The last two weeks of my pregnancy were pretty difficult. I was HUGE, to say the least and getting pretty uncomfortable. I started sleeping with every pillow we owned, or at least it felt that way, and had to be in just the right position to actually fall asleep (getting up in the middle of the night to use the restroom didn't help with this). Chloe was also doing something to me inside my belly that just made getting through each day hard. It was some of the most intense, sharp pain I've ever felt and it brought me to tears more than once. By a week after my due date, I was totally done with being pregnant!
I really didn't want to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving Day but I also wanted to be done with the pregnancy. Well, she didn't come before Thanksgiving, and the day came and went without a little baby. That night, I was so fed up with the pregnancy that I decided to try Castor Oil and see if I couldn't get this show on the road (previously I had been walking a ton just to try and start labor but to no avail).
I looked up online how much to take and multiple sources said 2 ounces. Well, the bottle I picked up was a 4 ounce bottle so I guess I was going to drink half of it. I mix it in with a fruit smoothie like it was suggested to do. It wasn't too bad getting it down but you could tell you were drinking oil.
We went to bed around 11pm and by midnight I wasn't feeling too well. I could tell something wasn't quite right so I got up to go to the bathroom. When I was finished I had a feeling that I shouldn't go very far from the toilet and that was a good idea as it wasn't too much later than I threw up. And boy, did I throw up! Between that and, not to gross anyone out, lots of diarrhea, I didn't sleep much that night. (I made sure to drink so as not to get dehydrated, though.)
But, alas, no contractions.
That day (Friday, November 27) I took it easy to recover from my horrible night and Jeremiah worked on getting more of our things unpacked. His goal was to get the garage cleaned up enough that we could actually park a car in there. As I was sitting on our couch, I noticed that one of my ankles/feet was swollen. So far I hadn't had very swollen feet during the pregnancy and even though swelling is normal, I thought it odd that only one of my feet was swelling. Of course, we looked it up online and they suggested calling your doctor as it could be a bad sign.
So I called the doctor on call as the office was closed and it happened to be Dr. Murillo, my doctor (there is a group of 4 at the office and you never know who will be the one to deliver your baby). She asked when my due date is and when she found out that I was already 10 days past due and didn't have an induction set up yet, she told me that I was going to be induced that following Tuesday. What we talked about on the phone concerned me a bit but since there was nothing I could do about it, I tried to just relax for the rest of the day.
Around 9pm that night, Jeremiah finally finished up with cleaning out the garage and we could park our car in it! He went upstairs to clean up and then came down around 9:35pm. We started talking for a little bit and then all of a sudden, it felt like my water broke! I wasn't totally sure as it was not a gush of water but more of a trickle. Fortunately, I was sitting on a towel when this happened (I had been carrying a towel with me for about a month now in case this happened).
I went upstairs and took a shower but made sure to gather some "evidence" on my water breaking that we could take with us to the hospital and they could check to make sure it was actually amniotic fluid (we had a false alarm a week earlier when I thought my water had broken and we went to the hospital - from that experience I learned to take evidence with me if possible and it would make the triage portion a lot easier). We left for the hospital around 11pm and were excited as we were pretty sure that this was it!
We entered the hospital through the ER entrance as the rest of the hospital doors are locked at that hour - we also made sure to call family to alert them. We had a to wait a bit to check in at the front desk as there was actually a line (it was only one person, but it still took a while). So far, no contractions had started so I was pretty comfortable at that point.
I went to triage, provided my "evidence" to the nurse, and while she was testing that, changed into the hospital gown. By the time I was out of the restroom from changing, they told me that I was being admitted and that I didn't even have to do anything in triage - yea "evidence"! You worked like a charm :)
I was put in L&D Room #1 and my nurse started strapping the contraction monitor to my belly as well as hooking up my IV as I was positive for Group B Strep and needed antibiotics for it. Jeremiah went back to the car at this point to get my things. Everything was still so surreal, especially as contractions had still not started. The nurse called the doctor to let her know my status and then informed me that if my contractions didn't start on their own by 3am, that they would be starting me on pitocin (yuck!). I wanted to avoid that if possible, so I started walking my room and the halls as soon as I was able to.
When the nurse checked me for the first time around midnight I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Just before 3am, I decided I should try to get some rest (Jeremiah was already sleeping) as I hadn't had much sleep over the past few nights. I was able to doze off for a bit and it was closer to 5am when the nurse came back and saw that my contractions still hadn't started. It was time for pitocin :(
They got me all set up on the drug and after about 30 minutes I could finally feel contractions. Unfortunately, the external monitor was not doing a very good job of measuring my contractions so they called the doctor again and decided to put an internal monitor in me. I was a little skeptical about this as I was determined to not use any pain medications and I knew that I would need to be mobile to change positions if I was going to get through this naturally. The nurse assured me that I would be able to move around, I would just be restricted to around the bed since I was hooked up to a machine. I thought that would be okay.
