On Wednesday Dec 3rd I went to the doctor for my 36 week appointment. It had been a very bad day at work – I found a problem that meant 3000 tires were in question and I spent almost the whole day on my feet in Curing, where it was about 90 degrees. So I was already upset and feeling pretty rough. I went through all the check in stuff and my blood pressure was high – then the nurse asked about fetal movement and I realized I hadn’t really felt the baby move much at all that day. So then I got upset and started crying – they put me on the fetal monitor and the baby was doing pretty good. They look for 2 occurences in 20 minutes where the baby’s heart rate rises at least 15 beats per minute and stays high for at least 15 seconds. My baby’s baseline was low – the heart rate stayed right around 110-120 bpm, and it was rising high enough, but it just wasn’t staying high for 15 seconds. So they decided to send me to Labor & Delivery to get monitored at the hospital. I got checked in and was hooked up to monitors for the baby’s heartrate, contractions, blood pressure and my pulse. Justin came up to sit with me and we just hung out for a couple of hours. Everything looked good, so they let us go home. I worked half days the rest of the week and had two more check ups at the doctor where everything looked good.
Then Monday Dec 15, I had my 38 week appt at 4:00 pm. I went to work as normal, but left at 1:00 so I could go home and lie down for awhile to make sure that my bp would be ok. Well, that plan didn’t work b/c my bp was up to 190/110! They put me on the monitor and the baby was fine, and they had me lay down for about 20 mins and retook my bp - still high, so I was sent back to the hospital to be monitored and get some more bp readings and blood work. I was put in a triage room and shared it with some crackhead. She was 32 weeks and was having contractions and wanted them to deliver her baby! She was already on medicine to stop contractions, but wasn’t taking it regularly, and was complaining about pain from the contractions. She was some good entertainment for Justin and I for the 2 hours we were in that room. My bp came down and we thought I would be sent home, but there was protein in my urine so my doctors decided to keep me overnight. We were taken up to the 5th floor and had a 2 person room to ourselves. Justin went home to let the dogs out and get some stuff and then we settled into a pretty sleepless night. My bp was decent during the night - there was one high reading at about 6 am (this was after I got a phone call from work at 5 am – which I didn’t answer), but the night nurse thought I'd be sent home.
So Tuesday morning my blood work came back with low platelets - which can be a sign that the placenta is not holding up very well. So when the drs came in they said they were going to keep me for the day, repeat bloodwork every 12 hours and start an induction Tuesday night. They checked me at the dr office Monday and I wasn't dialated at all, so they thought it would take a two day induction. So we were hoping to have a baby on Wednesday, but realistically thinking that it would be Thursday. So Justin went home again to get more stuff and went to work for a little while to wrap up his work stuff for the year. I hung out on the 5th floor all day reading, sleeping, and talking on the phone. My parents decided to come down Tuesday night and stay at the house with the dogs, so Justin could stay with me.
We were taken back down to L&D at about 6:00 Tuesday evening. They put Cervidil in around 9:00 and my parents got there around 9:45. I still wasn't dialated at all, but was hooked up to all kinds of monitors that would basically lose their signal anytime I moved. So I was having BP readings every 15 minutes, vitals taken every 4 hours, and getting woken up to adjust the monitors every time I moved – plus I had to have a nurse come unhook me anytime I wanted to go to the bathroom. The L&D beds are made to come apart for delivery, so they are not very comfortable and being 9 months prego I couldn’t lay on my back, so I would lay on one side until that hip went completely numb and then I would roll over and wait for the nurse to come in and move the monitors each time – so it was not a very restful night.
Wednesday morning they removed the Cervidil at about 6 am and hooked up the pitocin. I was almost 1 cm dialated, so I had made a little progress from the Cervidil. The baby's heart rate dropped pretty quickly and I had to lay on my side with oxygen on for a couple of hours. In hindsight though, I think it was just how I was sitting and they weren't getting a good read on the baby's heart rate. But everything leveled out and around 9 they started increasing the pitocin. So I had some very minor contractions, but was mostly just laying around bored on Wednesday with Mom, Dad and Justin trying to entertain me and leaving the room so they could eat, b/c I could only have ice chips since 9 pm on Tuesday. They checked me at about 1 pm and I hadn’t progressed at all. They checked me again at 4 pm and I was still barely 1 cm. So they decided to stop the pitocin - let me get out of bed, shower, eat, etc and repeat the cervidil Weds night and start pitocin again Thurs am.
