DJ's Birth Story

The journey to motherhood for me was pretty rocky.  I dealt with Gestational Diabetes (GD) as well as Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH).  Towards the end of my pregnancy my blood pressure crept up (PIH) which resulted in the medical necessity for an induction. 
Sunday (11/27) I began my induction with a gel to ripen my cervix as I was not dilating but was thinning a lot.  I had my first dose at 6pm and began contractions within half an hour of getting the gel.  Throughout the night I had a total of three doses which thinned me a lot more and helped me dilate to 2cm.  My doctor was concerned with the fact that I had gotten no sleep and didn't think I would be able to push later in the day if I didn't get any sleep so she gave me a light dose of a sleep aid.  Wouldn't you know that in my sleep my contractions died off from 45 seconds long every 3 minutes to very irregular and sporadic in length.
My OB decided to let me rest for the afternoon on Monday (11/28) and we would restart the induction with gel Monday evening and begin Pitocin around 4am on Tuesday.  I only received one dose of gel and then had a nurse who kept insisting I just refuse any more doses and go home as I was headed for a c-section (I already knew I was high risk for a c-section because I have a high pubic arch).  After a fight between her and my husband and the nurse calling my OB to tattle on us, my OB tore my nurse a new one and decided to discontinue any more gel and just continue with a heavier dose of Pitocin at 4am.  This all happened around 3am and at 3:25am my water broke.  I was a loose 2cm at this time and told every person I saw that I wanted the epidural.  Because I wasn't that dilated the nurses told me that they would wait before calling the anesthesiologist because he was 'on-call' and wouldn't want to come in for a few hours to wait to give me the epidural.  I was scared to death that he wouldn't make it in for my epidural either and kept reminding the nurses.
At 4am I had an internal monitor for contractions inserted as they were having trouble keeping that monitor on my belly.  When they did this I had progressed to 4cm (in half an hour!).  The nurse finally paged for the anesthesiologist who gave the estimate of an hour.  Again I was scared I wouldn't get the epidural and asked what would happen if he didn't make it.  No one would respond.  At 4:30 they decided to put an internal monitor on DJ because I was laboring on my side and they kept losing him on the monitor as well.  What no one had told me at this point was that he was having some nasty decelerations and they were worried about him being on his cord.  Lo and behold I was at 6cm.  I asked to go pee and was granted that one relief.  Walking with all those monitors hanging out of me was a feat in itself. 
Around 5am I told Tim that I had to pee again and he helped me to get up but as soon as I sat up I told him it was a false alarm and it was time to push.  I just felt like I needed to push.  He paged the nurse who came in in disbelief.  She checked me as my doctor was walking in and announced that my cervix was gone, I was at 10cm.  My doctor checked me to confirm and told them to get the room ready for delivery.  My total labor time was an hour and a half of hellish contractions.  They were manageable with deep breathing and concentration but I would have loved that epidural!  I have never experienced such pain and at the same time I would have never thought I would have been able to focus so much and get through that pain. At this point I asked when I was getting my epidural but was informed that the anethesiologist was not there yet and I would have to deliver without pain intervention.  DAMMIT!!!  I just knew that I wasn't getting it.  Really I didn't miss it.  Pushing felt amazing, it was such relief and I felt zero pain.  After about 45 minutes of pushing I had pushed DJ really low but I just couldn't get him over my pubic arch.  My OB was trying to help him over it but decided I was just wearing myself out and asked if I wanted to labor down for a while and see if things would relax further.  I agreed and she said she was going to have the OR prepped just incase so I wouldn't have to wait another hour after trying to push again. 
That hour waiting and trying not to push was the worst hour of my life.  My OB had another surgery that she had to do while I waited.  Tim had a cup of water that I had to blow bubbles in for about the entire time and I still found myself pushing with some of the contractions.  I wanted to push, no, I needed to push.  Finally what seemed like days had ended and my OB came back in to assess the situation.  I had not relaxed out at all and DJ's heart rate had dropped too many times so she asked if I was okay with a c-section.  I had been put on oxygen by this time and all I could muster was to shake my head yes; Tim and I had already discussed the possibility and he told the doctor to do what needed to be done.
I must say that Tim looks amazing in scrubs.  He's a handsome guy anyways, but I thought he was a doctor coming in when he was in scrubs.  I got wheeled off to the OR and got my spinal and a half.  The anesthesiologist (yeah, he finally made it there)  began my spinal but I felt tingles in my leg and began a contraction so they pulled out with only half of the meds in me so they gave me another whole dose just to be sure.  I felt great.  Tim said I looked the best I had in three days and honestly I felt that way.  After only a few minutes we heard the doctor tell the nurse that if Tim wanted to see DJ come out he needed to stand up (he didn't want to see my insides so he stayed sitting) and then we heard DJ cry!  It was such an amazing sound!  We both sat crying while they took him to the nursery to check him out.  He did need a few puffs of oxygen because of the cord being wrapped twice around his neck very tightly.  He had to stay in the special care nursery for a few hours while I was in recovery because his circulation wasn't wanting to pick up right away either and he had a few episodes of apnea.
Tim went with DJ to the special care nursery and I fell asleep on the OR table.  The nurse had to keep waking me to make sure I wasn't feeling any pain and my OB told her that I was probably exhausted so she was fine with me sleeping.  Tim came back in right before I was taken to recovery to tell me about DJ and show me his foot print that they stamped on his arm that later became a tattoo. 
Recovery was a sleepy blur.  I had all kinds of tubes hooked to my IV and I felt nothing from the belly down.  Nurses came in and out and finally Tim was able to come back and show me pictures of DJ on his phone.  The nurse decided since I could move my legs a little that she would let me go back to my room and they wheeled me off.  I did get to make a pit stop at the special care nursery where they brought DJ out in his crib and he held my finger with his hand. Unfortunately he had to go back in for a little more monitoring and some blood work before he could join us in the room.
After only a few minutes in the room, DJ was brought in and I finally got to hold my little man!  Speaking of little, he was estimated to be around 8 pounds on my last ultrasound 3 days before induction.  He was 6lbs 6oz and 19 3/4 inches long.  So much for weight estimates.  He  did have an issue with jaundice because of the bruise from him hitting my bone and because I am type O blood, he is type B so my body produced antigens against him which exaggerates jaundice.  He had to go stay the night in a pediatric hospital under the bili lights then we were able to bring a light home for a few days.  He is healthy now and loving being spoiled by his mommy, daddy and grandparents.