2:30 pm: Registered at the adminission office.
2:55 pm: Hooked-up to monitors; baby heart rate and contractions.
Josh thoughts: The L&D room is NICE
Betsy thoughts: I have to lay in this bed the whole time?!?
3:10 pm: Betsy gets blood drawn for blood work and IV lock.
Pam said, "I'm getting busy with you tomorrow!"
4:40 pm: Cervadil is in; didn't hurt at all, have to pee, not allowed to for an hour.
Watching US Open final.
Dr. Meade said, "Now we hurry-up and wait."
Josh sending text updates to family and friends.
I'm having some contractions. I feel my stomach tighten and then minor discomfort. 10+ minutes apart. Not necessarily consistent.
Okay, now on to Part II.
Awesome Nurse Pam and I bonded immediately. I can't even begin to explain how much better that made the entire experience. She kept saying, "I'm getting busy with you tomorrow!" and "We're going to have so much fun tomorrow!"
The US Open final ended-up being on rain delay, which was REALLY annoying. It took us 30 minutes (no exaggeration) to find the correct channel and then it was on delay. NOW WHAT? I am really anxious to get up and move around. I didn't know what position would be "my position" (the position in which I am the most comfortable), but I knew it wouldn't be lying down in bed. By now (6:15 pm per the notebook), my contractions seem to be getting a little closer and more uncomfortable. I'm waiting for Awesome Nurse Pam to come back so I can ask to go to the bathroom. I'm about to pee the bed, which wouldn't be so bad since I'm sitting on two puppy pads (they weren't really puppy pads, but they sure looked like them). I would enjoy laying and sitting on these pads until I left the hospital. At this point, we're starving. In passing, Awesome Nurse Pam says something about bringing me dinner. I am ECSTATIC.
Eventually I got to pee, and it was time for Awesome Nurse Pam to leave. At 7:10 pm, I met Evil Night Nurse Katie. Pam will be back in the morning, and she tells Katie that "she wants me back." My contractions are close and inconsistent. When I say close, I mean CLOSE. They are happening every minute to three minutes. They are more intense than before, but they don't hurt. I am, however, starting to feel them in my back. I predicted this when I was pregnant. My time-of-the-month pain consists of one day of serious back pain, never cramps. So I knew I'd experience back labor. And it sucked.
Evil Night Nurse Pam mentions something about dinner and she wonders if Awesome Nurse Pam ordered me a tray, as the cafeteria is now closed. She leaves to check. She's gone for a long time, and when she returns she doesn't mention anything about food. She looks at the paper output (the one that shows my contractions) and she notices how close they are. This is when I find-out that I won't be able to eat anything. Evil Night Nurse Katie is worried that I'm progressing quicker than expected and doesn't want me to eat anything in case I'm in active labor. Awesome. Husband spends the next couple hours sneaking me Combos.
At 7:50 pm, Evil Night Nurse Katie started me on IV fluids (this is how I found-out she was evil. She ROCKED my arm when she hooked-up the fluids. I said something about being surprised by how much it hurt and she just laughed it off. EVIL! Over the course of my labor, two other nurses hooked me up to fluids and it didn't hurt one bit. EVIL I tell you! A week later it was still bruised). Liam's heart rate dropped, so she "wanted to have access to me" if it dropped again. Plus, if I wanted an epidural eventually they wanted an entire bag of fluids in me. She also moved me to my left side to help with Liam's heart rate.
The next few hours passed in a blur. We watched the US Open. We played on the laptop. Husband went to find dinner. I covertly consumed Combos (what's up alliteration! Totally unplanned). We chit chatted excitedly about not believing this was actually happening. We tried to sleep. Husband probably got 3+ hours, and I slept maybe 1 1/2 hours. My sleep consisted of dosing off in between contractions. I vaguely remember laying in bed contemplating waking-up Husband to help me work through the contractions. After an hour, I finally said, "Husband, I need you." It took him a little bit to shake his sleepiness, but he was by my side being supportive.
At 3:20 am Evil Night Nurse Katie removed to Cervadil. It didn't hurt going in, but it sure hurt coming out. More evilness! She checked my progress, and I was still only 1 cm. When I heard that I felt deflated. My contractions were actually hurting at this point. Nothing terrible, a 3 out of 10, but they definitely feel different than before. I am experiencing a lot of back pain. I will be hooked-up to Pitocin at 4 am, so now is my chance to shower, brush my teeth, and pee. Once the Pitocin is on, Liam and I will have to be monitored constantly.
Showering was interesting. Every minute or two I would stop what I was doing and sway through the contractions. Also, the act of showering was complicated by the fact that the shower head was attached to a hose that didn't have a base on the wall. So Husband stood outside the shower curtain and held-up the shower head. Best Husband Ever.
Back in bed, Evil Night Nurse added Pitocin to my IV drip at 4:50 am. I was terrified of the Pitocin. I had read so many things about it being awful. And awful it was.
Part III coming soon.
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