I am finally coming out of the 2-week fog, as I call it, of Labor, Delivery, Healing and New Mom-ness… It has been an incredible two weeks full of all kinds of new experiences.  Some have been not so fun, but overall it has been amazing!!!  I want to share our hospital experiences and the first couple of weeks at home, so buckle in for a long one… but I do promise pictures

False Alarm….

Our induction was scheduled for March 15th at 8:30pm, but on March 14th just an hour after my mom arrived from Dallas I started having contractions.  They started at about 13 minutes apart, but quickly shrunk to 5 minutes and then 3 minutes apart.  I was thinking there was no way this was happening because this is my first baby and they are supposed to stay in there for longer than 40 weeks and we were at 38 weeks and  6 days, but they kept on coming.  Finally we called triage and asked what we should do, and they said to come on in to be checked.  The nurse midwife (he was a man so I called him the nurse midhusband) came in and checked me, but I was NOWHERE near ready… not even dilated a 1/2 sonometer, so they sent me home.  We were in bed by almost 2am, and still on for the induction that evening at 8:30pm.

Induction Day…

Because we had been out so late that night before for the false alarm, we slept in a little bit on Thursday morning.  We had sped through the house packing the night before, so we didn’t have much left to do for the evening.  Ed and I also worked on filming a little video on why Ed wasn’t with the Luke Bryan crew in Panama City for Spring Break, and took some preggo pictures since it was my last day at home and pregnant.  That was a lot of fun  My sister-in-law Jennifer and niece Olivia were well on their way to Nashville so they could meet Mollie on the day she was born.  Jenny is a school teacher and happened to be on Spring Break.. she was planning on staying for one day and bought food to cook for us and was she was ready to hang with her niece and Olivia her cousin.  Little did we know that things weren’t destined to go that way.

You are told not to eat anything but a light meal, like a salad, before going in for an induction, but some wise birds whispered in my ear that I should eat something hearty because who knows how long it will be before you eat again.  Because I was nowhere near dilated, it could be 24 hours OR MORE!  Sooo… we planned to go eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant, El Rey Azteca, in Mount Juliet before the big night.  I just had fajitas with no tortillas – so not tooooo terrible  Jenny and Olivia made it just in time to have some dinner with us.  After a fun evening with our friends at El Rey, we sent Mom, Jenny and Olivia home, and we ventured off to the hospital.  Since we were just beginning the process we thought they should all get a good night’s sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the hospital…

We arrived at about 8:40pm and went up to Labor & Delivery to check in.  They checked us in and had us wait in the waiting room.  At about 9:05pm the nurse came to get us and took us back to the L&D room to be prepped for the induction.  Without getting detailed and gross, I essentially had to be artificially prepped for labor, so they poked, prodded and stuck things places and then told Ed and I how important it was to get a lot of sleep.  The doc told us not to watch tv and not to be on our phones, but to settle in for a nice evening of sleep because things were about to get crazy.  He let us know that because I was not dilated (though not as far away as the night before) that this process was going to be incredibly long.  Ed asked how long that was, and he said probably 48 hours… he was SPOT ON.

The restful night of sleep the doc told us to get was LITERALLY impossible, because every 5 minutes someone was coming in to check something, give me something, poke, prod and stick things places (Cytotec… every four hours), so we thought maybe the doctor was playing a very cruel joke on us… now we were wishing that we had watched some T.V., and we were both quite glad that we had eaten a nice big meal.  Me moreso than Ed, because I was the one that wouldn’t be eating for 48 hours… YAY FOR ME!  I was supposed to get four rounds of Cytotec, but after two rounds (8 hours) I was moving along nicely and they wanted to begin the next phase!!!  YAY FOR ME AGAIN!

Day Two… The really craziness begins

We awoke on the 16th officially for the..oh 27th time… and now it was time to {insert} the next phase of induction.  This was supposed to really move me along and progress me to the point of water breaking…

I must segue here to say that the Vanderbilt Labor & Delivery team is the most kick-ass group of people you will ever meet.  When Ed and I first joined centering when we were two months pregnant and they told us that they had a “team approach” meaning we would not know who would be delivering our baby, our minds went straight to the “uh-oh, what have we gotten ourselves into.”  We were soooo pleasantly surprised - we changed teams five times before our baby girl was born (thankfully we had the same nurses on days and nights) – but it was seamless – every single person that walked into our room was amazing and on it, and they all practiced the very same way.  The best part was that we felt they cared about us, our baby, and how we wanted things to go.  Despite the craziness – the experience was amazing!