Then around 5 the dr came in and said that my platelets were still dropping and that some of my liver function tests were getting worse as well. They test liver function to try to determine how the placenta is holding up, since they can't easily test the placenta. So my next blood work was due at 6 pm and if any of the numbers were worse then they were going to do a c-section right away. And b/c of the concerns about the placenta if I didn't get in a good labor pattern by lunch Thurs or if the baby showed any signs of distress during contractions then I would be having an emergency c-section. Two day inductions usually only work about 25-30% of the time, so my chances of having a c-section were very high. That was a pretty rough conversation and then we talked about opting to go ahead and schedule a c-section so that we wouldn't be put in an emergency situation - but then I talked to my midwife and she really thought that I had a chance to have a normal delivery and that it was worth trying, so we decided that if my blood work was ok - we would try day 2 of the induction, do blood work every 6 hours to make sure everything remained ok and give it until 1 or 2 Thurs afternoon before we started discussing C-sections again, unless of course the baby started showing signs of distress. Thankfully my blood work came back fine, and we were going with the previous induction plan. Mike got to town around 8:00 and went to the cafeteria to have dinner with Justin. The nurse put more Cervidil in at 9:00pm and I had dialated to a "good 1".
So Justin and I were trying to go to sleep and I felt a weird kick kind of thing and heard this pop around 9:45. I told Justin I thought my water had just broke. So I called the nurse and told her - she came in and checked and said yes it was my water and that right now it didn't really change anything. We'd leave the Cervidil in and see how things went - I asked to go the bathroom, but she said that I was supposed to stay lying down for 2 hrs once the Cervidil was in, so I got to just lay in a little puddle for the next hour. Justin was funny - he jumped up as soon as I thought my water broke and he put his clothes back on and then after the nurse left and said it didn't change anything he put his pjs back on and was like - well, I thought that would be a little bit bigger deal. We decided not to call our parents, but let them get a good night’s sleep and wait until things started to really progress before talking to them. I started having contractions right away, but they weren't too bad. An hour later the nurse came back and said I could go to the bathroom - I asked if I should put a towel between my legs or something like that and said no - there usually isn't a big gush or anything like that, so I stood up and it was like the damn broke! I sat down again, so that the sheets and stuff on the bed could soak everything up. The bed was saturated and it was spilling onto the floor, so then I left a trail to the bathroom! The nurse got the bed all cleaned up and I laid down to try to sleep some.
The contractions were getting stronger and I couldn't sleep so I took some Stadol at midnight and got a very groggy drug induced 2 hours of sleep. Then about 2am they checked me and I was only 1.5 – the Stadol was wearing off and the contractions were getting much stronger. I felt like a major wimp and asked how far along I needed to be before I could have an epidural. She said she could probably call for it when I was at 3. I labored for another hour and she checked me again and I was at 3 cm so I asked for an epidural. I woke Justin up at this point because I needed his help to get through the contractions. He did great and rubbed my back while I was breathing through them. The midwife wanted to make sure that the epi wouldn't stall my labor because my contractions were only 5 minutes apart, so they started pitocin at about 4:00 to get the contractions closer together. They also put an internal monitor on the baby and my uterus, so that I could sit up and didn’t have to stay on my sides anymore. I finally got an epidural around 5:30 - they checked me right after it was done and I was at 7. Our parents were planning on being at the hospital around 8 am, so we called them around 6 and told them that my water broke, I was 7 cm dilated and to call when they got to the hospital instead of just coming back to the room.
I was having some monster contractions, I could feel some pressure, but was not in pain and was a much happier person. The nurse checked me again about 6:15 and I was at 9 cm - shift change was at 6:30 so they said to let them know if I felt the urge to push - but that the baby was still pretty high, so I should try to labor down some before I started pushing. I held out until about 7:00 and then said I was ready to push. I had a brand new nurse come in and she wanted me to do a "practice" push - so I did and the baby's heart rate dropped into the 90s - so the nurse got worried and I had to lay on my side with O2 again and wait for the midwife/doctor to get there before I tried to push again. The nurse didn't realize that the baby's baseline heart rate was only 110-120 so dropping into the 90s wasn't bad at all. So I had to lay there for another hour and not push and the contractions were getting much stronger. Justin kindly pointed out that several were off the charts! Then the midwife came in just after 8 and said let's have this baby - so they got everything all ready and I started pushing at 8:15 - I pushed through 4 contractions and at 8:30 am on December 18th had our perfect little baby – bright pink, some dark hair and screaming! The midwife was suctioning and the baby and I asked Justin to “tell me what it is”. Justin was looking and just got a glimpse, but because everything gets so swollen during birth – he wasn’t sure what it was – then I saw the money shot and said “it’s a girl isn’t it?” They put her on my belly and let Justin cut the cord. We were pretty shocked that it was a girl and I just stared at her while they cleaned her up, finished up with me and Justin starting taking pictures. We had it narrowed down to a couple of girl names and we decided a dark haired little girl named Haley Marie Munn would be perfect. She was born Thursday December 18, 2008 weighing in at 6 pounds 15.6 ounces and measuring 19.5” long.
