Roslyn Ruth is here!
Yes, it has taken me 3 weeks to get this written out. I realize the
longer I wait, the more I forget...maybe that's a good thing :) But I’m
pretty sure on most of this, since Luke helped write a timeline while I was
going through everything, so I wouldn't forget.
I will say that having older kids makes things a bit complicated, when you
don't have family out to help with everything. Somehow things fell into
place, a little crazy, but all is well and the kids are alive and well.
Here is the very, VERY shortened version:
6 Hospital
7:20 in the room
8 Pitocin
8:40 placed epidural
10:15 started epidural=fail
11:03 redo epidural
11:27 water broken
12:15 10 cm
12:30 feeling uncomfortable..ready to push?
1 Dr. in
1: 16 Roslyn Ruth BORN
Here is the long version:
5:15 Our neighbor, Nancy, came by to watch the kids
6 a.m. This was the time they told us to be there.
Was the hospital ready? No. The nurses? No. The room?
No. I guess I could have been upset because I was HUGE and uncomfortable,
but it was nice sitting in the waiting room with Luke. He is always a comfort
to me and keeps me laughing.
7:00 Pat went to our home to take care of Mac (Tanya picked up Mac for
preschool and took the kids after school)
7:20 we got to the room. Lots of things to still set
up, but we had a fantastic nurse name Margaret (nn Peggy). She was really
great and willing to help with pretty much anything.
The in-house dr. came in to talk to us. She.was.awesome! I
seriously wish that she had been my doctor throughout the pregnancy. I
threw some things out there about my previous labors and she was willing
to do pretty much anything I wanted her to. Break my water sooner
rather than later? Sure. Delay clamping the cord for a few
minutes? Sure. Get my epidural all set up whenever?
Yep. She said that since this was my 4th, I knew what I was doing and
would help anyway she could. Thank goodness she was so easy
going.
Sidenote: I had talked to Dr. Bashour
about inducing me the ENTIRE pregnancy. When I came in for my dr's
appointment on Monday, October 7th (he had been in Egypt for the past few
weeks), I again mentioned the induction. He let me know that he wasn't
on-call and that if I decided to do it at 39 weeks, then I would get the
in-house dr. I wasn't sure. I stayed after my appointment, to get a
non-stress test done, since I had been in the hospital the week
before. (high blood pressure/high heart rate AND feeling dizzy and floater
spots.)
I had a moment to talk to Linda, the Nurse
Practitioner, and she said that she really liked Dr. Lengen and I would be in
good hands. That's all I needed to know to proceed.
8 Started Pitocin
8:40 I was at a 4 and they set about getting the epidural
ready. They knew from previous deliveries that I progress fairly quickly
and wanted to have it in place, just in case. (
I am just throwing this out there, but I HATE how they
make the husbands leave the room during this time.)
They said that I was having contractions, but even with the Pitocin..I couldn't
feel them. Seriously. It was pretty awesome to be honest. I
KNOW it was because I had been drinking the Red Raspberry Leaf Tea the last few
weeks of pregnancy. Honestly. This was night and day compared to
previous contractions...and it was pretty heavenly. :)
10:15 the Anesthesiologist came in
to start the epidural. Since they had NOT tested it earlier because I
wasn’t ready to have it started, they again made Luke leave
L
They started to insert the catheter and it shot a huge pain down the left
side of my back and into my hip.
When
they figured that wouldn’t work, they had to take that out and try another
catheter.
This time there was a “niggling”
feeling but nowhere near the pain I had felt before.
Luke came back in and they had me lie down and started the actual process of
testing the epidural and I immediately reacted to it. My heart rate jumped from 85 to 120, tunnel
hearing, toes tingling, etc all within seconds.
It felt the same way as after delivering and passing out with previous
kiddos. They decided to retry it..and
the same thing happened.
11:03 They again sent Luke out, so
they could redo the epidural.
The anesthesiologist pulled out the epidural needle..and retried it.
This time, he went pretty far to the right to
insert it and retry another catheter.
Didn’t work.
The Anesthesiologist
has been in practice for a long time and had never had to redo a catheter this
many times.
Glad I could set a new
record for him
J He tried the 4
th catheter and
little to no pain.
I am surprised it
took this many times, since my other pregnancies were pretty easy for them to
do.
They did NOT put me on a continuous
drip.
They used a shot to give me just a
bit of it, just in case I had another bad reaction.
11:27 after the epidural was successful,
the Dr. came in and broke my water.
Since
my last delivery was VERY quick, I told her we would have the baby by noon and
she could go to lunch.
;)
Ha!
I
was at a 6.
She came in closer to 12 and
I told her to go to lunch and we would do it after…I got to a 10 around 12:15
or so (I went from a 6 to a 10 in about 40 minutes.)
I was feeling uncomfortable, a little pressure, but didn’t think it was “go
time”
I kept talking to my nurses
(Peggy..and ??) and telling them I felt a little weird and wasn’t sure if I
needed to push or not.
I kid you not,
the weirdest delivery I’m telling you!
1 Dr. Lengen walked in and I
asked her how lunch was
J She suited up
and was ready for me.
Let me stop here for a moment.
This was
a very difficult delivery.
I realize
that Livi’s was very horrifying, to say the least, but after 4 hours of pushing
a posterior baby that wouldn't come down, I was so exhausted I could barely
keep my eyes open.
Fast forward almost
10 years.
Same thing.
I was beyond exhausted.
I couldn't keep my eyes open after pushing
for just a few minutes. I was in real pain and I just felt like there was no
progression…and there wasn't really any because…baby girl was ALSO
posterior!
I was yelling and pleading
and begging for Dr. Lengen to just get her out.
It was horrible and I felt horrible for yelling after all was said and
done.
I will say those were the longest
15 minutes of my life (or so it felt).
Dr. Lengen didn't give me an episiotomy, which at this point I sort of
wish I had had.
Very thankful she didn't
give me one though.
1:16 Baby girl was born!
Dr. Lengen delayed the cord cutting and then
Luke cut it.
They didn't clean baby girl
off, just laid her on me to Kangaroo hold.
It was great!
The Dr. was starting to sew me up and I could feel everything.
For having an epidural, I was a little
bugged.
J
Instead of giving me a shot, because she was worried after the epidural issues,
she called for the Anesthesiologist to COME back and give me some more
epidural.
Still felt everything.
2:10 Baby girl started to nurse..and
like a Champ I might add.
Afterwards,
they took her and cleaned her off more. Luke and I looked at her and knew that
she was Roslyn.
No denying it. We didn’t
even need to talk about other names, this one was the right one.
I told Luke that I had secretly been saying
her name in my head for the past few weeks, but didn't want to say it out loud,
in case I jinxed it.
Roslyn Ruth
10.10.13
9lbs 9oz
20in.
Head:14 ½
They came to put an alarm on her ankle and the alarm wasn't set correctly. It
went off and shut down the 3
rd and 4
th floor.
Already making trouble Rosie!
I got up to use the restroom and didn't faint: woot!
They sent us up to our room on the 4
th
floor to get settled in.
Since Rosie didn't cry much after birth, she spent a good bit of time choking
on mucous and whatnot.
It was a little
scary to see her do that, but she got the majority of it out.
The kids were dropped off by our good friend, Tanya, and came up to see their
baby sister.
They LOVED her!
I don’t blame them..she was pretty cute.
They couldn't hold her right away because the
nurse wanted her to do some kangaroo time (there was a good reason for this,
but I don’t remember what it was….)
To be continued…never a dull moment!
