I started having high blood pressure around 31 weeks so they monitored me closely from that point on. At 36 weeks it was really high and I was really swollen, so my doctor told me an induction was in my future. I was super bummed about it but I trusted my doctor and knew that it was for the best. I was induced at 9:00am on August 1st. I was 37 weeks and 4 days. It was just surreal walking into the hospital, knowing that we would have a baby boy when we left. I changed into a cute hospital gown, answered a bunch of questions, and had someone check my lady parts. Unfortunately my body didn't get the memo to prepare itself early, so I knew I had a long labor ahead of me. I cried a lot when they put in my IV... I overcame my fear of getting poked pretty quick when I got pregnant, but this hurt like the dickens! The nurses were judging me, I'm sure of it.
They started me on pitocin at about 10:00. I had heard so many horror stories about this drug basically being the equivalent of Satan, so I was pleasantly surprised when the contractions didn't hurt. They were coming on strong at 2 minutes apart, but they weren't painful. I spent the entire day contracting but not progressing. I wasn't too worried about it, but later that evening, after unsuccessfully trying to break my water, my doctor said he might want to give me a break and take me off the medication for a few hours and let me eat something. Despite the fact that I was absolutely starving, I didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep going and meet my baby. Lucky for me, a couple of hours later I had progressed enough to break my water. The contractions up to that point were not bad at all. After my water broke (which was the grossest feeling I've ever felt), they started to get painful. I was actually excited for them to start hurting because I knew that meant I was progressing!
I got the epidural around midnight that night. The pain wasn't unbearable yet, but I was so exhausted from the day, I just wanted to sleep through the night and wake up ready to push. That is not what happened. The epidural was placed and I felt pretty great. I went to sleep for about an hour and a half, then I woke up to the worst pain I've ever felt. I kept pushing the button to give me more meds and it didn't do anything. I told my nurse and she informed me that the anesthesiologist forgot to turn on the drip to keep giving me the medicine throughout the night. I was pretty upset to say the least. He came back in and gave me more medicine, but it just wouldn't work. It never took away the pain. We finally decided to place the epidural again... except for this time I was on the highest dose of pitocin and my contractions were one after another and I could barely sit still. It was pretty awful. The second time around, I got about 2 hours of sleep before the epidural wore off AGAIN. I was given a few extra doses right into the catheter in my back, but the most they ever did was slightly dull the pain.
I have no memory of what time everything was happening, but I think it was around 10:00am on August 2nd my nurse checked me and I was 8cm dilated. I could have kissed the woman! I was so excited it was going to be over soon. I was given one more dose of the epidural, hoping that it would last until I started pushing... nope! It just dulled the pain for about an hour. A couple of hours later I started feeling tons of pressure on my cervix so I asked my nurse to check me again. I was 9cm! She had me push through one contraction and after that I was 10cm and ready to push! I pushed for about 15 minutes before the doctor came in. Another 15 minutes of pushing with him and an episiotomy (ew), and Sawyer was born! He was 8 pounds 11 ounces at 2.5 weeks early!
They put him on my stomach and it was the most amazing thing in the world. I sobbed out of sheer joy and I wish I could relive that moment over and over again. Unfortunately, I spiked a fever right before he was born so they took him off almost immediately to do their tests while I delivered the placenta and got stitched up. Everything was just chaos and all I remember was looking up at Gabe and seeing him cry (which made me cry even more) and watching the nurses hovering over my baby and being shown the umbilical cord because it had a knot in it. I sobbed when my doctor showed me because I knew that things could have gone so wrong, but they didn't. It's a miracle that Sawyer's heart rate stayed strong throughout 26 hours of labor and delivery.
Sawyer's Apgar score wasn't ideal, and he had a fever, so they took him to the nursery. Gabe went with him and I fell dead asleep for about a half an hour. I was so exhausted from everything and I was so upset that he wasn't with me, my body kind of just shut down for a while. My nurse woke me up and told me I needed to eat, so I ordered room service (my favorite thing about the hospital stay) and she helped me get cleaned up and transferred to my recovery room. After that, I was finally able to go to the nursery and see my son. It was heartbreaking. I couldn't hold him and he was hooked up to all kinds of wires.
Our pediatrician came in and told us what was happening. He had spiked a fever and his white blood cell count was higher than normal which could mean an infection, so they had an IV in his tiny little arm to give him antibiotics for 48 hours. His blood sugar was also really low, and he was grunting so he had to be on a CPAP machine for about an hour. He had to stay in the NICU for the entire hospital stay. I was devastated. I cried for most of the next 48 hours, but thankfully he was able to come home with us when I was discharged. He is doing great now! He had to do photo therapy for jaundice for a couple of days, but it resolved itself and he now weighs 9 pounds!
Sawyer's birth was awesome. The circumstances weren't ideal and I wish some things would have gone differently, but I know that he was born early for a reason and I'm so glad he was! I can't imagine our lives without this sweet baby. It's amazing how much your life changes over the course of just a few days.
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