The doctor (Dr. Murillo) came in to insert the Internal Monitor. Once they had it in place, they realized there was something wrong with the machine and it was not doing what it was supposed to be doing. After some conversing with the head nurse, they decided that it would be easier to move me to a new room than to switch out machines. So we (i.e. Jeremiah) packed up all our stuff and we moved to the room next door. Meanwhile I was having contractions but they were bearable and I could get through them just fine with breathing (it was probably around 7am by this point).
The new room was actually a positive as it had been newly remodeled and it was very nice. For the next 6 hours I used the birthing ball and a chair to help me stay as comfortable as possible during the contractions and breathed through them. Meanwhile, the nurses kept uping my pitocin amounts to get my contractions stronger and more regular. I could really start to feel the higher levels of pitocin and it was getting harder and harder to get through each contraction. The Internal Monitor had a digital display and the numbers on it climbed while your contraction started, then it would peak, and then decline back to the baseline. During this time, by baseline was around 20 and the contractions were getting into the 90's during their peaks (before, they were in the 40's and 50's).
Around 1pm, the head nurse came in and that's when things declined. The head nurse informed me that with the Internal Monitor, I was not allowed to move around off bed. This was NOT good news as the bed was the LEAST comfortable place to be during a contraction. Right before she told me this, I had been wondering how I was going to get through more contractions when they were just so painful and how I was going to have the energy to push this baby out when it was time. I was also realizing that I was not enjoying this experience like I thought I would. (The pitocin really threw me for a loop.)
So when the nurse told me that I couldn't move from the bed, that was it. I asked for an epidural. At that point I was still only 1 cm dilated, although I was 70 effaced.
At 1:15pm, the anesthesiologist came in and I had to go through 2 contractions while he inserted the IV (that was hard trying to remain still while he stuck a needle in my spine!). After he was done, I could feel immediate relief and in about 10 minutes, I felt full relief. I was so thankful to have chosen this route (there were a few reasons I didn't want to have any pain meds: to see what it was like to do things completely naturally, epidurals can eventually lead to C-sections, and I didn't want my baby to have any negative effects from it).
At 3pm, they checked me again and I was 3-4cm dilated. Not a lot of progress, but something. I then decided to try to sleep for a while. I listened to a Hypnobirthing CD of music and fell asleep. That was wonderful and, looking back on the strength and energy required for pushing, I needed it!
At 7pm, the doctor came in to check me again and announced that I was 7cm! She apparently had been dreaded on coming to check on me because she was afraid that if I hadn't dilated enough, she would have to start talking with us about a C-section. But, by the grace of God, I was making good progress!
What seemed like hardly any time later, but I believe it was 7:40pm, I felt pressure and they checked me again. I was 8-9cm :) By 9pm I was fully dilated! It was time to push.
In my birth plan, I had requested that no one have me hold my breath, count to 10, and have me push. I wanted to do it in my timing. Up until then, my epidural had worked perfectly. It was just enough medication to take away the pain of the contractions, but I could fully feel my legs and move around in my bed. Unfortunately, right when it was time to push, the epidural ran out and they don't refill it when it's that close to delivery :( Needless-to-say, I felt EVERYTHING during delivery, which lasted about 1 1/2 hours (started around 9:20pm). I did need all the strength that I could muster as it was a lot harder than I was anticipating. The nurses and the doctor were great, though, and didn't rush me and let it be my delivery.
At 10:56pm, Chloe Lynne Cornthwaite was born :) Although, we still didn't know her name when she was born. We didn't end up naming her until about 2 hours later - when we could actually get a few moments alone to talk and agree on one of the three names we had come to the hospital with. Jeremiah suggested Chloe and I still wasn't sure at that point but it seemed like the best out of our options. Lynne was going to be the middle name no matter what as it is both of our mom's middle names and we had decided on that early on.
It was hard for me to enjoy the birth and Chloe afterward as I had a fever and the chills. Because of my fever, they wouldn't put any additional blankets on me so I was shaking a lot. I also tore a little during the birth so they had to stitch me up. I didn't start to feel better until about 2 hours afterward - which is something I was not anticipating. Jeremiah was great and just held Chloe and adored his new baby girl. It was great to see him with her.
Because of the swine flu, only 2 visitors were allowed in the room at a time to see us. So our family took turns meeting Chloe for the first time.
The whole birth was pretty incredible and we are so thankful and blessed with such a healthy little girl!
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