very late update: miley's arrival

I feel I sort of left the world hanging on miley's arrival after this post... so here is the rest of the story. I will try to cut it short- I am horrible at summarizing.

So I had my catheter dilator in from about 5:00 on the 27th until 7:30 am the next morning. I had contractions the whole time. I had some wendys and astro burger shake for dinner... all I wanted was an oreo shake so JT went to another restaurant so I could have one since they didnt have them at wendy's :) At midnight they started my first round of antibiotics. At this point I was also getting tired but really uncomfortable due to contractions so I asked for a sleeping pill, due to some hospital pharmacy protocols I wasn't able to get the pill until about 2:30, it kicked in about mins later and I only slept until 5am sadly because then they started my pitocin. Pitocin contractions sucked. Mostly because they are so regular and close together. I also had antibiotics every 4 hours, so I was starting to get puffy.

At 7:30 they checked to see how far I was and I was at a 4- yay! The catheter could come out. I still had both stomach monitors but I was so much more comfortable. Well compared to before. I watched episodes of 30 rock, bones, or read my new book I think until the contractions got really bad around probably 10:30 or 11:00. I moved around a lot and tried sitting in a rocking chair and walking around and I went to the bathroom a lot. I started to have to really focus on dealing with my contractions and doing all the breathing stuff that we learned in our lamaze class. It worked really well for me, Jt was a great coach and really helped me a lot. around 12:45 they checked me again and I was at a 4+. I feel this is something completely made up for laboring mom's. I think the nurses just don't have the heart to tell you that you have made ZERO progress in the last 5 hours. I felt bad but nothing really I could do. My midwife tried to break my water with some sort of stick thing (not comfortable at all) but due to the placement of miley's head she could only get a little of it. However the little bit they do see is VERY green and I find out there is meconium in the amniotic fluid so baby will need to be suctioned right after she is born.

Midwife decided put in internal uterine pressure monitor (measures the strength of contractions)- this also allows for fluid to be put in to flush out the bad amniotic fluid to hopefully help miley have less in her little airways. The midwife puts this in. To do that she breaks my water again- this time all the way- it is pretty gross. That hurts. getting the monitor in hurts. Just to remind you all I have ZERO pain meds at this point and have been doing this for close to 19 hours with 2 hours sleep. oddly enough I don't remember crying at all?

not part of the plan- after the midwife leaves to do something the nurse tries to do the first flush of fluid into the uterus... it is blocked and the fluid isn't going in so she has to re-do the monitor. SUPER sucky. this also hurts, however less than when the midwife did it. Flush is successful.

* funny story* They told me that I would leak some fluid as it was being flushed out and that would be normal. Later on when the nurse came to check on me I said I felt like I was leaking something and she down played it but I was like ... nooo I reallllly am leaking something and we pulled back the covers and there was green crap all the way down to my feet... down onto my socks! Everyone was so surprised and we all laughed and then they had to change ALL my bedding. it was so gross.**

Around 12:30 I changed positions and the monitor wasn't reading miley's heart rate so well so I had to move around again. I am in horrible contractions that make me frantic and I am sort of freaking out but luckily each time Jt gets my attention and helps me focus on breathing so I think we are doing well. Suddenly the midwife is there and two nurses and they are telling me that the monitor is not doing so great so lay on my side and they tell me they think an oxygen mask would help me out a little. They also start getting a bunch of stuff out. oblivious to me the monitor is working however Miley's heart rate has dropped into the 60's ( normal is like 140's) for about three minutes. I seriously had NO idea I was just trying to deal with the pain, good thing they didn't tell me or I would have passed out. Apparently when everyone came in I had like some small amount of time before I would have been rushed for an emergency c-section. While that was happening the nurse at the charge station was watching my monitor, as was the on call obgyn, my regular nurse, my midwife, and the midwife back at the clinic next door to the hospital- so I had a lot of people on their toes waiting to see what was going to happen.

