The big day- Eli's birthday has finally come!! After so many false alarms it actually did happen. One of the false alarms included a 4 night stay in the hospital with contractions that were less than 5 minutes apart the whole time. It was too early for Eli to be born he was only 34 weeks old (gestation). So the hospital and doctors tried everything they could to stop the contractions. The pulled out the big guns on me- Magnesium Sulfate. It is the strongest thing they have. I was on it for about 2 days and it made me feel horrible. I hurt all over because of it. When that didn't work they gave up and decided to let nature take over.
Well Eli managed to surprise EVERYONE and wait another 5 1/2 weeks till he was born, only 2 days before his expected due date. But I am glad he was able to stay in me so long because he was born so healthy- 8 lbs, 2 oz.- healthy.
This is how the labor and delivery went down:
It was thursday afternoon and I went in for my weekly rutine check up. When they took my blood pressure it was dangerously high 160/45. My feet were very swollen and I had gained 8 lbs in one week. ALl signs of pregnancy induced hypertension. Since that is pretty serious and I was so close to my due date Doctor Elizabeth Kane decided to send me straight to the hospital to be induced.
I picked up AJ and we went to the hospital that evening. Once there they inserted cervadil into my cervix to get it ready for labor. I slept with that over night and the plan was to start the pitocin drip in the morning. The pitocin is the official thing they use for the induction.
Well around 8:30 a.m. they started the pitocin and I wasn't really in any pain so I decided to put on my make-up so I'd look good after the delivery. It was nearing 10:00 a.m. and I had two contractions and then gosh- my water broke! I was so surprised. The nurse came in and checked my cervix and I was 4 centimters dilated. Immediately I was in tremendous pain- I mean the worst pain I had every experiencced-EVER. I was begging for an epidural. An hour later the anesthisialogist (s/p) was finished in the operating room and could come help me. I got my epidural at 11:00 a.m. and was immediately very relieved. At that same time the nurse checked me again and I was 8 cm dilated. She was very surprised I went that far in only an hour- I was too- expecting labor to be very long and laborious afterall that is what it is called- labor. The nurse told me to try to sleep because I would be pushing very soon. So I did just that- took a nap. Around 12:30 p.m. the nurse came in and checked me again and I was a complete 10 centimers dialated!! She sent for people to prepare the room for delivery. At 1:00 p.m. I began to push. I pushed 5 times and the baby was ready to come out- but there was no doctor- the doctor expected it to take longer for me to push so she wasn't even in the hospital yet- so they asked me to wait and stop pushing- much easier said then done!!! I had something the size of a water mellon just begging to come out of me- talk about pressure- OUCH! 10 minutes later the doctor arrived and with one more push Eli entered into the world. It was 1:36 p.m. - he weighed 8 kbs, 2 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long.
It was such a blessing to have such an easy and ast labor and delivery- 3 1/2 hours total. My recovery has been equally as fast. I am feeling great and I have a lot of energy. Eli is a great sleeper so we are all sleeping fairly well at night.
It is such a blessing to be a mom. Eli is beautiful and he is the best gift God has every given me. I feel so priviledged to be entrusted with such a precious human being. Aj is being so wonderful as well- He is a great dad and has been such a great support for me. This has really brought us closer together and I love him in a whole new way now- deeper then ever before. God is so good- his love endures forever. May his name be praised forever and ever for eternity!!!
posted by Kellie # 3:02 PM
