On August 23rd, 2013 our lives changed forever. I suppose our lives were changed months before that, when I first found out that I was pregnant, but I'll save that story for another day. For now, here is the story of the birth of our sweet little boy, Rhett David.
**Warning - I have not been shy about being detailed in this story as I did not want to forget anything.**
I had gone for my regular weekly check up with my doctor, Dr. Koegler, on Wednesday, August 21st. At this point I was four days overdue (my due date according to the ultrasound was set for August 17th). Dr. Koegler checked me and I was not dilated yet and had still only been having irregular Braxton hicks contractions. Since Dr. Koegler was taking a week of holidays that Friday, we decided that it would be best to book me in for an induction on Thursday, August 22nd. I was overcome with various feelings. On one hand, I was excited at the idea of no longer being pregnant and uncomfortable as well as knowing that I was finally going to get to meet my son. On the other hand, I was very nervous. Knowing exactly when you are going to have your baby and having the night to get everything in order was just a weird feeling. Like we were getting ready to go on a planned vacation, except in this case, we were going to the hospital to have a baby. I called Bryan to tell him the news. After absorbing the news, we were both very excited to finally get to meet our son, hold him and love him.
After a very restless night (sleep didn't come very easy when there was so much anticipation of what was coming), we had to be at the hospital on the morning of August 22nd at 6:30 a.m. Once we checked in, we went up to the Labour and Delivery unit and were taken to an induction room. We got settled in and around 7:30 a.m. Dr. Koegler arrived to begin my induction. He began his assessment by checking to see how dilated I was and I was only a fingertip dilated so he started off with giving me an injection of prostaglandin gel onto the cervix. Once this was done, he left and Bryan and I were free to do whatever we pleased (go to the cafeteria for breakfast, walk around the hospital, rest, play card games, etc.) as long as I was back on the unit every hour to be hooked up to the monitors so that the nurse could monitor the baby's heart rate and the strength and frequency of my contractions.
I should also mention that the nurse we had for the day, Nikki,
was amazing. We had met her a few weeks previous as she had sat in on a few of
our pre-natal classes. I have to
give a lot of credit to Nikki as she is part of what made my labour and delivery
such a good experience. She was calm, answered all of our questions, talked
with us and did whatever she could to ensure that we were both looked after and
comfortable.
Anyway, back to the story. The prostaglandin gel that I was given
could only be given every 6 hours so around 2:00 p.m. Dr. Koegler came back to
the hospital to check in on my progress. I was still only a fingertip dilated
so he gave me another round of the prostaglandin gel. Around 4:00 p.m. Dr.
Koegler came back to check on me quickly before he went to work at the walk-in
clinic for the evening. I was still only a fingertip dilated even though my
contractions were beginning to get stronger and more frequent. So, Bryan and
I were left to keep waiting. Around supper time, our nurse Nikki came in to let
us know that she was going to move us into a delivery room (typically they won’t
do this until you are 4-5 cm dilated but it was not busy that day so we lucked out). Now my
contractions were getting a lot stronger at this point so I opted to get in the
shower to see if the hot water would help relieve some of my pain (which it
did…I was probably in there for about 2 hours…great thing about being in the
hospital is an endless supply of hot water!!!).
Nikki’s shift ended at 7:00 p.m. so we were passed on to another nurse
(can’t remember her name). Nikki told us that she was working a day shift again
the following day but that she hoped I would have delivered by then and if that was
the case, she would come to the maternity unit to meet our new little baby (like I said, she
was an amazing nurse). Secretly, I was hoping that I wouldn't deliver until
the next day so that she would be there (I guess I got my
wish!).
Dr. Koegler came back to check on me around 8:30 p.m. and I was finally
starting to show some progress as I was about 2 cm dilated. So he decided to
break my water, which was incredibly uncomfortable and also a very weird
feeling (like the walls of a dam are broken and you feel a huge, warm gush of water...gross, I know). But, it seems that this did the trick as the strength of my
contractions really started to increase. I tried getting back into the shower
again but the pain was too strong and the hot water was just not enough relief.
