I'm A Mommy!!!

And it's the best feeling in the world.

Everything happened so quickly, I hope I can remember it all. I have no idea what time the majority of things happened, so, I'll have less detail on timing.

On Tuesday, February 8th, Brett and I were ready to get things moving. All day I'd felt totally fine, not thinking labor was anywhere in sight. Brett suggested he go and get spicy food to try and get Mady to make her arrival. I agreed and we had spicy Mexican food for dinner that night. Still didn't think it'd make a difference, though. Lo and behold....I woke up at 2:30 AM with mild contractions. Nothing out of the ordinary, but, 5 minutes apart, for sure. Brett was randomly awake so I told him about the contractions but told him they'd probably stop. An hour later, they hadn't stopped. We decided to start getting ready to leave for the hospital, but I was really expecting things to change at any second.

That's when things really got going. I figured I'd better shower, in case this labor was a long journey. While showering, my water broke. I didn't feel it, but it was plainly obvious that it had broken. (And BTW, what a weird feeling, to feel like you're constantly peeing on yourself.) Once I told Brett, his eyes got really big. This REALLY made it real. Here I am right before leaving for the hospital, at 39 weeks, 5 days pregnant.



We got everything in the car and headed to the hospital. On the way, my contractions were getting a lot stronger. I didn't bother counting anymore, I knew we were there for the long haul. But, they were getting more and more painful with each contraction.

We got to the hospital around 4:30 AM and they rushed me to Labor and Delivery. Didn't ask a single question other than how far along I was. An ER nurse brought me a wheelchair and we wheeled upstairs to L & D. They brought me to an observation room, told me to change clothing and they'd begin monitoring me. I told the nurse that my water had broken about an hour ago and she told me stop changing, we were moving to a birthing room. They confirmed my water had broken and said I was dilated to 4, 95% effaced. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor, a monitor for me and we waited. Shortly after that, I asked for the epidural. The epidural hurt a bit, but nothing compared to the contractions. Within minutes, I was pain free and perfectly happy.

And then contractions stopped being productive. We'd watch them on the monitor and we'd see I was having them, but they weren't very stong and they weren't very regular. I'd have one lasting 5 minutes, the next would last 1 minute. And I wasn't progressing as they expected I would be. So frustrating. It had been almost 8 hours (that I remember) and I'd only moved along to being dialated to 6.5. We moved on to Pitocin. And then the epidural stopped working. Right after the Pitocin was administered. Oh my Lord. The pain. I don't mean to scare anyone that is reading this and has never been pregnant before. And I know some women think the contractions weren't that bad. For me, at that point, I was in agony. And no one seemed to believe that the epidural had stopped working. (Well, Brett did, but none of the nurses were getting the fact that I could feel each contraction again.) Finally, after about an hour and me getting REALLY angry, they called for an anesthesiologist to check my epidural. I was obviously right. The epidral had stopped working. No one knew why....it had just stopped. So they administered another and if I could have kissed the anesthesiologist, I would have.

From 1:30 to 4:30 PM, things really got going. In that short time, my contractions got very strong and I dialated to 10. Mady was in a good position and my cervix was completely absorbed. It was time to start pushing. Holy cow.

I could barely feel my legs so, for me, pushing was very strange. I knew what to do and thought I was doing it, but, I wasn't. They turned down the epidural so I'd maybe be able to feel more of what I was doing. I pushed. And I pushed. And I pushed. I pushed so hard that I started to vomit due to the effort. It was miserable. 2 hours later, the nurses could see Mady's head, but she wasn't moving any further through my pelvic bone. They called the doctor in and he suggested me taking a break, upping the pitocin and waiting for an hour to see if the contractions would push Mady down on their own. Okay great. I can use the rest. And then my epidural stopped again. For a second time.

I tried to push through, but the Pitocin was making my contractions hurt more than ever. I "rested" over two hours before the doctor came back to tell me that no more progression had been made. He said that Mady's head was in a position higher than my pelvic opening and all that was happening was that Mady was getting a cone head. THAT part of her head was coming through, but she was too high up in my birth canal to try and get her vaginally. I told him that there was no way I'd be able to even try to push anymore if someone didn't get me some kind of pain medicine. He knew I wasn't going to push anymore so they gave me more pain meds, since it was now a waiting game on a C - Section. We had to wait for another woman to have her C - Section done, then there was an emergency appendectomy. And then it was my turn. The whole thing was surreal. Brett changed into scrubs and went out to tell his family that I was heading to the OR.


He came back and they wheeled me into the OR. They strapped my arms out to my sides and explained everything they were going to do. Brett came in and sat by my head, where he was so sweet. (Sidenote: I do this thing where I play with my hair. Brett hates it, but, it relaxes me. I don't even realize I'm doing it. So as I'm lying there, waiting for surgery to begin, and before they put the little shower cap on me, I feel Brett playing with my hair for me. It was so nice.) A few seconds later, the doctor asked if I could feel "this" and I said no. I then heard the nurse say, "Surgery start time...." and I didn't hear much else. I remember hearing Brett say, "This is CRAZY" as the doctor was cutting me open and doing whatever he was doing. And then the nurse said, "Daddy, you're going to want to be sure to watch this part." And I heard Mady's wonderful cry. At 9:58 PM, my beautiful little girl was born. 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. Perfectly healthy, scoring an 8 and 9 on the APGAR scale. Cone head and all.








Edited to Add: I totally forgot two things. For the majority of labor, I had to wear an oxygen mask because Mady's heart rate never had much activity. Her heart rate was fine, but, it never showed any spikes or drops....it was...steady....my entire labor. The nurse thought oxygen would change that. It didn't. I thought this might mean Mady would be a very easy going baby. As of March 18th, 2011 as I'm typing this...it doesn't. Also, I had some very bad blood pressure scares. I'm guessing it was after Pitocin was administered, but I don't remember for sure. At some points, my blood pressure was as low as 60/48. I never felt badly at all. Oddly enough, the only way it'd go up was to lie on my right side. Totally contradicting everyone/everything saying lying on the left side is best. Completely explains why I was NEVER comfortable on my left side the entire pregnancy.

Madelyn Elizabeth, we couldn't be more in love. More pictures and stories to follow soon...