yes, yes, i'm alive... my birth story...

ok, here goes ... its pretty long, but it's everything i can remember. Joshua is the greatest... takes up a ton of my time by me just looking at him... :)


my induction started at 8 on Thursday night (29January) with cytotek (?? – a cervical ripener) nothing happened after that until i received a second dose at midnight-ish then the contractions started very sporadically - although i had NO CLUE they were contractions ... i didnt know what they were supposed to feel like... so at 5:30am Friday they started the pitocin and just upped it every 15-30 minutes. the contractions were there but not regular (still)...

about noon my water broke on its own (thought i peed the bed - seriously - i was apologizing to the nurse and everything...) *one thing no one ever told me was once your water breaks, sometimes it just doesn’t stop …. my water did not stop flowing – errr – gushing - for a very long time – maybe until delivery ????* the contractions were finally regular enough to get my epidural about 230pm or so. unfortunately, the epi caused my BP to plummet (60s/20s) and Joshua did not like that and his heart rate went from the 140-150s to 70s for about 7 minutes. so they stopped the pitocin and that regulated my BP - i dont remember much of this at all - - i was really light headed from the BP issues and from the thought of a needle basically sticking out of my spine... i didnt know this then but they were basically prepping me for an emergency C Section there and then... :( rick was petrified of losing both of us.

they made sure we were both stable for quite awhile before starting the pitocin again ... basically with the pit, they start it at level 2 and increase it by 2 every 15-30 minutes up to level 42... when they started it over, they had to start back at level 2 again. the bad thing is with my blood pressure, i was supposed to lay on my left side pretty much the entire time so the epidural wasnt exactly working properly. i felt the contractions on my right side starting at my back and radiating thru my tummy to about my belly button. when i flipped to my right side, i felt them on my left. not a fun thing at all.

about 5 or so the contractions were REALLY strong but still irregular. i'd have a 'good' one then a mild one then a few minutes later another 'good' one...

around 8 or 9ish, my OB came in and told them to start upping the pitocin every 15 mins vs the 30 they were doing to get things 'moving along'. oh dear... the contractions became VERY intense – so high they were “off the monitor” intense - and regular - every 3-4 minutes apart. at 1030 i was having severe contractions still but we noticed with each contraction, Joshua's heartrate dropped back into the 70s (vs 140-150s). i buzzed the nurse cause i was petrified of losing Joshua. they assured me they were watching and as long as the heartrate rebounded as soon as the contraction was over, all was well.

a tad before 11pm my nurse came in to do an internal ... those are funnnnnnn - not... i was 90% effaced but only 3 cm dilated - still - since about 2ish and this is with the pitocin at the very highest level available (42). she said she would let my OB know and i knew right then i would be having a c section. my doc came in about 15 excrutiating minutes later and did another internal with the same results - all the hoping and wishing didnt dilate me any more unfortunately.... she confirmed my fear of the c section and the anesthesiologist came right in to start giving me mega epidural... he was literally pushing a whole syringe full into my line (before he was giving me a few cc's at a time). i asked if he'd be a 1/30 baby or 1/31 cause i like the idea of 1/31. they told me more than likely 1/30 cause they thought it would be a good idea to get him out ASAP. so in less than 1/2 hour, i was fully prepped (mostly prepped from when my BP dropped earlier), the OR was ready and i was on the table. the epidural still wasnt working and i felt the 'prick' of the needle around where they would make the incision line, so they decided to put me in 'twilight' .. after about 1 minute of that med, i was OUT ... i didnt feel anything ... i was nowhere near awake which was really disappointing. i did wake up to hear them say "her" (Rick said in reference to me) and i said Dr. G (perinatologist) said he was a BOY!!!! then zonked out again. i once again woke up as they were closing me with staples... felt every last one of those puppies...

so at 11:47pm after about 20 hours of labor my son arrived. he is perfect. i never thought i could love someone i didnt even really know so incredibly much. i never thought i could share the love i have for Syd... but its just amazing...

Joshua is now doing well. he was a bit jaundiced for a few days, but his levels came down today (yay!!) and he gained 1.5oz (yay again!) he really is so much fun... (although that is probably the sleep deprivation talking as well - up every hour or so (we have to feed every 2 hours) ... fun times but worth every sleep deprived minute! :)

Rick, Christine, Sydney & Joshua...