So on Monday I had a meeting at the hospital (a way to get some hours and not have to work on the floor). So after the meeting I decided I would go talk with the Birth Place nurses about the possibility of getting induced on Wednesday evening if I could talk Dr. Minudri into that morning at my appointment. I wasn't totally sure that was what I wanted, because I really didn't want to have to be induced, but thought it work the best for Chad and his rotation.
So here I am with the puffy cheeks, how many liters of fluid did they really give me!! WOW I'm chubby! This was taken on the 2nd!!
I was reassured that since it was after 41 weeks on Tuesday, that it was totally reasonable to be thinking about an induction. This was a relief to me, cause I wasn't really uncomfortable, but Chad and I have plans to go home to South Eastern Idaho the last 2 weeks of July! We wanted her to be old enough to be able to get the Dr. visits in and be older to have a little immunity from the bugs that come around more people.
So I got a call on Tuesday from Birth Place telling me that when I was penciled in to be induced that they had c-section scheduled and didn't feel like they could safely do Pitocin on Thursday. So my options were to either come in that night(Tuesday), or wait until Thursday night and have pitocin on Friday. So after talking with Chad we decided to go in on Tuesday night. Crazy!!
So I had got this message after having been at the grocery store and doing errands all afternoon and having a cement slab poured that morning. I totally didn't have the house clean. I then found out we needed to be at the hospital between 5-5:30 pm. Only about 2 hours away and I didn't know when Chad would be off from his rotation. I didn't think that I'd go in till later that night. So I was running around the house trying to clean up the mess I had left out from trying to finish sewing my breast feeding cover, and more burp clothes and get all the groceries put away and dinner made so we could eat before going in. Needless to say I didn't get all of that done and we didn't get into the hospital until 5:45pm. Chad didn't get home until about 5:25 and we had to bring dinner with us we were running behind.
A picture of me before I got strapped down!!
So we arrived at Birth Place and I was so worked up that when they placed me on the toco monitor, her little heart rate was up to 170-180. She had been around 145-155's. So they had us hang out to see if her heart rate would drop a little lower. And she didn't right off, so I got to get the IV early and get fluids to see if I was dehydrated and also had to get oxygen. With that her heart rate came down, but Dr. Trihn did a check and said I was like a 0 and basically was not progressing at all and that the cervix wasn't effaced at all. She was a little worried and gave us a few options. ( First of all I was so sad to have gone backward. I was at least a 1.5 the last 2 weeks visits and the cervix was softening. But this was the first time to see Dr. Trihn, so she didn't have anything to compare to, She also felt that I was narrow in the pelvis) Option #1- Start the cervadil and if the contractions that comes with those, if she didn't do well with them, we'd have to have terbutaline injections to stop the labor, and then we'd do a c-section.
Option #2- We could do a stress test, so start pitocin (which is short acting IV medication) and see how her heart rate did under the stress of contractions. If she does well we could do the cervadil and know that she should do well, if she didn't do well, we'd end up doing a c-section. And option #3- we could do a c-section if we didn't want to stress the baby.
We were a little scared about all the options, but decided that we'd start the pitocin and do the stress test to see how she did. Well she pasted and about 10pm we started the cervadil. But I had to be on the toco monitor the entire night, cause we scared Dr. Trihn. So our wonderful neighbors Renay, Garret and Gabe came in and brought dove ice cream bars and helped us pass the time. It was great to have them.
Gabe trying out the rocking chair. Making the time fly.
We did well all night and just had to be repositioned frequently to get comfortable and also readjust the monitor to have her heart rate picking up on the monitor so they could detect a problem.
So we decided that Chad should still go into the Vet hospital and do at least part of his rotation that day, since we would even start the Pit until 10-11am. So off Chad went that morning to continue with rotations and not have to take 2 personal days, with the hopes of having a slow day and being able to come back to the hospital earlier than usual.
