The story really begins on October 7. I was scheduled to be induced on October 8, and was supposed to go into the hospital on the night of the 7th. Just as we were getting ourselves together, getting ready to leave, the hospital called and told me that they are too full and my induction has been postponed. I was devastated. I balled. That ugly body shaking cry. It was horrible. I was so set on getting to meet my baby, I was so excited to have a plan, and now I didn't have that anymore.
I also had a lot of family already on there way into town, thinking there would be a baby coming the next day! We spent the next few days trying everything to put me into labor. I ate spoonfuls of siracha, walked for miles on the treadmill, ate tons of pineapple, castor oil, nipple stimulation, accupressure, even jumping on the trampoline. If someone told me it could start labor, we tried it. But nothing worked… he was determined to stay put.
Finally, Monday the 13th we got to go to the hospital. They had room for us and we showed up right on time, ready to be induced! We got checked in and settled in our room and the nurse checked to see my progress. Starting from my 37 week appointment I had been checked every week and remained at 1 cm and 60% effaced, so when this nurse checked me and told me I wasn't dilated or effaced, at all... I thought I was going to lose it. I was so disappointed. The nurse also started me on a medicine called cytotec that softens your cervix. It's a little pill that they insert and then it dissolves. The plan was that I was supposed to get 3 doses of that throughout the night, and then I would be ready to start pitocin in the morning.
Well that's not what happened… The cytotec started contractions! Great! But because my contractions were already getting so close together (about 3 minutes apart, but not too strong) they didn't want to give me another dose. They decided to start me on the pitocin instead, which is administered through an IV and is much easier to increase or lessen depending on how things are going. I was thrilled with this plan, thinking it could only mean I would be getting to meet my baby even sooner!
They started me on the pitocin around 1:00 am on Tuesday the 14th. I had contractions through the morning. When my doctor came to check me around 9:00 they were 1-2 minutes apart and lasting about 1 minute long, and my cervix had dilated to 2cm, and I was 80% effaced. I was thrilled to finally hear that I was making a little bit of progress. He also broke my water at this point.
Our plan going into labor was to try to go naturally. I wasn't opposed to an epidural, but I wanted to see what I could do, and what my body was capable of. By 1:00 pm I was really having some rough contractions. I found a little bit of comfort in the rocking chair. I was really laboring in my back and sitting in the chair put just enough pressure on my back. I was working on all of my breathing techniques I had learned, and I was doing ok.
Around 6:00 my doctor came back to check me again. I had made a little bit of progress, I was now at a 5. But the doctor said that the baby was posterior and that was why I was having such bad back labor. He tried his best to rotate the baby, and then they wanted me to stay in bed to try to keep the baby in the right position. That was not working for me. I couldn't handle the pain in that position.
At this point Justin kicked everyone out of the room so that it was just him and I because he could see how much pain I was in. I really started struggling at this point. I wanted to be done, I wanted to rest, I wanted my baby. We tried every position. We tried the tub, the yoga ball, all fours, standing, sitting, I just couldn't do it anymore and at 8:00 we decided to go ahead with getting an epidural.
It was so nice to be able to rest. After dealing with contractions for almost 20 hours I was ready for a break. Once they did the epidural I took a nap. When I had been asleep for about an hour the nurse came in and told me the baby's heart rate had dropped. She put me on oxygen and stopped the pitocin drip. His heartrate went back up again but she kept the pitocin off for about 30 minutes. When they started up the pitocin again his heart rate dropped again. This time a team of nurses came in. That was pretty scary. They got me on all fours, which was quite the chore since I couldn't even feel the bottom half of my body, stopped the pitocin again, and put me on oxygen again. They also called my doctor to let him know what was going on and to see what he recommended. We were getting a little nervous and scared at this point.
