birth story

thurs night (7/23?) i wasn't getting kick counts...got 1 maybe 2 movements in 2 1/2 hrs...so called the dr and went to triage for monitoring etc. for a few hrs. they did a BPP/ultrasound right away and she looked great on it (8/8 score) with a few movements but her movements were very flowy and floating and i wasn't feeling them. also my blood pressure was elevated more than normal (but not high enough to induce then) and after they did the u/s they put me on the baby monitor, and on that her HR was great but she wasn't having a whole lot of movements just kinda the minimum. they ended up putting in an IV and giving me a fluid bolus to see if that would help (it did a tiny bit but not much) but, since the labs came back normal and she was getting the movements they said to just go home and hang out til my NST the next afternoon, that she was fine till then at the very least, and if we had any issues come back right away of course and they would induce then. oh, and they also told us that the paperwork from the specialist (the report from the wk before, 7/17) said 'recommend induction @ 39 wks' - which would have been this past tues - nice of them to tell US that but at least they didn't have one scheduled lol. so we got home around 3am....

fri (7/24) i woke up around 11 (complements of the late night lol) with a headache, but not too bad of one. i also didn't get my kick counts but did have about 3, maybe 4 movements; but since my NST was at 130 i didn't bother to call. got to the NST and they were gonna just send us home since we had been in triage half the night but when i told the nurse doing the test that they said i was still supposed to do it anyway and what all had happened and the fact that i had a headache and wasn't getting kick counts again, she put me on the monitor while she went and talked to the dr in charge (the specialist). the NST was okay but the dr said due to the fact that i wasn't feeling her move hardly at all, it wasn't really worth sending me home just for me to come back in 6 hrs when i didn't get kick counts, so they were sending me to get induced then. got admitted to L&D around 230/300ish, and got settled in my room (suite lol) pretty quickly. after meeting with the dr (and a quick check) game plan decided on was to start cervadil @ 6p, leave it overnight, then take it out and start pitocin @ 6am and go from there.
they put the IV access in around the time they started the cervadil. the cervadil started causing ctx pretty quickly, not too bad, but unfortunately it didn't stay that way....ended up with hyperstimulation and one constant contraction which had me doubled over in pain so they took out the cervadil around 10p and gave me some nubain and benadryl so i could sleep that night. ctx tapered off overnight until pit was started (closer to 630ish am lol). the staff was great about trying to keep it as low-dose as possible, and started at 2, going up in increments of 2 as needed. baby stopped being cooperative in the sense that the ctx monitor wasn't reading right (although her heartrate was great the whole time) so eventually they ended up placing an internal ctx monitor (but didn't have to break my water for that, so no worries as far as the GBS and it wasn't on baby). i did get to try out the tub before they did that but unfortunately it did not help any for the pain - i couldn't get the water to stay warm and when i turned on the jets it was too hard, off was not enough, so i switched to the shower which felt wonderful and did help a bit. my water broke on its own around 1150 so had a dose of abx (pcn) at 12 and then every 4 hrs thereafter.
i did get to walk around a little bit but once they started the pit again i was pretty much out of it and couldn't think straight. i do know they ended up giving me some more nubain, and DH said they also tried fentanyl to see if it would help (don't remember if it did or not).....they wouldn't let me eat because i kept throwing up but they did allow me to have clear fluids (juice etc - and they tried to give me phenergan but it didn't help - not that i felt like eating anyway). other than that the only thing i really remember was around 6pm DH mother sitting with me for a bit while DH got something to eat, and me being all but in tears from the pain, biting on a towel to keep from crying out too loudly. i did finally give in and ask for an epidural which they put in around 7 - when they checked me before they put it in i was at 4, 5 if they stretched it - less than an hour after they put in the epidural i was all but 9. the epi worked the way it was supposed to and i was able to feel pressure, and my legs were only tingly, but no pain, so i was able to rest and relax and they helped me to lay on my side with a peanut ball in between my legs to help baby out (and i was on a slant too which helped). i don't remember what time i started pushing but i do remember they let me try a squat bar (yes, with the epi, i could feel enough for that) which helped baby but not me - i ended up with my feet swelling so much they looked like little watermelons, lol. i spent some time on my back but pretty high up (almost sitting) and then on my one side as well for pushing but.....
she got stuck right before she came out and for about 1/2 hr we played bungee jumping with the pushing and her moving down and back. her heartrate was starting to go up and my oxygen levels were starting to go down so my dr (who knew what i wanted) finally said she thought that it would be a good idea to use the vacuum to help. i asked if they had to cut for that and when she said no i said okay - but about 30 secs later she said no we need to do a small cut and i reluctantly said okay (since i would rather have that than a c-s) - apparently i was really really tight and they weren't having much luck trying to help with that - ended up with a 1st degree episiotomy (no adt'l tearing thank God!), no vacuum, and baby had the cord around her neck x2 which is what was causing her to be stuck. fortunately she was then able to come out enough that they could move the cord, so she could get the rest of the way out. apparently i missed a c-s by about 20 minutes (DH said they said i had 20 minutes more to get her out or they would have to do a c-s for her health and safety and mine) but she was healthy (apgar scores of 8 & 9 at 1 & 5 mins respectively) and i was able to nurse her almost right away, and they were able to follow the plan for after-birth almost to the letter.

Kayleigh was born at 1:35 am sunday morning, she was 6lbs 14 oz, and 19 inches long.