On March 27, 2016 James and I became parents!
Macie was due March 25 and I was more than ready to get her here so when my doctor offered to induce me on the 26th, I couldn't pass it up. We scheduled the induction for 12:00 pm on Saturday March 26. James went for a bike ride that morning and I showered, got ready, finished packing for the hospital, and got everything ready to bring baby home! It was such a surreal feeling knowing I was going to be having a baby within a few hours. We checked into the hospital at noon and after what felt like forever sitting in the waiting room, finally got into a room. I changed into a hospital gown, James got settled on his little couch, and then we waited some more... The nurse tried to check me to see if I was dilated but because of the position of the baby had a hard time telling. Macie was "sunny side up" instead of face down like she should be. The nurse said I probably wasn't dilated more than a 1 or maybe 2 which is where I was earlier that week at my last doctors appointment. She said she was waiting for orders from my doctor to start the induction. Time passed and we were still just sitting there waiting. Apparently Dr. Cooper (my doc) had left the hospital to visit some family and his phone wasn't working so they couldn't get a hold of him. The orders he had written before leaving were wrong so they couldn't start anything on me. FINALLY they got a hold of him and he made it back to the hospital. He came into our room and told me they were going to send me home. It was about 3:30 at this point, we had been there waiting for 3 1/2 hours! I was sooo disappointed to say the least. He said that the policy had recently changed where you couldn't have an elective induction until you were 40 weeks and 3 days and I was only 40 weeks and 1 day. He said he would have me come back on Monday. I wanted to cry. I did NOT want to leave that hospital still being pregnant. But he said he would check me to see if I was making any progress on my own. He had a hard time reaching my cervix as well because of the position of Macie's head but once he reached it (literally brought me to tears it hurt sooo bad) he said I was dilated to a 3 and 100% effaced which meant I could stay! I had already been having contractions too. Had I not been dilated to a 3, he would have had to send us home. THANK GOODNESS I was making progress on my own and that didn't happen. Finally at 4:00 pm, 4 hours after we checked in, they started my IV and pitocin and got the ball rolling.My contractions started to get stronger and the nurse told me to just let her know when I wanted to get the epidural. I wanted to wait as long as I could. At 7:00 our nurses shift ended and we got a new nurse. I was still feeling okay at this point but I asked her how long it would take to get the epidural once I said I was ready. She said she has to give me more fluids for 20 minutes then call the anesthesiologist and depending on what he has going on, it could be right away or could take a while if he is in the OR or something. I told her I was still doing okay but would let her know. This was at about 7:30. She left and I swear everything changed at the next contraction. They went from feeling tight and a little uncomfortable to all of the sudden extremely painful and brought tears to my eyes! No more than 10 minutes after telling the nurse I was okay was I calling her and telling her I was ready for the epidural. She got my fluids going and by 8:00 the anesthesiologist was there ready to put me out of my misery. Its amazing how quickly those contractions got STRONG. I was so grateful the anesthesiologist wasn't busy because I couldn't hold out any longer. They wouldn't let James stay in the room while I was getting the epidural so he had to go wait in the waiting room. The process wasn't too bad, I sat up on the edge of the bed and curled over hugging a pillow while he placed the epidural. I felt the first pokes from him numbing the area, then just some pressure as he put the tube in my back. It felt weird and uncomfortable but compared to the contractions, it was no big deal. I got situated back in bed and waited for the pain to go away.. and waited.. and waited. Finally it started to die down and I began to relax again. The nurse gave me my catheter and let James back in the room.
All through my pregnancy I said I didn't want anyone in the room besides James. Family could come visit after she was born but I didn't want anyone else there for the delivery. James' sister, Heather is an awesome photographer and mentioned she could come take pictures of the birth but I declined. I thought it would be weird and I wouldn't want gross pictures of my baby being born. However about a week before I was due, James and I got to taking about it again and decided it would be a cool experience to have Heather there to capture her being born and our first moments together. So she was anxiously waiting for our call to tell her baby was coming!
Heather showed up shortly after the epidural but at 9:00 I was only dilated to a 5 and they said it could take a while still so we sent Heather home and said we'd call her back in a few hours. Around 10:30 they checked me again and I was already at a 9! The on-call doctor came in and broke my water and we told Heather to come back! There was some meconium in the water so we were told the NICU team would be in for the delivery. Heather rushed back to the hospital but unfortunately we still waited a few more hours. They wanted the baby to come down on her own as much as possible so I wouldn't have to push very long. We tried to rest as much as we could while we waited.
As time went on I was starting to feel the contractions a little more and was becoming less numb. I was never completely numb to begin with, I could always move my legs and feel my toes, but it was definitely starting to wear off even more. I pushed the button to administer more medication but I don't think that did anything. I became less numb by the minute and could feel when every contraction was coming again.
At about 2:00 am they called Dr. Cooper and the nurse had me start pushing with every contraction. James was holding one leg and the nurse the other. The contractions were painful again and pushing was exhausting. The nurse got mad at me for scrunching up my face and told me I wasn't pushing right if it was showing in my face. Meanwhile I kept pushing that stupid epidural button that was NOT doing its job. Dr. Cooper showed up around 2:20 and everything just kept getting more intense.. the pain and the pushing. Pushing for 10 painfully slow seconds, only getting a second to breathe, then having to go again for another 10 seconds was killer. At one point I remember telling the doctor I couldn't do it anymore. I've never been in so much pain but I just wanted her OUT. Finally during one last push the doctor told me to open my eyes and grab my baby. I opened my eyes, saw the upper half of my alien baby, reached down and pulled her out and onto my chest. Oh the relief!! At 2:52 am and after 11 hours of labor, Macie Renée was finally here!
They cleaned her up a bit on my chest then took her away to get checked and cleaned more. She was perfect! 7 pounds 10 oz and 20 3/4 inches long. She cried a little so we knew she was breathing but then was perfectly content. They wrapped her up and gave her to James to hold. Watching James' first moments with his daughter is something I will never forget. I think my love for him tripled in that moment. Finally after the doctor was done with me I got my baby back in my arms and we had some good skin to skin time for about an hour. The rest of the night was a blur. I was beyond exhausted. We got cleaned up and moved to another room where Phil and Debi came to hold their grand baby #6.
It was Easter Sunday and the best Easter gift we could have received. We were so blessed things went so smoothly and there were no complications with either of us. We love our Macie girl so much!
Here is a link to the video Heather made for us:
https://drive.google.com/file/
And some of her pictures!
