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On Friday, November 14th, 2008, I started having contractions around 7 am while I was still at home getting ready to go to work. I had decided that it was going to be my last day at the office because I didn’t want to work past my due date and I thought I should finally take some time off before Carter was born. So I went to work as normal since I only had one contraction at home and I had been having some random ones in the past couple of weeks. However, I had more and more contractions as the day went on. In the morning, I’d have some that were 5 minutes apart and others that were 20 minutes apart. There wasn’t much of a pattern. I knew these contractions were stronger than the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been having for awhile, but I wasn’t sure if they were anything other than false labor because they didn’t hurt too much. I was thinking of heading home early but my office decided to have a lunch for me and so I felt I had to stick around for it. I only had a couple of contractions during the lunch, but afterwards, they became more regular and were about five minutes apart. I needed to finish up a few things to hand off to a co-worker before I could leave, but I kept wasting time looking up false labor online and trying to figure out what was going on. I finally finished my work and headed home with our dog, Charlotte, who had come to work with me around 4 pm. For the past hour my contractions had been getting stronger and I was starting to think they were real. It was getting more difficult to hold a conversation while I was having a contraction. They got significantly stronger as I was driving home and were about four minutes apart. It was pretty difficult to drive while I was having one, but I’m stubborn and knew I could make it home.
Brian got home shortly after I did. I had a couple more contractions at home that were strong. We were about to start timing them when my water broke around 4:50 pm. Brian called my doctor’s office which was already closed and got to talk to the answering service after listening to a really long recording. The nurse he talked to was at another hospital and told us we should go to our hospital (as we were already planning on doing). Brian took Charlotte out and I got in the car which was already packed with our bags and the car seat. We had to drive in rush hour traffic and wait through multiple stop lights as my contractions got to three minutes apart and really started to hurt.
When we got to the hospital, they weren’t expecting us even though we had called and someone was supposed to let them know we were on our way. I was set up in a room right away when we told the nurses that my water had already broken and that my contractions were three minutes apart. I changed into a gown and a nurse tested me with something like litmus paper for amniotic fluid to confirm my water really had broken, which it had. I was put on a fetal monitor and the nurse checked my cervix. At this point, I was dilated 4 cm and 80% effaced. My contractions were really strong, much worse than I had expected. They had been manageable until my water had broken. Now they were around two to three minutes apart and lasting about 90 seconds.
A nurse had to put all my information into the computer in the room because they didn’t have my chart (even though my doctor’s office is in the hospital). Luckily Brian was able to answer most of their questions since I was in too much pain. I met the doctor who was on call for the evening – Dr. Bullen. I was a little disappointed that my doctor wasn’t going to be doing the delivery since she claimed to do the delivery for 99% of her patients, but since there wasn’t anything I could do about it, I didn’t let it bother me. An EMT also observed for awhile because he was trying to prepare for the possibility of having to do a home delivery. He didn’t stay until I delivered since it was several hours until Carter was born. The nurses also switched at 7 pm. The night nurse that came on duty was the one that taught the breast feeding class I had taken. She ended up being the one to help deliver Carter.
A nurse started my IV and started pushing fluids. I had to get in an entire bag to make sure I was hydrated before I could get an epidural. That was a really long 30 minutes. A nurse anesthetist put in the epidural around 7 pm. The procedure didn’t hurt at all compared to the contractions I was having. The numbing shots hurt a little, but with them, I barely felt the catheter being put in. The hardest part was sitting sideways on the bed through the contractions and staying still enough while the catheter was being put in during a contraction.
The epidural really started kicking in about 30 minutes later. I was told I could give myself a booster shot of medicine if I thought I needed it and I did this twice early on. I felt so much better after this. I couldn’t even feel when I was having contractions. But I was shaking for about an hour. I was shivering but wasn’t cold. The nurses didn’t seem to be concerned though. I ended up completely numb from midway down my abdomen to my feet. Brian was able to leave at this point for a few minutes to grab himself some dinner. I was starving and only got to have ice chips. I didn’t have much for lunch because my company got Pizza Hut for lunch since it was my last day and I didn’t eat much. Brian also finally got to call our parents to let them know what was going on and to call a friend to ask him to let Charlotte out one more time for the night.
Brian and I somewhat watched TV as we waited for me to progress. The nurse kept coming in to move me from one side to the other because Carter kept either playing with the cord or crushing it and his heart rate kept dropping. Eventually the nurse put an oxygen mask on me to help make sure Carter was getting enough oxygen.
