May 14th was a scheduled OB appointment. At the appointment the week before they had scheduled me for an induction on the 15th but after much debating, Mr. MOTH and I decided that unless it was medically necessary we would wait until at least the following Tuesday or maybe even the following Friday. I discussed this with my OB at the start of the appointment and she agreed - she was even impressed that I would want to change it because most women just want to be DONE, even if it means going a bit early (I'm not saying I didn't want to be DONE, just that my fear of something being wrong was greater). THEN she did the exam. No further along as far as dilation or thinning, BUT I was measuring small - which could indicate low fluid or it could just mean that the baby had dropped. She told me to schedule an ultrasound for the next day and depending on those results we may or may not have to induce...but come with my bag packed!
I discussed this with Mr. MOTH, spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to schedule the darn U/S and finally got an appointment at 7:30AM the next morning. I was more than a little freaked out, mainly because I had had such awful anxiety about the well-being of the baby during the entire pregnancy (completely unfounded, but still). Mr. MOTH was convinced - absolutely convinced - that we would not be having a baby the following day. Yes, we took our bags, but they were only half-packed. We had the essentials but we figured we'd be back home in time to pick Oldest Boy up from school...
We were the first appointment of the morning and were taken right away. The tech started the exam and then asked what my OB had said. I told her that if there was low fluid they would be inducing. She said, "Oh, there's definitely low fluid. Let me get the doctor." It's also worth mentioning that during the exam I asked if the baby was face up (meaning the wrong direction) or face down. She said face up and I made my only prediction - it's definitely a boy. Guess we all know how THAT turned out. And I am now, officially 0 for 4 in predicting the gender of our children...
When she left the room, Mr. MOTH and I discussed our options. Sadly, going to Bob Evans for breakfast was now off of the table (although looking back, we should've gone). We still didn't understand if it was absolutely necessary to have the baby NOW or if we could wait a couple of days. They called L&D (my OB was the attending that day) and told us they couldn't get ahold of her but we should just head straight over. We thought maybe we'd get there and they'd do something to get things moving and then send us home for awhile, but no. We walked in and they handed me a bag and a gown and told me to suit up.
Mr. MOTH still wasn't convinced we were actually doing this and he really wanted to talk to my OB before we committed but, alas, that wasn't to be. When we did finally get to see her, several hours later and after the Pitocin had been started, she put his mind at ease by saying the situation would only go downhill from here and there was no "downside" to having the baby now. He finally accepted our fate but said, "If you're only like 6 cm at 7PM, can we try to wait until after midnight?" I consider it a minor miracle that I didn't deck him (although I was strapped to the bed by my IV)!
By the time my SIL got there at around 4PM I was still barely 4 cm. She decided not to hang around until the end, especially since Mr. MOTH was still pushing for an "after midnight" delivery. They went to grab something to eat since they weren't going to check me again until 7PM or so. At 6:50PM, my water broke on its own and I was 7 cm. At this point I was begging for more pain meds and because I had made friends with the anaesthesiologist she was there in less than 5 minutes - but it was about a minute and a half too late. By 7PM I was telling them I was going to start pushing whether they were ready or not! There was a big rush and the room filled with people (even a nurse who was shocked that I was delivering since the "big board" said I was still only 4 cm).
I keep mentioning how nervous I was about the well-being of the baby. When I'm nervous, I make jokes. Usually bad ones. At one point while I was pushing I jokingly asked the doctors and nurses how many calories they thought I was burning. Without missing a beat my L&D nurse said, "Enough to lose about 12 pounds!"
Our Little One was born at 7:20PM. All I kept saying was, "I'm so glad you're here!" And I am.
1 comment:
Wow!
I remember right after Mack was born saying "I'm just so glad that's over."
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