Our story begins on Wednesday, January 27th, at 4 PM. Chris and I had told Dr Young that our insurance ended on Jan 30 and therefore, we had to have him prior to this date. So, our induction was set for the 27th.
The few days before the induction we cleaned the house, top to bottom, shopped for food for the few meals to freeze for later dinners after the baby would be here, and made a diaper wreath. We also visited our friends Chris and Alison in the hospital, they had a baby girl. The nights leading up to the big day, neither of us slept that well, we were so excited and eager about the upcoming event. I was getting more nervous as the day approached. Finally it was here, the big day. We woke up that Wednesday morning, I had a nice breakfast, my coffee and finished a few final touches on the diaper wreath, and cooking frozen meals. We lost track of time and didn't have enough of it to complete all the meals I had intended to cook, but Chris made me realize, we needed to stop, take a breath, get showered and get going, so I did.
On the car ride to the hospital, I felt excited, but nervous, and anxious, and little weird. I kept thinking to myself, wow, we are seriously going to the hospital to have our baby, the baby we've waited for, for so long. Our day was finally here, and boy did I have so many emotions. We had made so many trips to the hospital, paticulary to the Labor and Delivery Dept in the past 2 years, but mostly the past 9 months, and eventually went back home, without a baby, and waited, followed Dr's orders of bedrest, meds and sleepless nights, but now, here we were, in the car, driving to the hospital, and this time, this time would be so different, this time, we would be coming home with a baby, our BABY. Chris was excited, he had a look on his face of pure excitement and readiness. We were both ready.
We arrived at the hospital, St.Lukes, The Woodlands, and carried our bags to the 2nd floor, L&D. The nurses were expecting us, and right away, lead us to our room (room 207), which they had already had prepared for us. The room was large, inviting, and cozy.
The nurse asked me to change into a hospital gown, they are just so lovely, umm, not really, they are horrible looking, and make anyone look like a huge cow. I changed into my gown, and obeying orders, laid down on the hospital bed. The nurse began asking me questions about medical history and such, and all the usual questions you get asked when you get admitted into a hospital. I gave her my birth plan. Chris and I had found a birth plan online, and changed it up a bit to fit our needs and wants. Pretty normal stuff I guess...you know, I want an epidural, drugs for pain, hubby to cut cord, and that I would be breastfeeding exclusively. She then hooked me up to the monitoring equipment...thump, thump, thump, baby's heartbeat was our music, and beautiful music at that. We watched the baby's heartbeat and my contractions on the computer screen. All the initial stuff took about an hour and half, and then Dr Young showed up. Quiet as usual, he just asked how I was doing and insterted the Cervidil. He smiled and said goodbye, telling me that he would see us in the morning, early morning. I then had to lay completely still on my back for 2 hours. Sounds easy right? NOT really! It sucked, I had a huge tummy and laying flat on my back wasn't the easiest and most comfy, especially for 2 hours. The nurse said that the Cervidil had to settle into the cervix and it required my staying completley still for this to happen the right way. For the next 2 hours, Chris and I smiled at each other, excited about the event soon to take place, updated facebook, sent emails, called a few friends and family and settled into our new home (room 207). After the 2 hours passed, I was so relieved to be able to stand up, strech out, and walk to the potty. The Cervidil remained inside, working it's magic (or so we had thought). We both slept ok that night, not great, but ok...mostly due to the excitement.
Jan 28th- At 6 in the morning, the nurse removed the Cervidil and I took a shower. Then that morning, the Dr started Poticin. This medicine was given through my I.V. and was used to induce labor. That morning, I was only dialated to a one (which I had been dialted to a one for about 2 weeks already). The medicine was strong, and the nurse kept increasing the level every couple of hours. My contractions were fairly strong, and I used pain meds through my iv to help control the pain. I tried to go back to sleep that morning, but didn't really, I mostly just laid there, I watched Chris sleep, and day dreamed about Tristan, and wondered how the rest of the labor would be. By 12:30 or so, the meds were not working, and I had still not dialated past 1 centimeter, Dr. Young took me off the Potocin and decided to put Cervidil in again overnight, and do Potocin again the next morning. We were pretty disapointed, frustrated, and confused. We had hoped labor would have moved a little faster, but I am different than most, and my body never reacts as most do. I decided to take a bath. The bathroom had a huge jacuzzi bathtub, I loved it, it was so nice. I then got back into bed, and the Dr put Cervidil in again. That evening, Chris and stayed faithful, prayed allot and hoped for a better day the following day.
Jan 29th -At 4 AM the nurse (her name was Darla--pretty cool!) removed the Cervidil and I took a shower, taking my time, I really enjoyed the shower, and knew that it would be my last shower pregnant. I rubbed my enormous belly, loving it, strech marks and all, I loved it. It meant that there was a baby inside, a baby that we made out of love, a baby, a gift from our Lord above, I was so in love, and so excited. Tired, but awake, awake with excitement, nervous but trusting in God. I spent an hour getting showered, relaxing, doing my hair and putting a little bit of makeup on, hoping to look half way decent when Tristan made his grand entrance into this world. Darla (my nurse) and I walked to the room which held the ice chips (which was all I could I have at that point)... then we walked back to my room. At 5 AM the Potocin was put back on. The Potocin was increased every few hours, then every 20 mins...it was very difficult, very painful, the contractions were very strong, and very close together...
