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| Where it all started ;) 7 weeks |
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| Last prego picture night before induction 38.5 weeks and feeling it :) |
To begin I just want to make a note for us to remember how AWESOME and amazing it is to be a mommy and daddy to a healthy baby boy.
Elijah Lee Meitler
born wednesday May 9th, 2012
12:48pm
8lbs 3oz
21 inches long.
Well lets begin where we last left off....The full moon or the "super moon" did not do the trick I've heard it is supposed to along with the thunderstorms the next night...I was still 1cm dilated and 50% effaced when we were induced. Lets see, Monday the 7th came and went with no excitement, Tuesday the 8th was THE day. I dropped Kobe off at the kennel (one of his favorite places in the world...Wildcat pet resort) about noon, washed the car (Eli deserved to have a first class ride home, and secretly I was still hoping my water would magically break if I kept active), and filled it with gas. Jared got home from work after getting a haircut about 4 or so to find a super anxious wife :) imagine that! He packed his bag for the hospital and double checked all of our bags to make sure we were prepared for a 3-4 day stay at "chateau mercy regional hospital" as we now call it after our amazing stay.
We arrived at the hospital right at 5:00pm, I sat in the car looked at Jared and said, "I'm not ready to do this, lets just go home and wait". If you've been reading along you know that Jared is fantastic under pressure and reassured me by saying, "Beka you can do this, plus it's too late to change our minds we should have done that 9 months ago". We took my bags and checked in, we were sent up to the birth center right away. It was so quick once we got there that my nerves were soon forgotten and excitement set in.We walked into LD room 5....nurse 1 & 2 (Jessi and Sue "tracy") came in took my vitals and said change into this...a beautiful hospital gown :)....they asked background information which took about 15min. They placed the cervidil (ripening agent for the cervix) and I was confined to the bed for the next 2 hours.The nurses work 12hr (6am-6pm) shifts so we had a shift change after this and nurse 3 (Brooke) became our night nurse and monitored us all night. During the two hours of being confined to the bed I was hooked up to two external monitors. One to keep track of my contractions and the other to keep track of Eli's heart rate. Jared and I were relaxed and talking alot about what to expect in the next few hours/days of our lives. Funny conversations were had about what the next few hours would look like. After the two hours were over about 7:00 or so I was allowed to order food (which was fantastic over our stay..."free" for me but Jared had to pay cash to eat from the menu). I ate dinner Jared ordered carry-out from little apple and we relaxed for the next few hours....about 9:00pm or so the back contractions started....slowly but surely they became for uncomfortable and from 9pm-4am I switched beds, positions, walked, sat, stood, showered (the most relief I had in a 24 hour time span) danced, and thought about how much worse the pains were going to get the next day. Did you notice I didn't say sleep in the mix of all of those hours....yes that is because I slept MAYBE a total of 45 min Tuesday night (even though I was strongly encouraged to get all the rest I could for the next days activities). Sleeping was NOT happening with the pain, uncomfortable bed, and anticipation of the next day. Jared of course was a trooper and didn't sleep unless I was...have I said how amazing my husband is?! Pain will now be refered to on a 1-10 scale (10 being out of body pain that you cannot remember because your body takes over and shuts down your mind)
4:30am: Brooke comes in to check me and discovers the cervidil did its job and was working so all the pain overnight was progress :) I was dilated to 2cm and 75% effaced. YAY! Pain level: 3 so far. Brooke says they'll check my vitals and get the pitocin started soon.
5:30am Brooke hooks up my saline water and the pitocin. Let the FUN begin. The pitocin was set to drip every 15 min for the first hour....
6:30-met our Labor and Delivery nurse (remember nurse #1 it was her!!!!) Jessi :) I cannot express how fantastic she was the entire day...above and beyond amazing and so absolutely supportive. I said to her at the end of it all.."you really do become part of a persons family after going through this don't you?" she smiled and said "yes I guess I really do"
My mom texted Jared and said she was on her way!!!! Pain level escalating...4-5 remember hooked up to monitors and cannot leave the bed....back labor pains...OUCH!
