Our Family Maddness: The DAY arrives...time to be induced

Two weeks before I was induced, I set up the induction date never actually thinking I would actually reach it, but sure enough I did.

What an experience delivering a baby is...can never really prepare for it and can never forget it either.

We received the call at 6:00 am on Friday, March 29th to come to the hospital for a 7:00 am induction. Oh joy, I hadn't been able to sleep at all the night before and had finally cuddle with Matt, so I could calm down enough to get some sleep and the phone rang.

Well we got up and hurried and got ready. I showered the night before, but Matt hurried and got in the shower not knowing when he would have the opportunity after that.

I ate a small breakfast of frosted mini-wheats. Had I known I would be in labor for so long, I definitely would have eaten more!

We packed up the car and went to the hospital. We parked and walked in...The first thing I remember them asking was..."Do you have a pediatrician?" NOPE, no one had even mentioned about researching and having a pediatrician already set up.

We went back to the delivery room and got all comfortable in the hospital gown. Not the most comfortable outfit, but who is in the hospital for comfort.

I had this app on my phone telling me I was over due.
Thought it was funny and ironic.

Walking around my room checking things out.

Waiting in bed for the nurses to start the drugs.

I remember laying in bed staring at this baby station thinking,
"Sometime TODAY, we will have a baby in that bed!"

They started the drug, Pitocin, to get my contractions started at 8:00am. Mind you I was starting off at a "2+" and had to get all the way to a "10" before I could start pushing for a delivery. They also hooked me up to the baby monitors too. After about an hour, the nurse and doctor came to check on me. One said to me, "you know there is no award for how much pain you go through." Well that got me thinking...and I had my epidural at 10:00 am. The epidural was the most painful thing of the whole experience. Plus it never quite got my right leg numb, so I could feel the contractions, at the end of the delivery a little too much. Thank goodness for the booster button. After the epidural was working, they broke my water and hooked me up to a catheter.

Ready, set, go...the waiting game was still going until 5pm, when my body was finally ready for me to assist in pushing. While we waited, we watched Stars Wars I, took naps, drank a ton of apple juice, and tried decided what the baby's name should be...Hailey Caroline or Kara Dianna.

Finally we got to stop waiting...I got to push for almost 3 hours. What a fun experience.
During those 3 hours, I got extremely tired. They put me on oxygen, so the baby had enough oxygen through me. They set up internal monitoring to make sure the baby heartbeat was okay. They kept threatening that I would have to have a C-section if things didn't progress and I didn't start "pushing" better. I got mad at one of the doctor's for making me feel like I wasn't pushing well enough and started crying because I was so mad. My nurse who had been with us from 7am - 7pm had her shift end at 7pm, so she left and I got another nurse for the rest of my stay in the delivery room. Not recommended to switch nurses, in the middle of the experience, but I had no choice!

Finally everything came together and our little bundle came out. When they put her on my chest, I thought"Yuck!" and then they kept sucking out her mouth to get her to breathe, which made me start wondering if she was going to breath. Finally she started crying and they took her to the bed to clean her up. Matt stood guard over her and snapped her first pictures. While I had the fun experience of being cleaned up myself.