See? I told you that I'm just a
terrible blogger.
I figured now that I've had Ella this
might be the time to actually update. I'm gonna just start from my
birth story.
My due date came and went with nothing
but a few mild contractions and a quick fleeting hope that my water
had broken. When I went to my post-due appointment, I had an
ultrasound and a non-stress test. A non-stress test is a simple
monitoring of the baby's heart rate and to see if I've had any
contractions. My ultrasound was great as was my NST. Dr Travias came
in and said “Do you want to set up a game plan?” The answer was
absolutely. I could not be induced until I was 41 weeks which was the
following Tuesday, a mere six days away. The plan was I'd go in at
4pm for some medication and then they'd give me the hard stuff the
following morning. YESSSSSSSS! They still gave me the hope that I
could spontaneously go into labor, but I had a feeling Ella had
decided that her birthday was set.
On Monday June 11th, I was
lazing around the house, thinking of all the things I wanted to get
done that day and the next. Clean out the car, pack the last minute
bag, bake cookies and take a nap. My phone rang at 430 pm and from
the number, I realized it was my hospital. When I answered, there was
a nurse on the other line “Shawna, we were wondering where you
were. You were supposed to be here at 4pm.” I sat up quickly saying
my induction was set for Tuesday, not Monday. “Apparently, it got
bumped up. Did no one call you? Did you want to come in tonight or
still tomorrow?”
I called Shawn and he said to go in,
he'd come as soon as he got out of work. I anxiously started walking
around finding the last bit of clothes I'd need and called my mom. I
didn't want to drive in by myself. I dropped the dogs off at my
in-laws and I was on my way!
I got to the hospital at 6pm. I rang
the buzzer and when they asked who I was I said, “I'm Shawna
Haueisen and I'm here to have a baby.” They showed me to my room
and had me lay down and wait. They put me on the monitors and started
an IV lock, which is just the needle without the meds (not yet
anyway!) When I got checked by my doctor, I was at one cm and still
50% effaced (that's the shortening of my cervix) but I'd made
progress. I had the Cervadil put in which help preps my body for
delivery. 12 hours after that they'd take it out and start pitocin.
Shawn got to the hospital at about 845
and we settled in for our stay. I was woken up at 630 am to order
breakfast, take a shower, and get this labor ball rolling. I started
having small contractions. They told me they were going to increase
it every 20 minutes until my contractions were 2 minutes apart
lasting at least a minute. Around 11 am that's where they were. They
weren't very strong yet. This was when I met an angel named Heather.
Heather was my day nurse. She was funny, soft spoken, but stern
sounding and the most reassuring person there.
At 130 I told Heather I wanted to get
into the labor tub to help with the painful contractions before I got
the IV medication. I sat in the tub laboring for an hour. Eleanor
would not stay still and with each contraction we were unable to
track her heartbeat. It was hard to relax between each contraction
when Heather had to come in and locate her heartbeat.
We decided it was time for the IV meds.
This is when my contractions were really getting intese. Heather and
Shawn were coaching me through each one. Deep breath in. Slow exhale.
Deep breath in. Several short exhales. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The
story was the same. Each time a contraction came, Ella moved and
there was no relaxation time between. I was starting to get tired and
cranky.
Heather called Dr Rubin in to check me
and see where I was at after being on pitocin for about 10 hours. He
came in an checked me. 4 cm! He said he thought it was time for a
epidural and it would help me get to the next part. I completely
agreed. Shawn helped me as I wrapped around a pillow. The epidural
process didn't take long and it didn't hurt. There was a quick
feeling of a string in my back but it quickly went away. Within 20
minutes I was feeling no pain. My doctor came in again, checked me
(6cm!) and broke my water. That was at about 630 pm. Heather had to
leave about an hour earlier for one of her classes but said she'd try
to come back and hopefully I'd be holding my baby.
At about 8, I started to feel an
intense amount of pressure. I wanted to push, but didn't think I had
enough time to dilate to a 10. I called my new nurse into the room
and was checked again. I was at 9.5 with a little bit of a lip left
to my cervix. It was freaking go time. At 815. I started to push with
each contraction, 3-4 pushes per contraction. Before labor, I didn't
understand what it meant to push more than once. It's basically my
lather rinse repeat until the pressure goes away.
I looked up at about 9 and saw Heather.
She'd come back to check on me. I was so happy. It wasn't that I
didn't like my nurse, I just really liked Heather. She had a very
calming and relaxing voice that I could concentrate on when everyone
else was kind of shouting at me.
After about 2 hours of pushing without
a lot of progress, we started to try some other methods. I rolled to
my side but it was extremely uncomfortable. While you can't feel
pain, the pressure is intense. No one ever explained that to me. The
way I keep describing it is, I felt like there was an airplane shoved
up my ass. Everyone was encouraging and telling me I was doing great,
but I didn't feel like I was doing great. I felt tired and frustrated
that she was right there but not here. The nurses started to
talk amoungst themselves. They called Dr Rubin back in at about 11.
“It seems that baby is stuck behind your pelvis. I'm going to give
another half hour, but I think we're leading towards a c-section.”
When I was about 22, I went to the
doctor and she told me there was a pretty good chance I'd need to
have a c-section because I have a low pelvis. I've had in in my mind
for years that I would probably need a c-section. I was prepared for
the possibility, so it was not devastating to me when they told me I
could not deliver vaginally.
I tried for another fifteen minutes,
but they were the worst fifteen minutes of the entire labor. My
contractions were right on top of each other and I couldn't take time
between. Heather put a nice cloth on my forehead and told them to
call the doctor. I was done. I was sobbing, not because I didn't want
to go into surgrey, but I was scared they were going to have me try
more.
After that, it was pretty quick and
kind of a blur. I was told I could not push anymore. Shawn was taken
away to get into his scrubs and tell our parents what was going on.
There was suddenly 10 people in my room and we were moving. My
epidural was upped for surgery and I was given morphine. Man,
morphine is the bees knees. I was floating on a cloud. They were
prepping and I just laid back.
Shawn came into the room and sat with
me, holding my hand. Since I'd gotten her mostly out, they had to
pull her back out to get her out. That did not feel good. I didn't
feel pain only pressure. Suddenly there was no pressure, and there
was this noise. It took me a minute to realize it was my baby crying.
I started tearing up. She was here.
Shawn went over and cut the cord. They
wrapped her up and he brought her over to me. She was squalling
something fierce. I touched her little hand and said “You're my
baby. Hello Eleanor Cadence.”
The rest is boring. We were in the
hospital for five days. Ella had a touch of jaundice and had to lay
in under Bili lights for a whole day. Breast feeding didn't work for
us, so I've been pumping milk. It's tiring but I don't want to pay
for formula, so we're going to make it work.
We've been home since Sunday. We're
working on getting into a schedule, any schedule. Ella is eating like
a champ. Shawn is really great with her. I love them.
