With some of my favorite blog sisters being pregnant (plus the fact that I know you all can't get enough of my Gorgeous Girl) and all I thought I'd throw it back to January 2012 and share Norah Jane's birth story...it's a doozy! This post was originally posted on my OLD family blog
here.
So...this goes out to
Lora,
Annie,
KellyAnne,
Marianne and
Keyona!
Oh girls, where to begin! I think that everything that every pregnant woman fears happening when it comes to labor and delivery happened during Norah Jane's induction. This post is probably going to be the most TMI post I've ever written to date, so I apologize in advance BUT you have been warned!
We arrived at the hospital at 6am on Monday, January 3oth. With Jack I had the most wonderful nurse, the second our nurse walked in the room I knew it was going to be a LONG day. She just had that "I hate my life" look on her face, definitely not welcoming at all! She also had really long hair, like almost to her butt and it was just hanging down everywhere LOOSE. I remember commenting to Chris that her hair was freaking me out b/c it was everywhere, haha! Let me tell you she not only hated her life, but she soon made me hate mine as well. She was the ROUGHEST individual I have ever been "checked" by - like I thought I was going to die and she kept wanting to check me and check me and check me and each time was more painful then time before.
Anyway, a little back story - the whole reason we induced was because Norah Jane was not engaging into my pelvis at all and I was dilating each week. When we checked in the hospital I was 3 cms, but Norah was still just bouncing around. Dr. Shaw was concerned that with her still being so bouncy that if my water broke on it's own that we would run the risk of having her cord or a hand slip out with the gush of the water breaking. I had never heard of this before, but a friend of mine confirmed the theory when I told her about it (she had just had a friend that the exact thing happened to a couple weeks before and her friend had to have an emergency c-section). So I was told that the plan was NOT to break my water, but that we were going to start the Pitocin and hope that I would progress without my water being broken - they were hoping that they could break my water right before delivery (spoiler - this did NOT happen).
We started the Pitocin and the contractions started coming. With Jack, Dr. Shaw broke my water and immediately called for anesthesia so I actually never really felt any contractions - this time I was NOT so lucky. Dr. Shaw didn't want to give me my epidural right away and wanted me to try the IV pain meds, to which I refused (because of all the horror stories I've heard about them). The Pitocin started at 7am and I made it to about 1:30pm before I was definitely ready for my epidural...contractions suck! I also had only progressed to 4cms by this time so I figured it was only going to get worse and be a long day!
The anesthesia guy came into the room and at this point I was having some pretty intense contractions. So he gets set up and explains everything and then gets started...I was having contractions and curled in a ball and trying not to move - they kept saying "Oh you are doing good, doing great, almost done..." to only then say "I'm going to have to move up a level"... ugh! So basically he had to do the epidural twice and it sucked...by the time he was done I was dripping sweat and my nurse thought I was going to pass out! I assured her I was fine, it was just the contractions and being curled over for so long and having my hair all in my face. I guess there are 2 different options for getting the epidural medicine as well, they can put it right in your back when they do whatever it is they do or you can run it through the little IV looking machine -which obviously takes a little longer to work. Well my blood pressure had been dropping lower and lower all day - at one point it was 90 over 43 (and no I never got a good answer on why it was doing that), so they said the only option was the IV route for getting the epidural meds b/c the other way causes your blood pressure to drop and since mine was so low already it wasn't an option.
So if you are keeping score, here is where we stand...
1. Mean/Rough Nurse
2. Contractions, Contractions, Contractions
3. Two Attempt Epidural
... it only gets better from here, keep reading...
My nurse said that she had a meeting at 2pm so she was going to give me about 10 minutes and then she would put my catheter in once I numbed up some. Well when she came back in I told her I could still feel quite a bit, I couldn't feel my contractions, but I could feel my legs and even lift them a little bit. She thought I was nuts, but I showed her how I could lift my legs. She then said well let me check you and I told her I could feel her, but not like I could before. She said, "Well I will be in my meeting for an hour so if I don't put your catheter in now and you pee the bed don't be mad at me!" I said OK. Not 5 minutes after she left I was talking to Chris and laughed and proceeded to pee the bed a little. When my mom came back in I asked her to help me change the pads under me. So her and Chris had to roll me side to side like they do the really old people in nursing homes and as soon as they started to roll me to the first side I started laughing, thus peeing and not just peeing a little, like full on pee. Chris was like, "Darci stop, its coming off the bed!" Haha! So my mom just stuck a pee pad right in between my legs and pretty much left it at that! When my nurse came back she got my catheter in and cleaned up my bed a little bit.
