I have had many requests to hear the birth story of baby Pallas, so by popular demand, here it is.
Let's start about 2 1/2 weeks before she was born. First off, I was HUGE. I know every pregnant women feels that way at the end, but I really was. When she would move her foot I literally would feel it almost in my back. I knew she was gonna be way bigger than my first 2 (Landen: 7lbs 1 oz, Boston: 6 lbs 7 oz) but everyone kept telling me she's not that big, she's not that big. HA!! So about 2 1/2 weeks before she made her appearance, I felt her try to move into position. She move down (to the point it felt like she was going to fall out) I would have a couple contractions and as soon as the contractions were over she would move back up. I kept telling Rob it felt like she was trying to come but just couldn't. Since my first 2 were 2 weeks and 3 weeks early on their own, I thought she would be coming any day.
So I had my last Dr. appt the day before Thanksgiving. The doctor didn't even think I would make it to that appointment, but alas I did. At this point I could barely move. I was in SO much pain all the time and especially when she would move. I was living on about 2 hours of sleep a night because my arms would go completely numb. One time I didn't get the feeling back for over 20 minutes (Scary!). So the doctor called the hospital and scheduled me to be induced on THursday December 3rd at 7:30am which was my 39 week mark exactly. I was SOOOO happy! Finally an end in sight. So I make all the arrangements I need for the kids, Rob puts in his paperwork for the time off work and I make sure I have everything ready. The night before I was supposed to go in, the hospital calls and says they are WAY behind and can't fit me in. I about hit the floor. My doctor called me the next morning and said that he talked to the hospital and rescheduled me for Sunday the 6th at 3:00am. I barely made it through the next 2 days. So Saturday night rolls around and we get ANOTHER phone call from the hospital. Rob answers it and after talking to the person for a second he looks at me and just shakes his head "no". That's when I took the phone. Let me just say that I was not nice at all. Anyone who knows me knows that I can already be a very mean person, just imagine what I was like at that very moment. Needless to say, I let them know that I was coming in no matter what.
A little before midnight I starting having very intense pains and could just tell that something wasn't right. So as soon as my sisters got to the house to stay with the boys, we headed to the hospital. When we got there I wasn't considered in active labor, but they decided to keep me anyway since I had been on the induction list. I was only dilated to a 1 and they got me all hooked up and started the pitocin around 2am. The contractions started slowly but weren't so intense that I couldn't handle them. I was having them about every 12 minutes. This went on for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. When they checked me to see how I was progressing, they said that my cervix hadn't even changed. They said my cervix was unbelievably thick. Basically inpenetrable. They pumped up the pitocin to the maximum amount and I just had to endure the never ending contractions. Not to mention that I was starving by this time. Around 4pm they checked me again. I had now been on pitocin for about 14 hours and so I thought "Ok, this is it. I've got to be at least at a 3 or 4 by now." The nurse looked at me and said I was only at a 1 and a half. THAT'S IT?!?! After all that I had only progressed a 1/2 a centimeter. My doctor said to stop the pitocin and let me have something to eat. My darn cervix was like a tank.
The next step was to insert something inside me that was supposed to soften my cervix. At around 6pm the nurse inserted something called Cervadil. It's basically a $1200 tampon that was going to stay inside me all night and then they would start the pitocin again around 6am. They ordered me an Ambian to sleep, but I was out before I even took it. I was woken up at midnight with really intense contractions. They were now coming about every 5 minutes or so and were definitely more intense than before, but weren't completely consistant. These intense ones lasted the rest of the night so I didn't get much sleep after that. At 5am the nurse came in to check me and see if the Cervadil had done it's job. At this point I am completely exhausted and my uterus is completely exhausted. It had been contracting non stop for a LONG time now. The good news was that I was dilated to a 3. Still not much but I was happy for any progress at all. They started up the pitocin again and let me just say I was about ready for my epidural. The doctor came in around 9am (i think) to break my water. When the doctor broke my water with Boston I had already gotten my epidural, this time I wasn't so lucky. I'm pretty tough and have a good tollerance for pain but when the doctor broke my water I was practically sobbing it hurt so much. Then the contractions started getting incredibly intense and more frequent. I was crying with each one. It felt like an eternity before the doc finally came in to give me my epidural. Ahhh, finally some relief. But it was short lived.
15 minutes after getting my epidural, they laid me back to put in my catheter (sp?). I felt all the blood suddenly rush from my face and I got incredibly nauseous. I told the nurses I thought I was gonna be sick and they said Yeah you don't look so good, you just got really pale. And then I started to black out. It all seem to happen in slow motion and i can just remember the nurses saying "Are you still with us? Can you hear me?" Then they lifted my legs up and I started to come back. I felt the blood come back into my face, but my blood pressure dropped dramatically and stayed really low. Just another thing they had to monitor. After that things finally started to happen the way a normal delivery would. My contractions were steady and I was dilated to a 4. With my previous deliveries, once I hit a 4, I go to a 9 or 10 within practically minutes. Luckily this labor was no exception. I started to feel a lot of pressure, like she was trying to push herself out. With Boston I felt this too and the doctor didn't make it to the delivery room. He was in the elevator when Boston literally pushed himself out. So I quickly called the nurse in and explained. She checked me and said "Oh! You're right, her head is right here." They called the doctor and luckily he made it this time.
On December 7th at 2:29pm, after 37 hours of labor, I gave a couple of good pushes and out she came. Less than 5 minutes of pushing. As soon as she was out I pretty much collapsed. I didn't even have the strength to lift my arms to hold her. Then they told me she weighed 8 lbs 15 oz and was 21 3/4 inches long. WHOA!!! No wonder she was kicking my back, she was almost 2 feet long! She weighed more than 2.5 lbs more than Boston did when he was born. But the fun wasn't over yet.
I tore just a little so the doctor put in a couple of stitches then started to deliver the placenta. I had to gather every last bit of energy I had to give a few more pushes. But something was wrong and the placenta wouldn't come out. It was stuck or attached to something. The doctor said he couldn't just pull it out because if you pull to fast or to hard, it can actually turn the uterus inside out. The doc said if he couldn't get it out within the next few minutes they would have to surgically remove it. So what he did next was pretty mind boggling and I know that its something my husband will never forget. The doctor reached up inside me to pull it out by hand. He was inside me so far that I could feel his fingers up by my rib cage. His arm was in me all the way up to his elbow. Thank goodness I had an epidural!!! He was finally able to get it loose and pull it out. 5 minutes to push the baby out, 20 minutes to deliver the placenta.
After this, everything went well. I healed great and Pallas was doing well. The only set back was that Pallas had to stay under the lights for Jaundice. I was discharged a day earlier than Pallas and having to come home while my baby stayed in the hospital was much harder than I thought it would be. But she got to come home the next day and we couldn't be happier. We love her SO much and even though this was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, I would do it all over again for her if I had to.