At 11:30 or so, Dr Young tried to check my progress (dialation), but I was in so much pain, he couldn't even really check me. He convinced me that it was really nessesary to get the epidural at that point. I was planning on waiting a while longer, but he felt it would really help our cause...so, epi was requested and put in. It wasn't really that bad, and I handled it well. Chris had to leave the room, which I hated, but I made it through, and after it settled in and began relieving my pain, I was all smiles! Chris made a comment, "it is nice to see you smile again". For a short amount of time, the epi(which wasn't allot of water-and the fluid kept oozing out over the next few hours, and I had dialted to 2 centimeters.. and I didn't feel a thing...but soon...the pain was back, and it was discovered that the epi didn't work that well. I had all movement abilitites with my legs (which you shouldn't really have), and I was feeling allot more pain that I should have with an epi in my back. The epi Dr tried to fix it several times, I was SO frustrated with them, they acted like I was crazy and not really believing me that I was in so much pain, and were not that friendly. It sucked so much that they could not get my pain under control. I was really hurting, and I was so upset that I could not get relief.
At around 9 PM that day, Dr Young checked me and I had progressed to 5 centimeters! We were excited, thinking that it meant that I might have Tristan that evening, and fairly quickly, and naturally at that. However, our night got worse, my pain became allot worse. I also developed a fever, first it was 101, then it went to 102, even after iv fluids for fever and meds to reduce fever, nothing helped, and eventually I was given iv antibiotics for prevention of some type of infection. The contractions were literally on top of one of another, I was screaming often, crying, and holding on to the rails of the bed or Chris or my Mothers hand through each horrific contraction. Nothing helped, I have never felt that kind of pain. I was so worried, I felt like it would never end, I seriously kept thinking "when will this ever end"/...it felt like there was no end in sight, I did not progress, and stayed at 5 for hours and hours. My Mother and Dad were there, I needed them, and was so encouraged by there support, and even at 32, I needed the special warm touch of my Mother. I will never forget how much it meant to have her there that day, to have her comfort me. She told me later that it was so hard to watch me in that amount of pain, and that often she had to walk out of my room, go to the hall, sit down and cry, because she couldn't bare to see me that way. I love her so dearly. Chris was amazing. He stayed so calm, and strong for me. He rarely left my side, and offered so much compassion and encouragement, I couldn't of asked for a better husband that day. He reasured me often, praised my efforts, stroked my hand softly, kissed me softly, and provided me with his lovely face and smiles to remind me of the love he so willingly gave and felt, and reminded me of why I was to endure this pain....for our son. At around 12:00 AM, the nurse finally got a phone call from DR Young stating that would be preforming a c section on me, due to my cervix not dialating, fever and the time already spent in labor, this was the news I needed to hear. Minutes before hearing this from her, I litterally had given up, I could not go anymore like that, I was done, I was so exhausted, in so much pain, I needed somthing to happen, because I couldn't go anymore. They stopped the Potocin, which was very helpful in helping my contractions ease up a bit. Quickly Chris changed into scrubs for the operating room, and I said my goodbyes to parents and Chris. The OR was filled with Dr's and nurses and I was so scared...the epi was removed and in place of it, the spinal block was put in. The spinal block worked really well, and putting it in place even went well. It seemed like forever before Chris was lead into the OR and was sitting at my head, holding my hand. We waited for his cry, I cried, and was so nervous. Chris and I were so blessed, so happy and so overjoyed when finally, after 3 days of labor, Tristan made his arrival into the world. On January 30, 2010 at 12:51 AM, Tristan Dean Andel cried his first cry and opened his beautiful bright eyes! We have it all on video! It is amazing. The whole birth experience was amazing....painful, long and not how we had expected, but AMAZING!!!!
After the birth, the Dr's sewed me up and I was brought back into my hospital room for recovery (a new room though--room 213.) My parents and Bekki and Mac were in the hallway waiting. I was so excited to see my Mom and Dad. Chris carried Tristan to my room, and then he handed me him and I was so happy to be holding him. Since it was so late, I decided to wait to feed him and allowed our families to come in and see him. They took a few pics and left around 2 AM. Then I nursed him awhile and Chris and I enjoyed staring at our beautiful baby boy. A nurse came in and took Tristan for tests (normal tests) and then came back into my room with him and gave him his first sponge bath. I watched from my bed. Chris had fallen asleep. Tristan didn't make a fuss or anything, he was very tired, and I think he even enjoyed getting all cleaned up. I loved watching his first bath. I don't remember how long I stayed up watching him, but eventually fell asleep.
