Blonde Ambition

At my 40 week appointment, baby still showed no signs of coming. So we scheduled my induction for the following Monday, 41 weeks and 1 day. I woke up at 5am to call to see if they had room to induce me that day. Thankfully there was a bed available so we headed in at 7am, our scheduled time.

When we got there, we signed our paperwork and were taken straight back to a room. Side note, Hoag is an amazing hospital. Labor is easier with a view of Balboa and the ocean.

Our nurse came in soon after and started the pitocin. The contractions began but were not bad. As time went on they definitely got stronger. I think the worst part was her head banging on my cervix with each contraction. The last few weeks of my pregnancy she was so low in the birth canal, I swear I felt like she was going to fall out.

At 9am, the doctor came in to break my water and put a monitor in Ava's head to better track her heart rate. For some reason, this freaked me out. Not the monitor thing, just the fact that things were moving so fast. When you go overdue with a baby, you spend a lot of time waiting. Also, we were warned that we may spend part of that day waiting if they didn't have a room available. So here I had waited for so long and then all of the sudden things were moving FAST.

When the doctor broke my water, there was meconium. It's gross so if you are curious, look it up. This scared me but my nurse reassured me that it was common. To combat this they inserted a catheter to flush out my uterus. The catheter also monitored my contractions so this meant I was free from the monitors on my belly. Hooray!

After my water was broken, the contractions started worsening and the pain was becoming really bad. I'd been warned to ask early for the epidural because sometimes it can take awhile for the anesthesiologist to come. So when it was offered, I said yes. I swear the anesthesiologist was lurking outside the door because 2 seconds later she was there. She was fabulous and the epidural was virtually pain free. I'm a big needlephobe and I have to say the IV was actually more painful. I felt better almost instantly. Not only physically but mentally. It was really the breath of fresh air I needed because I was getting pretty discouraged. I am very lucky that the epidural took really well and I didn't feel anything.

After that, things were progressing steadily, 1 cm every hour. By4pm I was 6cm dilated. I figured she would be here between 9 and 10pm. Around 430pm Ava's heart rate started dropping so the nurse turned off the pitocin and gave me some oxygen.

Her heart rate returned to normal so the pitocin was turned back on at half the rate it was before. Her heart rate dropped again so the pitocin was turned off. At 5pm the nurse received a call from my doctor and she decided to take it in the nurse's station. I knew something was up. The nurse came back and gently informed me the best decision was a c-section. Although I knew it was a possibility all along I began to panic. I asked John to get my mom from the waiting room, I knew she would have the words to calm me. She had all 3 of us kids via c-section. After talking to her I knew everything would be alright.

We waited about an hour for my doctor to arrive from her office in Huntington Beach. She got there around 6pm and we were off to the OR to get ready. I was really nervous but thankfully the same anesthesiologist who did my epidural was in for my c-section. Not only did she talk me through everything, she kept me calm and even took the photos for us. The c-section was a breeze and although I've never experienced a regular delivery, I enjoyed being able to take in everything going on without doing any of the work :)

At 6:35pm Ava made her entrance into the world. It was the most amazing, breathtaking moment of my life. Her cry was beautiful!

The doctor had thought maybe the reason her heart rate was dropping was because she was really big but she weighed in at only 7lbs 2 oz!

After stitching me up we were taken to the recovery room where I got to hold her again and do skin to skin contact.

An hour later we were taken to our room and after a short trip to the nursery for some suctioning (she had a lot of fluid) she was introduced to all of her eager grandparents, aunts and uncles.

The first night was rough due to exhaustion and some crummy nurses. We had been placed on an overflow floor and it was just not a good experience. The next day we were moved to the mother baby unit and from then on it was fabulous. Again I must say, Hoag is a terrific hospital.

We had lots of visitors! After 4 days we were sent home and were on our own. It's been an adjustment but we are loving our life as party of 3.

Posted by Laura at 8:37 PM

Labels: baby