Upon arriving, we walked past the same security guard, who probably thought he was seeing double. We continued up to the 4th floor and attempted to check-in. Before we could even get a word out, the woman at the front desk told us someone would be taking us to the Clarkson side of the hospital because that's where the available nurses were. (Basically there are two delivery areas at the med center and I'd hoped to have Gabby on the University side where Faith was born). Now, this shouldn't have been a big deal, but it was to me because of the unfamiliarity. The switcharoo also meant I had to waddle a ways with my water broken...not exactly my idea of a good time.
I got into room 4416 and Doc McDisappointing from the night before entered a short time later. She checked me and (drumroll please......) still one centimeter...whahhh whahhhhh. The decided to place a Cervidil to help my cervix dilate, and the waiting game was on. Soon enough, nurse Mary came to put in my IV. With Faith, it took 5 needle sticks, so I had high hopes of a better experience. Apparently, I have good veins but they like to roll (reason #977 I don't do drugs). Fortunately, the head nurse Michelle only missed once, so between the two of them they avoided breaking any records with a grand total of four needle sticks. #Ow.
My contractions were getting somewhat painful, but it was too soon for an epidural. Mary offered me some Fentanyl, but warned me that it wears off in about an hour or two. Since it was about 1 a.m. and I wanted to get some shut eye, I took her up on it. Fentanyl: reason #978 I don't do drugs. Not only did it immediately make me feel like my head was notoriously BIG, not to be confused with the size of Notorious B.I.G.'s head, which is also very large. It also felt like I'd been hypnotized and my thoughts were very, oh, shall we say, cray cray. (I just read the side effects and it said "unusual thoughts." All I can say is "yep!" Despite all this, I asked for another dose an hour and a half later.
When that dose wore off, it was almost 5 o'clock and the doctor came back to check me again. Three centimeters. Not exactly what they were hoping for, so she recommended Pitocin. When I asked about the epidural, knowing Pitocin would make the contractions much worse, she acted like she wanted me to see how things went before I got it. I completely ignored her and said I'd like it now, thankyouverymuch! Call me a wimp, but I knew I would need it eventually and it didn't have any negative effects on my labor with Faith, so I was hopeful it wouldn't with this one.
The anethesiologist walked in shortly after that and noticed Rob in his full Iowa State getup. "Oh, Iowa State fans? I did my undergrad at Iowa State!" he exclaimed. And I knew I was in good hands. It seemed to take awhile to get the epidural started, but it was well worth it. Soon after that everyone let me be and said they be back around 8 to check on me. The next few hours consisted of me trying to rest while keeping a close ear on baby's heartbeat monitor while Rob read a book. At some point, a nurse came in and rotated me onto my left side and put a giant "peanut ball" between my legs since the baby's heart rate indicated that she wasn't liking me laying on my back anymore.
The minute the clock struck 8, I expected someone to come into my room. At 8:15, I was really wanting someone to come check on me. At 8:30, I started to feel some pressure down there. "ROB! Someone needs to come check on me NOW," I said, in my kindest, sweetest voice :) We hit the call button. Yet another nurse named Michelle appeared. I told her what I was feeling and she said she would have to check me. Normally they would've waited for the doctor, since checks are supposed to be minimized once your water breaks, but I gave her no choice.
Michelle was DocMcDisappointing's opposite. "Oh, she exclaimed. The head is right there." She quickly picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Um, yeah, I have Nicole Lindquist here. She's complete."
10 centimeters dilated. Here we go. Little did we know, it'd be about an hour before we'd welcome Gabrielle "Gabby" Grace Lindquist into this wonderful world. Yay for peanut balls!?!?!?!
Sneak peek of what's to come...
p.s. I promise Part III will be the final installment of this series. She will definitely be born before it concludes. :)
Great story/ Can't wait for part 3.
ReplyDeleteJohn (Grandpa)