On Sunday, I woke up at 5:45 am and called the L&D floor at SJMC to see about my induction. Mike and I were secretly hoping they were super busy so I wouldn't have to come in until later, but lo and behold, they wanted me in at 7 am. Joyous. After our initial panic we managed to get ready and drive to the hospital, thinking the entire time that when we came back home, we'd be a family of three. The little carseat in the backseat of the car would be filled with our bundle of happiness soon.
Once at the hospital, I was shuffled onto the L&D floor and met one of the midwives on call. She told me the plan: I was going to start on cytotec to ripen my cervix and induce labor with a low-dose pitocin throughout the night, but she didn't think I was going to give birth that day and said if I was still pregnant by Monday, I'd have a c-section. I didn't think I was sick enough to warrant a c-section, but I went along with the plan anyway hoping for the best. What ended up happening was hourly BP checks, cytotec every four hours, and the low dose pitocin. Things only got interesting in the middle of the night as I started to feel the contractions from the pitocin. I finally asked for some pain medication and was given the choice between nubain and fentanyl. I went with nubain under the advice of my nurse. Immediately after it was injected into me at 0300, I felt the room spinning. I closed my eyes, mumbled stuff, and was immediately knocked out. Apparently I was acting pretty drugged for the rest of that night and even through the morning, talking nonsense and trying to climb a ladder while lying supine in bed. Mike got a kick out of listening to me babble. I felt out of it until about 11 am, and I'd only received a half dose. Mental note: Don't take nubain again.
The next morning I was only about 3 cm dilated and the new midwife (Heather) wanted things to clip along so that I could deliver vaginally. She talked me into using a foley-type device to manually dilate my cervix so that I wouldn't have to take more drugs. It was sooo uncomfortable, it had me on all fours just to deal with the pain. The foley thing was put in around 11 am, and while it didn't do anything to dilate me, my water managed to break around 1:30 pm. I was happy to see it was clear, but was really surprised at how much fluid comes out! After my water broke I was moved to a labor room and assigned private nurses, the awesome duo of Sonia and Kim, who stayed with me the entire time until Baxter was born.
Within the first couple hours in the delivery room my contractions were getting more and more powerful (I was still on pitocin). It finally got to the point that I couldn't stand it any longer and asked for an epidural. The epidural went in smoothly and I immediately felt relief. I was able to sleep through the contractions for a few hours and didn't even feel it when I was straight cath'd. Around 6 pm I was 5 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Heather felt I would labor a little longer and ordered an indwelling foley placed. I was okay with that, after all, I had an epidural and wouldn't feel anything. I was wrong, I could feel everything in my lower abdomen and groin area, but my legs were totally numb. The foley was horrible and I screamed and writhed in pain everytime I had a contraction. I got a couple doses of labetalol every 10 minutes due to my SBPs going over 200. Anesthesia was called in to bolus me and he assured me that he was giving me the amount of medication they give people who have c-sections, but 10 minutes later, I could still feel those areas. My nurse checked my epidural area and noticed that the area around it was puffy, so probably the catheter migrated. She also did a cervical check and found that I was completely dilated and ready to go. (I'd gone from 5 cm to 10 cm in an hour!) Great. I was given the option of waiting for anesthesia to come back and re-insert another epidural or just go for it. I didn't think I could wait or sit still for another epidural, so I decided to push the baby out on my own, dead legs and all. I started pushing around 9 pm, and at 10:47 pm, Baxter Kai Lugod Balogh was born. He was 4 lbs. 12 oz and 17.25 inches long.
I could hear him crying shortly after he came out, and saw he had a full head of dark hair when he was placed on my chest. Since he was a preemie, there were NICU nurses attending to him and he got whisked away as he had some issues with work of breathing. Mike went with him to the NICU and my mom stayed with me during the recovery phase. Luckily I had only one very superficial tear that didn't require stitching, so I was good to go. I was so happy and so exhausted at the same time. Having a baby is hard work! I remember falling asleep in between pushes during labor. The whole thing was a learning experience that I will cherish, and I'm thankful for the staff who looked after me during my hospital stay. (I kept a list of the good ones. :) )
Baxter is still in the NICU but is doing well. His only issues are those of prematurity, meaning he has issues with figuring out the whole breathing/sucking/swallowing thing, temperature regulation due to him being so small and having no fat, and as of yesterday, being jaundiced. He's such a sweet, sweet baby. He's been pretty sleepy most of the time, but smiles and makes a lot of facial expressions. He loves being held by me or Michael, especially doing kangaroo care, which is skin-to-skin contact. He always cries after we put him down after kangaroo care, but otherwise a lot of the NICU staff comment on how mellow he is.
I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and have been trying to take it easy, but it's hard when Bax is still in NICU. We stayed in NICU for the rest of the day after I got discharged on Thursday and most of the day on Friday. We plan on staying with him daily so we can feed him and hold him as much as we can. He's been doing great and improving all the time. We hope he'll be out early next week so we can take him home. I'll have to save the details of Baxter's NICU stay for another post, as I have to go pump now (another adventure -- or misadventure -- in itself).
A big thank you to all our friends and relatives who have come to visit us and sent us prayers, love, and support throughout this entire pregnancy. We have been touched by your kindness to us, and we can't wait until you can meet our son in person!
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