Caden's Birth Story

On Thursday June 18th I went to the doctor for my regular appointment. My blood pressure was a little elevated. I didn't really think much of it because it is usually high when I go to the doctor, but good any other time. My doctor decided to do some blood work, and said that we would induce if I was getting preeclampsia. I honestly wasn't too worried about it because I was sure that everything would be fine. On Friday I went to work as usual, thinking that it was just an ordinary day. When I left I joked that maybe I wouldn't see them on Monday because I would have a baby this weekend, but I didn't really think that would happen. To my surprise I got a call from my doctor on Friday afternoon saying that she wanted me to go to the hospital to be induced. My bloodwork wasn't awful, but the numbers were a little higher then they liked them to be. I called Matt to come home from work, and then I raced around to get ready. Had I really thought that this was going to happen then I might have spent some more time preparing after work. When Matt got home we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Chick-fil-a and headed to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 6pm. My cervix wasn't "favorable" as the doctor said (I was 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced), so they gave me some medicine that was supposed to stay in for 12 hours to help ripen my cervix. About 2 hours later I was having some cramping, but nothing too painful. I had to be hooked up to a monitor for the baby's heart beat and to a monitor for contractions. Every time that I moved the monitor wouldn't pick up the baby's heart rate, so it would have to be adjusted. The nurse had to keep coming in to adjust the monitor all night. (It was hard to stay in the same position for long!) Plus she had to unhook me every time that I had to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, it was a long night. I was hopeful that the medicine was working due to all of the cramping . In the morning the nurse removed the medicine and found that I hadn't really progressed at all. The doctor decided that they would try some gels to soften the cervix. The gels has to be inserted every 2 hours 3 times. After 6 hours of gels my cervix was a little softer, but still hadn't really changed. Then the doctor decided to try pitocin to see if it would get some contractions going. The pitocin started some small contractions, but after 7 hours I still was only dilated to 1.5 cm and 70% effaced. The doctor decided to stop the pitocin and try the medicine that was supposed to ripen the cervix one more time. After 6 more hours my cervix was a little softer, but I hadn't progressed. By now it was Sunday morning, and I was getting a little fed up. The contractions weren't that bad, but after 2 days with little progress I was really tired and worn out. I was ready go home. The doctor came in and said that she wanted to break my water and start the pitocin again. She said that the pitocin works a lot better after the water is broken. I knew that we would have a baby within 24 hours after that because she wouldn't let me go any longer with my water broken. I was worried that I wouldn't make it though the birth after being so worn out. After my water was broken and the pitocin was started again I was having some serious contractions.After a few hours I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced and definitely ready for an epidural. The epidural was the best thing ever! Sometimes I could still feel the contractions a little bit, but it was nothing compared to what they felt like before the epidural. A little bit after the epidural my contractions started slowing down, and they weren't strong enough to make any more changes to my cervix. The doctor said that sometimes the pitocin would stop working because my body would get used to it, so they decided to stop the pitocin for a little while and then turn it back on slowly. After 4 hours my contractions were still very irregular ands not strong enough. By this time it was about 1:30 am on Monday morning, and the doctor came in to discuss our options. She said that this was the 1st time that she hadn't been able to get someone to go into labor, but at this point the only option left was a c-section. The whole time that I was pregnant I honestly never even considered that I would be having a c-section, but by this point I was ready to do whatever was necessary to get Caden here. They had me into the operating room by 2 am. I was awake for the c-section, but I was numbed from the chest down through the epidural. They had a drape up in front of me so that I couldn't see, but I could feel everything. It didn't hurt, but I could feel pressure. It was actually very strange. When they were trying to get him out they pushed down on the top of uterus, and I could hardly breathe. Matt stood up and watched the whole surgery. (He didn't take any pictures though. He thought that I probably wouldn't want to see it!) Caden was just as stubborn about not wanting to come out during the c-section as he had been the whole time that I was being induced. The doctor had to use the vacuum to get him out. It actually didn't work the fist time, and someone was bringing the forceps when she was finally able to get him out with the vacuum. He was born at 2:10 am on Monday June 22nd. The doctor held Caden up over the drape so that I could see him. He was covered in blood and white stuff, but he was the cutest thing that I had ever seen! He had the perfect little features, and he was so tiny. He weighed in at 6bs 12 oz and 20 inches.

After he got all cleaned up and checked out, they took him out to the recovery room where he and Matt waited for me. It took about 30 minutes for me to get all stitched up. I was so exhausted that I could hardly keep my eyes open, and I couldn't believe that my little guy was finally here. We spent so long waiting for him that I was afraid to really believe it until he was actually here. I feel so happy and incredibly blessed to be Caden's mommy!