Welcome Baby Haylee!

Congrats to our good friends (and next door neighbors) Donny & Jen on the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Haylee Ann! It's been fun going through this pregnancy with a friend in the same boat. With due dates two days apart we were hoping to have little birthday buddies. We both left for the hospital on Sunday only to be sent home and told we were just in "early labor". We also both headed back to the hospital around the same time the next day, only she was actually in labor this time and I was going to be induced. My little one decided he just wasn't ready, but I guess Haylee got tired of waiting! We had a great time visiting them yesterday at the hospital and it was so sweet to get to see their precious little bundle of joy, and Brody's soon-to-be best buddy. Welcome to the world Haylee Ann, we are so happy you are finally here!

Home Sweet Home...

We left the hospital this morning shortly after 8:00am. After determining that all those painful contractions had not brought us any progress I asked if we could leave and just give the baby some time to come on his own. Today's game plan would have been most likely to start me on Pitocin to bring on stronger contractions. I'm not really comfortable with using the Pitocin to induce labor, and we were really hoping the Misoprostol they used yesterday would be enough to "jump start" labor for us. I had a pretty rough night, with a little bit of rest but a whole lot of pain and discomfort. My IV had to be re-done, so three more attempts there until they got it in and some more battle scars on my arms to prove it. I was up on and off all night until 5:00am having contractions, and then I tried to go back to sleep. I actually slept soundly for almost two hours, but when I woke up I had stopped having contractions almost completely. The doctor came in and spoke with us around that time, and she was willing to give us a couple more days to let this happen on its own. They rescheduled our induction for Thursday morning, should this not happen sooner. She also thought we would for sure be in labor on our own by then. So we'll see what happens. I'm really thankful to be home and resting and to have a little more time, I don't think our little one would appreciate being forced out into the world when he's just not quite ready!

I LOVE My Night Nurse!

When we first came to the hospital, very early Sunday morning we were greeted by a red-head nurse named Renae! She was a total sweetheart and took great care of me. We were fortunate to have her just finishing up her shift as we got here this morning for the induction, and then assisgned to us when she came back on for nights! She has really gone above and beyond in making this experience as comfortable as humanly possible for us. Tonight I was having sort of a melt down as the contractions were becoming painfully strong, I couldn't get into a comfortable position anywhere and they only thing I wanted was to go home and SLEEP in my own bed. I made a joke that if she can't find me, I'd probably be sneaking a nap on one of the beds in the postpartum rooms- because they are much more comfortable than the delivery beds. A little while later, she was back informing me that she had got me a new bed for the night, and was going to give me some Ambien so I could get a little rest! They've had to do things like hook up monitors every so often to keep a watch on the baby, and change out my IV fluids, etc. So I would get woken up here or there... but there is no way I would have got a wink of sleep on that other so called bed. It was so sweet of Renae to go the extra mile to make sure I could be comfortable. I've been having contractions all night long, although the Ambien has allowed me to sleep through most of them. They still have that "early labor" pattern of being way too close together, so they would like to see them more rhythmic at about 3-5 minutes apart. I'm pretty sure we are headed there and hopefully there will be some progress to report in the morning when they check. Yesterday was a VERY long day for us, but today could actually end up being a lot longer and a lot more painful! Please keep me in your prayers, that I would have strength to get through the pain and that everything goes smoothly with no complications! We are hoping that by sometime this afternoon we'll be holding our baby boy!

Active Labor?

So it seems I am finally in "active labor". We won't know for sure until they do another cervical exam. I would have updated this much sooner, but we were waiting to know what was going on- its been a long day of just waiting around here! I made a correction on the early labor post because apparently I was closer to 1cm dilated and only 25% effaced yesterday. There was some debate between the nurses, but that is where I was when the checked me this morning, and you can't really go backwards so I guess I had really made less progress initially then we had thought. This morning at about 11:00am they gave me some Misoprostol to soften the cervix. They said it could take up to twelve hours to start working, and that most likely they would have to re-dose every four hours. I started having contractions regularly at 2:45pm and they checked me close to 5:00pm and said I had dilated closer to 2cm, and that I was now at 50% effacement and had made a lot of progress in terms of thinning of the cervix. The contractions are now really close together, and very intense. They are lasting about 45-60 seconds each, one to two minutes apart! They have made the decision to hold off on the pitocin because it seems I'm progressing on my own now, which is good news! According to our nurse, the Misoprostol they gave this morning should have worn off completely by about 7:00pm. These contractions REALLY hurt now! I can't imagine how they will be when I get farther along. I don't think I'll be getting much sleep tonight either and we probably won't have a baby now for another six to ten hours! Okay well time to get hooked back up...

Waiting...

Since I have nothing better to do at the moment, I figured I'd post an update. They did come in to get me started on the Pitocin, but after about five seconds came in and turned it off. I guess the doctor decided she wanted an ultrasound first to make sure the baby was still head down, and then they decided to hold off on the Pitocin and give me something else to soften the cervix first. They have already been here and done the ultrasound, everything looks good there! It's going to be a very long day for us and I don't anticipate getting much sleep until after I give birth. Now that I think about it, probably not much then either. I totally understand now why some women choose to birth at home! At the moment there is not much going on, I'm just waiting for the medication to get things started... it seems like a lot of waiting is done around here. I know I'm not their only patient, BUT it's kind of feels like so much time is being wasted that could be used to get this going. Wow... they must be reading this as I write because she just came in to have me get back in the bed so they could start the meds. Sean will probably be doing most of the updating from here on out. Who knows... I'm just glad they let me have my laptop and that they have wireless internet to help pass the time away. The first medication they give me could take up to twelve hours to do it's job, so they may not have me on the Pitocin until later tonight! I pray it goes much quicker, but I guess we'll see.

Induction

We are back at the hospital now, and have been since 7:00am. I stopped having contractions so close together late yesterday afternoon, so they are going with the induction now that I am nine days late. It's been really slow going since we got here. The nursing staff is all really nice, although we did have some issues getting the IV in which wasn't fun. I have pretty tough veins that weren't cooperating so after three painful and failed attempts, they finally called an ER nurse up to get the job done. Luckily she was able to get it in on the first try, and right now I'm just receiving fluids for hydration. Then they will start me on the Pitocin to get the contractions going. As much as I don't want the drugs in my system I'm really ready to get things going. I'm pretty scared of this whole blessed event, so please keep us in your prayers for a quick & complication free delivery!

Early Labor

After spending six hours at the hospital this morning it was determined that I am in "early labor", rather than "active labor". The contractions are still coming about two to five minutes apart, but they aren't super strong or lasting quite long enough to change the cervix. I left the hospital dilated to 1cm, and only 25% effaced. Translation: I still have quite a long ways to go. Early labor typically lasts between twelve and twenty-four hours. The doctor actually wanted to induce me right then and there, but the wonderful nurse told her that we'd like to get some rest (since we didn't get any last night), and so we were given the chance to go home and let active labor begin on its own. The only catch is that if it doesn't, then we have to be back at 6:00am tomorrow for the induction. I am currently at 41 weeks & 1 day... and I guess according to the hospital that means its time! I'm not really going to argue too much there, because it's been a long wait- but I'm really glad we have the chance let this progress naturally first! So hopefully we will be back, sometime today... but for now I'm going to try and get some much needed rest. It looks as though we have a big day ahead of us quite soon.