Luckily Miley's heart rate came back up and stabilized after they shut off the pitocin.

the midwife decides to put in the fetal scalp monitor so we know how baby is doing. this hurts.

I now stay on oxygen indefinitely.

So all these things happen relatively quickly. They also broke the news to me around the time that they were putting in the fetal scalp monitor of what had happened with the heart rate. The midwife told me that I had become very high risk for an emergency c-section if the baby's heart rate dropped like that again. She also informed me that if I had to have an emergency c-section that I would have to undergo general anesthesia unless I had an epidural because they wouldn't have time to wait for an epidural to kick in in an emergency situation. So basically if I didn't have the epidural I would be knocked out when the baby was born- wouldnt be able to see her first thing and neither would JT since he couldn't be there if I was all the way out. She was still very confident that I could have a normal vaginal delivery but needed to let me know all the risks and options.

I had really been trying for a natural labor and delivery and had already gone 20 hours at this point, the midwife said she would send in the anesthesiologist to answer any questions I had. He took about 10 minutes to come in. In those 10 minutes JT and I discussed what we wanted (or tried to discuss it... the pitocin was back on and I seriously could only focus on contractions and breathing) We both really didn't want to miss her birth and what it came down to was that I knew I could do it if I only had to go a couple more hours but what if it was like 5 or 10 more hours?? it was too indefinite for me and also I swear the contractions doubled in pain in those 10 mins so I decided an epidural was the next best step for me and my labor.

I got the epidural at 1:00 and it was the best decision EVER for me. I don't even remember the needle hurting that bad (that was one of the things I was nervous about) because the contractions were SO unbearable at that point. It started working and in like 15 mins I was pain free but could still feel my legs- so wonderful. I then realized how tired I was and fell asleep SO fast... like passed out mid conversation. I woke up to everyone laughing and they informed me I had fallen asleep mid sentence.

I slept soooo great and then around 2pm or so the nurse checks me and I am at 6 cm YAY! That was fast- luckily my body wasnt fighting the contractions as much anymore so I was progressing a lot faster she comes back in a little more than an hour to see how I am doing, she says she won't check me for another hour unless I am having any symptoms like blah blah blah and I say well actually I am feeling some pressure! So she checks me and I am 100% effaced and 10 cm, pushing time. She tells the midwife who says we are going to do what they call rest and descend for 1 hour where they basically let the contractions move the baby along so that I don't have to push for as long.

We waited from 4-5 and at 5:15 we started the whole pushing thing. Our room was soo crowded, there was the midwife plus respiratory dr and nurse, plus my new nurse ( the shift change was right at 6) then my two nurses from the day time that I loved that wanted to see the baby! I pushed for an hour and 15 minutes. It was really hard and Miley just wasn't doing to well so I had an episiotomy so they could get her out faster and two pushes after the episiotomy she was out! Her umbilical cord was also around her neck once so that plus the meconium is why they figure she wasn't doing so well during contractions and earlier in the week.

The plan was not to stimulate her to cry right away so that hopefully she wouldn't get much meconium in her lungs and she would go straight to suction with the respiratory therapist. However the little munchkin cried before she was even out all the way so they quickly threw a towel on me and I got to hold her for about 1 minute before they took her. best minute of my entire life. Nothing compares to that moment. All we could say was how beautiful she was and we cried a bunch. Then I commanded JT to stay with her and take lots of pics because I couldn't see what they were doing.

I delivered the placenta and the midwife showed it to me- that was weird and I totally didnt care- I wanted to see my baby! Then I got stitched up and then they brought her over to me all wrapped up. She had a great Apgar score and was breathing great even though she had been living in pea soup for the last week or so. we then held and kissed her and took pictures and I got to nurse her for the first time. ohh it was so wonderful cuddling her. It was just the most special day :)

looking back it was sooo crazy but I would do it ALL over again the same way if need be.