This is my favourite part of my labour and delivery...when I was induced! I truly believe everything happens for a reason and I believe that the reason why it took all day for a room to open up in labour and delivery was because God had a special gift for me. That gift came in the form of my nurse. My water was broken at 7pm, right after the nurses did their change over. Once my water was broken, I had to walk around and bounce on a ball to try and get my labour started on my own...they were giving me 4 hours. I had to be monitored every 30 minutes for contractions and to see how the baby was doing. During one of those checks, my nurse told me that they don't get to pick their patients and they are just assigned to a patient. She said that she knows how I feel and what I am going through. I just shrugged it off thinking no one can understand what I'm going through unless they've gone through it themselves. That's when my nurse said that when she was pregnant with her second child, her husband had an affair and left her. She had to do it all on her own as well. She said it was the best thing that ever happened to her and it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. She told me she is happily married to a new man and they have two kids of their own as well. To me, this was God's perfect timing. My nurse is exactly who and what I needed, along with my mom and my aunt for support.
By 11pm, I was exhausted. I had been bouncing on a ball for 3 hours straight (I didn't walk too much because my leg hurt from my sciatic nerve). I got myself comfortable in bed and was hooked up to monitors and the pitocin was started. The contractions started shortly afterwards.
At 12:38am the contractions were picking up. My pain level was at a 5 and I can remember being so tired. I had barely slept and had only eaten a sandwich since Friday evening (it was already Tuesday). At this point I knew I wouldn't be able to do it without an epidural. I needed rest so I asked to have it ordered. At 1:09am my epidural was started. I still remember being absolutely petrified. I became so cold and couldn't stop shaking. My nurse had to bring me warm blankets. I still remember kind of twitching when the freezing went in and after that it was fine. The epidural worked right away but there was a spot on my right side that the epidural missed (it was my right butt cheek all the way around to my front).
I remember at the beginning my nurse telling me that if anything went wrong, my room would fill up quickly with people. And sure enough, it happened. Every time I had a contraction, the baby's heartbeat would dip and they would have a hard time finding it. I've never seen so many doctors and nurses in a room at once. The baby wasn't handling things well and it looked like I was headed for an emergency c-section. The doctors decided to try and add water back into me to see if that would help...and on the second attempt, it worked. That seemed to free up the umbilical cord and things were fine again. This is also the time when I had a breakdown (in front of everyone!). The doctors wanted to put an internal monitor on the baby but couldn't because of my situation. I was heartbroken just thinking that the choices my ex made were harming my baby. I couldn't hold the tears in anymore. I remember my nurse just holding me and whispering in my ear that it was ok.
At 3:42am I was checked to see how far I was dilated and I was at 6cm. At 4:51 am I was 10cm dilated! I remember waking up from sleeping and being so uncomfortable. I tried everything to get comfortable and just wanted to push. That's when my nurse told me I was just checked an hour ago but she would check me again. And sure enough, it was go time. At 5:10am I began pushing. The OB team was busy so it was just the nurse at this time. I had a mirror in the room so I could watch everything that was happening and I also requested that I be the one to pull out the baby when it was time. I wanted to be as involved as possible because I knew there was a possibility that this may never happen again. At 5:30am, the resident OB arrived and assisted with the pushing. I remember asking how long I would have to push for because it was hurting so much...and the OB wasn't even there...I felt like I would be pushing forever...my nurse told me he would be here by 6am to shut me up (and let me tell you, the ring of fire is a very real thing and the epidural does nothing for it!!). I remember being able to see his hair while he was crowning and the OB pulling some of it out and everyone being amazed by it...let me tell you, all I wanted to say was "enough with the hair...get him out!!" The OB arrived right before my miracle was born. She was still suiting up when he was coming out. At 5:59am, I welcomed Grayson Nicolas into this world (and the first thing he did was pee on me!!). He weighed 8lbs 3 ors and was 21 inches long. Nothing could have ever ruined this moment. It was perfect. I had the support I needed from my mom and my aunt and the team that helped me through my labour and delivery was amazing.
Holding my precious miracle for the first time was like no other feeling. It was truly a dream come true to be able to experience labour and delivery. I still remember when I first got into my labour and delivery room thinking to myself "so this is it...what I've dreamed about my whole life is finally going to happen."
Through everything that has happened, God has been so good to me!
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