Here's our happy birthday story:
I had a dr. appt. on my due date 3/13 (Thursday) and was devastated to find out I was only a "fingertip" dilated (and that was a generous evaluation, I think -- just trying to make me feel better). Dr. Looff really is against induction unless you're a full week or more beyond the due date. He put his foot down on the 13th, even though I was just miserable and couldn't imagine going until the next Tuesday (18th). He said we'd wait for another ultrasound, non-stress tests, etc. next week. Didn't even hold out hope that he'd induce on that Tuesday, just check me out.
We went to lunch, Todd went back to work, and I went home to feel sorry for myself and cry. Around 4 pm I decided to try to make the best of it and cook a real meal for the first time in months. We had been walking twice that week already and walked again when Todd got home. Ate the chicken pot pie and settled in for "Survivor." Had a painful band of pressure really low in my uterus around 8:30 that felt totally different (painful) from all the major Braxton-Hicks I'd had, but nothing in my back (everybody and all the books differentiated false from real labor with back pain). I'd feel this pain once every half hour or so during all the Thursday night TV, but didn't get concerned until around 11 pm -- the pain was coming intermittently, every 5 min, then 2 min, then 10 min for an hour. Still nothing in my back. Tried to sleep, but would awaken with each contraction and thought I might be dying. I finally decided if this wasn't it (and with ZERO DILATION it probably wasn't it), something was really wrong.
Packed it up and got to Central Baptist around 1:15 am -- they checked me in before checking my progress and I had several more contractions. By the time she checked me at 1:45 I was 2 1/2 cm and 100% effaced. By the time she got the external monitors on, I was having contractions in the 100's and throwing up violently with each one. The Phenergan [for nausea] helped but knocked me out, as did the Stadol, so I slept a lot but had a solid grip on the bed and did a lot of Lamaze breathing with Todd for a few hours. At 3 1/2 cm they called the anesthesiologist and I got the fabulous epidural. That was good because I didn't want any more Stadol or Phenergan. I guess things stalled out around 8 cm, so I got Pitocin and the epidural was wearing off, so more breathing and gripping of the bed. Got to 10 cm by 1:45 pm on Friday and pushed for an hour and a half, got hooked up to oxygen, and he wasn't making any progress. We got from -2 to 0 station, but he was bigger than they expected and it wasn't happening. Quickly everyone jumped into gear -- I had a lot of intermittent blood pressure dropping and his heartbeat was getting irregular -- and decided it would be a c-section. We got wheeled in there at 3:20 and he was out by 3:49 pm!
What a relief to have him here and a-okay! It was not what we planned, expected, or discussed, but we all made it. The recovery is pretty slow, but two weeks out I feel better than I thought I ever would again. Abdominal surgery is a killer!
I am getting more sleep than I have since October! We haven't really tried to set a feeding schedule and are letting him feed on demand, so he eats every 1 1/2 - 3 hours during the day (when he's not napping or hanging out, examining everything) and tends to sleep from 9:30/10:00 to 2:30 and then gets up again at 5:30 and 7:30 or 8. We were setting the alarm for every 2 1/2 to 3 hours at first, but after the initial pediatrician visit and his advice to let him sleep, we decided to roll with it. He REALLY DOES wake up when he's ready to eat -- and stays awake for the feeding as opposed to zonking out after 5 minutes!
I would love to visit...hopefully we'll be more mobile in a few weeks. Right now it seems like the world just moves way too fast for us and I am only able to "control" things in the comfort of home ;-) We've been walking in the neighborhood and gone to lunch twice, pediatrician once, my OB once, and a big shopping trip to Meijer. We're getting there!