The "Official" Birth Story: Looong version!

Well, we know that Adam did a great job of updating the Blog/Facebook while labor was going on. I wanted to post the long version of the story for anyone that wanted to read it and so that I would have a record of it as well.

On Monday, April 5th we were scheduled to go in for an induction at 11pm. I had a dr. appt. that day to see if I had made enough progress to go ahead and go in that night. Oddly enough, even before the dr. appt. I was grocery shopping and feeling some contractions that were kind of painful. Nothing alarming, but I remember thinking in my head, "Huh, those feel different than normal!" But at that point there was something new each day it felt like. I went to the dr. that afternoon and the dr. said that I was between 1-2 cms. He also had me hooked up to the NST machine to monitor Madelyn's movements as my blood pressure was high in the two times that they took it. She passed with flying colors and when he looked at the readout he said, "Oh wow, you're actually having some contractions!" This confirmed what I'd been feeling while shopping! He said we'd go ahead that night and his guess was that I was already in early, early labor and that the induction would just speed things along. Woo hoo! We were so excited! Crazy to know that we'd be seeing her in a day or so. And then the wait began... I got home around 3 pm and just waited...and waited...double checked my hospital bag...waited...Adam got home...we had pancakes for dinner....waited...played Bejewled Blitz online...waited...listened to the thunderstorm outside....then FINALLY it was time to leave for the hospital!

We went in Monday night at 11pm. I was in between 1-2 cms at that point. By midnight I had been hooked up to the pitocin and was just waiting for the contractions to start. They did little by little and at 4:30 am I felt a HUGE gush! My water had broken on it's own! I was pretty happy about that because the dr. had planned on doing it when he came in the next morning but this way we were a few hours ahead of schedule. And oh what a weird feeling it was! I couldn't believe how much fluid there was! I remember telling Adam, "Ummmmmm, either my water just broke or I am having some SERIOUS bathroom issues over here!" Haha, the nurse came in and confirmed that it was my water. When the dr. did come in around 8am, I was just at 2cms but 100% effaced and Madelyn had moved down to a -1 station. Some progress. Contractions kept on getting more painful as Adam I watched DVD after DVD to try to pass the time. I was categorizing them as an 8 or so on the pain scale, coming between 2 and 3 minutes each. Talked with the nurse and she reminded me that if I was going to get an epidural that there really wasn't any reason to wait as they couldn give me more later and I wouldn't "run out" as I'd been worried about in my head. So I go my epi around 11am when I was at 3 cms. And Oh My Gosh, sweet relief! It was great! Getting it wasn't too painful but the contractions that I had during that process were NOT fun because the nurse had me hunched over, holding my shoulders, trying to get me to stay in place. Ouch! Sooo worth it though! I managed to take a nap about 45 minutes (truly one of only two times that I was able to sleep) and when I woke up I was completely numb. It bordered on feeling weird a lot of the time. My body and legs were just absolutely useless and I felt like I had pins and needles in them a lot of the time. It was sometimes kind of funny and sometimes annoying but as compared to the pain, I was a happy girl! I think Adam was happy that I had the epidural when I did. He kept saying that before it, he just felt pretty helpless in not being able to make me feel any better. So once the pain was under control it was better for him as well.

When you get an epidural, there are no more trips on your own to the bathroom. You have to get a catheter to get your urine out. Well at one point, our main nurse, Patti emptied me out and got almost a liter of fluid! She just couldn't believe how much there was! (Maybe because of the popcicles and ice I kept eating, who knows?) She said, "Wow, you had a ton in there!" But apparently Madelyn didn't like it all that much because once my bladder was empty, she dropped verrry fast apparently as she had more room to move down now. Her heart rate dropped into the 60s, and 70s, machines were beeping, and four nurses ran into the room to move me onto my left side and give me oxygen. It all happened so fast! But within a few minutes we were okay again and her heart rate was back up. Of course all of this happned just after I had sent Adam to go talk and visit with my parents for a few minutes. He missed all of the excitement! He came back and saw the oxygen mask and was like, "Oh no! What happened?"

After this, I went to 6 cms in the next hour. I remember getting some more of the epi and taking another nap. When I woke up it was 4:00 and my dr. came in. He checked me and goes, "WOW! You are complete (1o cms) and I swear if you coughed or laughed, she's so low that you'd have the baby!" Adam and I just looked at each other. We thought he was joking as he can be pretty funny and sarcastic sometimes. We all coudn't believe that I'd gone another 4 cms in just two hours and especially while I'd been sleeping! Sure enough the dr. looked at the nurse and goes, "Well, we need to get the room ready!" He looked at Adam and goes, "You ready to grab a leg?" Everything that happened next was kind of like a movie that you see. They wheeled in tables of things, they all put blue scrubs on, etc. Adam was in charge of counting for pushes. First we did 3 pushes for 10 seconds each but the dr. laughed and said that Adam was too slow in counting and said that he was "putting Mississippis" in between each count. Haha. So we then went to 4 sets of 7 seconds for the pushes. Jerry McGuire was playing in the background and at one point I remember Adam rubbing my leg and telling me that I was doing great. I looked at him and go, "I really appreciate the rubbing but I want you to know that I can't feel that!" :) I was pretty numb and honestly was lucky that I could push! Just 30 mins later Madelyn was born. Just 30 mins of pushing! That was it! Adam now describes watching the whole experience as watching a kiddo trying to fit his head through a turtleneck. Ha. Nice. There was no way that I was seeing any of it. I said a big NO when the nurse asked if I wanted the mirror. They were even kind of laughing at me in that her head was so close to being out but I couldn't feel it! Thank goodness again for epidurals!

It was such a GREAT feeling when I saw her pop up and the dr. put her on my stomach. I just couldn't believe that she was finally here and crying and sounding great! I remember looking at her and seeing her arms and legs. They looked bigger than I thought they would be! We and the dr thought that she might be in the high 6 or low 7 range from the way I looked but we were wrong! She was 8 lbs, 4 oz!!! The dr. looked at me and goes, "Whoa, where have you been hiding her???" She takes after Adam and the other Cahill babies in the weight category for sure! After a few mins., they took her with Adam and did the Apgar tests. She got a very healthy 9 out of 9! She was healthy and strong and loud! Adam was back there with her as the dr. sewed me up. He had to cut a small episiotomy. It was a level 2. The worst is a 4 and by all means I truly have had no recovery problems in that area. It was much less of a big deal than I thought it would be that's for sure! (Thank goodness!) He must be a good stitcher!

All in all it just took 19 hours for our little girl to get here! Amazing how those hours can truly change everything in your life, and for the better. We are having SUCH a good time getting to know Madelyn and watching her change and grow everyday. We are enjoying all of our time together, for sure! :)