Labor and Delivery

We arrived at the hospital on time, which for us is a small miracle in itself! We got checked into a room and the staff had me undress right away and get into a gown and settled in bed. The hospital that we were having Ethan at is very new, only a year old and everything was so nice! All the latest in technology and comfort were made available to us in our room. There was no more separate rooms for delivery everything was done all in our room they told us. There was a couch and chairs as well as a TV and DVD player for watching movies as we waited.

The room was enormous, probably at least the size of my living room at home I think and there were no restrictions on the number of visitors either which was very nice. This is a picture of Dave's parent's who were regular visitors throughout our labor and delivery.

So we arrived at 10 and at eleven I was set up in bed and getting fluids with an IV.

In the next 24 hours I was given 2 doses of medication for ripening which did help I was able to efface up to 80% however I had not dilated more than 1cm. They had also tried giving me pitocin to help my contractions become more adequate and move along my labor but it was not effective. So after 24 hours they decided to send me home, to let me labor at home until I began active labor then I should come back at that time. So a very tired Mommy, Daddy and Grandma to be returned home, still pregnant Sunday morning.

The contractions never really stopped after my stay in the hospital. They would come and go in frequently throughout the day and into the night. After 2 more days of coming and going and even a follow up ob appointment with my regular doctor on Tuesday morning to make sure everything was good, we still hadn’t seen any regular “adequate” contraction progress. Finally Tuesday evening they began to be more regular. My contractions continued throughout the evening. When I progressed to 5 minutes apart, 1 minute duration, for over an hour we went to the hospital. So excited finally thinking OK this has got to be it, we are going to have this baby!

We arrived and they assessed me, much to my great disappointment I was still only dilated 1 cm. They kept me under observation for about 5 hours until around 6:00 AM Wednesday, June 8, 2010 because my blood pressure was high. They said the contractions weren’t strong enough to start active labor. They gave me morphine for the pain so I could get some rest and sent me home once again. Well I truly was exhausted when we got back home again, so I collapsed into bed and thanks to the miracle of drugs I was able to sleep for 6 whole hours! When I woke it was around 11am Wednesday. All three of us (My mom, my hubby and me) were still groggy but glad for the sleep we were able to get.

I continued to have contractions off and on that day and into the evening, this time I didn’t even bother going to sleep, the contractions weren’t letting me rest. So we tried to play games while we continued our waiting game. Finally around 12:30am in the morning on Thursday June 10th my water broke! I was sitting on our black leather sofa at the time so fortunately it wasn’t too difficult to clean up. Bless her heart my mom sent me to the bathroom and did all the clean up herself. So we called Labor and Delivery, they asked how often the contractions were coming and when did my water break? We told them 3-7 minutes apart. They said to take our time, try to relax, take a shower and come in a couple of hours. Boy this waiting game was not for sissies!

Finally at around 2:30am we arrived back at labor and delivery very confident that this time we would be leaving the hospital with our precious little Ethan! Once again we were admitted and checked into a labor and delivery room. Little did we know what the next 48 hours would hold for us and our loved ones.  This is a picture of my Dad (wearing the black shirt) and my hubby's Dad. Of course my Mom had been with me the entire week and my Dad arrived late Thursday morning and began the long wait with us.

My labor was a very slow and prolonged process. Even though my water had broken my cervix did not dilate very much for a long time. At 3:00 AM, the nurse and the midwife noticed the presence of meconium in my discharge and they say it’s nothing to be concerned about. Both my Mom and husband, Dave, questioned the nurse and midwife to make sure that everything was okay regarding the green color of the discharge. They repeated that it was nothing to be concerned about, that it was very common. This is a picture of hubby and his Dad waiting.......

My contractions continued with frequency between 3 and 10 minutes but I did not dilate past 5 cm. So, at 9:00 AM they suggested giving me the epidural which I gladly agreed to. They also decided to increase the amount of pitocin they were giving me to help strengthen my contractions. I was making very slow progress with my dilation. This picture below is one of my Mom who never left my side throughout this entire ordeal, I am forever grateful to her for all she did for us and I love her so much!

During this long period I also was started on oxygen due to my low blood gas levels. The baby was given time to “labor down”. He finally got into the correct position and I was dilated enough to begin pushing after almost 30 hours of labor!