So I am finally getting around to writing the story of Enok's birth..... hasn't been a month yet, so for me that's pretty good! I really need to get better at blogging...... BTW sorry if the following is too much information.... I'm just writing the truth of delivery and how it was for me. And I'm not much of a story teller, so hopefully this makes sense......
First off, I just have to say that I had a really great labor and delivery. It was awesome. The kidney stones I had in September were worse. If I had a guarantee that labor and delivery would be like it went this time for all my kids I think I could have like 20. It was an experience that I wouldn't mind repeating. It sounds weird to say, but it really was blissful (thanks to meds of course), and I actually enjoyed it.
My due date was February 22, and I was planning on having my baby within a week of that date (whether early or late).... I should have learned through life by then that when you make plans, God likes to change them, but always for the best =). But still, I had a lot of things left on my 'to do before baby comes' list when Enok made his debut two weeks before my due date (he really wasn't born too early thank heavens!). One word pre-story summary of delivery: Surprise! Now here is the full story........
At week 32 I was tested for a condition known as preeclampsia. Google it if you've never heard of it... I was tested because I was consistently having high blood pressure and I was also having lots of swelling in all of my extremities, both of which are signs of the condition. I passed the test that week and was not diagnosed with preeclampsia (they test you by doing a 24 hour urine collection and then measuring the level of protein in your urine - if the protein count is high then you are diagnosed with preeclampsia). Preeclampsia can be a serious condition, and I was grateful not to have it. I would have immediately been put on bedrest (which I nearly was anyways due to my blood pressure) and likely would have been induced before 38 weeks (which is how far I was when I got induced). As it was, the doctor wanted me to come in every week for the rest of my pregnancy and be sure to take it super easy. The only reason I wasn't officially put on bedrest is because student teaching had ended a couple weeks before and I wasn't working or going to classes, so I wasn't doing much of anything anyways.
The next 6 weeks were pretty uneventful..... my days consisted of reading, tv, sewing, working on an online class, and the occasional doctors visit.... life was frustratingly boring..... but it was good, because I couldn't move around much anyways..... overall body discomfort increased by like 1000%. I had been told that I would be re-checked for preeclampsia at some point, but I never was since my blood pressure stayed steadily high and didn't increase. Well, on February 6 I was going about my usual nothing and began to be concerned because I hadn't felt Enok move around for quite a while. I did the whole drink some juice lay on your side and count thing and he didn't move once. For him this was unusual. Enok was a really good little squiggler, and the juice always did the trick when I was worried about his movements before..... So I called Philip and he told me to call my OB so I did. Of course the OB told me to go into the labor & delivery unit at the hospital to have a non-stress test. If you've never had one of these basically what they do is hook you up to 2 monitors, one that tracks the baby's heart rate and one that tracks your contractions (funny side story.... the nurse was watching the contraction monitor and kept asking if I felt the contractions.... up until this point I didn't realize what they were.... I just wasn't feeling them much...). They look to see occasional increases in the baby's heart rate as these let them know that the baby is in fact moving around in there. This non-stress test didn't go so well as Enok's heart rate hardly ever increased and so the doctor decided I needed to be re-tested for preeclampsia and be put on strict bed rest asap. I was discharged and went home planning on having the most unproductive and boring 2 weeks of my life as I waited for baby to be born..... but that is not how it went at all.
My next scheduled doctors appointment was for that Friday the 8th (2 days later) and they wanted me to go to that one and turn my urine sample that day. When I woke up that morning, I had no idea that I would be induced that day. I was planning on going to my appointment, coming home, and doing nothing else... Philip hadn't been coming to my appointments lately (they weren't at all exciting and one a week was a little much), but I told him I wanted him to come to this one, and it was a good thing that he did. So we went to my appointment (we forgot the urine sample, so Philip went home and got it and came back, luckily the doctor was behind anyways) and we were waiting alone in the exam room when things got interesting. We heard the doctor talking to the nurse outside the door and they were talking about my file (because of how this OBGYN office works I had only seen this particular doctor once before) and then we overhear him say "I think she might need to be induced today." Philip and I looked at each other with looks that said 'Holy heck. Not in the plan for today.' So then the doctor comes in and talks to us and 5 minutes later while checking my dilation (a measly 1cm) he decides to go ahead and strip my membranes. The doctor told us that it would be ideal if I just went into labor, but it wasn't looking like I was very close to that yet. He decided to send us to the hospital with my urine sample so that it could get tested right away and to get a non-stress test done as well. We were to wait at the hospital until the results of the test came back and at that point they would decide what would happen next.
