My biggest prayer throughout my pregnancy was that I would not have to be induced again. Everything went well with the induction with Parker, but I wanted to experience the process of a natural labor. On Tuesday, May 7, Ryan and I put Parker in the stroller around his bedtime and walked for the next two hours while he slept. Every single one of my friends that were due around me already had their babies, and they all went early, so I was determined to go early, too =) I went to school the next morning with no signs of labor, but I did have sore legs from all that walking!
I came home from work and started to noticed some unusual leakage. I thought that was a pretty good sign, but I had no contractions and I knew my water hadn't completely ruptured. I also knew it wasn't safe to leak fluid for a long period of time, so I called the doctor, and she said to come in to check things out. I knew that once I went in, they would keep me until I had the baby, so we packed up our things, and headed to Rush-Copley. It was pretty surreal. I didn't really want to have to check in to labor and delivery with no contractions and no sure signs of labor, but at least I wasn't going to be induced =) Thanks God! We talked to Parker on the way about becoming a big brother and that we were going to stay at the hospital while he played at Ella's house. I thought I would get emotional when Dave picked him up, but I did good. I knew he'd have a lot of fun while we patiently waited for his baby sibling to arrive.
I saw my doctor, and she confirmed that my water was leaking and I did need to check in to labor and delivery. Lucky for us, she let us get some food before we did. We decided to go to Culver's since that's where we went right before we checked in before Parker was born. She was going to be on-call that night, and on shift the whole next day, so we were happy to hear that. The first seven hours in the hospital were pretty non-eventful. I was 4cm, no contractions, no pain, feelin' great!
They started me on Pitocin at 2:00 am and by the morning, I was "6" centimeters. (Quotes explained later). Dr. Alexander was going to came in around 9:45am to check me and give me the plan of attack for the day. Turns out I was actually still 4cm. Boo. Then she found another pocket of water to break. I was excited about that because I had a friend whose water was leaking, they broke the rest of it, and she had her son 40 minutes later. Well...not the case with me.
She broke the pocket, and all of a sudden, the nurses are moving the monitors all over my stomach and turning me from side to side trying to find a heartbeat. The doctor came back in with her scrubs on, and brought about 5 other nurses with her. The next 30 minutes were a blur. The nurses kept flipping me from side to side. The lights were turned up bright, no one was talking, and we had no idea what was going on. They put an oxygen mask on me and I immediately started crying - borderline hysterical. I could hear Ryan telling me to breath and look at him, but it took a while for me to process it and do what he said. I can't quite describe the feeling of having absolutely no control over not only your own body, but also the little body inside of you. They proceeded to give me a shot in my arm, put a hair net on me, and made me attempt to sign several papers in case of an emergency c-section. I was praying so hard throughout, and God really did give me a peace for whatever needed to happen in order to get the baby out safely. I heard Dr. Alexander request an amniotic infusion. I had no idea what that was either, but shortly after they inserted everything, things finally started to calm down and then they filled me in on everything that just happened.
That little water pocket was providing just the amount of cushion between the uterus and the cord that the baby needed during contractions. Once it was broken, the cord was being pinched during contractions, causing its heartbeat to plummet into the 30's. The amniotic infusion pushed water back up to the baby in order to continue giving the cushion until she was in birthing position. Somewhere along the lines, they gave me a drug to stop my contractions altogether in order to get the heartbeat regulated. So in a nutshell, the labor process went in reverse. I was told I was 6cm when I was really a 4, my water broke but then they put more water back in, and they stopped my contractions! About 30 minutes after everything was stabilized, they started me back on the lowest dose of Pitocin and started the process over again. Now it was 11:30am.
(So before I finish, thank you to everyone for praying for us during that crazy time. We never really considered the possibility of losing our baby before then, but when you have no idea what's happening, your mind goes crazy. Dr. Alexander did reassure me that she had everything under control and she would've done a c-section if there was severe danger. To God be the glory for saving us from that, and any further complications. And an extra huge THANK YOU to my amazing husband, Ryan, for keeping it together and being my rock in such a scary time. I couldn't have done it without you, babe. I love you!)
Once they got things rolling again, everything went great. Contractions got stronger, I got the epidural, slept for a while, baby was in position, I gained a little bit of feeling back, Dr. Alexander came in, we turned up the music, and the baby came out in just a few pushes. I requested that Ryan tell me if it was a boy or girl. He said when he first saw the head, he thought for sure it was a boy because the face looked just like Parker, but then they flipped the baby over and, "It's a girl!!" Our sweet Adley Jean.
6lbs 13oz, 20 in - born at 4:36pm