I went in to this with no plan. I told myself that if I can manage without pain
medications, great! But if not, no big deal! So around 9:30 p.m., I decided
that I couldn't handle the pain any longer and I asked for some morphine. The
nurse started an I.V. and got the morphine running into me around 10:00 p.m. It didn't take me very long to realize that all the morphine was doing was making
me very drowsy with zero pain relief. At around 11:00 p.m. Dr. Koegler came to
check in on me before he went home for the night. I was 5 cm dilated and the
pain was unbearable. I asked if I could have an epidural, which I was given the
go ahead for. The nurse paged the on-call anaesthesiologist but she was in the
O.R. and wouldn't be able to get to me for about an hour. This ended up being
the longest wait of the entire day so far! Just before midnight, the anaesthesiologist showed up and gave me the epidural. She was great! She
explained everything she was doing and was very quick. The relief I felt was
almost instant. I went from having a contraction that was so painful I could
almost cry, to feeling nothing. I am so grateful I decided to get the epidural!!! The nurse checked me around 3:00 a.m. and I was still
only 5 cm dilated but she decided not to call the doctor for further orders, but
rather see if my body would continue to dilate naturally without intervention. The nurse
checked me again around 5:30 a.m. and I was still only 5 cm dilated so at this
point she contacted Dr. Koegler who ordered an oxytocin drip. This was
initiated around 6:00 a.m. and was all my body needed to get things moving
along. By the time Dr. Koegler arrived around 7:30 a.m. I was 8-9 cm dilated. I
should also mention that when our night shift nurse left at the end of her
shift, we got Nikki back as our nurse (I was extremely happy about this). Now
it was just a waiting game until I was fully dilated and felt the urge to start
pushing. Slowly, I started to feel the pressure of the contractions again and
the pressure grew stronger and stronger. Around 9:00 a.m., Nikki came to let us
know that she was going on a break and that another nurse would come monitor me
until she got back. Not even 5 minutes after Nikki left, I really started to
feel the urge to push so the let the nurse know. She checked me and
unfortunately, I was only 9.5 cm dilated so I needed to wait a little longer
until my cervix fully dilated. I breathed through a few more contractions until
I felt the urge to push was so strong I could hardly resist. So again, the nurse
checked me and I was still not quite fully dilated on one side of the cervix.
So she had me lay on my side for a couple more contractions. Finally I told her
I couldn't resist the urge to push any longer. She checked me again (it was
around 9:20 a.m. now) and gave me the good news that I could finally start
pushing!!
Shortly after I started pushing, Nikki came back from her break and
took over and she made sure that Dr. Koegler was notified that I had started
pushing. Now at this point, I really lost track of time as the only thing I could
focus on was pushing. So I am not sure how much time had actually passed when
Nikki mentioned that she could see the head and that they needed to call in Dr.
Koegler so that he could deliver the baby. Again, I’m not sure how long it was
between this discovery and when Dr. Koegler arrived. The whole time I just kept
pushing every time I had a contraction and resting/catching my breath between
contractions. All of the sudden, Dr. Koegler was directing me to do short
pushes to the count of 3 (up to that point I had been doing longer pushes to
the count of 10). Before I knew it, I could hear Dr. Koegler say that the head
was out, then the shoulders and in an instant, Nikki was telling me to look
down because my baby had been born! The time was 10:10 a.m. Words cannot
describe the emotions that came over me in that moment.
The cord was quickly cut by Bryan and then my brand new baby boy was placed on my chest and I finally met him for the first time, face to face.
All I could think was how incredibly perfect he was. I was exhausted, but it didn't seem to matter. I was so focused on him and taking him in. Memorizing him and loving him. He changed my life that day, always for the better and I will
love him forever.
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