My alarm went off at 1:45 am Friday, February 1st and even though I'd only slept for a couple of hours, I jumped right up without hitting the snooze (not like me at all). Since my bag had been packed for a few weeks, there wasn't much to do, but get showered, get Kiel up, and get to the hospital. We got there at exactly 3am and were in our room by 3:15.
Terri was our first nurse that came in to check me (was still at a 3), explain the process of getting induced, and give me all the paperwork that needed to be filled out before we were discharged. At this point, I still don't think I'd wrapped my head around what was about to happen. I was hooked up to the pitocin by 4:30am and the contractions followed shortly after. My body was responding so well to the medicine, my contractions were literally right on top of each other almost immediately and she had to turn it down. Things were pretty boring for the next few hours - Kiel & I tried to talk normally to pass the time, watching tv & filling out paperwork.
Dr. Ingram showed up at about 7:30 am to check me & break my water. I'm not sure where I got the idea that this was going to hurt, but it didn't. I just sat there in a puddle of amniotic fluid thinking....this is disgusting. About 20 minutes later, I got my first dose of a real contraction. They're not so bad when they start out like light cramping, but I got lucky enough to experience back labor and in Kiel's words to my sister "she looks like a turtle on it's back." Fortunately for him, I appreciated the humor distraction so he got to live through that comment.
The contractions had reinforced my decision to get an epidural by about 1000 so we decided to notify the anesthesiologist. Kiel's mom popped in around 8:30 just in time to see us before he got there so she got to see me in rare form, but considering she, like my mom, had 2 kids with no drugs, I don't think she really felt all that bad for me lol Getting an epidural is a little scary just because it goes into your spine, but I had a great anesthesiologist and while it was a little uncomfortable mainly because my contractions were so intense, it didn't hurt at all. Kiel stood in front of me and made the mistake of letting me squeeze his arms to help me keep still during the contractions...hopefully those nail marks have gone away by now!!! My right foot started tingling almost immediately, and I only felt about 2 strong contractions after he started the test dose. Hands down, he was my favorite person that day. The medicine worked it's way up my right leg and while I could still wiggle my toes, I couldn't really do much else with it. I still had full control over my left leg so that was a little weird, but my contractions were almost non-existent so I wasn't complaining. Kiel's mom came back in and his Aunt Nancy stopped by to keep us company until about 11:30 when my mom showed up shortly followed by my sister. I was really feeling good so it was nice to have distractions popping in & out for a little bit & I know Kiel appreciated the company even though the day was flying by.
About 12:15 my mom & sister left & the nurse came in to let me know Dr Ingram would be in at 1 to check me. She said they needed to know if I started feeling any pressure down below or if I had any concerns. I wasn't feeling any pressure, but my contractions had come back REALLY strong in my back on my left side. Terri decided she should probably check me to see if there had been any change and I sat there in fear my epidural was only working on one side of my body, but to my surprise she looked at me and said, "Guess what...you're complete, we need to get Dr Ingram in here." WHAT? I thought induction took all day....I thought we had hours left of sitting around being bored & doing nothing??!??!? Kiel hadn't eaten anything all day & had just asked his sister to bring him something so he went out to call her and tell her to forget it & let his mom know what was going on. Luckily my sister & mom hadn't left the building yet so they got the news too and just ended up staying. Kiel came back in, Shilo made it just in time to wish us good luck, and Terri rushed around opening cabinets and getting things ready. Since Kiel never got lunch he was starting to look a little pale as things started to get more serious so the nurses brought him a little juice to give him some energy...have to take care of daddy's too :)
Dr Ingram showed up and we got the show on the road. I seriously could not have asked for a better doctor. She was motivating, encouraging, and just has her shit together. She coached me every step of the way, ensuring me I was doing what I needed to be doing and giving me pointers when I got scared of pooping on the table and started holding back :-/ (For the record, if I did poop on the table, no one knew it, but Dr Ingram & Terri so we'll just say I didn't) Since my epidural was so great, I couldn't feel all the painful stuff going on down below, but I could feel when a contraction would peek and when baby's head started putting pressure on me so I knew when I needed to push. It was a good thing too because once he got so far, the external contraction monitor wasn't picking up my contractions so I was actually telling the Dr when it was time to push...I basically orchestrated the last 20 minutes of Jase's birth. Having that much control over the situation was a pretty great feeling. After pushing for about 25 minutes, Dr Ingram confirmed baby had a big head and I was probably going to need a little help getting him out. I, of course, started crying when she got the episiotomy kit out, but again, she was amazing and I quickly found out there was nothing to be scared of. Thankfully, his head was just a "little big so I didn't need a full episiotomy. She had me go through a couple more contractions and then did her thing. Within the next few pushes, we had a head, and just minutes later, I could hear my baby boy crying. I thought I had an emotional moment when I heard his heartbeat for the first time, but that first cry sent me into a crying fit unlike one I've ever experienced. Kiel cut the cord and before I knew it, I had a beautiful baby boy on my chest looking at me like...what the heck just happened?
Since Jase's weight has been a pretty big topic of conversation we were all taking guesses what it would be once we saw him. Dr. Ingram guessed 8lb 1oz and the rest of us thought just over 9lbs. To our surprise, the nurse put him on the scale and said 10lbs 5oz. All of our mouths hit the floor and Dr. Ingram (scissors in hand) flung around in her chair and told the nurse to "zero out that scale and weigh that baby again! There is no way he's 10lbs!!!" We all got a pretty good laugh out of her reaction and not surprisingly...she was right.
We had some skin to skin time while Dr Ingram was putting me back together and Kiel went out to let everyone know everything went great and our man was finally here! I could look at these pics all day.
 |
| Just minutes after he was born, must have been on an adrenaline high bc I have no recollection of Kiel taking this!! |
Now it seems like all the worrying about how delivering was going to go was for nothing and I still find myself watching Jase and daydreaming about how smoothly everything went. But like I've discussed with multiple people, you can listen to stories all day about how easy labor was for others, but nothing will make you understand how amazing giving birth is until you do it yourself.
Jase Russell Pshak
Born: February 1, 2013
1:49pm
9lbs 0oz
21in long
Perfect in every way....
-Nicole
Love love love in every way!!! I really enjoyed the part about Kiel :) I couldn't be more proud, excited and happy for you both. Jase is absolutely beautiful and he is so lucky to have two wonderful people for parents. Love you XO
ReplyDelete