After they got the baby's heart rate normal again the extra nurses left and our nurse let us know that our doctor might recommend a c section. She said it wasn't for sure, but she wanted to bring it up so we knew it was at least a possibility. Fifteen minutes later our doctor came in and checked me again. At this point I was only at a 6. He said that if I was closer to 10 that he might be ok with letting me wait it out and start pushing, but with 4 plus hours left of contractions before we could even think about pushing, he thought that was too much time for our baby to be in distress. We agreed. And at this point I wanted to do whatever was going to get our baby here as safely as possible.
At that point everyone started prepping for surgery. They brought Justin in scrubs, the anesthesiologist came in to get everything ready, and 15 minutes later they were rolling me into the operating room. The medicine they gave me for the operation made me so sleepy. I had to keep telling Justin to talk to me and tell me stories because I was so afraid I was going to fall asleep and miss my baby's birth.
We went into surgery around 10:45 and at 11:06 Sawyer Jay Minert was born. He came into this world screaming his little head off, and it was the best sound I have ever heard. I couldn't see him so I was just clinging on to that sound. Justin kept going back and forth between looking at him and coming back to me to tell me little details. "He has dark hair!" "His eyes are blue!" "He's so skinny!" "Ten long fingers and toes!"
He had a little bit of fluid and mucus in his lungs, which I was told was told is pretty normal in c section babies. They took him to the NICU not to admit him, but just to work on getting that fluid out while I finished up in surgery and went to recovery. Justin went with Sawyer and I went to recovery, which was the longest hour of my life. I kept falling asleep and waking up thinking I must have slept away that hour, but really I had only slept for about 5 minutes. That happened about 20 times. Finally they told me they were taking me back to my room!
Once I was back in the room Justin and Sawyer joined me. I finally got to hold my sweet baby!
Sawyer Jay Minert
Born October 14, 2014 at 11:06 PM.
He weighed 7 pounds and was 20 and 3/4 inches long.
Today he is already 1 week old! I can't even believe it!
After they got the baby's heart rate normal again the extra nurses left and our nurse let us know that our doctor might recommend a c section. She said it wasn't for sure, but she wanted to bring it up so we knew it was at least a possibility. Fifteen minutes later our doctor came in and checked me again. At this point I was only at a 6. He said that if I was closer to 10 that he might be ok with letting me wait it out and start pushing, but with 4 plus hours left of contractions before we could even think about pushing, he thought that was too much time for our baby to be in distress. We agreed. And at this point I wanted to do whatever was going to get our baby here as safely as possible.
At that point everyone started prepping for surgery. They brought Justin in scrubs, the anesthesiologist came in to get everything ready, and 15 minutes later they were rolling me into the operating room. The medicine they gave me for the operation made me so sleepy. I had to keep telling Justin to talk to me and tell me stories because I was so afraid I was going to fall asleep and miss my baby's birth.
We went into surgery around 10:45 and at 11:06 Sawyer Jay Minert was born. He came into this world screaming his little head off, and it was the best sound I have ever heard. I couldn't see him so I was just clinging on to that sound. Justin kept going back and forth between looking at him and coming back to me to tell me little details. "He has dark hair!" "His eyes are blue!" "He's so skinny!" "Ten long fingers and toes!"
He had a little bit of fluid and mucus in his lungs, which I was told was told is pretty normal in c section babies. They took him to the NICU not to admit him, but just to work on getting that fluid out while I finished up in surgery and went to recovery. Justin went with Sawyer and I went to recovery, which was the longest hour of my life. I kept falling asleep and waking up thinking I must have slept away that hour, but really I had only slept for about 5 minutes. That happened about 20 times. Finally they told me they were taking me back to my room!
Once I was back in the room Justin and Sawyer joined me. I finally got to hold my sweet baby!
Sawyer Jay Minert
Born October 14, 2014 at 11:06 PM.
He weighed 7 pounds and was 20 and 3/4 inches long.
Today he is already 1 week old! I can't even believe it!
Ahhh! Congratulations! Sounds like it was quite a process, but he is adorable! So happy for all 3 of you!
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