It was 6:30 am on Saturday November 15th. It was a Penn State home football game day. I had gotten up to use the bathroom, a very common occurrence anymore, and was just crawling back into bed when Adam stirred. He asked me if I was ok to which I responded that I was uncomfortable, but that was nothing new, and we both went back to sleep.
I woke up again at 8:15 am and felt a little bit like I had "not made it to the bathroom". I got up and went to the bathroom and found that my pajamas were wet but not soaked. I wasn't sure what that meant so I changed and texted Natalie our Doula, and asked if this small amount could have been my water breaking. While I waited for her response I started some laundry and did a few things around the house. She got back to me and said it sounded like my water had broken and that I should let the doctor know. So I called the doctors office at 8:34 am and spoke to the emergency care nurse and she said she'd have him call me very soon. At 8:37 am he called me, asked me a few questions and said to get to the hospital as soon as I could to avoid the game traffic.
So I put my phone down and took a deep breath... It was go time. I went back into our bedroom and gently woke Adam. I told him that he needed to get up and that we needed to go. He just looked at me and asked why. We both had lunch plans but this was 8:45 am. Then it registered and his eyes shot wide open! So we got showered, grabbed a little breakfast, packed the last few things in the hospital bag and we were on our way!
We got to the hospital around 10:00 am. I was hooked up to the monitors to get a baseline of where we were at and was checked for any progress... None since my appointment on Thursday. So we waited for the doctor to come in and see what the plan was. Once he arrived and saw my lack of progress, he decided I needed helped along a bit.
So at around 12:30 pm, a dose of Cervidil was given. (I won't go into details on what it is exactly, you can look it up if you wish!) this is to 'ripen' the cervix and help the body start labor. Well, since my water had broken, it didn't 'stick' as well as it should so it fell out 90 minutes later. they had to call the doctor back in, and have him reevaluate me again. He wanted to wait and see if that was enough to jump start things so we waited a few hours... and nothing changed. He inserted another tape around 6 pm and we were left to wait it out again.
This time, things got moving. My contractions got a lot stronger and closer together. I had reached the point of being miserable. By 7 or 8 pm, I was saying that I couldn't do this much longer and I needed the epidural. However I hadn't progressed enough, and they warmed me against getting it too early, that it may stall things even more. My goal had been to make it to 6 cm dilated before getting the epidural with 4 as a back up if I truly couldn't handle it. At 8 pm, after over 14 hours of labor, I was only at 3 cm. I was crushed! Natalie and I talked to the nurses and asked what my options were. I either had to tough it out or I could have a dose of Stadol (a pain med put into my IV). The side effects of the Stadol were a 'drunk' feeling. I really didn't want it but I also was exhausted and couldn't handle much more so just before midnight, I received a dose of Stadol. It helped for about 45 minutes. They gave me a second dose at 1 am. As 1:45 approached and the second dose wore off, I cried mercy- I couldn't handle the pain anymore, I had to have the epidural if I was to keep doing this. So they called the doctor and anesthesiologist (Dr.Frog!) and I was prepped for the epidural.
Adam was excited to watch the process with the epidural, but they wouldn't let him. He had to sit in front of me and help me through a couple contractions. Dr. Frog said "ok, after this contraction we'll do this" however.... he did it about midway through the contraction - which was probably good because I was so focused on the contraction that I barely noticed he was doing anything! So by 2:45 am I was laying in bed, feeling the relief and finally able to rest. (note, not sleep... but rest)
At 3:30 am I was checked again. (Keep in mind, at 2:30 before the epidural, I was 3 cm....) 7 cm dilated and completely effaced. YIKES! Natalie and I were shocked, Adam had slept through this 'check' and woke up to us being like "WOW, this is actually gonna happen soon".
So apparently my body just needed me to be able to let go and relax a bit for it to get ready for the little man to make his arrival! The nurses told me to rest up, it'd be time to meet my little man pretty soon!
Natalie and I chatted for the next few hours as we waited, while Adam caught some much needed shuteye in a chair next to me. (Seriously, he can sleep anywhere) They came in again off and on, but they checked me again at 6:30 and said, we are 10 cm and just about ready!
