After the initial water break on Tuesday, my wife and I would spend the next 5 nights in the hospital. This was partially due to the steroid shots and partial due to the time that our daughter was actually born. After the first steroid shot on Tuesday, my wife received a second shot on Wednesday. On Thursday is when they started to induce her into labor. This process started slow by just giving her a cervical softener to help dilate her. She received the softener on Thursday, and after a long day and night of not a lot happening, it was decided that she would be given Pitocin to help with contractions.
Now both my wife and I definitely learned a lot about a hospital in the time that we spent there. For starters, when they say they are going to let us “get some sleep,” they really mean they are going to wake us up every 3 hours to check the temperature and make sure everything is okay. That is if and only if the sensors they strap to her belly to monitor the baby's heart rate don't need any adjusting. We also learned that all of the nurses and NICU know of the status of every patient there. We would come to learn that they don't know names, but they do know age, gestation, and whether a C-section is planned or not. More importantly we learned that the nicer you are to everyone on staff, the better your stay will be.
So Friday came around, and by this time we had received advice from many different nurses and friends/family. We had taken a birthing course a few weeks prior and learned some coping techniques from there as well. This unfortunately didn't come in super handy as my wife had massive back labor and nothing was relieving her of the discomfort. To start the morning off on Friday, she was dilated at .5 centimeters. This would slowly increase to 3.5 centimeters at 6pm. It was assumed at this time that we were in for a long journey. We also found out at this time that my wife had what is called a “bulging bag.” Per Google “This is caused by the contractions squeezing the amniotic sac, often creating a bulging bag of water just below the baby's head as the baby descends.” Essentially, her water broke towards the top of her amniotic sac causing the amniotic fluid to bulge towards the bottom. This created a zone of comfort on her cervix instead of the baby’s head pressing on it helping to dilate. I swear, the second this bulging bag broke, her pain dramatically increased and her dilation increased rapidly. From 6pm to 8pm, she dilated over 4 additional centimeters. It was at this time the pain became too much and an epidural was needed.
The first go at the epidural was not successful. She had complete numbness in her right leg, but full feeling in her left leg. This caused the pain to centralize on her hip joint. It took the neurologist coming in and backing out the epidural about a centimeter for it to work. Once this was completed, it was very quick that it was time to start pushing. Her entire process of pushing was only about 30 minutes. Due to our baby coming prematurely, we had a lot of people in our delivery room. At one point, including my wife and I, there were at least 11 people in there. We had no idea what to expect when she was born, and if my wife would even get to hold her before we went to the NICU. It turns out we were extremely fortunate. She was delivered and immediately came out screaming. They placed her on my wife and cleaned her up. They were able to take photos of us, and even allow us a little time with her before we ventured to the NICU. All in all this process went better than my wife or I could have ever expected, given the circumstances that is.
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