The Nitty Gritty

Tuesday 3/18/08
I had an appointment with my Dr. and we agreed it was time to get this girl moving. Matt and I arrived at the birthing center at Strong Memorial Hospital at 7pm for an induction. We settled into our private room and at 8pm I was given cervidil overnight to prepare for the next morning when they'd start me on pitocin. The baby's heart rate and my contractions were monitored for two hours over night.

Wednesday 3/19/08
At 6am a nurse came in and put me on the monitors again which showed I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart. I could feel them but they were pretty mild. I took a shower and we ate breakfast at 7:15am. At 8am Dr. Sanko took out the cervidil and checked my progress. I was still only 1 cm dilated, but because I was already contracting without the pitocin I was started on a lower dose of pitocin. At 9am they hooked me up to the IV and started with one milliunit of pitocin. I continued to have mild contractions throughout the day. At 11am the nurse started to up the dosage of pitocin every half hour until I was at 12 milliunits. However, the contractions never really intensified or got much closer. Dr. Sanko came in to check on me at 5pm and I was still only 1cm dilated. Since things weren't progressing like we had hoped he gave us 3 options. We could a) continue with the pitocin b) stop the pitocin, have dinner and try again the following morning or c) go home. Dr. Sanko thought it was pointless to keep trying with the pitocin and we both agreed it was too soon to go home. So we all agreed to try again the following morning with the pitocin.

We were a little disappointed we weren't going to meet our daughter that day, but it was nice to have dinner and "hang out" before our big arrival. One nurse even told us to think of it as our last date! Although I admit it was tedious at times because I was still hooked up to the IV and couldn't really do much. And sleeping in that bed was nearly impossible. Poor Matt had to endure sleeping in a chair that pulled out into what was supposed to be a bed.

At 9pm Dr. Sanko gave me the first dose of miso (instead of cervidil). This required 4 hours of monitoring instead of the 2 hours on the cervidil.

Thursday 3/20/08
I was given a second dose of miso at 1am and was again monitored for another 4 hours. Somehow I managed to fall asleep while hooked up to the IV and the monitors. I woke up at 7:35am and needed to use the bathroom. Just as I entered the bathroom I felt a trickle down my leg. I looked down and it was just a small clear liquid, so I was pretty sure my water had broken. Matt was still asleep in his "bed" when I phoned the nurse. He woke up to me saying, "I think my water just broke." Nothing like those words to wake somebody up! The nurse came in a few minutes later and confirmed that my water had broken and I was dilated to 3 cm and already feeling contractions. They were manageable at first, but quickly started to intensify. Matt watched the monitor to verify when I felt a contraction and when it was subsiding. At this point I was using the breathing techniques from the class we took. The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and I said "probably." So she said she'd send in the anesthesiologist when they were done with their current patient. By 9am "probably" became a "definitely" and I was wondering where the doctors were. Matt called the nurses' station and said I definitely wanted the epidural. They said I was next in line.

Finally, at 9:15am I got the epidural and it took all the pain away. It was amazing. At that point, our nurse told Matt to go down and get some breakfast since it would be a while before things started happening. So while Matt ate breakfast in our room, I took a nap. Matt was actually watching the contractions on the monitor and couldn't believe I was able to sleep through them since they were the biggest ones he had seen so far.

At 11am the nurse practitioner checked my progress and I was 5 cm dilated. At 11:35am Dr. Burnal (a partner of Dr. Sanko's) checked and I was 8.5 cm dilated. Dr. Bernal came in at 12:45pm and checked me again. He said I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was a little surprised because I still didn't really feel much of anything. I needed Matt and the nurse to tell me when I was contracting because it was tough to tell at first. However, soon I was able to tell when I was having a contraction because I could feel some tightening. So during each contraction I pushed. At one point I asked Matt what time it was and it was already 1:30pm. We couldn't believe how fast that first hour went by. Things continued to progress and the nurse brought in a mirror so I could see the progress. When it was almost time, Dr. Bernal came into the room. There was also a resident doctor who was there and I overheard her call the NP to come in "just in case we had a shoulder issue." I chose to ignore what I had just heard and continued to push.

At 2:37pm Molly Aislin was born weighing in at 10lbs 1 oz and 21 inches. They set her down by my feet and I was able to see her for the first time. They then took her a few feet away to clean her and do all the tests (8/9 apgar score). While they were cleaning her, the Dr. was stitching me up (you can't have a 10lb+ baby and not need a few stitches!). As I watched from the bed, Matt started to take pictures. It felt like an eternity before they were done, but I finally was able to hold our daughter.