Luckily, a few days before, we had sort of packed a hospital bag. But it was super incomplete and didn't end up having anything that we needed really. Philip had to go home several times while we were at the hospital to get the stuff we really needed. We went straight to the hospital from the doctors office (well, we did make a quick stop at sonic, it could have been my last non-hospital food for a while and it needed to be good!) and got to the hospital around 12:30 on Friday. My lab results were turned in to be tested and they took us to a labor and delivery room to do the non-stress test. We just sat there watching HGTV for the next 3-4 hours and then around 4 a nurse came in and said, "Well your not going home, you're going to have a baby today!" I was really surprised at how calm I felt when she told us this. I woke up that day with no plans to go into labor, but felt totally calm knowing that they were going to induce me and that I would have a baby sometime in the next 24 hours. It definitely was a surprise though.
They decided to begin inducing me with Cytotec. I was really grateful for this because with cytotec you can still eat and drink. They were only going to use pitocin if after several hours the cytotec didn't make any progress, luckily they never had to. At 4:30pm they gave the first dose and I was still only dilated 1cm. At around 6 Philip went home to get things (I made him a huge list) and to clean up the house (it was a mess). At 8:30 they gave me my second dose and I was still dilated at 1cm. Philip got back around 10:30 and we both decided to try and get some sleep.... I wasn't very successful at this.... I just couldn't shut my mind off..... At 12:30am I got my 3rd dose and was dilated to somewhere between a 1 and a 3. The nurse told me that it usually was after the 3rd dose that things would pick up. Well I finally fell asleep after this but at 2:30am was awakened by a huge pop in my stomach. Although I know I didn't hear it, the feeling of the pop was so strong that I feel like I maybe did hear it. It seriously felt like a balloon was popped in my stomach. I immediately woke Philip up and told him that I had felt something really weird..... I thought that maybe it was just a big kick from baby...... well I decided to get up and go potty..... so I sat down on the toilet and went pee and then I stopped peeing but it sounded like I still was peeing and then I realized that my water had broke and that was what the pop was! Those lucky nurses, they had no water breaking mess to clean off my bed cuz it all got in the toilet. So Philip went and got the nurse and let her know that we thought my water had broke. The nurse came and checked and sure enough it had. She also checked my dilation and I was at 3cm. Up to this point I hadn't had any painful contractions, I hardly had any contractions that I noticed, but about 30 minutes after my water broke they started coming closer together and getting more painful. I'm not really sure on the timing for the next few hours.... but at some point I got an epidural (I think at 4:30am) and it was magical. Seriously, epidurals are the best (at least for me). I love epidurals. For me they changed the whole process from being one to suffer through to being one that I could enjoy. After getting the epidural I even slept a little!
I was strep b positive, so they needed me to have 2 doses of penicillin at certain intervals before I could start pushing. They would have had be start pushing at 5:30am, but the second dose of penicillin couldn't be administered until around 7. So they just kept monitoring the baby's heart rate and we just waited..... Sometime around 7 after the second dose of penicillin was given a new nurse came in to talk game plan (shift change was at 7, so I got a new nurse). She said that in just a bit we would start pushing and that she was going to call the doctor (which a new one had just come on as well, but he was actually at the other hospital, not the one that I was at). She stayed in the room while she talked to the doctor and told him that they were going to start having me push, but it would probably be over an hour before they needed him, but they would keep him posted. I was super numb from the epidural (no leg, foot, or toe movement at all) and so the nurse was really worried that it would take a long time for me to push the baby out since I wasn't even feeling the pressure from the contractions. Well at 7:15 we did the first push and they saw the top of Enok's head! After this the nurse realized that this wasn't actually going to take super long and so she called the doctor and told him he needed to come asap. Well on a good day, the other hospital is 10-15 minutes away, but it had snowed the night before and it was early on a Saturday, so nothing had been plowed yet, and the doctor didn't appear till 8am. Since the first push went so well the nurse decided we would wait a bit to have me push again. At about 7:25 they had me push again and I pushed again at 7:35. At this point the crown of baby's head was sticking out and not going back in when I stopped pushing and the nurse was really getting anxious about the doctor not being there. A ton of nurses were in my room at this point because they were worried that they would have to deliver Enok without the doctor being there. Luckily his heart rate never dropped too low for too long, so we were able to wait. At 7:45 they had me close my legs and turn on my side to keep baby inside. Pretty much my uterus is awesome and was trying to push baby out without any extra help from me, but he needed to stay in until the doctor got there. At 8am the doctor walked in, washed up, got his gear on, got an update from the nurses, they positioned me, had me push, and out came baby! I didn't even tear! Enok was born at 8:04am and weighed 4lbs 15oz and was 18 inches long and was the most perfect thing we'd ever seen. Philip cut the cord, they wiped baby, put him on my chest, and Philip and I just stared at him feeling so amazed by this little being that we helped to create. I turned to Philip and told him that we should do business again sometime =) I really enjoyed giving birth to my little guy..... where the story gets not so blissful are in the hours and days following delivery.... this story is to be continued...... but for now meet Enok Franklin Roberts =)
First off, I just have to say that I had a really great labor and delivery. It was awesome. The kidney stones I had in September were worse. If I had a guarantee that labor and delivery would be like it went this time for all my kids I think I could have like 20. It was an experience that I wouldn't mind repeating. It sounds weird to say, but it really was blissful (thanks to meds of course), and I actually enjoyed it.
