Well the story of our daughter’s birth is neither short nor sweet, but it has a great ending! It started Tuesday the 22nd when the OB stripped my membranes to try and jump start labor. We were reluctantly planning to induce on Thursday due to my high blood pressure but had hopes to go into labor naturally. After the appointment I was feeling crampy and bleeding . I went for a walk with Mike and the dogs and while trying to make dinner, I felt ill. I felt gas pains all over and just felt sick. I managed to eat spaghetti but later it came back up. I was in the bathroom most of the night with diarrhea and vomiting. I managed to sleep a few hours in between bathroom runs. In the morning I still felt crampy in my lower back and front and assumed it was the diarrhea although I was ‘empty.’ About 11:15am my contractions started in my lower back and they were 3-6 minutes apart. I took a shower (it was hard) and managed to get dressed. I started bleeding and that made me nervous. I called my OB’s office and left a message for the advice nurse about whether I should go to labor and delivery yet. I also called the L&D and they said to talk to the doctor or just come in. I talked to my mother and she felt I should go since they were 3 minutes apart and I was bleeding again.

We got to L&D and I was crying as the contractions were very painful. I went into triage, got in the gown and as I laid on the bed, my water broke. They checked me and I was 1.5 cm with wiggle room and 70% effaced. I was having a hard time with contractions at this point and was disappointed to only be 1.5 cm. They admitted me since my water had broken and I had a mild fever of 99.7. This was about 1:30 or 2:00pm. My OB was great enough to ok an epidural for me which I got around 3pm. I couldn’t get an epidural until they could get an IV in me for fluids as I was dehydrated from being sick the night before. It took 2 nurses and a phlebotomist 6 times to poke me to get me started on the IV. I have bruises and track marks on both arms! So they got me started on Saline and anti-biotics for my Group B + marker. I got my Epidural and then Pitocin to increase the labor and I was all set … so I thought!

As they kept checking me, I wasn’t progressing much beyond 3cm. My fever wouldn’t go below 99.5 and it spiked at 102. My blood pressure was high all night as well. They gave me a different antibiotic on top of the other one for my infection. I was also getting magnesium sulfate for my high blood pressure. Around 1 or so in the morning, my epidural stopped working. I was feeling the contractions and it was not good. I was pretty bad at this point so the anesthesiologist came to check the machine and my catheter. We decided to re-do the epidural to see if it would comfort my pain again. I was throwing up hard at this point from the painful contractions and was pretty hysterically crying. I managed to stay still long enough for the doctor to re-do my catheter. This gave me some relief from the contractions for a couple hours although I never went quite as numb down below as I had earlier in the day. Around 4am I started feeling pain in one side of my back. The nurses had me flipping back and forth all night from side to side in hopes the pressure of the baby on my cervix would get it to dilate more. It was getting uncomfortable and I started to feel the contractions as the epidural was wearing off again. I started to throw up and Mike called the nurse. The anthesiologist was beside himself as he didn’t know why I was having such a problem staying numb. He would give me boosts in my catheter and that would work for about an hour. At this time the nurse was saying the doctor wants to check me again at 5:30 and if I haven’t progressed, they may have to do a c-section. I was fine with that at this point as I just wanted the pain to go away. The doctor and Mike really wanted to avoid a c-section because of my fever and infection. I was feeling the contractions as they were one on top of the other with out any breaks. It was very hard and Mike was great being right there with me, telling me to breathe and focus. They turned down the Pitocin so it wouldn’t be so intense and at 5:30am I was 7cm. Everyone was so excited to her that, especially Mike. It suddenly became so real for him. We were going to deliver this baby soon! I got another epidural booster through my catheter and it took the edge off but I was still feeling the pain. I had managed some naps here and there through the course of the day but was still pretty worn out from the fever, infection and labor. At 7:30am I was 9.5 cm so they started to prepare for labor. I really needed another boost so they called the anesthesiologist to come. He came at 8am and took his time giving me the boost. At this point I was feeling the urge to push so the nurse told me to go ahead. I started to bear down with her and Mike coaching me. I was so exhausted that I couldn’t hold the push for the full 10 second count each time, nor could I get a deep breath but I pushed with my might. My OB came in about 8:30 and was coaching me more, telling me how to push. I could see her head in the mirror but it wouldn’t come out. I kept saying I couldn’t do it any more. I was dozing in between pushes and was just so exhausted. The doctor decided I needed help getting her out so he pulled out a pink vacuum. Several pushes later we had our baby girl!! And a second degree tear/episiotomy. Reagan Lindsey came into the world weighing 7 lbs 13 oz and was 20 inches long. We couldn’t be more in love with our little girl.