8:00am-Mom arrives and Dr Welch arrives. Checks my cervix...still 2cm 75% effaced...She decides to break my water (wow) change the external monitors to internal monitors for baby and my contractions and the REAL fun begins...pitocin starts to make my body contract every minute without any breaks....none...at...all...I had already made it clear I was making the choice to have an epidural no mater the fear I had of that ordeal the pain was out of this world at this point....a 10 or as I told Jared "a scale of 10 is not enough...its a 15" I was practicing the breaths...using low moans...and moving from a sitting to laying position as much as I could. You see I requested the epidural before the pain was rated at a 10....too bad Dr. Welch and the anesthesiologist were stuck in a c-section birth and couldn't get to me until they were finished...Jared kept Jessi (our nurse) in the loop on my pain and she was in there with us through most of the painful moments supporting us both along with my mom. I remember at one point she just kept saying, "you can do it Beka, Ruthie is almost done, she will be here in just a few minutes" Well if you are keeping track minutes were really an HOUR...wait over an hour.....did I mention I was at a 10 in the pain scale and the pitocin was sending my contractions out of control. Jessi got permission to shut off the pitocin from Dr. Welch at this point and she flushed all of my lines to get the extra pitocin out. There were moments in this hour I don't remember at all besides leaning on Jared and the "OOOOOOOOHHHHH" sounds I was making...the world was going in and out and the pain was continuous...no break...one contraction to another....9:15am Jessi comes in and says "Beka lets get you prepped Ruthie is on her way in here to give you your epidural" this is MUSIC to my ears!! I said, "Is she going to do it between contractions?" Jessi looked at me and said, "Beka you don't have in between contractions at this point you will just have to hold still and not move...you can do it!" So I was placed on the bed in a sitting position...OUCH and held very very still...while leaning again on the strongest man I know...
9:30am- epidural in...Thank you Ruthie (anesthesiologist) Pain level:2 ...I fell asleep immediately slept for an hour and progressed in that hour from a 2cm to a 4cm 75% effaced. YAY...Remember that this entire time I'm working on 45minutes of sleep from the night before so this hour was heaven and so very necessary.
10:40am I woke up after and hour to Jared eating a lunchable and my mom (yes my mom was still there!) with back contractions...OUCH pain level:8. Called Ruthie/LuAnn: anesthesiologist back in..they gave me a direct injection to my epidural line to help subside the pain because the epidural drip was not working....worked through another hour of contractions pain level: still 8...during this hour LuAnn (2nd anesthesiologist) came in and gave me two more direct injections to my line to subside the pain. Again Jessi was amazing and describing my pain to Dr. Welch (who at this time went from the c-section to an emergency surgery in the ER) and the anesthesiologists. My mom heard her telling them exactly what I was describing "pain in my left butt cheek". After 2nd dose of two direct injections I fell back asleep. In the next hour that I slept I moved from a 4cm 75% to 9 cm 100% effaced...WOW progress (remember the pitocin at this point was off and my body was working hard all on it's own).
11:50 Dr. Welch is out of emergency surgery and Jessi says "I 'll check you one more time lets see the progress" I WAS FULLY DILATED and ready to push so Jessi gives us the green light to do some practice pushes...remember those 2 extra doses of epidural meds...yeah I had NO I mean NO feeling in my legs because I progressed so quickly they didn't have time to really wear off :). Jared and Jessi each held a leg and Jessi describe how and when to push...I had to be told when I was contracting because the feeling of pressure wasn't there either. so I pushed through one contraction (3 pushes total) Jessi said, "oh ok wait a minute I have to get Dr. Welch, you're a great pusher!!"
12:30 Dr. Welch came in and wanted to see a push so we waited for a contraction (at this point the meds were just starting to wear off so I could feel my lower back and anticipate the contractions. One push into a contraction and she said "WOOOOH WAIT stop pushing". They prepped the room for delivery and suited up, moved Jared to my right side to help me with the leg holding and counting. This took about 5-7min. Then I got the green light...I pushed from 12:30-12:48 and guess what ELIJAH was welcomed into the world.
12:48: Dr. Welch said, "my goodness Beka that was fantastic pushing, he is a beautiful color, and a beautiful baby boy! You did it!!!" Jared said, "Beka!!! He has a hair and 10 fingers and 10 toes" ah I just love that moment....He arrived!!!
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| Hello World |
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| HE is perfect and LOVE his hair! |
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| Wow I'm exhausted! |
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| Big Boy :) 8lbs 3oz 21inches |
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| JESSI :) honestly the best nurse in the world! We were so fortunate to have her with us throughout one of the most amazing days of our lives! |
I will post about the afterbirth/hospital stay later!! Look for Jared's version of this story soon :)
With Love & Laughter
Beka, Jared & Elijah Meitler
Tears are falling! I loved your story and I'm so happy you decided to write about it! It sounds like you had an awesome team that worked with you and that can make all the difference!
ReplyDeleteYou have a sweet (and big) baby boy and a lovely family! I can't wait to see pictures and read about how much he grows. Congrats!
Katie