I will first start with the announcement of our precious baby girl: Landri Kyleen Andersen, made her presence known ever so quietly on her due date; Tuesday, July 27th at 12.56pm. She was a long and lean at 6lbs, 14oz & 19.75" long. She was quiet coming into the big world, however her mother was not! I was definitely one of those yelling moms while in labor, as i wanted to move things along a bit faster!
And this leads into my birth story. I will try and condense as much as possible, since the labor came to an end at 35 hours!
1:30 am: Woke up with contractions, i layed there for 30 minutes, before waking Shon wondering if this was really it! I woke Shon and we timed them to be 3 minutes apart! They say to call Dr. or go to hospital if they are 5 min. apart. Still i was hesitant. I finally decided i should probably go to the hospital...but not before i took a shower, put on makeup (and that makeup is the last makeup i would put on for 2 weeks!), eat a good breakfast (I sure was worried about starving, since the hospital doesn't feed you in labor).
5:30am: hospital put me in triage room to do an exam before admitting me. My contractions were on a pain scale of 4.5 (I really wanted to say a 7, but i knew they would come way worse later!). I was only dilated to a 2. I was hooked up to a fetal heart monitor and waited for the Dr. on call to see me. As i was there for 4 hours, i didn't make any progress in dilating, and my contractions actually got further apart. I opted to go home and come back when i "noticed a change"...
My parents made it down by lunchtime and waited with me, while Shon went into work to finish up some things.
3:00pm: Oh yeah, i was noticing a "change" alright! My heating pad on my back wasn't doing any good anymore, it was getting uncomfortable to lay down, and contractions were really starting to kick my butt! My contractions were still at 2:30 minutes apart, but now lasting the full minute! yeeeouchie!!! I start pacing in the house, as they say you can 'walk the baby out' ...supposed is to ease pain and lets gravity do its magic.
5:00pm: At this point, i can no longer sit down, or lay down, or pace, all i can do is lean over the kitchen bar and sway back and forth while Mom puts pressure on my lower back! Shon gets home, and as soon as he pulls in the driveway, we are off. We are back in the triage room at the hospital for that good ole exam and when they tell me i'm still only dilated to a 2, i bout called the nurse a liar! My pain was definitely a 9 out of a 10! I am thankful for those yoga classes as i sure utilized my breathing techniques to their fullest potential!
6:30pm: I was finally admitted into hospital, only after the nurse got me dilated to a 4. They promised me i'd have my epidural in no time! But first they had to get my IV's in.. and it took 3 nurses and 4 pokes later, ending up with it my hand, which by the way is painful! Probably didn't help that they had to get their pokes in between my contractions that were every 2 minutes! Okay, finally got my fluids going, now the good stuff! Again, holding the position to poke a needle in my back wasn't easy, as i was seriously convulsing with every contraction. Now to add that i have mild scoliosis, the Dr. had to poke me twice to get it in right! Oh, but when it was in, it took effect immediately, and i finally smiled for the first time!
9:00pm: Still no progress in labor, so the nurse broke my water.... we all thought Landri would be here in no time.
10:00pm: You guessed it, no progress! I was still dilated at a 4-5! We discussed using Pitocin (a hormone to speed things up). They wanted to monitor me another hour or so hoping breaking my water would be effective. They were going to leave us alone for awhile so we kicked everyone out and tried to get some rest.
12:00 midnight: Landri's heartrate was freaking out, so I had to try laying on different sides to see if that regulated her. I was also put on oxygen. Sure enough, the right side did the trick, and that's the side i preferred anyway, so i was happy. We would have to wait on the Pitocin now and monitor Landri's heart more. I actually didn't mind waiting at this point, i was feeling good, and enjoyed the rest.
6:00am Tuesday: Landri's heart still wasn't really regulating 100%, so the night Dr. wanted me to wait for my real Dr. to come check me out when he came on at 8:00.
7:30am: Mom calls thinking we'd had enough play time with Landri, they were coming back up to the hospital! She sure was shocked to find out Landri wasn't here yet!! It had been 9.5 hours since my water was broke!
8:00am: My Dr. arrives! We sure were happy to see him, and told him Landri was really waiting for him! (because we really wanted him to deliver her). He does an exam and says i'm dilated to an 8!!! YEA!!! Hallelujah! Finally some good news!...which was quickly followed with not the best news... her head was facing the ceiling and to the right "sunny side up", and ideally her head needs to be facing the floor w/her chin to her chest... sure makes for an easier delivery through that birth canal that way! Dr. said that as a second option he may have to use forceps to assist with the delivery, and said it was TIME to start!! So, after all the waiting on the Pitocin, i didn't need it afterall.
9:15am: The 'active' labor starts!...which translates to more pain! Remember, i'm laying on my right side here too! My contractions are a minute apart and lasting just about a minute...good thing i couldn't really feel them (at the beginning), all i did was push when told too. I pushed and pushed for 3.5 hours, every other minute, 3 sets of 10 each time= exhausting! I sure was sucking down those ice chips! I had started to feel the contractions, and my pain scale shot up to a 7 faster than i could hit that Epidural button!
12:30pm: I had gotten a fever, and we all agreed it was time for the assisted delivery: bring on the forceps! Shon said they looked like big round salad tongs, and he could see the Dr's bicep bulge as he was pulling just as hard as i was pushing! At that point i swear the Epidural had worn off, and i was one of those yelling women who tell the Dr. what to do!! haha! All i wanted to do was push, not relax!
12:56pm: Landri arrived, quietly! I was suprised, even when she made her first noise, it wasn't a shreik! I was also suprised when they weighed her she didn't weigh more! I said "that's IT?!" The Dr. was guessing she'd be almost 8lbs, and i would have told you she weighed closer to 10lb after all that i just went through!
WHEW, but it was over!! FINALLY! When your Dr. kisses you on the forehead and tells you how proud he is of you, you know you really went through a doozy!! I guess that's what i get since i had the perfect pregnancy!...but now we have the perfect baby, so i can't complain tooooo much! :-)
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