell the nurse to call the anesthesiologist and he came up at 1:15. My favorite person! Things went downhill from here. He did the numbing solution and then tried to put the epidural in but it was super uncomfortable and painful, which is normally isn't. It is so hard to describe the feeling of an epidural. Lots of pressure and nerve spasms! He kept asking where I felt it, left or right side, but it was so hard to decide. My pressure dropped to 60 something over 42 and I was sure I was going to pass out. The nurse was patting my face with a cold cloth and Dustin was holding a throw up pan in front of my face. He used more numbing solution and finally got the epidural in. My relief was short lived because it only numbed my left side.

My contractions felt almost worse now. My left side was numb but on the right I had extreme lower back pain and a sharp pain my pubic bone. My nurse, plus the charge nurse, came running in because baby's heart rate dropped with every contraction and they had to turn me. The charge nurse decided with my pain and her heart decelerations she must be sunny side up. I almost started crying. At 2:00 they had me push the button that administered more medicine into the epidural and they went to call him back up to fix it. He gave me a different medicine and I was numb in seconds. PHEW! Relief, finally. He left at 2:30 and they checked me.

7cm. Time to call our birth photographer in! She was already in the hospital so she was back in the room by 2:50. She put my wide angle lens on and we joked about keeping the windows wide open for the natural light [which we ended up doing]. In a minute or so I started feeling extreme pressure. My nurse was in checking on me because of the heart decelerations in baby and I told her. She said she doubted I was complete already but she'd check since I said it was so bad. She went to check me and her eyes got wide. She looked at me and said, "I can't even get my fingers in! She is right there."

I asked, "Does that mean I'm 10cm?" And she laughed.

She told me to hold still and she would get my doctor. Our photographer, Heathyr, got back in the corner and got a chair to stand on. Dustin stood next to her and by my side. Everything felt so confusing. The baby nurse was in there, my doctor came in to scrub up. I kept thinking, "WHY are they in here? I have to push for an hour or two, and then the doctor comes in!" They had my bed apart in seconds and my doctor was already asking me to push. It was hard to know when because my epidural had just been fixed so I was completely numb. I didn't even know if I was doing a good job. After three pushes she had me take a break. Then we started three more. During the third push she screamed at the nurse to get a vacuum. I didn't really have time to process that just that suddenly my doctor was telling me I needed to push again, and hard. She screamed that they needed the nurse back, and she came sprinting. Two more pushes and Paige was out. I think this was the number of pushes, but in all it was 10 minutes.



She was super purple. The doctor held her for maybe ten or fifteen seconds to see if they needed to put her on my chest or give her right to the nurses. She started crying and they handed her over to me. Later the doctor said that the cord was wrapped around her neck and she had stopped breathing, but I did a great job pushing her out quickly. I was still in shock that she was already here! AND she was face down. Another big surprise.

Our hospital does an hour of kangaroo care so Paige laid on my chest for that whole time, just hanging out. She kept sucking on her hands but I was in a horrible position for breastfeeding since I was on my back. I had a first degree tear, which is really nothing. The doctor worked on that. Heathyr came around to the other side and took pictures. Dustin came around to see her face. They put my bed up so that I could breastfeed her. Right at an hour they took her and did her measurements and such.

8lbs 1oz and 20.5 inches long. I thought she would be much bigger for some reason since we were almost to my due date.

They got her all bundled up and gave her to Dustin. Heathyr took a few more pictures and left, and then it was time for the nurse to get me up and cleaned and get my IV and epidural line out.

They couldn't bathe her until she had two temps about 98 degrees, and that didn't happen until about 6:15. We had thought the girls would be there by then but they hadn't arrived yet. Jena, Wes, and Bayleigh came around that time... just in time for her to be done! Grammy and the girls came a little while later. It was all chaos for awhile and then everyone left and the check ups slowed down and we were finally alone for the night.

The first night is generally peaceful so I tucked Paige onto my chest and cuddled and loved on her. She slept well at night but the nurses actually don't prefer that and woke me up to feed her. We had random visitors through out the day and Grammy brought the girls back so we could take some pictures and they could hold her more.





The second night was chaos, as expected. Paige wanted to be fed pretty consistently from 9pm to 3am. I had been awake for 22 hours by the end and was starting to hallucinate, so I didn't even want to hold her. I raised my bed up high and put my hand in her crib to calm her.




Wednesday we just sat around and relaxed and waited to go home. I LOVE being in the hospital but by the end of 48 hours we were getting bored and were ready to get out of there. They did the 48 hour blood test at 3:30 and we left just before 5!



Welcome to the world Paige! You are oh so loved by mommy, daddy, and your big sisters!

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