I started having contractions at 12:30AM, Sunday March 23rd, 2014. I laid awake from a few hours to see where the contractions would go; whether they'd get worse or go away. Timing them was difficult for me because I couldn't quite tell when they ended. Tommy woke up around 3:30AM and I told him I had been having them for about three hours. I didn't want to wake him when they started because I knew he wouldn't be able to sleep either. By 4AM, three and a half hours of contractions, I decided to call my doctors office to page the doctor on call. By 5AM and no call back, I called again. 6AM rolled around and decided to call the hospital to get advice on what to do. In my previous doctors appointments I hadn't been dilated at all, only effaced. But my contractions weren't going away, or easing up at all after now six hours. So after talking to the nurse, we decided to head to the hospital to get checked out. I got dressed and told Tommy he could shower before leaving. OH MAN, its getting real. Bags had been packed for weeks, so in the car they all went. I always said I wanted to stop and get food before going in, because I knew it would be a while before I could eat. But with my contractions and a little bit of nerves, I had no appetite.
We got to the hospital at shift change, so it took us a while to get checked in and get things going. Thankfully two nurses at the nurses station were able to help up and as soon as she could, got us into a triage room. Our first nurses name was Kelly. She had me change into a hospital gown and did a cervix check. I was effaced as I had been, but only 1cm dilated with steady contractions. So as a protocol, we walked the halls. She said Dr. Morgan was the next doctor on call and she was going to grab him to do a check on me as well. About 20 minutes into our walk, we ran into Dr. Morgan in the hall. He stopped us, gave me a 'tap' on my tummy and asked what was going on. After explaining the situation, and knowing my due date was only four days away, he decided we were going to have this baby today!! YES! We did not want to be sent home and do this all over again! We went back to our triage room (the walk made me have to pee!) and waited for Dr. Morgan and Kelly to come back in the room. It was around 11:30AM, and after examining me, he told Kelly to get me set up in a room. And we sent out the announcement. Baby Suggs was arriving today!!
Unfortunately things started slowing down from here. 1:30PM and we were finally in our room, Room 19! It was HUGE! Tommy and I were really happy because on our walk, we noticed how small some of the open rooms were and figured we would end up in one of those. Mom and Dad arrived shortly after and Tommy went to the truck to bring up all of our bags. Kelly got me all settled in and started to hook up my IV to get the fluids and pitocin going. Of course though, I have horrible veins, and can never get an IV on the first try. So it took a little while for that. Dr. Morgan came back in to check on us around 5PM and broke my water. (Not as bad as I was imagine it being. Didn't even feel a thing!) I was about 2-3cm at this point. My contractions were already getting stronger before he broke my water. Tommy liked looking at the monitor and telling me when they got really strong. AS IF I DIDN'T KNOW!! ha. But my water breaking kicked those contractions into high gear. I was feeling the next contraction before the one before it even finished. I was in constant pain now, with no relief between. It was time to call in for my epidural. I was very happy with myself that I lasted as long as I did!
Everyone had to leave the room except for Tommy. It was 7PM, so again we were at shift change. So I had two nurses administering my epidural, and my new nurse, Kathy in to relieve Kelly. The epidural was more uncomfortable than anything. The position I had to sit in, the feeling of the pressure on my spine between my vertebrae, having to sit extremely still all while keeping a look out for ringing in my ears or a metal taste in my mouth, among other things. On top of the fact that this was the first time I was in an upright position since my water breaking. Not fun feeling like your peeing yourself haha!
Then things got a little scary. I wasn't really sure what was happening and the epidural was starting to sink in. They couldn't find the baby's heartbeat on the external monitor. They came and put the oxygen mask on me and moved me from side to side to side. Finally, Kathy decided to put an internal coil on the baby's head. They found the heartbeat, but it was very low. Around 65, when it had been around 140-150. Again, she moved me from left to right, trying to get the baby comfortable to help raise its heartbeat. Took a few minutes, but everything got back to normal. Mommy and baby's heart rates were fine. They had kicked my pitocin down, thinking that and the epidural was the cause.
Kathy was now our nurse, and told me to try and get some rest. She knew I had been up since Saturday morning (it now being 8PM Sunday night). She said I would need the energy when it came time to push! Now we're just playing the waiting game. In my room was Tommy, Mom, Dad, my sister Jessica, and best friend Sable. Kathy came in every 30 minutes to move me from side to side, and I was able to get a new naps in. Once I fell asleep to her moving me to the left side, and what felt like a blink, woke up to her moving me to the right side.
