see part one here.
Checking in was super fast and the lady explained the process again--up to four doses of oral meds taken every four hours, then they would begin IV pitocin. It could take 12-36 hours and most of the time it is a slow process. Yep. We got it. She took us to our first room.
By 7:00, we were settling in for the night. One of the doctors from the group I see stopped by to check on us and explain the process one final time. I signed all of the consent forms and changed into my robe. A nurse came in and gave me the IV. This was painful moment number one! Man oh man-I do not enjoy bleeding all over the hospital bed and a wire getting placed in my arm. Lol. We answered one million history/medical questions after this and then the nurse gave me my first dose of the oral med.
The first four hours were fairly uneventful. I started feeling some small contractions. We watched Family Feud over and over. Sunday night TV is awful! I blogged a little and we just waited around. I slept from about 10:30 to 12 and that proved to be a life saver later on. At 12:40, the nighttime nurse, Erin, gave me my second oral dose. This time, it was different. Almost immediately, I started feeling stronger contractions. Erin told me that we could do some oral pain meds before getting the epidural, but that I didn't seem to be progressing super fast, so I might as well settle in for a long night. We talked again about the plan. At that time, I was dilated to a 2 and I was about 30% effaced.
Something happened at 1:30 and my body turned a switch. I began contracting every two minutes and laboring in my back and front. It was incredibly painful. I labored until about 2:45 when I asked for some pain meds. I knew that they may slow the process a little bit, but at that point, I wasn't ready for an epidural and knew I couldn't handle contracting to that extent for what could be 24 more hours. Moose was napping during some of this time, and I was just trying to labor and endure. Erin gave me a dose of phenagrin and some pain medication, and Moose says I got immediately drunk. Grin. Again, I got a crucial 1-2 hours of sleep here which proved to be a game changer. I woke up at 4:00 contracting every 2 minutes again. At 4:30, my water broke in a gush. I woke Moose, called the nurse, and text my family.
They moved us to a Labor and Delivery room at this point and administered the epidural almost immediately. Sweet relief washed over my now-numb body and I got a renewed vigor for labor. Before that point, I was beginning to get emotional. I don't know how women labor two minute apart for that long. I was feeling exhausted. The anesthesiologist got my epidural in after a few harsh words about staying still, and we settled in for phase two.
Dr. Chase-Dunn (the weekend on-call doctor, not the one we thought would be taking care of us <Price>, who came on at 9/10 am) came in and checked me. I was 5 cm and over 60% effaced at this time. She declared that I was progressing on my own pretty well and that they were going to wait on the pitocin.
About that time, my parents and sisters arrived at the hospital. I tried to nap, but it was increasingly difficult. We hung out for several hours. The nurse told me that Dr Price would be in sometime between 10 and 12 and if I had stopped progressing, then they would start my pitocin at that point. I was thinking "great...this is going to be the longest day of labor ever". Moose's parents arrived and we just hung out until about 11:30. Micah and Chelsea stopped by for a visit and we all just hung out for a little while. The people took turns eating lunch as we waited not so patiently for a check!
At 12:30, I was feeling pressure and asked the nurse to check me. I was discouraged because I felt like we had several more hours to go, we didn't know what sort of pitocin we were going to get, and we hadn't seen the doctor except for about 12 seconds. Our nurse, Maggie, checked me and found that I was surprisingly dilated to a 10! I was 100% effaced and was a +1 on position. We were all so relieved and surprised! We had expected a pitocin drop and literally never even needed anything beyond the two half doses of the oral med. Eva Kate was ready to come on her own and just needed a little jump start. I truly believe that my labor process had started Sunday morning at church when I felt so gross.
So, they like you to be +3 before you start to push and a good way to get baby where she needs to be is by either bouncing on a birth ball or sitting Indian style. I chose the latter and sat for a couple of hours until I felt pressure. I told Maggie that I was feeling some serious pressure and she checked me again. We did a couple of practice pushes and at 2:00, she said it was time to set up.
The pushing process takes place in your birthing suite at GHS and baby stays with you the whole time, so everything happens on your own room. My nurse and Moose set up the bed with stirrups and handles while another nurse set up Eva Kate's sterile area for when she emerged. I was told I would push anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours as a first time mom and that Dr. Price (the Dr who delivered both Mackenzie and Morgan, by the way) would come in after Eva Kate began to crown.
My parents and sisters decided to stay in room with us. Micah and Chelsea and Moose's parents waited right outside. Pushing wasn't anything like I imagined. Basically, Moose and Maggie (nurse) held my feet and pushed toward my body while I pushed out at my bottom area in short increments while contracting. I don't know if I expected it to be like tv or if I expected it to hurt way more than it did or what, but it was a fairly simple process (again-thank you epidural!). I pushed from about 2:15 until 2:45 when Dr Price came in. He told me she was ready and I needed to give a big push followed by a gentle push. I did the big push and looked down and Eva Kate just made her own way into the world. The gentle push was hardly necessary as she just sort of did it on her own! It was such a sweet moment to get to watch and share!!!
I had requested that they tidy her up just a little before bringing her to me for bonding time. While they cleaned her, they stitched me and tidied up the area. My sisters and mom got to meet Eva Kate first as she was getting clean. Moose and I shared some special time with our girl and then the family played pass-the-baby 
. We hung out, enjoyed some Eva Kate loving, and just basked in the whole new baby glow for a little over an hour.
Finally, they moved us to our room, washed, weighed, and measured her, then left us alone. The nurse gave me all sorts of postpartum instructions and we settled in. We had a few first day visitors and then got situated for our first night as a family of three! We survived our night and are just so grateful for how the past few days took place.
Some other photos from the day:
See full album of photos on Facebook here.
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