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Wednesday, December 5th
At 6:00 am I woke up to a warm gush of fluid. I had just been to the bathroom, so I was pretty sure I hadn't had an "accident." I hurried back to the bathroom and there was no doubt that it was amniotic fluid as it is was clear. I let my husband know what happening and we both sprang into action to get the last-minute things together for the trip to the hospital. We arrived around 7:45 am. I was not having any contractions at this point. I told them my water broke and the nurse in triage gave me a slide to let the fluid drip on…she took one look and said to another nurse, “I’ve got a direct admit.” They showed us to our labor and delivery room which had a really great view of downtown Spokane. We couldn't believe it was the day! I was due 12/16 so I was a bit early at 38w3d.
The nurse checked me about 8:30 am and I was 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced. My Dr. wanted to start the Pitocin right away. I chose to walk the halls a while to see if we could get things going. It helped a little as I felt more and more tightening, but no real pain. The nurse told me that if I didn’t progress they would start the Pitocin at 10:30. That is what happened, so at that point I was monitored in bed as they started the drip in my IV. At Noon I started having more painful contractions. My Dr. arrived and checked me at 12:40 and I was almost 3 cm and 90% effaced. At 2:30 pm the contractions were painful enough that I asked for the epidural. After the last check the doctor had said I could get it at any time, but I wanted to hold out a while to see what I could handle. I was having a lot of hip and back pain as well as the contractions so I got the epidural about 2:30 pm.
For a while after things moved somewhat slowly. At 4:50 pm I was still 3cm, but now fully effaced. The epidural did not ease the back and hip pain so they tried to adjust the dosage. The nurses also kept repositioning me to get the baby’s head to move down further as she was still up pretty high. More waiting…I was checked at 6:40 pm and was now 6cm and then at 8:20 pm I was suddenly fully dilated, but baby’s head was at 0 Station, still pretty high. The back/hip pain became really excruciating, but the “top offs” the anesthetists kept giving me where only making my legs more numb.
At 9:50 pm they decided to let me start pushing. That actually felt better than lying there in pain. I pushed for about a ½ hour and made some progress. The Dr. checked and at this time realized that baby’s head was face up instead of down and all the pushing I was doing helped, but she was stuck under my pelvic bone. The nurses tried more positioning to get her to turn without luck and the Dr. tried to turn her himself without success. I was grateful my Dr. was tying to avoid a c-section and he encouraged me to start pushing again (I was feeling more of the urge now). He was really determined that I could get her out on my own and was such a great cheerleader, as were the nurses.
At 11:10 pm I started to push again…and after lots of perineal massage and unfortunately an episiotomy as well as the vacuum/suction thing…she was born at 11:48 pm, just under the wire for the 5th! Her daddy said when her head popped out was the single most amazing moment in his life. Since she was face up he saw her little face right away and immediately fell in love.
Because of some "repair work" it was a while before I got to hold Morgan, but when I did I was so in love too. I still can’t believe she’s mine. Her Daddy had cut the umbilical cord and helped trim it again when she was being cleaned up. Before, he said he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing everything, but he surprised himself by watching it all and wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Because she was born so close to midnight…and I also needed a little more time to recover from my tear/cut, so we didn’t leave the hospital until Friday evening. We are so glad to be home and are adjusting to our new life and little “love.”
My Mom arrives tonight and my Dad and sister will join us before Christmas…we can’t wait to celebrate this year! Last year I had my miscarriage a week before Christmas, so this year we are feeling so blessed to have our Morgan here.
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Here's our sweet girl's first picture...taken by her Daddy.
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