Time passed really quickly. I may have dozed off a couple of times. I kept progressing well. I was usually at least one more centimeter dilated every time the nurse or doctor checked me. Around 11:30 pm the nurse had me move from my right side to my left. This hurt. It was like Carter didn’t want to fall to the left and was hung up causing a lot of pressure. I now could feel when I was having a contraction, though they weren’t as bad as they were before the epidural.
Just before midnight, the nurse checked me and determined that I was fully dilated. She got some stuff ready and then I started pushing just after 12 am. Pushing didn’t hurt. The pressure in my belly stopped after a few pushes. I was still able to tell when a contraction started, but it wasn’t painful.
Brian and the nurse helped me push. Each one helped hold one of my legs and the nurse counted. Brian did really well and was able to watch everything. The nurse called the doctor in after about 20 minutes of pushing when Carter started to crown. The doctor did an episiotomy because he said I was going to tear if he didn’t. I continued to push and still didn’t feel anything as Carter was delivered at 12:38 am on Saturday, November 15th, 2008. He was one day early. He weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz and was 20.25 inches long.
The doctor put Carter on my chest immediately for about 30 seconds. Carter wasn’t crying, but making some noise, and was a little purple. They started to pick him up to take him across the room to warm him up and check him out but realized then that they’d forgotten to cut the cord. Brian was the only one with free hands at this point so he got to cut the cord whether he wanted to or not. Once across the room, Carter started letting out a few short cries as they did the Apgar test.
I delivered the placenta really easily and quickly. The doctor stitched up the episiotomy cut. It seemed like he was doing this forever so I started wondered just how big the cut was. After they checked Carter and took all his measurements, Brian and I got to hold him for a little bit.
I tried breastfeeding him too but we weren’t terribly successful. After a little while they took Carter to the nursery to give him a real bath. When they did this, the nurses got together some food for me to eat - a sandwich, fruit, and chocolate cake. It was the best food ever!
After I had eaten, the nurses brought Carter back in the room. We had him stay in the room with us as much as possible instead of having him in the nursery. We all tried to sleep a little then. There was a couch in the room for Brian to sleep on that wasn’t great but better than a chair. My bed also wasn’t very comfortable. Even when we were first put in the room, the nurse mentioned that people always complain about that specific bed, but at the time, I didn’t care. I continued to try breastfeeding every couple of hours but it was very frustrating. The nurses tried to help but when we weren’t very successful they just said to try again later.
Carter was born very early Saturday morning. Since insurance will cover staying two nights after the baby is born, we stayed through Monday afternoon to get as much help and guidance from the nurses as possible. It was interesting though how each nurse had very different and often contradicting advice.
Brian went home around 7 am Saturday morning to let Charlotte out and take a shower. After he got back, his parents arrived. Then my mom made it to Knoxville and a little later my dad did as well.
It took a really long time for my epidural to wear off. Around 9 am a couple of nurses tried to help me up because they wanted me to go to the bathroom even though I didn’t think I had to go. I thought I’d be able to stand but was very wrong and the nurses luckily each had one of my arms and caught me before I fell.
I was never in too much pain after the epidural finally did wear off. I was able to make it on only ibuprofen which I took regularly at the hospital and only took a few times once at home. My abdomen was where most of my pain was – I felt like I had terrible cramps.
Like most newborns, Carter slept a lot. He was a quiet baby and didn’t cry much while we were in the hospital – that changed eventually! He had a little bit of jaundice and looked very tan. Otherwise, the pediatrician told us he looked very healthy. Everyone was impressed with the shape of Carter’s head. Most people thought I must have had a c-section because he didn’t have a cone-shaped head at all.
I didn’t nap much on Saturday even though I was exhausted. Our families were in and out all day but everyone left around dinner time for the night.
During the middle of the night the nurse took Carter out of the room for just a little bit so we could get some sleep and so she could do the photos they post on their website.
On Sunday Carter was seen again by the pediatrician and had a hearing test that the state of Tennessee requires all babies to have (and that insurance doesn’t cover). The girl administering the test was young and didn’t know what she was doing so we decided to let someone else administer it the next day instead. I finally took a shower and enjoyed the fact that I had people taking care of me.
On Monday morning my doctor did Carter’s circumcision. He’s a tough baby because he slept through the entire procedure! My doctor’s nurse practitioner checked me and told me I was good to go home. A pediatrician checked Carter one more time and approved him to be discharged. His weight had dropped to 6 lbs, 11 oz which was less than a 10% decrease so no one was too concerned. A little later Carter got his second hearing test and he passed. It took about 45 minutes I had to hold him still the entire time which was really difficult.
Brian and I packed up all our stuff and we left the hospital a little after lunch to take Carter home. I wasn’t as nervous as I had expected to be. I am glad that we stayed the extra day at the hospital because I asked lots and lots of questions and got lots of good advice.
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