October 6, 2011

This is a detailed account of my delivery because I want to remember everything about the best day of my life.

I arrived at the hospital on Wednesday at 9:00pm to begin the foley bulb induction process.  By 10:30pm I had my IV hooked up and by 11:00pm the bulb was in place.  At 2:00am I was dilated to 3cm and that unpleasant bulb finally fell out.  It was so incredibly uncomfortable.  Next thing I knew the nurse was hooking up my bag of pitocin and I was texting everyone thinking that my labor was going to go faster than I had anticipated. I laid in bed having contractions for the next 3 hours and then kindly asked my nurse for the epidural.  She was not very pleasant and discouraged me, but I was not taking no for an answer.  The anesthesiologist was there in about 30 minutes and as soon as it was inserted the relief followed.  Then, there was a hiccup. The baby's heart rate began to drop, so labor was put on hold. The pitocin was stopped and the nurse did not start it up again until 7:30am.

It seemed to take a while to get the process started again.  My contractions were starting slowly, but by 8:30 I was 4.5-5cm dilated and my OB decided it was time to break my water.  She also thought it would be best to put an internal monitor in as they were not getting a great reading from the outside monitor.  Around noon I was 6cm, 2:30pm 7cm, and right around 4:30pm I was ready to push.  Delivery was rough.  I pushed for 2 hours and during the process developed a fever due to a uterine infection.  Eric was an amazingly supportive husband.  The doctor was patient and encouraging.  The nursing student and nurse were perfect.  I asked the doctor during delivery how long she thought I would have to push and she explained that many first time moms spend 2 hours pushing.  That was all I needed to hear and my mind was made up that I was going to get this baby out before the 2 hour mark.  I kept watching the hand on the clock between pushes and my determination just kept growing.  Eric asked me during delivery who I thought was in there...Evelyn or Jack?  Without hesitation I responded, "Ev."  I just knew it was her.  Pushing was exhausting and because I was sick it felt as though I had the flu and someone asked me to run a marathon.  Eric kept feeding me ice and holding an ice pack on my forehead between contractions.  I remembering continuously complaining how hot I was and before I knew it I was puking my brains out.

At 6:35 (1 hour, 55 minutes after I started pushing) our world changed forever when the doctor announced, "it's a girl." It was amazing.  The NICU team whisked her away to clean out the bowel movement she had done in utero.  Little did I know they would also be taking her to the NICU because of my uterine infection.  This is when all chaos broke loose.  I was watching Evelyn squirm and everyone attend to her, but was quickly taken by surprise when things started to quickly go downhill with me.  While delivering, I began to hemorrhage badly, my uterus wouldn't contract, and my placenta was stuck.  My doctor was yelling out orders and people were quickly flying around me not able to inform me what exactly was going on.  At this time, the pediatrician was also trying to tell me that she had to take my sweet Evelyn away from me.  Eric was running back and forth between the two of us wondering what was happening and the whole moment was very emotional.

After everything was under control I finally was able to hold my daughter.  It was truly the most precious moment in my entire life.  It was just one minute, but it was so special.  I was not allowed to see Evelyn until 6 hours later due to my infection, and when I could finally hold her I didn't want to let her go.  I just wanted to unhook her from all the machines and run.  I was so sad that I could have possibly passed an infection on to this helpless little baby.

Evelyn stayed in the NICU for 3 nights and we were discharged from the hospital after 2.  Heading home without Evie was heartbreaking, but taking her home the next day made up for every bit of sadness I experienced the night before.

We are all home now and getting settled in.  I'm not sure we could be any happier.

Evelyn's stats:
8lbs 12oz
20 3/4 inches long