Then Monday Dec 15, I had my 38 week appt at 4:00 pm. I went to work as normal, but left at 1:00 so I could go home and lie down for awhile to make sure that my bp would be ok. Well, that plan didn’t work b/c my bp was up to 190/110! They put me on the monitor and the baby was fine, and they had me lay down for about 20 mins and retook my bp - still high, so I was sent back to the hospital to be monitored and get some more bp readings and blood work. I was put in a triage room and shared it with some crackhead. She was 32 weeks and was having contractions and wanted them to deliver her baby! She was already on medicine to stop contractions, but wasn’t taking it regularly, and was complaining about pain from the contractions. She was some good entertainment for Justin and I for the 2 hours we were in that room. My bp came down and we thought I would be sent home, but there was protein in my urine so my doctors decided to keep me overnight. We were taken up to the 5th floor and had a 2 person room to ourselves. Justin went home to let the dogs out and get some stuff and then we settled into a pretty sleepless night. My bp was decent during the night - there was one high reading at about 6 am (this was after I got a phone call from work at 5 am – which I didn’t answer), but the night nurse thought I'd be sent home.
So Tuesday morning my blood work came back with low platelets - which can be a sign that the placenta is not holding up very well. So when the drs came in they said they were going to keep me for the day, repeat bloodwork every 12 hours and start an induction Tuesday night. They checked me at the dr office Monday and I wasn't dialated at all, so they thought it would take a two day induction. So we were hoping to have a baby on Wednesday, but realistically thinking that it would be Thursday. So Justin went home again to get more stuff and went to work for a little while to wrap up his work stuff for the year. I hung out on the 5th floor all day reading, sleeping, and talking on the phone. My parents decided to come down Tuesday night and stay at the house with the dogs, so Justin could stay with me.
We were taken back down to L&D at about 6:00 Tuesday evening. They put Cervidil in around 9:00 and my parents got there around 9:45. I still wasn't dialated at all, but was hooked up to all kinds of monitors that would basically lose their signal anytime I moved. So I was having BP readings every 15 minutes, vitals taken every 4 hours, and getting woken up to adjust the monitors every time I moved – plus I had to have a nurse come unhook me anytime I wanted to go to the bathroom. The L&D beds are made to come apart for delivery, so they are not very comfortable and being 9 months prego I couldn’t lay on my back, so I would lay on one side until that hip went completely numb and then I would roll over and wait for the nurse to come in and move the monitors each time – so it was not a very restful night.
Wednesday morning they removed the Cervidil at about 6 am and hooked up the pitocin. I was almost 1 cm dialated, so I had made a little progress from the Cervidil. The baby's heart rate dropped pretty quickly and I had to lay on my side with oxygen on for a couple of hours. In hindsight though, I think it was just how I was sitting and they weren't getting a good read on the baby's heart rate. But everything leveled out and around 9 they started increasing the pitocin. So I had some very minor contractions, but was mostly just laying around bored on Wednesday with Mom, Dad and Justin trying to entertain me and leaving the room so they could eat, b/c I could only have ice chips since 9 pm on Tuesday. They checked me at about 1 pm and I hadn’t progressed at all. They checked me again at 4 pm and I was still barely 1 cm. So they decided to stop the pitocin - let me get out of bed, shower, eat, etc and repeat the cervidil Weds night and start pitocin again Thurs am.
Then around 5 the dr came in and said that my platelets were still dropping and that some of my liver function tests were getting worse as well. They test liver function to try to determine how the placenta is holding up, since they can't easily test the placenta. So my next blood work was due at 6 pm and if any of the numbers were worse then they were going to do a c-section right away. And b/c of the concerns about the placenta if I didn't get in a good labor pattern by lunch Thurs or if the baby showed any signs of distress during contractions then I would be having an emergency c-section. Two day inductions usually only work about 25-30% of the time, so my chances of having a c-section were very high. That was a pretty rough conversation and then we talked about opting to go ahead and schedule a c-section so that we wouldn't be put in an emergency situation - but then I talked to my midwife and she really thought that I had a chance to have a normal delivery and that it was worth trying, so we decided that if my blood work was ok - we would try day 2 of the induction, do blood work every 6 hours to make sure everything remained ok and give it until 1 or 2 Thurs afternoon before we started discussing C-sections again, unless of course the baby started showing signs of distress. Thankfully my blood work came back fine, and we were going with the previous induction plan. Mike got to town around 8:00 and went to the cafeteria to have dinner with Justin. The nurse put more Cervidil in at 9:00pm and I had dialated to a "good 1".
