Worth The Wait

I figured I needed to write this before the little details start to get too fuzzy..which I know will happen sooner than later for this sleep-deprived mama! Let's start at the very beginning..(a very good place to start.. ha ;)

**PS if you don't like birth stories, skip this post. 

I was scheduled to be induced on the 27th of July at 3:00 PM. The morning of the induction I went on a walk with my mom and my sister. We went to get a few last minute things from CVS and Ross, nothing too exciting. My mom bought Ev her first baby doll that morning, and it anxiously awaits in her crib to be played with once she knows what in the world it is. After walking around for at least a few miles, we headed home to make lunch and get ready to go. Daniel and I packed up some card games, the kindle, movies etc to keep us entertained at the hospital, and I'm so glad we brought all of it! Halie and I took some pregnancy pictures before we left, since who knows if we will be pregnant again at the same time in the future. It was so fun to be pregnant right along with Halie..I wish her little guy would just get here already though! Can't wait to meet little Frank;)

Daniel and I got to the hospital to check in around 2:45. When we first got there we were put in our own private room which I was so excited about! But after about 10 minutes of being in there we were moved to a "shared private" room.. (PS..what part about a curtain makes a room private?) Anyway, we get in and they put the monitors on me, and they told me that I was already having pretty regular contractions. I couldn't feel them at all! Because they were so regular, the Dr's told me that they couldn't do anything to induce labor further until they either stopped or slowed down significantly. Therefore..4 hours to sit and wait before they would do anything for me.

Needless to say I felt like Rachel on Friends. The first girl who shared my room with me was already at a 7. She got her epidural right there with me next to her, and was taken away to have her baby by like 6PM.  The second girl was wheeled in and I heard "Wow! You're already dilated to an 8! We are going to move you into the delivery room!" (Are you kidding me?) Once she left my Dr came back in the room and gave me a tablet to begin inducing me. It was about 8:30PM by this point. This tablet they gave me comes with a 4 hour waiting period. So they gave it to me and said they would come back to check me around midnight. Once my 4 hours were up, the tablet had started working and I was at a 3. They now had a private room for me and decided to take me there and put me on pitocin. Bad idea. I was started on pitocin around 4AM. They came back around 8AM to check me, and nothing had changed. Nothing! I thought pitocin was supposed to be like a miracle inducing drug! It was a bit frustrating. They decided to take me off for a little while to let me eat something, then try again. There was still no change by 4 PM, so they decided to try another tablet. A few hours later at 6:15 my water broke (HATED that feeling by the way..gross), and within 10 minutes my contractions were SO strong. Almost immediately a nurse came in and put me on oxygen because Evalyn's heart rate wasn't steady and would drop with each contraction. I wanted to tough it out and wait as long as I possibly could before the epidural because I was terrified my progress would slow down after I got it..but after a few hours of hellish pain I was almost yelling at the nurse to get me the needle. 

I was moved to a delivery room and the anesthesiologist came in around 8:30 and gave me the epi. At this point I was only at a 4! My hats off to you girls who are able to wait longer and/or go without an epidural! The epidural was no big deal, I hardly noticed it.. but that might be because of the contractions I was having while he was putting it in. Anyway, it didn't numb me at first so he gave me a stronger dosage, then I was feeling great! I still had pain whenever I had a contraction in my left side lower back/butt area. It was.. weird. After dealing with that pain for about an hour, I had him come back in and give me another strong dosage to see if that helped. After about 15 minutes the pain wasn't nearly as strong, and the waiting game began. Only about a half hour later my Dr came in and checked me and I was already at a 10, but little miss hadn't dropped enough yet so we were still waiting. 

Meanwhile Evalyn's heart rate was still all over the place, and my nurse was constantly having my shift my body around to try and stabilize her, but nothing seemed to be helping. I appreciated my nurse for being super blunt with me about everything. She was keeping me very well informed and nervous..haha. But I would much rather have known how serious it was than having everyone tell me that it was all roses. Around 10:15 I started "practice pushing"..but it wasn't working so well because the monitors weren't able to pick up my contractions, and I couldn't feel anything by this point. My nurse told me she wanted to have the anesthesiologist come back in and turn down my epidural significantly so that I could feel some pressure. I started crying instantly out of the idea of being able to feel everything once she was born. Haha..yes I am a weenie and no I don't care! He came back in, turned it down, and I was determined to get her out asap before it wore off (which in my mind was going to happen within 10 minutes of the medicine being turned down..luckily not the case!). 

Just a few minutes after that, her heart rate was too low for comfort. My Dr rushed in with about 15 other people and told me we were going to "do this right now". She told me she was going to use a vacuum to help get her out, and I started panicking thinking of all the cone head babies I had seen once they were vacuumed. (Luckily Ev's head was perfect!) I asked my Dr to use forceps, she told me she was more comfortable using the vacuum, so obviously I wanted her to use what she was more comfortable with. They got the vacuum all ready and the internal heart rate monitor had already been in for a few hours by this point, and then we all waited for like 10 minutes for me to have a contraction. Felt like a LIFETIME! We were constantly poking my stomach to feel for when I was having a contraction since the monitors weren't picking them up, and when we thought I was having one, I started pushing. 2 pushes and she was here! She was instantly whisked away by the pediatric team, and a few minutes later I heard her cry. I was bawling. Daniel came back over to tell me that she had hair and I was so excited ;) I think it was about 15 minutes before I got to really see her. She was/is perfect. 7 lbs 21 inches of perfection. 

UCLA was great. I looooved my doctors and nurses. After about 2 hours of being stitched up, we were left alone for the night as a little family of 3. The next 48 hours at the hospital were LONG..I just wanted to go home! After all, we had already been there for 34 hours by the time she finally arrived. We left on Saturday night around 8 PM. 

Whew! What a novel. It was a long process just like this post, but she is here and we love her so much. July 29, 2011 changed our lives forever! Evalyn is a combination of our dad's names (Evan and Lynn) and of course Kelly is after my beautiful best friend who I love so much. Our little girl has a lot to live up to with her name! I think she already wears it so well.

Thanks everyone for the love and support! We are loving our new life together. It's hard and exhausting but so fun and wonderful all at the same time. Pictures to come!