Welcome Baby Elliott!
We were due to check into the hospital to be induced on Tuesday at 6pm. My mom drove up from Oklahoma that day and we spent the day together. Paul got off of work at 4pm and we finished packing the car and went to our last dinner out with my mom.
When we got to the hospital, they informed me that it was probably going to be a wait. All of the rooms were full, and since I was an induction, people already in labor were first priority. No problem, I’ve waited an extra week already, so what is another few hours. If you’re ever going to have to wait for an appointment, this one is not bad at all. All the people in the waiting room are excitedly waiting on a new family member and they are all very nice and congratulatory!
We got into the birth room at around 8pm. A lot of different medical staff came in to talk to me, they put in an IV, and then the doctor came in to start. To start the induction, they inserted a Foley bulb catheter into my cervix and filled it with saline to inflate the bulb. It puts pressure on your cervix so it will dilate. They said by morning it should fall out and I would be 3cm dilated. It felt VERY weird! When Ellie would move around, the catheter would move as well. It was pretty uncomfortable, but not bad.
We watched TV, talked to the nurses, and my friend Amy (who is due in just a few weeks!!!) and her boyfriend Jared stopped by. Then I was trying to go to sleep but I was pretty uncomfortable and having some contractions, so the nurse said that I could have an Ambien to help me sleep. She brought it to me and an hour later I was still awake and having contractions. So I asked if I could have some Tylenol to help with the pain. She brought me Stadol instead. It’s a narcotic pain medication. It was awesome! I slept well after that!
They came in the next morning about 6am to get the Foley bulb out and check my cervix. I was dilated to 3cm, just like they said I would be. Then they started me on Pitocin. They started Pitocin at 2mL/hr and come in and increase every 15 minutes. Later they came and asked about the pain level for my contractions, which was at about a 3, and checked me, still at 3cm. Around noon the contractions were SO intense. Pain level was at a 9 for me! I was shaking throughout the contractions, they hurt so bad! At that point a doctor came in to check me and I was 4cm. She asked me if I would like and epidural and I said “Oh yes!” The anesthesiologist got there about 15 minutes later and then I felt great! The epidural wasn’t bad at all, but having contractions through it was! The epidural was great because I could still feel the contractions, they just were not painful. I was even sleeping through them! They came in to check me again at about 1pm and I was dilated to 5cm. Yay! I’m progressing… or so I thought. Fast forward to 4pm. I’m still 5cm, so they put a contraction monitor inside of my uterus to measure exactly how strong they are. The nurse said that if they are not that strong, they would increase the Pitocin to get things moving along. If they were strong enough to push the baby out, but I wasn’t progressing, they may have to do a c-section.
The contractions were strong enough to push a baby out, but I was still not dilating and my cervix was starting to swell. They also said that my pelvic bones were pretty narrow and the her head felt pretty big. So, c-section in 20 minutes. My mom had left to go pick up my brother, so I called her and let her know. They came to take me back about 5 minutes later. After that, it is all a blur really. It felt so weird when they were doing the c-section. I started to feel really nauseous about 5 minutes in. They said it was normal, but it felt awful! The anesthetic nurse told Paul “Look now!” and he look and saw them pull our baby out of my abdomen. Then they showed her to me over the drape. Paul went over to her while they cleaned her off and did all of her vital signs. He held her over by me while they stitched me up. I got to finally hold her when they were wheeling me back to the birth room.
She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life!
Elliott Addison Fawcett born March 17, 2010 at 5:25pm. 8lbs 2oz and 19 inches long. She’s our lucky charm!