Once it hit Monday, I told Sable she didn't need to stay. She had a little one to get home to, and I knew I had a stubborn baby in there. She is a Sams after all! Around 2AM I woke up from a nap extremely nauseous, sweaty and uncomfortable. Kathy said she was going to check my cervix again because that was usually a sign things were progressing. I was finally 10cm! It was time to push! Dad left the room, but didn't make it too far. He sat right outside the door! Pushing starting around 3AM. 3 sets of pushing, 10 seconds each, for every contraction. Contractions that were about 1-2 minutes apart. Before I knew it, it was 530AM and Dr. Morgan arrived back at the hospital to check on me. He said we needed to get this baby out. We were going to try pushing and use forceps and a vacuum for 15-20 more minutes, but he was also going to prep the OR for a C-section if the baby still wasn't out. MY HEART DROPPED. I could feel my face get red, I just wanted to cry. I had been in labor for over 24 hours, pushing for 3. The last thing I wanted was to get a C-section. Before I knew it, my room was full. Doctors, pediatricians, nurses everywhere. I had Tommy to my left, Dr. Morgan in front of me, Kathy to my right and Mom and Jessica close by. Two more contractions of pushing is all it took. 6:02AM I heard a baby cry! Next thing I heard, "It's a girl!". I lost it. I couldn't help by cry. Tears of joy of course. They put her on my chest, Tommy cut the cord. They took her away shortly after and got her cleaned up. They did her APGAR score; 8 at one minute, 9 at five minutes. She was perfect. Weighing in at 7 pounds even, 19 inches long. She had mommy's long legs. Dr. Morgan and all the nurses were asking what the name was, but I said I wouldn't announce it until my dad was there. Once the room cleared a bit, and we were both cleaned up, my dad was able to come in the room, and baby girl and I got some skin to skin time. Dad got his first look at his new granddaughter! I told Tommy he could announce her name!
Camden Dixon Suggs
I was feeling a bit hot and nauseous again, so Tommy fed her her first bottle. She downed it! Then a nurse gave Camden her first bath while Tommy looked over her. He was IN LOVE. The way he looked at his daughter was breathtaking. After her bath, Camden laid under a heat lamp to help regulate her body temperature. Which gave Tommy and I a chance to nap, and everyone else headed home. Shortly after, we were moved to a new room. Room 30, which was a new room in a wing recently added to the maternity section of the hospital.
Unfortunately, after moving rooms, I received the news of my Uncle Fred passing away at noon. A huge mix of emotions running thru my body at this point. But I knew I had to try and stay strong for Camden. And Tommy helped with that as well. We had lots of visitors her two days. The doctors came in regularly to check on me to see how my body was progressing, and come Tuesday afternoon we were given the option to leave that night. But we decided to stay and take in all the help and learning experiences we could. And were we glad we did. The nurse Jordan came in later that night to take Camden to the nurse for some tests and to check her vitals. Apparently Tommy and I were sleeping so soundly, she didn't want to wake us, or leave Camden, so she brought her back to the nursery. She had to come back an hour or so later and check my vitals, and told me Camden was in the nursery and doing well, and could leave her there for a few hours so Tommy and I could get more sleep. Whenever I was ready for her to come back, to just call her and she'd bring her right back. I hesitated. I wasn't sure what to say, I wanted to wake up Tommy and ask him what he thought, but then realized that would contradict the whole point. So I said no problem, and got more sleep. We woke up at 5AM Wednesday morning and were ready for her to come back! We just had cuddles until the doctors came in later that morning. Dr. Bertolino came in and discharged me. Said she didn't need to check my tummy anymore since Dr. Wilkes the night before was ready to discharge me then, and I was up and walking around no problem! We just had to wait for the hospital pediatrician to discharge Camden. She said after looking at her feeding log, she just needed to see her have one more 30mL feeding before we could leave. Of course, Camden wanted to sleep. So it ended up taking us an hour and a half to get thru that feeding. We were ready to go home! All the tags got clipped off, and Camden was removed from the system so we didn't set off any alarms upon leaving. We changed Camden into her going home outfit we brought, which was a teddy bear onesie that was the first outfit I had bought. Even though it was newborn, Camden was swimming in it! The nurse helped us get her situated in her car seat. Tommy loaded our bags, and the nurse wheeled Camden & I to the truck. I sat in the back with Camden and Tommy said he felt like he was driving on ice. Oh being new parents. We arrived home Wednesday, March 26th at 12:30PM!
My whole birthing experience was amazing! Sure it was a lot longer than I would have wanted, with a few scares along the way. But having Tommy & my family by my side, along with amazing nurses and doctors, helped make it a very memorable experience that I wouldn't trade for the world!
No comments:
Post a Comment