Our special delivery came on January 30th 2012 at 11:07pm.
We started our journey a few weeks before. I have had a history with pre-eclampsia so the doctor monitored me very closely with my blood pressure and protein levels. we had just finished our second round of 24 hour urine tests and was in the labor and delivery department doing our twice weekly fetal stress test when the news came that we were staying and going to have a baby. We had made it to 38 weeks so technically full term.
The train got rolling about 11:00am. I had the feeling the day before that today would be the day and low and behold I was right. They took me slowly at first because for the first time I came back Strep B positive which meant they needed to get 2 doses of the medicine into me 4 hours apart from each other. Well, by the end the had managed to get 3 doses into me. Yes is was that long of a delivery.
About 4pm I asked for my epidural. That's right no natural stuff for this girl! I had asked them at that time if there was anything they could do about my IV because my hand was starting to swell and it hurt more then the labor pains. They decided they would try to put in a new on on the other hand. Yup they did it, blew right through the vein! So that nurse went and got another nurse to try again and she blew through the next vein! After that no more trying to replace the IV. I will suffer with what is working. Once we got that settled it was time to get the epidural done. The anaesthesiologist gets me sitting up on the bed crossed legged and hunched over to get me in the right position for the medication. She injects the numbing agent which is the most unpleasant of stuff because of the stinging sensation it gives you as it numbs you. Once that is done she is ready to insert the epi. Of course my body decides to not cooperate, my spine is to curved at that spot and so she had to start over again up a little higher. Which means more unpleasant numbing medicine and another poke with a needle. I felt like the human pin cushion at this point. 45 minutes later the epidural is in! Then the icing on the cake, my IV decided not to run anymore and in order to get it to work we had to keep twisting the needle and pulling the tubing and positioning my hand just right and try to hold it still once we found the right spot to keep it running. Now this is about 6pm when we figure all this out so I still have to baby this IV for the worst part of labor which at this point is not going to end for what seems like forever!
At this time I am dilated to a 7. And there we stayed for the next 3 hours. All the time getting told by the nurses that they think it should be only another hour or so until the baby is here. That talk started about 4 in the afternoon. Little did they know that Riley had other plans.
About 9 o'clock I am checked to see what is taking me so long and they discover that the baby is facing face up instead of face down. In order to try to get the baby to turn they position me on my side with my far leg flipped over my body and held up in the stirrup. Tom described it as forcing me into a pretzel position. While in this position the epidural wears off. They have to call the anaesthesiologist back in to give me a direct injection of more medication. Right after the second dose takes effect they decide it is a great time to switch sides since the baby is not turning. Now trying to turn when you are numb from the waist down is great fun! Let alone trying to get a dead leg up into a stirrup.
Finally we are dilated to a 9! About a half hour after that it is time to start pushing! The baby still hasn't turned so she is coming face up. And at this point she still hasn't dropped all the way into the birth canal. I am pushing and pushing and she is not moving! The doctor uses the vacuum to get her out. Turns out there was a good reason for her not moving on her own. Apparently the little stinker was doing somersaults inside me because she had managed to get the cord wrapped around her little body and neck about 3 times. The nurses where amazed at how tangled she was. Luckily she was never in any trouble with it though.
She just wanted to make your last delivery memorable! She is so cute and sweet!
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