So Justin and I were trying to go to sleep and I felt a weird kick kind of thing and heard this pop around 9:45. I told Justin I thought my water had just broke. So I called the nurse and told her - she came in and checked and said yes it was my water and that right now it didn't really change anything. We'd leave the Cervidil in and see how things went - I asked to go the bathroom, but she said that I was supposed to stay lying down for 2 hrs once the Cervidil was in, so I got to just lay in a little puddle for the next hour. Justin was funny - he jumped up as soon as I thought my water broke and he put his clothes back on and then after the nurse left and said it didn't change anything he put his pjs back on and was like - well, I thought that would be a little bit bigger deal. We decided not to call our parents, but let them get a good night’s sleep and wait until things started to really progress before talking to them. I started having contractions right away, but they weren't too bad. An hour later the nurse came back and said I could go to the bathroom - I asked if I should put a towel between my legs or something like that and said no - there usually isn't a big gush or anything like that, so I stood up and it was like the damn broke! I sat down again, so that the sheets and stuff on the bed could soak everything up. The bed was saturated and it was spilling onto the floor, so then I left a trail to the bathroom! The nurse got the bed all cleaned up and I laid down to try to sleep some.
The contractions were getting stronger and I couldn't sleep so I took some Stadol at midnight and got a very groggy drug induced 2 hours of sleep. Then about 2am they checked me and I was only 1.5 – the Stadol was wearing off and the contractions were getting much stronger. I felt like a major wimp and asked how far along I needed to be before I could have an epidural. She said she could probably call for it when I was at 3. I labored for another hour and she checked me again and I was at 3 cm so I asked for an epidural. I woke Justin up at this point because I needed his help to get through the contractions. He did great and rubbed my back while I was breathing through them. The midwife wanted to make sure that the epi wouldn't stall my labor because my contractions were only 5 minutes apart, so they started pitocin at about 4:00 to get the contractions closer together. They also put an internal monitor on the baby and my uterus, so that I could sit up and didn’t have to stay on my sides anymore. I finally got an epidural around 5:30 - they checked me right after it was done and I was at 7. Our parents were planning on being at the hospital around 8 am, so we called them around 6 and told them that my water broke, I was 7 cm dilated and to call when they got to the hospital instead of just coming back to the room.
I was having some monster contractions, I could feel some pressure, but was not in pain and was a much happier person. The nurse checked me again about 6:15 and I was at 9 cm - shift change was at 6:30 so they said to let them know if I felt the urge to push - but that the baby was still pretty high, so I should try to labor down some before I started pushing. I held out until about 7:00 and then said I was ready to push. I had a brand new nurse come in and she wanted me to do a "practice" push - so I did and the baby's heart rate dropped into the 90s - so the nurse got worried and I had to lay on my side with O2 again and wait for the midwife/doctor to get there before I tried to push again. The nurse didn't realize that the baby's baseline heart rate was only 110-120 so dropping into the 90s wasn't bad at all. So I had to lay there for another hour and not push and the contractions were getting much stronger. Justin kindly pointed out that several were off the charts! Then the midwife came in just after 8 and said let's have this baby - so they got everything all ready and I started pushing at 8:15 - I pushed through 4 contractions and at 8:30 am on December 18th had our perfect little baby – bright pink, some dark hair and screaming! The midwife was suctioning and the baby and I asked Justin to “tell me what it is”. Justin was looking and just got a glimpse, but because everything gets so swollen during birth – he wasn’t sure what it was – then I saw the money shot and said “it’s a girl isn’t it?” They put her on my belly and let Justin cut the cord. We were pretty shocked that it was a girl and I just stared at her while they cleaned her up, finished up with me and Justin starting taking pictures. We had it narrowed down to a couple of girl names and we decided a dark haired little girl named Haley Marie Munn would be perfect. She was born Thursday December 18, 2008 weighing in at 6 pounds 15.6 ounces and measuring 19.5” long.
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