The next half hour flew by and all of a sudden it's 7 am and we were doing 'practice pushes'. I thought, ok, practice. No big deal. We do a few and our amazing Nurse Tracy says to another nurse that we are about ready for Dr. Szabo to come in. My mind jumps- "wait, what?"
After a few more practice pushes, Dr. Szabo walks in and glances at me and says "Oh yeah she's ready" and gets his stuff ready and sits down and starts talking me through pushing and all.
A handful of pushes later, at 8:46 am on Sunday, November 16th there is a beautiful little guy laid on my chest. (The doctor said "whoa, he's solid" as he laid him up on me!)
So after 26 hours of labor, an hour and 45 minutes of pushing, Grayson Westley Unger had arrived into our lives.
I have never had my heart feel so full.
I could not have done it on my own. Adam and Natalie were an amazing support team for me. This was a day that I will never forget.
So at around 12:30 pm, a dose of Cervidil was given. (I won't go into details on what it is exactly, you can look it up if you wish!) this is to 'ripen' the cervix and help the body start labor. Well, since my water had broken, it didn't 'stick' as well as it should so it fell out 90 minutes later. they had to call the doctor back in, and have him reevaluate me again. He wanted to wait and see if that was enough to jump start things so we waited a few hours... and nothing changed. He inserted another tape around 6 pm and we were left to wait it out again.
This time, things got moving. My contractions got a lot stronger and closer together. I had reached the point of being miserable. By 7 or 8 pm, I was saying that I couldn't do this much longer and I needed the epidural. However I hadn't progressed enough, and they warmed me against getting it too early, that it may stall things even more. My goal had been to make it to 6 cm dilated before getting the epidural with 4 as a back up if I truly couldn't handle it. At 8 pm, after over 14 hours of labor, I was only at 3 cm. I was crushed! Natalie and I talked to the nurses and asked what my options were. I either had to tough it out or I could have a dose of Stadol (a pain med put into my IV). The side effects of the Stadol were a 'drunk' feeling. I really didn't want it but I also was exhausted and couldn't handle much more so just before midnight, I received a dose of Stadol. It helped for about 45 minutes. They gave me a second dose at 1 am. As 1:45 approached and the second dose wore off, I cried mercy- I couldn't handle the pain anymore, I had to have the epidural if I was to keep doing this. So they called the doctor and anesthesiologist (Dr.Frog!) and I was prepped for the epidural.
Adam was excited to watch the process with the epidural, but they wouldn't let him. He had to sit in front of me and help me through a couple contractions. Dr. Frog said "ok, after this contraction we'll do this" however.... he did it about midway through the contraction - which was probably good because I was so focused on the contraction that I barely noticed he was doing anything! So by 2:45 am I was laying in bed, feeling the relief and finally able to rest. (note, not sleep... but rest)
At 3:30 am I was checked again. (Keep in mind, at 2:30 before the epidural, I was 3 cm....) 7 cm dilated and completely effaced. YIKES! Natalie and I were shocked, Adam had slept through this 'check' and woke up to us being like "WOW, this is actually gonna happen soon".
So apparently my body just needed me to be able to let go and relax a bit for it to get ready for the little man to make his arrival! The nurses told me to rest up, it'd be time to meet my little man pretty soon!
Natalie and I chatted for the next few hours as we waited, while Adam caught some much needed shuteye in a chair next to me. (Seriously, he can sleep anywhere) They came in again off and on, but they checked me again at 6:30 and said, we are 10 cm and just about ready!
The next half hour flew by and all of a sudden it's 7 am and we were doing 'practice pushes'. I thought, ok, practice. No big deal. We do a few and our amazing Nurse Tracy says to another nurse that we are about ready for Dr. Szabo to come in. My mind jumps- "wait, what?"
After a few more practice pushes, Dr. Szabo walks in and glances at me and says "Oh yeah she's ready" and gets his stuff ready and sits down and starts talking me through pushing and all.
A handful of pushes later, at 8:46 am on Sunday, November 16th there is a beautiful little guy laid on my chest. (The doctor said "whoa, he's solid" as he laid him up on me!)
So after 26 hours of labor, an hour and 45 minutes of pushing, Grayson Westley Unger had arrived into our lives.
I have never had my heart feel so full.
I could not have done it on my own. Adam and Natalie were an amazing support team for me. This was a day that I will never forget.