I was still pretty much 4cms all afternoon, about 5pm my nurse said she wanted to check me again and then she was going to call Dr. Shaw and see if she wanted to come break my water or what the plan was going to be. She checked me and said I was maybe 5cms at that point. She said Norah's head still wasn't engaged at all and she could push her head away. She kept saying, "Oh yeah, we can't break your water with her head like this...no way." Then she said "Well let me see what she does when you have a contraction if I can still push her away" As she was waiting on the contraction she commented on how bulging my bag of water was, then I got a contraction and she said, "Oh yeah, I can still push her away, there is no way we can break your water like this" and that's when I felt a huge gush! She had put her finger through my water bag and broke it! The look on her face was the classic "Oh Shit!" I knew she was freaking out, but I tried to just remain calm. Chris on the other hand jumped up and asked if she needed him to do anything and she said "Towels, towels - we need towels!" Chris moved faster than I've seen in years. Luckily, the nurse didn't jerk away when my water broke, she kept her hand in there to act as a "cork" and then slowly every couple minutes let a little more water drain out, this was to ensure the cord didn't come out - which was what we were trying to avoid! After what seemed like an hour she assured me that all the water was out and Norah's head had already engaged and everything was fine! What A Relief! Chris was pissed, pissed that the nurse was so rough and pissed that she wasn't friendly and pissed that she broke my water! Haha!
At 5:30 my nurse checked me again and I was 6cms and she said she had also called and told Dr. Shaw that my water had broke. Dr. Shaw came in a couple minutes later and said she figured another couple hours and that she was going to run home and feed her girls dinner and then head back. Around 5:50pm Norah's heart rate started dropping with each contraction, at first the nurse wasn't too concerned b/c she figured the cord was just being compressed during the contraction because it rebounded after the contraction ended. Ok, I can buy that - but the stupid monitor alarm kept going off after each contraction and was so annoying. Finally the nursery nurse came in to check the alarm and asked when the nurse last checked me and I said she was supposed to come back at 6:30pm to check me again - I looked at the clock and it was 6:20pm so I said in 10 minutes. The nursery nurse said, well I'm going to go ahead and check you - by the look on her face I knew something was up, she said "Well I'm pretty sure you are complete!" Before she even got out of the room she was on the phone with Dr. Shaw. My regular nurse didn't believe the nursery nurse that I was complete - I went from 6cms to 10cms in under an hour.
Everything seemed to kick into high gear at that point, the nursery nurse was setting up for Norah, my nurse was getting everything set up for Dr. Shaw. I kept saying I felt like I needed to push and they were like, just wait Dr. Shaw will be here any minute! Dr. Shaw walked in and it was "go time". I had been joking all day that I had alot to live up to because I had Jack in one contraction with only 2 pushes. Norah Jane took 2 contractions (4 pushes the first contraction and 3 pushes the second one). Chris informed me that I did indeed poop, again... while I was pushing. I knew I was going to so I wasn't surprised! Ha!
So here is the final score...
1. Mean/Rough Nurse
2. Contractions, Contractions, Contractions
3. Two Attempt Epidural
4. Peed The Bed
5. Nurse Broke My Water - Unintentionally
6. Pooped the Bed
7. Our Recovery/Permanent Room had clogged drains and the Engineering Men (fancy for Maintenance Men) had to come and snake the drains TWICE!
When they put Norah up on my chest it was love at first sight! I could tell she was bigger than her brother was for sure. And it was wonderful to see her healthy - all of our fears and worries had been for nothing! We sure are blessed and so very thankful for her to be here and join our family!
We love you Norah Jane! xoxo
xoxo
