Ok, back to the story...compliments of Ryan's impeccable time and note keeping. :)
10:00 am - We were scheduled for a 10:00 am induction because my blood pressure continued to rise that week and my proteins had jumped to a very high level. I slept like a CHAMP the night before knowing it was the last night I would be in that "condition." :) My mom had successfully made it up Columbus after changing her flight twice, so we all had a nice breakfast and soaked up our time with the twins. We snapped some last twin-with-mommy's-huge-tummy pics. These are so special to me (despite the hugeness and puffyness and swelling..ick)...the twins don't know it, but they had to sacrifice alot too throughout this pregnancy. I felt like a lazy, inadequate mom alot of days just laying around in the beginning being so sick and laying around at the end being sick again with the preeclempsia. Thank the LORD they had each other to play with - yes it made it hard having two so young, but it was hands down God's sovereignty that they had each other.
We didn't get to the hospital until 10:10 (oops), but was told upon arrival that things were running behind an hour, maybe two, due to some emergencies that morning. No problem, we thought, we would just hang out in the waiting room and soak up the quiet.
3:00 pm - yes, read that again. THREE PM we are called and set up in our room. They had SO many emergencies ongoing through the day that we sat there almost all day. I was so ready to get this baby OUT, but completely understood the reason for our wait. Dad after Dad kept coming into the waiting room with scrubs on to tell their family they were having to roll back to the OR for a C Section....and Dad after Dad would come back in to announce that everything went well and show off pictures to the waiting families. Anyway, we caught up on emails, watched the Price is Right (woop!), ate through ALL of the snacks I had packed, and paced the halls (me). We got in the room and they immediately hooked up my IV's and Pitocin. I was still at 3 cm and having contractions on and off.
4:30 - they check me and I'm only 4 cm! All that time and only 1 cm progressed! I'm not too happy, but ok. My blood pressure is higher than they like so they make me lie on my left side which brings it back down. So....on my left side it is for my labor! Me and Ryan laughed because just like the twins, I can't tell when I'm having contractions again! We have to look at the monitor to tell if I'm having a real contraction or not.
5:30 pm - Still 4 cm! OK, I'm not happy at all! With the twins, I flew from 3 - 10 cm quickly so I was expecting the same or faster with Pitocin pumping through me! I practice trying to feel the contractions and start getting better at it. Nothing painful yet even though they are coming 4 minutes apart.
6:30 pm - We decide to break my water to get things going. The nurse said she expected things to go fast once my water was broken and due to my history with the twins' delivery so she recommended I go ahead and get an epidural if I wanted one. They were still swamped with babies and emergency C sections so it might be better to go ahead and get one while I was comfortable in case it took a while for Anesthesiology to get to my room. So all of this happened together: they broke my water and gave me an epidural. The poor guy had been working all day, c section after c section, epidural after epidural but he was great and did his best to calm me down. Again, this is when I freaked out the most - getting that silly epidural. The contractions didn't bother me, but I was way to scaredy-cat to push for an hour like I did with the twins, without one. I'm still alternating between my left and right sides to keep the blood pressure down. Ryan goes down to the cafeteria to get some food and sneaks me some mozzarella sticks. They were HEAVENLY! yum.
8:00 pm - I'm only 5. tiny. centimeters. Are you kidding me? I get really discouraged at this point. My labor with the twins was 6 hours....we were already to the 5 hour point with Easton and I was only 5 cm? The nurses keep telling me that a centimeter an hour was good and that things were progressing. I didn't want to hear that! Ryan heard the nurse say I couldn't eat anymore now that I had my epidural in and wouldn't let me eat my snickers I had snuck in. I ultimately won that battle and enjoyed my candy bar :)
8:50 pm- I'm up to 6 cm.....I was hoping she would say complete! Or at least a 8-9, but no... a measly 6. I text my mom and some friends that I'm getting discouraged at this point. I did have some sweet reminders and encouragement sent to me throughout the day though...