My due date was February 22, and I was planning on having my baby within a week of that date (whether early or late).... I should have learned through life by then that when you make plans, God likes to change them, but always for the best =). But still, I had a lot of things left on my 'to do before baby comes' list when Enok made his debut two weeks before my due date (he really wasn't born too early thank heavens!). One word pre-story summary of delivery: Surprise! Now here is the full story........
At week 32 I was tested for a condition known as preeclampsia. Google it if you've never heard of it... I was tested because I was consistently having high blood pressure and I was also having lots of swelling in all of my extremities, both of which are signs of the condition. I passed the test that week and was not diagnosed with preeclampsia (they test you by doing a 24 hour urine collection and then measuring the level of protein in your urine - if the protein count is high then you are diagnosed with preeclampsia). Preeclampsia can be a serious condition, and I was grateful not to have it. I would have immediately been put on bedrest (which I nearly was anyways due to my blood pressure) and likely would have been induced before 38 weeks (which is how far I was when I got induced). As it was, the doctor wanted me to come in every week for the rest of my pregnancy and be sure to take it super easy. The only reason I wasn't officially put on bedrest is because student teaching had ended a couple weeks before and I wasn't working or going to classes, so I wasn't doing much of anything anyways.
The next 6 weeks were pretty uneventful..... my days consisted of reading, tv, sewing, working on an online class, and the occasional doctors visit.... life was frustratingly boring..... but it was good, because I couldn't move around much anyways..... overall body discomfort increased by like 1000%. I had been told that I would be re-checked for preeclampsia at some point, but I never was since my blood pressure stayed steadily high and didn't increase. Well, on February 6 I was going about my usual nothing and began to be concerned because I hadn't felt Enok move around for quite a while. I did the whole drink some juice lay on your side and count thing and he didn't move once. For him this was unusual. Enok was a really good little squiggler, and the juice always did the trick when I was worried about his movements before..... So I called Philip and he told me to call my OB so I did. Of course the OB told me to go into the labor & delivery unit at the hospital to have a non-stress test. If you've never had one of these basically what they do is hook you up to 2 monitors, one that tracks the baby's heart rate and one that tracks your contractions (funny side story.... the nurse was watching the contraction monitor and kept asking if I felt the contractions.... up until this point I didn't realize what they were.... I just wasn't feeling them much...). They look to see occasional increases in the baby's heart rate as these let them know that the baby is in fact moving around in there. This non-stress test didn't go so well as Enok's heart rate hardly ever increased and so the doctor decided I needed to be re-tested for preeclampsia and be put on strict bed rest asap. I was discharged and went home planning on having the most unproductive and boring 2 weeks of my life as I waited for baby to be born..... but that is not how it went at all.
My next scheduled doctors appointment was for that Friday the 8th (2 days later) and they wanted me to go to that one and turn my urine sample that day. When I woke up that morning, I had no idea that I would be induced that day. I was planning on going to my appointment, coming home, and doing nothing else... Philip hadn't been coming to my appointments lately (they weren't at all exciting and one a week was a little much), but I told him I wanted him to come to this one, and it was a good thing that he did. So we went to my appointment (we forgot the urine sample, so Philip went home and got it and came back, luckily the doctor was behind anyways) and we were waiting alone in the exam room when things got interesting. We heard the doctor talking to the nurse outside the door and they were talking about my file (because of how this OBGYN office works I had only seen this particular doctor once before) and then we overhear him say "I think she might need to be induced today." Philip and I looked at each other with looks that said 'Holy heck. Not in the plan for today.' So then the doctor comes in and talks to us and 5 minutes later while checking my dilation (a measly 1cm) he decides to go ahead and strip my membranes. The doctor told us that it would be ideal if I just went into labor, but it wasn't looking like I was very close to that yet. He decided to send us to the hospital with my urine sample so that it could get tested right away and to get a non-stress test done as well. We were to wait at the hospital until the results of the test came back and at that point they would decide what would happen next.