So they usually keep the cervadil in for 12 hours, but Dr. Minudri came in about 9am and he was very positive and happy with how well we did all night and the contractions that were happening from the cervadil were "picture perfect" so we chose to pull the cervadil an hour early and just immediately start the pitocin to go continue using the regular contractions that I was having. So at that check I had dilated to a 3 and was 50% effaced. YEAH That was exciting to hear. So by 10 am we had started the pitocin and I finally started to feel more crampy with the contraction and could start to recognize them without feeling my stomach to see if I was actually contracting. And Dr. Minudri said whenever I was ready for an epidural or there were other pain med available. So I was doing pretty well, but got to be more than I wanted to handle and so I got some IV pain med to take off the edge off around 11 am. My nurse did a check just to see where I was and was at about 3.5-4. Chad got to come back for the rest of the day at 12am, just right before Dr. Minudri had come to check on me. When he check he said that I was a 5 and thinning more. By that time I decided that I would be up for an epidural and they called to make arrangements for one of the CRNAs to come do it. So I got another bag of fluids to help booster my blood pressure for the pain med that would be coming.So I got another bag of fluids to help booster my blood pressure for the pain med that would be coming. I was so glad that Chad was able to be there when Ed Winterbottom (the one CRNA that is from our Stake) came to do my epidural. We had a little hard time getting it to thread and ended up having to try again, and it made Chad a little lightheaded to have me poked a few times. It was funny though, because when the epidural was being threaded, Ed warned me that there would be a heavy feeling that usually comes in one or the other leg. It was just a second later that my right leg jumped. It's crazy to have things just happen involuntarily. But it was nice to have some better pain control, because the IV pain med, just made me lightheaded but it did take the edge off the contractions for a little bit. Oh and the pain med started my streak of vomiting. I was up using the bathroom and got nauseated and ended up vomiting in the whirlpool tub in the bathroom. I'm not sure if it was from being in labor or if it was the pain med. I ended up throwing up 2 more times by the time the baby came. But I'll take one day of nausea rather than 3 month+ that can come with pregnancy.
So from 1pm-about 6, I was shifting myself in bed and being rearranged to keep the epidural coverage as even as possible. But by about 6, I was feeling lots of pressure with the contractions that wasn't being covered by the epidural and I was feeling like I wanted to push. Hawa, my nurse, started telling me try to breath through the contractions and not try to push until Dr. Minudri got back. By this time I was really just trying to work through the contractions and I really lost track of time. Dr. Minudri got there and I started pushing. I was getting so tired and had to even ask how long I had been pushing for, which had almost been an hour. All I could think was "how do women push longer than this!" I felt like I was totally out of gas, no push left in me. Dr. Minudri was really great though to be encouraging, but finally told me that not too much progress had been made with the last 2 contractions, which is exactly what I needed to hear! So with the determination that the comment brought out in me, 2 more pushes later she Kherrington was born and Chad got to go cut the cord!
I was relieved to feel her on my stomach as they cleaned her off and being able to focus on her for the moment and not anything else, except for the shakes that I had been having off and on for an hour that much more intense after the birth. We were a little afraid that she might have some respiratory problems, cause we thought maybe my amniotic fluid was meconium stained. Hawa had even brought in the warmer that was portable and lives in the nursery just in case. But she had no problems and had to be suctioned very little. What an amazing experience! One that I'm glad to have over for a while.
I was relieved that Dr. Minudri informed me at the point where I felt like giving up, that if this wasn't my first child, that she would have already been born. That gives me hope that the next one might not be as hard. Here's to WISHING!
So at 7:20 pm Kherrington Lynne Christensen was born and didn't get weighed and measured until a good 30 minutes after ( 6 lbs. 12 ounces & 19.5 inches long), since she was laying on my tummy. I remember first thinking she had a little bit of a cone head, but it quickly resolved, and I was amazed at how beautiful she looked, the cutest little features I've ever seen and dark hair. I'm sure most people think that about their babies, but she really looked pretty unscarred by the birthing process!!
So here I am with the puffy cheeks, how many liters of fluid did they really give me!! WOW I'm chubby! This was taken on the 2nd!!
Chad with his new little girl!!
Look at how excited he is!!
Isn't she cute in the hat Grandma Christensen crocheted for her
with the cute flowers mom added!!
Our little Lady! Kherrington Lynne Christensen, 6lbs 12 ounces- 19.5 inches long on July 1st.
1 week and 1 day past her due date of June 23rd!!
So it took until about 12-1am on the 2nd for me to finally get up out of bed finally and that was probably on the 3rd try. I just about fell out of bed the first time on Nicoline and Chad, cause I totally felt like I had one really strong leg, but when I went to put weight on it, it was not going to take any weight at all. Thanks heavens they caught me. Here a slide show with pictures of the hospital stay and going home pictures.
