I was scheduled to be induced on December 9 at 7:30 am. I spent the night before tossing and turning (or hoisting myself over slowly) trying to get some sleep. We woke up to freezing cold temps (-14 in Wendell!) and got ready to go to the hospital. I did put on a little makeup and fix my hair, but what else are you supposed to do when you can't sleep? ;) We made it to the hospital just after 7:30, found where we were supposed to be and got settled in. When they hooked me up to the machine they discovered I was already having contractions, and they were pretty consistent and strong. (I had been having contractions for the entire month and only really feeling the killer ones... obviously). So they decided just to start pushing Pitocin. I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced when the whole thing started. Around 9:30 baby was super low so they broke my water bag, and throughout the day I progressed slowly (so slowly) but surely.
Around ten thirty I was feeling the contractions pretty good and ready for an epidural (How did I ever deliver a baby without an epidural??? Seriously! Ouch). Around 11 they showed up with the drugs and started my epidural. They poked me once and it ended up being a zinger (it was a serious sting that did not fade) so they pulled it out and tried it again. As I was sitting on the edge of my bed, legs dangling they gave me a "test dose" of drugs. Immediately both my legs went completely numb. It happened so fast I couldn't even lift my own legs onto the bed, or scoot my butt back to be sitting up. Everyone started acting a little worried at how fast and effective the test dose worked. They called in another anesthesiologist and they determined that instead of an epidural I had received a subdural. Now I'm not completely sure what makes these two different, but everyone was acting like a subdural was not near as good and it seemed to have some serious after effects. As soon as they gave it to me they watched my blood pressure (which they always do) for about half an hour. I started to get a little sick, and started to feel a little short of breath and couldn't really stay awake. My blood pressure dropped a couple of times, and they put something into my IV to make it come back up (which worked). At this point I was pretty much totally out of it. All I remember was at one point I recall my Mom leaving (since it was going to be a while), and then at another point they said something about checking me because it might be time to push. I snapped awake at the "time to push". They checked me and the baby had dropped even more, but I hadn't dilated much more.
As time ticked on I started to be able to wiggle my legs a little, and also began to feel my contractions again. They pushed some numbing drug into my IV and again I went super numb. (This time I wasn't so freaked out because at least I knew I wasn't paralyzed) ;) I progressed slowly throughout the rest of the day, and hit another point where I started feeling my contractions and moving my legs. They pushed the same thing again, and my legs went super numb, but the contractions only disappeared completely for a little while. Pretty soon I started feeling more "pressure" (perhaps like pushing pressure) and started to worry a little bit. At this point my nurses (who were awesome) were telling me they probably wouldn't see the baby since their shift was coming to an end at 7, and my progression was pretty steady, but slow (I was dilating about a centimeter in two hours). Personally I started to get a little frustrated. I had been sitting here all day, feeling a good part of my contractions, but not being in control of my legs, and things were just not going!! (I was also sure that I would go through all this crap only to have to have a C-section anyway) (I told you- I was frustrated). Since my legs were SO numb, Dr. Astin had told the nurses that he wanted me to "labor down" (instead of "pushing", we'd just let my body and the contractions do most of the pushing until the baby was right there). The nurses told me that could be a pretty slow process.
***(SIDEBAR- my bff Jaime had been hanging around Twin ALL day with her kids, ready to drop them off and come take pictures of the delivery). Just before they checked me I told Stewart to tell Jaime just to take her kids home and I'd call her when we started laboring down. At the pace we were going it was going to be THAT long. ***
I think Stew could sense my disappointment and jokingly said "Cash- you have until 7 pm to get here young man". It was like the little man decided to just obey his daddy! They checked me and suddenly I was dilated to a nine! (And holy shitballs- Jaime was on her way! HAHA!) Since I was feeling my contractions pretty good (even though I had NO control of my legs) my nurse decided to try me out pushing. We did two test pushes and she told the other nurse to tell Astin to come NOW, and to tell him, yes- we had test pushed and I was not going to labor down, I was going to push this baby out! Jaime showed up at the perfect time, and Dr. Astin came right away. We started pushing and only ended up pushing for 10-15 minutes. My Mom and Stewart each ended up holding a leg (I seriously had NO control over them), and the nurses had to tell me when my contractions were there and when to push. Through the whole thing Dr. Astin cracked jokes and asked about Jaime's camera and I was sure we'd be there forever (he wasn't giving me many "real" updates). He kept saying things like, "Oh come on, you can push harder than that". I even had to tell him and Stewart to shut up and stop making me want to laugh at them! I was super surprised when I could see the reflection of a head in the overhead light (which acted as a mirror). I pushed and saw his head come out. The cord was wrapped around his neck (which I could also see) and they made me quit pushing in the middle of one. Thankfully, the cord wasn't tight and Cash just slipped through the circle of cord.
He came out, the Dr. sucked him out, and held him upside down and in half for a good little while trying to get him to breath or cough or cry. (That was a scary couple of... seconds, minutes? ...I don't even know how long it was, but it was worrisome). As soon as he breathed though, he found his lungs and he was screaming! The nurses weighed and measured him and my "small baby" ended up weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces!!! 21 and 1/2 inches long. A BIG BOY! (So glad they induced me) :)
It was so good to finally meet my sweet little boy and see exactly how handsome he really was!
After delivery I was still completely numb and my legs would literally not stay on the bed. It was funny and sad all at the same time. (Also- I did have to have an episiotomy... and he still barely fit! ;) )
Ultimately, labor was not as easy and dreamy as I had hoped (or as it had been with Brogan) but we did it!
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