I truly thought baby Noelle (Ellie) would come on her own a couple weeks prior to her due date. We have had a ton of stress these past few months. We decided to get our house ready to sell and put it on the market, we found and moved into a new larger house (wow that was a lot of work), Luke studied (and passed!) his CFP test, we had to get a new bigger car, and then Luke lost his job. Yes all this in a few months. I really don't know how much more a pregnant lady (with a 2 & 3 yr old) can handle...
ANYWAYS! Baby Noelle, just like her brother & sister decided she was snug in my belly and didn't want to come any sooner than she had to.
We decided if she didn't come on her own that we would schedule an induction for the day after her due date. My doctor was out of town the whole week before her due date and I was pretty nervous about going into labor and having to drive an hr to the hospital (from our new house) but it turned out, it was okay. The Friday before my due date we actually ended up going to L&D for contractions, I was having them every 2-3 minutes, but after being there for 3 hours and not making any progress (with dilation, I was only a 2) we decided to go home. They ended up going away and just being sporadic contractions for the next couple days and some menstrual like cramping.
The night before the induction (Monday June 10th) I was scheduled to go into the hospital to have cervidil, and then the next day they would start pitocin. Well, the hospital called me that afternoon to tell me that there were no beds and I would have to wait until the next day to see if I could come in. We were so bummed! So I called the next morning and still no room. It had been a week since I had seen my OB (actually another since she was OOT) so I had to go in that morning to see her anyways. She checked me and I was dilated to a 3-4. She called back down to L&D to make sure there wasn't any room, she told me, "I know if I break your water this baby is going to come fast!" BUT, there was no room and I was put on standby. She did however strip my membranes and that definitely did something! (some of you might ask if that hurt, for me, it didn't)
We left the appointment, a little bummed but also a little happy to hear my body had made progress. I hadn't eaten anything all morning so we decided to go to lunch @ PaneraBread. I could definitely feel a change since she stripped my membranes and was feeling cramping. I wasn't ready to just go sit at home again (ugh it felt like that was all we were doing!) so Luke and I went and walked around the Northpark Mall. I could definitely feel the contractions about every 5-7 minutes but was getting really tired of walking and decided to go home. My lower back was also killing me.
By the time we got back home my contractions were back to 2-3 minutes. I tried to keep busy around the house (my MIL Cathy so graciously stayed with us and helped with the kids throughout the week while waiting for baby!) It wasn't but an hour after getting home I was ready to call the OB and ask about coming in, the contractions were a getting uncomfortable (but not awful) and very timable. At that exact time, the hospital called and said they had room for me (for the induction) and to come in, it was crazy! So off we went.
This is when the real fun begins.....we get to the hospital and there is a wait to be admitted. Like 4 pregnant woman in front of me and one lady checking people in. huh? This just seemed weird, I had to stand and sway through the contractions but they weren't awful. Then, once finally checked in we were taken to our L&D room. The room was in the back of the hospital down some semi lit hallway and was old and outdated. It felt weird and not right, and I questioned "Is this healthcare today?" I was told to put on my gown and page the nurse and she'd be in, so I did that. And then 30 minutes went by and there was still no nurse. So I paged again, and was told "OH! I'm so sorry, your in the wrong room!" I was somewhat relieved, the room just felt weird. So a nurse gets us and directs us to a much better room right outside the nurses station. Then the flood of people start the check in process I guess. It took about an hour for the nurse to go over five million questions and 3 different people to finally get an IV in (This was the start to a great experience, NOT!). I was told I had veins of steel. And then of course the nurse couldn't find my cervix (this has happened in all pregnancy's, apparently it's high) so that was fun, and she told me I was a "3". I thought to myself, "how could I be going backwards in dilation, my ob told me I was a 3-4 at my apt this am." Finally that was all done and my OB (who I absolutely love) came in. She checked me and said I was actually a 4-5 and decided to break my water. This is when everything got painful VERY fast. (BTW she broke my water around 7:00pm and Ellie was born at 8:06pm) Within ten minutes of her breaking my water, I was asking for the epidural, and I would quickly learn I should have done that before she broke my water. The anesthesiologist comes in and I inform him of my scoliosis and fused rod in my back (I also brought xrays) and I also tell him I had successful epis with my previous deliveries. This guy was not so optimistic. I could tell right away he didn't feel confident he'd be able to get the epi right for me and I just had a feeling it wasn't good. As he was inserting the epi (which I have no idea where it led to, I felt no pain relief what so ever!) the contractions got incredibly intense and pressure, I was starting to think I needed to push.
It's crazy to think about how quickly the intense pain began. Luke came back into the delivery room at around 7:20 and I think he was a bit shocked with the situation. I'm sure he thought he'd be walking into a room where I was laying there pain free just progressing with labor. Instead I was already starting to speak profanity and was starting to panic. I had no preparation in pain management or breathing for this, and I was scared of the pain. People started flooding the room including my OB who tried to check me (but it was too painful she really couldn't). Baby girl wasn't crowning yet but I think I was already all the way dilated. the contractions were incredibly painful. I almost couldn't keep myself on the bed, my whole body felt like it was convulsing which each contraction/pressure. I felt out of control, not sure what my body was doing, if I should be pushing, how to breath. And I was scared. I kept falsely thinking MAYBE the epi would start to work, but no, it never did.
What seemed like eternity but was only minutes of transition, it was time to push. I really didn't want to, I was so afraid of the pain it would cause and I would only half try, which really just prolonged the pain and wasn't to my advantage. Finally a nurse helped postion me better to push (looking back on it now, I realize my back and fused spine was not allowing me to crunch down and push as well as I should have been, because I simply couldn't do it on my own) so she pushed me forward and that helped a ton, also the words from my OB (as I was screaming get this baby out of me) "Heather, only you can get this baby out, you have to push as hard as you can." hit a cord and two more pushes and she was out.
It was truely the most excruciating pain I have ever been through and I seriously don't know why any woman would want to choose that, but Kudos to them! Some people asked me afterwards if I felt better after labor (and like some weird adrenaline rush) than I did when I had the epidurals, and my answer is NOO. I didn't want to move, I didn't want anyone to touch me, honestly I wasn't even excited to hold Ellie at first I was so tramatized. (laughing now of course). Had I mentally choose to go into labor naturally and knew how to control myself and the situation (breathing/pain management/etc.) I'm sure I would have a different perspective, but in my eyes, It was pretty much the worst thing ever. HOWEVER, once I was cleaned up, had a chance to catch my breath and had that sweet baby in my arms nursing, I was pretty amazed at what I just did. What a woman can go through to make, carry and delivery a baby is really the most incredible thing in the world. So that's the story of baby Noelles birth, quite the experience. My favorite part of the whole experience was watching Luke's heart fall in love all over again for a third time. Oh and saying I'm superwoman. ;)
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