Hello Family and Friends.

Most of you should know by now that I delivered Abigail Kathleen June on Saturday August 2nd 2008.  This is our first child and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Throughout half of my pregnancy I had high blood pressure.  I was put on bedrest at 19 weeks then again at 34 weeks.  At my 36 week appointment I had a routine check-up at the dr’s office at 3:45pm.  They, of course, checked my blood pressure and it was high like it has been for weeks.  But, the problem this time was that I was experiencing a bunch of other symptoms that could be considered bad/dangerous for me and the baby.  My midwife, Shannon, was going to once again take me to triage to get some labs done.  The reason to go to triage is that the results from the tests would come back faster.  So, she got me a wheelchair and I was waiting for her to come back and take me to triage.    Luckily, I was not alone.  Matt’s mom, Patty, took me to the dr that day.  She called Matt to let him know what was going on and then I talked to him for a minuted and told him that if I needed him at the hospital that I would call him back.  We were just going to wait to see what the tests results were going to be.  When Shannon came back she said that there was a change in plans.  I thought I was going home.  She instead informed me that I was going to have my baby.  She talked to another dr to get a second opinion and he told her that I would be better off having the baby instead of risking anything with the symptoms I was having.  I was nervous but excited too that soon Matt and I would become a family.  Patty called Matt again and informed him that he was going to have to come to the hospital.  He left as soon as he could.

I was really hungry that day and wanted to eat but I was not able to.  I was pretty bummed.  I was only going to be able to have liquids, jello or popsicles.  I told Matt to get food and eat it before he got to my room because I did not want to smell food that I would not be able to have.

Shannon, wheeled me up to labor and delivery and got me settled in my room.  The nurse came in to give me my wrist band, told me to get undressed, got my iv set in, put on the sensors that monitor my contractions and the babies heart rate, the blood pressure cuff, and we did some paperwork.  At 5:30pm it was time to start the induction process.  I was given a tablet of cytotec vaginally and was going to get one every 4 hours until they decide to start pitocin if needed.

Matt arrived at about 6pm and that is when Patty left.  We thought it was going to be a long night so we just relaxed and watched tv.  I tried to fall asleep but couldn’t.  I guess I was just too excited.  The nurse, Stephanie,  came in every once in a while to check on me.  She was super sweet.  Plus when I moved in the bed sometimes the sensors would move and she would have to readjust them.  She came in at 9:30 and I asked her if I was going to get another tablet.  Since my contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart they couldn’t give me another tablet unless the contractions slowed down.  At this point I was only dialated 1cm.  I seemed to have a long way to go.   At 12am, Matt wanted to get some food form the cafeteria.  It opens for a couple hours for the hospital staff to eat.  So Matt went down there and was going to walk around and take his time.  Well, at 12:15 my water broke.  I felt a popping, then some pain and then the fluid coming out.  It was pretty gross.  I called the nurse to tell her what happened then I texted Matt to “hurry up.”  I waited for a few minutes then tried calling him but the call dropped.  He got back to the room about 12:30 and I told him what was going on.  They checked my cervix again and I was dialated about 3cm.

I also started to feel my contractions.  It hurt.  they asked me if I wanted anything for pain and said I could have an epidural as long as Shannon said ok.  I didn’t want the epidural yet so I got stadol.  That was not a good idea.  It didn’t take any of the pain away but made me so drowsy I could barely keep my eyes open and stay awake.  The contractions continued to get worse and they were pretty close together.  After just about 15 – 30 minutes I asked for the epidural.  They called Shannon, she approved the epidural so the nurse got the dr to give me it.  I was in pain and half asleep and when he came in he just started rattling off a bunch of information and such.  I told him I wasn’t listening.  He asked me a few questions that Matt answered for me but the dr had to hear the answers from me.  He asked me if I had any questions and I did because I didn’t hear anything that he had said.  I was not happy with this guy.  He was kind of a jerk.  I was getting upset and I started crying.  He basically told me I had to settle down before he could do the epidural.  He left the room for a few minutes so I could stop crying and get ready.  The nurse was really nice and said that he is like that all the time.  He came back in a started but he hit a vein and had to re-insert the catheder.  It hurt a little bit but not too bad.  Once it was in, it worked immediately. It was awesome.  It took the pain away, I could feel a tiny bit of pressure but nothing compared to what I was feeling.  The epidural worked for about 15-20 minutes I think.  Then I started feeling the contractions again.  They felt just as strong as before the epidural.  We called the nurse to let her know so she got the dr and he increased the dose of the medicine in the epidural.  Both times the medicine was dosed, I instantly threw up.  It was weird.  But Matt and the nurse were there to help me.

At around 2:20am I was dialated to 7/8cm so they called Shannon to get her to come to the hospital.  She told us that she lived close but it took her about an hour to get there.  Just about the time I was going to ask where she was, I heard her talking in the hallway.  I felt pressure and I felt the need to push.  Shannon came in and checked my cervix and I was fully dialated.  She asked the nurse to get the cart with all the things she would need to deliver my baby.  It was around 3:30 or 4am.  I don’t really remember because again, I was really tired and was just lying there trying to get through the pain of the contractions and my eyes were closed.  Matt was by my side this whole time.  I just wanted him next to me to hold my hand to help with the pain.  He did just what I wanted to. The epidural never kicked in.  I progressed too much too fast and it never had the chance to keep up with me.  I basically gave birth with no pain medication to help me.

Matt was on my left, Stephanie was on my right and they were holding my legs up.  We did some practice pushes.  Then the real thing started.  I was told to push for 10 seconds 3 times in a row every time I had a contraction.  I was able to rest and catch my breath between contractions then when I got another one I let them know and I pushed again.  I practically fell asleep in between contractions because I was so tired from the medicine and from being up for so long.   Shannon asked Matt to come look at the head so I would believe her that the baby was close to coming out.  So Matt saw the top of her head and after that watched everything that was happening.  I was ready for the delivery to be over.  At one point I said “hurry up”  out loud but to myself.  I wanted to push more and harder so the baby would be born already.  Well, I only pushed for about 45 minutes to an hour and Abigail was born.  I saw her briefly before they started cleaning her up.  Matt gave me a kiss and then he watched the nurses clean up Abigail while Shannon finished up with me.

I had to get stitched up because I tore.  Out of 4 stages I was a stage 3 tear so it was pretty bad.  I couldn’t feel her doing the stitching but I could feel her touching me with gauze to clean up.  For whatever reason, the gauze hurt.  Shannon thought it was strange that I said that the gauze touching me hurt but I never complained about the stitching.

Since this was my first baby, Shannon was really surprised at how fast I dialated and how good I did pushing and giving birth.  We were all expecting me to be in labor for much longer than I was.  It was less than 12 hours from the time I got the first pill until Abigail was born.  She was born at 4:37am.