Nola is Here!

So happy to announce that Nola Irene has finally made it to the outside world! She arrived on 9/24 at 5:28pm at 8lbs, 7 oz and 21 3/4 inches long.

12 days after my due date, my OB decided it was time to give this little girl a kick in the rear to evacuate, so I was scheduled for an induction at Methodist Hospital on Saturday morning at 7am. We arrived about 6:45 after having breakfast at McDonalds. I was anxious, nervous and jittery. We checked in at Labor and Delivery and they told me that they were just working to turn over the room for me because they'd had a pretty busy night. So we went downstairs and bought Ryan a cup of coffee and sat in the L&D waiting room for a while. Finally, about 8:30 am, they told us that they had 2 other women check in that were already in labor, so all of the rooms were now full. The charge nurse had spoken with my doctor and gave me the option of going to IU North to deliver (30 minutes away) or coming back to Methodist at noon and "hopefully" they would have a room available for me. I decided I didn't want to spend the day waiting around, so we set off to the northside of town.

I was now pretty overwhelmed and much more nervous because I hadn't even been inside the hospital - had no idea what their policies were or what would happen during/after delivery (The original hospital I was scheduled to deliver at was considered "baby friendy", so they had a lot of different procedures than other hospitals) I really hate not knowing what to expect, so this was really throwing me for a loop. We arrived at IU North just after 9:30 am. When we arrived at the information center, the woman on duty was so nice and personally escorted us up to L&D, where the nurse greeted me by name and led me to my L&D room. They had already done the preadmission paperwork, so I only had to sign a few forms and away we went. The nurse checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced...same as I had been at my last 2 OB appts. They started me on pitocin at 10am and penicillin since I tested positive for Group B strep.
The next 2 hours were pretty uneventful. I was having regular contractions, but they were not painful in the least. Dr. Soper came in at 12:15 and said she was ready to start making things more painful. (I had been watching TV and eating jello up until this point.) She broke my water and then things really took off. I started having pretty severe back labor, so I spent some time on the birth ball looking for relief. At some point after that (time was pretty much obsolete to me at this point) the nurse felt the contractions had really kicked up, so she made me get back in bed to check me. I was almost 8cm dilated. I hadn't had any pain meds at all, and knowing I was so close to 10 really gave me a new burst of willpower.

Around 3pm, my body was starting to push on its own, and I was breathing thru every contraction like I was blowing bubbles thru a straw to attempt to stop the pushing. After about 20 minutes of this, the nurse checked me again and I was at 10cm. Dr. Soper came in at 3:30pm and I started pushing. The nausea from my first trimester came back and I threw up with every contraction. After 2 hours of pushing, we were right on the brink. I ended up with an episiotomy, but finally at 5:28 pm, Nola made her way into the world. They put her right onto my chest, and Ryan cut the cord. She started crying right away, so she got to stay on my chest for about 10 minutes before they took her to do the standard cleanup and evaluations.

Then the fun really started. My placenta wasn't detatching, so Dr. Soper spent quite a few minutes kneading my stomach. They brought Nola back and let me nurse for a few minutes in the hopes that would make the placenta get a move on. I nursed for about 20 minutes while Dr. Soper stitched me up (lucky me had a 3rd degree tear), but the placenta still hadn't made any moves, and I was still bleeding pretty badly. At that point, she looked at me and told me she was gonig to do a manual extraction. She apologized and told me it would probaby hurt more than the birth. She was absolutely correct. Ryan held Nola, and I yelled a bit and crushed the bones in the nurse's hand, while wishing I had gotten the epidural. She finally got it removed and stopped all the bleeding, and I got a lovely cocktail of narcotics in my IV. Nola got her bath and Ryan was busy making tons of calls and sending pictures.

Scott, Jenn and the girls came to visit about 9 that night, and Ryan went out to bring me a Steakburger and milkshake since I hadn't eaten since 6 am. The nurse then told me that the recovery floor was full so I was going to spend the night in my L&D room. They ended up coming in around 1am and telling me they had discharged someone, so they wanted to move to up to the post partum floor. Ryan was already sleeping, so the nurse woke him up to get our stuff together. After we were settled in on the 4th floor and I fed Nola, we sent her to the nursery for the a little while so I could get a little more rest. On Sunday they checked my hemoglobin levels, and they had dropped from 11.8 (from the blood they drew when we started the induction) down to 7.7. I was feeling pretty weak, but got started on an iron supplement, and in a few weeks everything should be back to normal. We were discharged on Monday afternoon, exactly 48 hours after delivery.

I am so happy to be home. We are still working on finding a new normal, and sleeping thru the night. We had some trouble with feedings at first, and had to supplement a little bit on day 2 and 3, but now Nola is latching well and is off formula! I'm happy to have the next few weeks off to spend with my beautiful daughter. She is honestly the most beautiful baby in the world. :)