We got to the hospital at 6:30am, and began a lot of paperwork! I had preregistered with the hospital already, so I didn't think we'd have much paperwork left to do, but I was wrong! We probably did paperwork for an hour and a half, and during that time I was given my IV. I have to say I'm NOT a fan of needles, so I was not looking forward to the IV, and even more afraid of the epidural. I heard that by the time you get/need your epidural that you wouldn't mind the pain, so it was the IV that I was scared about. And for good reason...it took them FOUR times, and two different nurses to get my IV in...I have four needle scars in my hands! All the while they are still having me do paperwork and sign consents for this and that while trying to stick a needle in my hand! AGH!
I have to go back and tell you that the nurse (Angelique) that I got from 7am to 7pm Monday had only been working at the hospital for 3 months, and was still learning the ropes from a mentor nurse. She had absolutely NO personality whatsoever! And because she was new, she was sooooooooooo slow! Maybe that's why the paperwork took forever...who knows! Anyway, the mentor nurse (Desiree) was really sweet, and she's the one that finally got my IV in. At one point when Angelique was trying to get my IV in, she tried to make a joke by saying, "I think you forgot your veins." She said it with no emphasis anywhere in the statement...it was like they taught her that "joke" in school, and she finally was able to say it. At the time I was not happy or think it was funny because she kept putting needles in my hand and jabbing them around! Anyway...it was funny later when Michael and I talked about it.
By the way, since my blood pressure had been high for the last three weeks (the reason we were early inducing labor in the first place), I had to be hooked up to a blood pressure cuff all day. It took my bp every thirty minutes all day long. Only when I came in that morning, my bp was fine. In fact, it was so low/normal that Dr. Sherman joked and asked if I wanted to go home, and come back next week. I told her that a lot of people who came in town for the week would not be happy with her or me if I went home. She laughed, broke my water, and then said, "It's too late now. You can't go anywhere now!" That happened around 7:40am. She checked me, and I was still at 3 centimeters.
Contractions started coming, but because I had no idea what I was supposed to be feeling, I didn't know. Once I asked Desiree (I doubt if Angelique knew) if the contractions were a crampy feeling, then I was in business and knew what to expect. After that I watched the monitor all morning, and waited for them to come. I thought that they would keep checking me all day to see if I had dilated any more, but the Desiree said that they try to check you as few times as possible so as not to introduce bacteria into the environment. Dr. Sherman came back by around 1:30-2:00pm to check me again, and I was only 4 centimeters. This news did NOT make me happy at all! I thought for sure I was further along than that!!! They kept asking me if I wanted the epidural, but I didn't think the contractions were that bad yet, so I said I'd just wait. I was trying to wait for the doctor to come back and check me to see how far I was dilated before getting the epidural. But, at some point they all the sudden got really bad, and I was ready for the epidural around 3:30-4:00pm. The anaesthesiologist, Dr. O'Brian was down the hall giving someone else an epidural so I had to wait for him to get to me. He came around 4:30pm, and I was ready for it! I was still scared, but everybody was right...at that point I didn't care. It stung right at first, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be, and at first, it helped with the contraction pain.
Here comes the fun part. It really started to be funny. Everything in my hospital room was broken. And I'm not exaggerating! The monitor for my contractions did not work. I kept having hard contractions, but I wasn't getting credit for them. They only made small little peaks on the chart. But they were much stronger than that, and soon the Desiree caught on that something was wrong with the monitor. They decided that since that monitor wasn't working, that they needed to do an internal uterine monitor to monitor the baby's heart rate. THAT was fun! It was really fun when I was still having hard contractions, and they had to go through THREE internal uterine monitors before they found one that worked! Then they had to go through three bedside monitors to get both my contractions, and the baby's heart rate chart to work together on the same screen!After all that, I had Desiree check me to see how far I was dilated around 5:40pm. I was now up to 6 centimeters, and still in lot of pain. Especially for just having the epidural. I asked for more medicine, so Dr. O'Brian came back down to check my epidural. Turns out, it had some kind of leak in it, (go figure...my luck) so he pushed another bolus of medicine into the epidural. After that, the pain was much more bearable.
At 7pm the nurses changed shifts, so I got rid of "Ms. Personality" aka Angelique, and got a super great nurse! Kristy was so awesome...very sweet...talked to me...and told me what was going on the whole time! She checked me at he beginning of her shift right at 7pm, and I was finally 10 centimeters, and ready to push! She said she could see and feel the head, and that he had hair! Whoohoo! A baby with with hair...not another baldie! :)
Krsity went to call Dr. Sherman for labor! I started actively pushing at 7:15pm. Mom, Mrs. Janice, Stacey, Lesleigh, and Kim were all outside the door of the room cheering me on, and listening for baby Garrett to enter the world. Little did they know they would be standing for an hour and a half! :) We must have counted to ten a bazillion times!!! Finally at 8:54pm Garrett made his grand entrance, and I was so glad the whole thing was over! He weighed 6 lbs. and 12 oz., and was 19.25 in. long. I must admit I thought for sure he was going to be MUCH bigger and WAY longer than that! But, he's not...he's so tiny & we even had to buy preemie diapers because he's so skinny! Anyway, he's a keeper! And the best part of all...I think (for now anyway) I got my little redhead! :)
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