9:30 pm - They say I'm a 6, maybe 7 cm. Oh my word....I was convinced I would have a baby by dinner when I thought we were being induced at 10:00 am, now I might not even have this baby on this day!!!! Not a happy Casey, folks. My contractions are like 2 minutes apart and have been...why isn't anything happening!?
10:15 pm - hhhmmmm a couple of contractions were very strong...as in strong enough for me to feel! That was unusual so she checked me and said I was an 8! At this point.... the world started caving in, folks. I was feeling strong, strong contractions really close together that I couldn't talk through.
10: 30 pm - they check me and say I'm a 9 cm, but baby is still high. Maybe we should call my doctor (she had gone home to wait until they called her since she had been on call so long). Within 1 minute, maybe 2 contractions, everything changed. All of a sudden I felt the most painful contractions I've ever felt! You can't convince me I had an epidural in because this pain was so clear and unlike ANYTHING I felt with the twins. I keep saying that something is happening, something was changing! From this point on, it felt like everything happened in a matter of seconds. I tell my nurse that I need to push...now! She tells me not to push if I want my Doctor to make it to the hospital. I tell them I'm not pushing...my body is pushing him out for me! At one point, 2 other nurses come in quickly and hook me up to oxygen saying the baby's heartbeat dropped and stayed down.
This picture is HILARIOUS to me....at first I didn't think anything of it, but then I caught a glimpse of the clock...and the time....this was when everything was chaos in the room! Ryan must have hit the button in the chaos of the moment. So funny!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure the lower half of my body is being sawed off it hurts so bad! The nurses were busy moving around the room getting things ready all while I feel like Easton is coming out on his own...whether I push or not. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted to wait and not push to give Doctor Ananth time to get there. I'm not even sure I answered them because the pain was so much and so constant! I remember saying that I wasn't pushing...he was just coming out on his own! They must have checked me and seen I was not kidding.
10:50pm - They call some Resident doctor in who must have been close in the hallway, put his scrubs on him, he sat down, I pushed once and Easton's head was out. I didn't even wait for another contraction and pushed again and all of a sudden, they plop a BABY on my chest! WHAT? I pushed an hour for Jenna and another hour for Caden...how in world could he be here in less than a minute? I kept praising Jesus over and over that he was out and it was over. Easton was so quiet, no crying, no screaming. Ryan cut the cord (he didn't get to do this with the twins) and they took Easton to his warming bed in the corner and worked on him. This was also new to us! They kept him in the room with us the whole time they worked on him and cleaned him up instead of being whisked away like the twins were. I heard Easton cry for maybe a minute, then quiet as a mouse again. So all in all, I went from 8 cm to a baby on my chest in 20 furiously fast minutes. Thank you merciful Jesus! Oh, and by the way, as my Doctor walked in is when Easton was delivered. So she gets credit for being in the room, but mystery resident guy gets the credit for delivering my sweet Easton.
I got to hold Easton skin-to-skin which was absolute heaven! How fun is that? It was certainly a different experience than the twins. We sent our texts out and enjoyed snuggling with Easton. I tried nursing him about an hour after he was born and he took right to it! No teaching him anything, no fighting....awesome!
We were SHOCKED when they said he was 7 lb 10 oz....that is HUGE for us! Somehow I got off track in how far along I was...the hospital has him born at 37 weeks 6 days. And my goodness, he was so long compared to my preemie twins - 20.5 inches! He was absolutely perfect, no problems at all. As soon as I delivered the placenta (sorry if that is gross!) then sure enough my blood pressure went down and has stayed down ever since. (Delivering the placenta is the only cure for preeclempsia). I was so overwhelmed my entire hospital stay at how gracious God had been. He carried me through such a difficult pregnancy and allowed Easton to come safely and yes...ultimately, very quickly. More to come on our hospital stay and our first days at home as a party of five.
So glad you are here now Easton! What a bundle of pure joy you are!
Love this story!
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