Now… when the mid-husband was explaining this upcoming process to us, he noted that this would be a little uncomfortable.  He wanted me to know this because I didn’t want any pain medication.  Apparently inductions are more complicated to attempt with no medication with all the poking, prodding and sticking things places.  The funniest thing happened when he left the room… our incredible nurse told us that while it was great that he thought this process would be uncomfortable, she wanted me to know that it was really going to hurt (translation = THIS IS GOING TO HURT LIKE HELL AND MAKE YOU WANT TO SUCK YOUR THUMB AND CALL FOR MAMA), and that I should absolutely consider an epidural.  Though I didn’t want an epidural, I trusted my nurse girl and with the next few days I had in store for me – the advice I received from Steven Steele came hurling back into my brain… “Why in the HELL aren’t you getting an epidural!?!?”  ”Okay,” I said, “let’s do it!”

Epidural or Bust…

The anesthesia team (and by team I mean ARMY) came in to prep for the epidural.  We had the discussion I have had with every healthcare professional for years about my EXTREME allergy to adhesive tape, and they decided to go with a mesh tape… STILL TAPE meaning STILL ADHESIVE.  The only reason this did not make me madder than a disturbed hornets nest was because the consequences of an epidural falling out far outweighs the pain and itching that adhesive blesses me with  So… I got the epidural complete with {please make my life a living nightmare} adhesive tape.  But then… the epidural took effect and I could not have cared less about adhesive tape and the effect it would soon unleash on my beaten and bruised body.

After the epidural had taken effect, our friendly mid-husband came in to {insert} step two, and I was thanking my lucky stars for going with the drugs because while you do not feel pain – you still feel pressure and all I have to say is WTF!!!!  Sooo… that was inserted and now we settled in to wait again.  I sent Ed home to get some sleep, because I was going to need him to be rested up for the phase where I push and we get a baby… so off he went.  At about 5:30pm that afternoon – I called Ed because the thing (foley bulb) that had been inserted was now ready to come out and they were going to break my water, BUT my body did that all by itself.  It won’t be long now I thought to myself… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I am so hilarious…

Ed showed up and they were starting the Pitocin drip to get those contractions happening.  I could feel the contractions… the pressure of them and not the pain.  We were getting closer.  I contracted all night long, but we weren’t ready to push until 6:30am on Saturday, March 17th… we knew then that she was going to be a St. Patty’s Day Baby!  Go Mollie with your Irish name  We are quite interested to see how interesting this birthday will be  When you think of Labor & Delivery – the pushing part – I tend to think of movies and how crazy everything is and the fact that there are nine million people in the room with you, but that wasn’t our experience AT ALL!  We had our fabulous night shift nurse (shift change was coming up, so our fabulous day shift nurse was actually arriving at work as we started pushing), Ed and me.  The lights were low, and all we heard was the sound of Mollie’s heart beating – it was quite amazing and very calm.

My sweet niece Olivia, who had made some new friends in the waiting room, had drawn a picture for Mollie.  We hung it up behind my bed, so it would welcome Miss Mollie into the world.

The Pushing Begins…

Since I could only feel pressure (not pain thank gawd), I had to really pay attention to my contractions to know when to push.  Our nurse could tell on the monitor when they were beginning, but thankfully I always knew when one was coming on – she would confirm it for me and we would push.  I pushed four times in a row for 10 seconds each.  I wasn’t thinking at the time that I should imagine having never worked out and then meeting with Tony Little for 2 1/2 hours to work my abs harder than a pro would… imagine what that would feel like the next day.  But… all I was thinking was I NEED TO MEET MY LITTLE GIRL!!!  Sooo… we pushed and we pushed and we pushed.  After two hours – they doc was called in because Mollie was having heart decelerations and I was getting a fever, which if we weren’t careful could turn into an infection which would pass to Mollie.  The doc said she was only going to let me push for 30 more minutes and if Mollie couldn’t make it past the pelvic bone, where she was stuck, then we would have to consider other options.  Other options being a c-section.  Sooo… they put an internal monitor on Mollie because she was really squirming, and I don’t blame the poor thing.  Little did I know that they actually screw the thing into her head – OUCH – that was definitely going to leave a mark!  She had THAT scab for two weeks.

After pushing for another 30 minutes the doc came back in and said there has been no progression, Mollie’s heart was decelerating more, and my fever was increasing, so they began immediately prepping us for a c-section.  I got very nervous.  I thought for sure I would get to do this the natural way with no meds – that didn’t happen.  I then thought I would at least get to push her out the way she was supposed to come out – that didn’t happen, and now a C-SECTION!?!?  That was something I wanted NOTHING TO DO WITH!  But… here we were and it was time to man-up and remember that the most important thing was that we have a healthy little girl.  She was already a little traumatized from the pushing and her poor head was really swelling, so this was the best thing for her – that was all I cared about… so here we go again – LET’S DO IT!

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