Carter David Troness was born at 12:24am on Tuesday March 23rd via c section. He was 8lb 8oz and 21 inches long! We think he's absolutely adorable and are totally in love. It was a crazy experience but it all turned out well and that's what matters.
I was scheduled for an induction on Monday March 22nd - we picked Monday because my favorite OB was on call that day. I was 40w 4d. All along I was told that I was "inducible" because I was already 3cm dilated and my cervix was nice and thinned out. My OB thought she could jump start my natural labor by using this blue cervix softener - or blue cervix gunk as I called it. At 5 am we arrive at the hospital and get all checked in and some blood drawn. At 6am I received the first round of blue gunk and was left to marinate for an hour. Once the hour passed I was up walking the halls. We did this three times. At the end of the third cycle I was still only 3cm dilated and my contractions had not picked up at all. At this point my doctor came in and said we had two options - start pitocin or send me home and hope that my labor would start shortly on it's own. Because my dr really felt that I would go into natural labor very shortly we decided to go home and see what happened. We left the hospital at 1pm and swang through McDonalds for a shake. By 1:30 we were home and I headed towards the couch for a much needed nap. No more than 5 minutes after laying on the couch I got these awful period like cramps. They start getting worse - to the point where if I was laying down I wanted to be standing, if I was standing I wanted to be laying down. There wasn't a position that gave me any relief. The crazy cramping pain plus back labor continued for 2 hours. I was miserable and decided to call the nurse who was with me earlier in the morning for my induction. She told me that it sounded like labor was coming and to wait until the pain fell into a pattern with distinct starts and stops and to come back to the hospital when the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes for an hour. No joke the second I hung up with her the contractions starting coming every 2 minutes. It was crazy. What happened to coming every 7 minutes or 5 minutes? I just skipped straight to every 2 minutes and it was crazy painful. I sat in my computer desk chair rocking back and fourth and telling Joe when to "hit S" to time the contractions online. After an hour had passed we headed back to the hospital.
We checked back into labor and delivery at 5:15. We were lucky at got the same nurse from the morning and she admitted me right away. She checked me and I was already at 5.5cm! I had gone from 3cm at 1pm to 5.5cm at 5pm. I was hooked up to the monitors and she ordered my epidural. At 6pm the epidural doctor arrived. What a nice nice man! He gets me all set up and gives me a "bump" of spinal to ease the pain immediately. Sweet relief! I could have smushed his face and smooched him I felt amazing! From crazy pain to no pain at all. At this point I'd been up since 3am and was exhausted and tried to settle in for a nap. 7pm my doctor comes in and checks me - I'm almost 9cm! I was beyond amazed at how quickly I was progressing. The dr decides to break my water. I was a little bummed by this as I was really looking forward to a nap and had heard that breaking the water speeds things up. She breaks my water and I settle back in for a nap.
At 8pm I'm half asleep when all of a sudden there are 10+ people in our room - oxygen is put on my face, doctors and nurses are in full gear and equipment is being wheeled in. They check me and there is just a little lip left and am ordered to push NOW. I have no idea what is going on or why there are tons of people in my room and I'm kinda freaking out. In less than a minute I went from being half asleep to pushing and not knowing why. They tell me the baby's heart rate is way down and I need to get him out now. My epidural is turned way down in hopes that I can start to feel my contractions and get this baby out. Luckily at this point the contraction monitor was still picking up my contractions so they were telling me when to push. After a few pushes Carter's hear rate comes back up and I continue to push.
Carter was facing up and towards my right hip so I went from pushing while on my left side, then center, then right side and back again in hope to get him to turn face down. This went on from 8:30 - 11:00. At 11pm my doctor tells me I have 2 options - I can continue pushing and see what happens or we can go for the c section. At that point Carter was still at a +1 station - where I'd been for quite some time now and still facing up and to my right. I'm a little freaked out by the thought of a c section but at the same time I didn't feel it was going to happen. I had been pushing for 3 hours without any progress. One of the nurses says she really thinks a little more pushing will be all we need so I agree to another 30 minutes of pushing. At 11:45pm my doctor comes back in to check me again. The nurse tells her that she thinks I've made progress and that maybe with the use of the vacuum we can get him out. However after my doctor checks me she disagrees and says it's time. Almost 4 hours of pushing and no progress she doesn't think he is going to come out no matter how much I push. Joe looks at me and gives me an "it will be ok face" and I say to him "don't go all mushy on me or I'm going to cry". My doctor looks and me and rubs my hair and says "let the tears out now. It's ok" And with that I'm crying. I was scared.
I'm taken to the OR and Joe is sent to get scrubs on. I'm trying my hardest not to cry at this point but I can't help it. I am scared of the c section plus the drugs gave me some serious shakes. The shakes were so weird because I totally couldn't control it - which added to some of the fear I'm sure. However, I had the nicest nurses and doctors. They were so incredibly sweet and nice to me that I eventually calmed down and was looking forward to meeting my baby. The epidural man ups my drugs and they do the pinching thing - which I can still feel. It took a while for me to get numb enough for them to get started. After they got started Joe was brought in and we awaited the arrival of our baby. All of a sudden we hear a small cry and he's here! Now the tears are tears of joy! Carter is brought over to the baby warming table and is checked out. Joe is over there with him and as Carter is fussing Joe touches his little hand and the fussing stops. I will never forget that moment. Joe is crying like a baby! They bring Carter over to me so I can smooch his face and then off to the NICU he goes - he was having a little trouble breathing plus at that hospital every c section baby goes to the NICU to be checked out. Joe went with Carter and was able to hold him. 2 hours later (the mandatory recovery time for me before moving up to a postpartum room) we were all together and I got to hold my little man for the first time!
We found out during the c section that Carter would have never come out no matter how much I pushed. First his large head was lodged semi sideways in my pelvis. Second, his cord was completely flat (no give - they explained it like a telephone cord stretched out flat where as most are curly with give) and wrapped around his shoulder/neck like you'd wear a messenger bag. He wasn't going anywhere no matter how long I pushed.
Now he's here and we're so totally in love with him. I've never fallen so completely in love in such a short period of time. To say he has stolen my heart is a complete understatement! Even though my labor and delivery weren't exactly what I was expecting I am so happy with the outcome that nothing else matters.
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