"Life with 3 B's": November 2012

Sunday afternoon around 4:30 I went to the bathroom and during I felt like a cork came unplugged....with a slight gush of water. I knew something had happened but wasn't sure if we needed to do anything. I called my mom right away and both her and Bryan thought everything was ok and we didn't need to go to the hospital yet. I decided to take a bath to get clean and relax. However, as time went on water kept coming and coming. I was convinced my water had broke but was also in denial. I asked Bryan if we could just go to the hospital to have baby checked out and if my water did break we could just come back home and labor there. He agreed and off we went. We both truly thought we would be home shortly.

Wrong! This was around 6:30-7:00 p.m. I did not imagine I wouldn't be home for another 7 days! My water definitely had broke and we were not going home. Our doc was not on call that night so they didn't feel comfortable sending us home. I did not have a bag fully packed yet as we still had 3 weeks and 2 days to go. Once we knew we were going to stay Bryan left to go pack some bags and take care of the dogs.

The first night was just a lot of waiting for contractions to come on. To be honest after that the timing is hazy and everything just blends together. So this is how I remember it. The first night we waited for my own contractions to become regular. This was not happening. We even tried nipple stimulation with the hospital breast pump. Still no regular contractions. I believe it had been over 24 hours at this point and the doctor and nurses highly suggested we start on a low amount of pitocin to get things going and I also needed to be on an antibiotic since my water had been broke for that long to prevent any infection. I wasn't too happy at this point because I really wanted to do a water birth and was afraid this would not allow us to and I was also scared of how strong the contractions would be with the pitocin. Once the contractions started to get regular they stopped the pitocin so I could try and do things naturally. I walked the halls for about a half hour and then labored some in the tub in our room in hopes that I could still do a water birth. This is when I started to have more intense contractions and more back labor. Our doula was soooo helpful at this point. She was the one with me in the bathroom putting pressure on my lower back and timing my contractions. Even with the intense contractions they never got regular so the doctor wanted to put me back on the pitocin and increase it a lot. By this point it was Monday evening and I was only at 3 cm dilated and 50 % effaced and very tired. I could not imagine laboring without the epidural at this point with the increased amount of pitocin. So we upped that and I got the epidural and no more water birth. I was worried about getting the epidural but to be honest it was probably the easiest part of it all. The nurse said I did a great job and didn't even flinch and everybody always flinches. Now we were just in for a long night of waiting and hoping to be fully dilated by morning.

Tuesday morning the doc came in and they thought I was at 9 cm so she was going to come back to check me an hour later in hopes I could start pushing. When she came back to check baby had changed positions and I really wasn't at 9 cm just between 7 and 8 cm. I was quite disappointed. I can't remember what really happened next. I think they upped the pitocin some more and we waited. Next thing I remember the doctor and nurses came rushing in and Addison's heart rate had dropped and they needed to stabilize it. Next they put an oxygen mask on me to get more to Addie. Then Dr. Lindsey said we needed to discuss a C-Section. I was pretty scared at this point because I was worried about Addie but also was scared of surgery. We had probably 2-3 minutes if that to discuss and we of course realized that we really needed to do the C-Section. Dr. Lindsey did not believe Addie could handle more contractions or even me pushing. So they wheeled me back to the operating room pretty quick and by the time we got in the room things became an emergency as her heart rate dropped to 78 (had been in the 150s). I just remember Dr. Lindsey saying I'm cutting NOW....I was a little worried I didn't have enough anesthesia in me and that I would feel the cutting. Thankfully, no all I felt was the pressure. Dr. Lindsey had a little trouble getting Addie out because she had her hand sticking out first but she did a great job and got her out quick. Addie came out crying with fully developed lungs. (Addie was born 42 hours after my water broke) It took about another 30 minutes for them to stitch me back up. They couldn't do it fast enough I was very anxious for them to be done! Bryan and our doula, Alison were extremely helpful holding my hand and stroking my hair during it all to keep me relaxed and calm.

So God and Addie's plan for her arrival was the complete opposite of how Bryan and I had planned. But once she was there safe and healthy it didn't really matter. As her Grandpa Emerson said we got 3 "bonus" weeks with her and we are so thankful!

Visitors! Thanks so much to Lauren, Andy, Ashley, Stef, Rebecca and Jess (pictured below) for all coming up to support us during labor and of course after to see Addison.