He's here!
I went in Thursday afternoon for my appointment with Dr. Brown, and was still only 1 cm dialted. I went straight from the appointment to the hospital and got all checked in and hooked up to the monitors, they did my blood work and then started me on Cytotec around 10 p.m. I was having contractions, but they weren't too bad, and weren't regular. I got another dose at 2 a.m., but it didn't seem to be doing much. At 5:30, I got up and washed up and changed into my own gown...I hate hospital gowns and was determined to labor in my own stuff....I've done it before and there was no issue with it. I was taken to the delivery room at around 6:45, hooked up to the pitocin, and my doctor walked in about 5 minutes later. He checked me - still at 1 cm - and broke my water!
Five minuutes after that I was having contractions every five minutes. This was around 7:15 a.m. The contractions got painful pretty fast, and by 8:30 or so, I was having a hard time dealing, but I still hadn't decided if I wanted an epidural; I'm so scared of needles, and my last epidural was very painful. The nurse encouraged me to get something in my IV to at least dull the pain a bit, so I agreed, and got a dose of Stadol, which is a narcatic, and something I've found I don't do particularly well with. Immediately I was drunk feeling...things were spinning and I was sick feeling. This is where things get fuzzy.
I wound deciding to get the epidural. They came in to do the epi, and told Austin to leave. I freaked because I was so scared anyway, but they insisted he go. Austin got very firm and told them that we'd lost our last child and that he'd appreciate a little bit of understanding...I can't remember everything that he said, because things were still spinning and the pain hadn't been relieved at all, but they wound up letting him stay if he'd stay out of the way. I started crying (or maybe I started crying harder - I'm pretty sure I was already crying at that point), and they let him come over and hold onto me while they were giving me the epidural. It was so painful and took so long. I kept having contractions every 2 or 3 minutes, and it seemed like it was taking forever to do the epidural. Austin was physically holding me to keep me from moving because I was hurting so badly. Finally it was in and I got to lay down, but I didn't have any relief yet. My right side started to get numb, but nothing changed on my left, and the contractions were getting closer and closer together and more painful. It wasn't working on the left side at all. They turned the dose up and my leg started feeling numb, but nothing else; I could still pick up my leg and move it everything. They wound up turning up the dose about five times before I was numb, and there was still one spot in my stomach that wouldn't go completely numb, but it was better than nothing.
I think this was the point (I'll have to ask Austin to read this and make sure things are in the right order) where my blood pressure bottomed out. All of the sudden my dizziness from the Stadol got really bad, and I couldn't focus. My blood pressure was something crazy low like 85/50, and Jacob's heartrate dropped to like 70 beats per minute. They put me on my side (because I couldn't move at all by then because of all the epidural meds I was getting - even my boobs and arms were going numb) and after a bit things got okay. I think Jacob's cord got pinched somehow, but eventually moving me around got it under control and his heartrate came back up. I was finally able to sit up and the nurse check me and I was 5 cm dialated. This was around 10 a.m. For some reason, she came back and checked me again just a couple (like 3 or 4) of minutes later, and I was completely dialated. They called Dr. Brown to come back and we started doing some "practice" pushes. They brought me the mirror and I could see his head and tons of black hair! They had me stop pushing because the doctor wasn't there yet, but he came in really soon, and not a minute TOO soon! I pushed a few times and Austin could see his head....I reached down and could feel him; I was truly the first person to touch him, which was awesome.
Austin says that the doctor got concerned for a few minutes because he thought Jacob's shoulder was stuck, but obviously it worked it's way out. I remember the doctor calling for someone else to come help, but I was still really dizzy at that time and it was all I could do to focus on pushing. And then he was here!
Jacob Austin Lewis was born at 11:38 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs 8.6 oz and is 21 inches! I knew he'd be big! A four-and-a-half hour labor isn't bad at all, considering how things usually are for me. I was really sick feeling afterwards, but got to hold him and nurse him for about an hour before they took him to the nursery to get cleaned up better and weighed and stuff. MaLew came and brought Annah, and Austin brought her in to meet her baby brother; it was so special. My mom was there too and then she and MaLew were able to come in afterwards and see Jacob too. Afterwards, everyone left, including Austin, and I let Jacob go to the nursery to be warmed up. I got some very much needed rest while the epidural wore off (it took several hours because of how much I'd gotten), and finally around 4 p.m., I was able to go to my room and get Jacob back.
He's so beautiful. I wondered how I'd handle being back in the hospital giving birth after my experience with Andrew last year, but it wasn't bad at all. I shed some tears, but I'm sure people understood. I am truly blessed...our whole family is.
Welcome to the world Jacob....you're in for a ride!
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