Luckily, a few days before, we had sort of packed a hospital bag. But it was super incomplete and didn't end up having anything that we needed really. Philip had to go home several times while we were at the hospital to get the stuff we really needed. We went straight to the hospital from the doctors office (well, we did make a quick stop at sonic, it could have been my last non-hospital food for a while and it needed to be good!) and got to the hospital around 12:30 on Friday. My lab results were turned in to be tested and they took us to a labor and delivery room to do the non-stress test. We just sat there watching HGTV for the next 3-4 hours and then around 4 a nurse came in and said, "Well your not going home, you're going to have a baby today!" I was really surprised at how calm I felt when she told us this. I woke up that day with no plans to go into labor, but felt totally calm knowing that they were going to induce me and that I would have a baby sometime in the next 24 hours. It definitely was a surprise though.
They decided to begin inducing me with Cytotec. I was really grateful for this because with cytotec you can still eat and drink. They were only going to use pitocin if after several hours the cytotec didn't make any progress, luckily they never had to. At 4:30pm they gave the first dose and I was still only dilated 1cm. At around 6 Philip went home to get things (I made him a huge list) and to clean up the house (it was a mess). At 8:30 they gave me my second dose and I was still dilated at 1cm. Philip got back around 10:30 and we both decided to try and get some sleep.... I wasn't very successful at this.... I just couldn't shut my mind off..... At 12:30am I got my 3rd dose and was dilated to somewhere between a 1 and a 3. The nurse told me that it usually was after the 3rd dose that things would pick up. Well I finally fell asleep after this but at 2:30am was awakened by a huge pop in my stomach. Although I know I didn't hear it, the feeling of the pop was so strong that I feel like I maybe did hear it. It seriously felt like a balloon was popped in my stomach. I immediately woke Philip up and told him that I had felt something really weird..... I thought that maybe it was just a big kick from baby...... well I decided to get up and go potty..... so I sat down on the toilet and went pee and then I stopped peeing but it sounded like I still was peeing and then I realized that my water had broke and that was what the pop was! Those lucky nurses, they had no water breaking mess to clean off my bed cuz it all got in the toilet. So Philip went and got the nurse and let her know that we thought my water had broke. The nurse came and checked and sure enough it had. She also checked my dilation and I was at 3cm. Up to this point I hadn't had any painful contractions, I hardly had any contractions that I noticed, but about 30 minutes after my water broke they started coming closer together and getting more painful. I'm not really sure on the timing for the next few hours.... but at some point I got an epidural (I think at 4:30am) and it was magical. Seriously, epidurals are the best (at least for me). I love epidurals. For me they changed the whole process from being one to suffer through to being one that I could enjoy. After getting the epidural I even slept a little!
I was strep b positive, so they needed me to have 2 doses of penicillin at certain intervals before I could start pushing. They would have had be start pushing at 5:30am, but the second dose of penicillin couldn't be administered until around 7. So they just kept monitoring the baby's heart rate and we just waited..... Sometime around 7 after the second dose of penicillin was given a new nurse came in to talk game plan (shift change was at 7, so I got a new nurse). She said that in just a bit we would start pushing and that she was going to call the doctor (which a new one had just come on as well, but he was actually at the other hospital, not the one that I was at). She stayed in the room while she talked to the doctor and told him that they were going to start having me push, but it would probably be over an hour before they needed him, but they would keep him posted. I was super numb from the epidural (no leg, foot, or toe movement at all) and so the nurse was really worried that it would take a long time for me to push the baby out since I wasn't even feeling the pressure from the contractions. Well at 7:15 we did the first push and they saw the top of Enok's head! After this the nurse realized that this wasn't actually going to take super long and so she called the doctor and told him he needed to come asap. Well on a good day, the other hospital is 10-15 minutes away, but it had snowed the night before and it was early on a Saturday, so nothing had been plowed yet, and the doctor didn't appear till 8am. Since the first push went so well the nurse decided we would wait a bit to have me push again. At about 7:25 they had me push again and I pushed again at 7:35. At this point the crown of baby's head was sticking out and not going back in when I stopped pushing and the nurse was really getting anxious about the doctor not being there. A ton of nurses were in my room at this point because they were worried that they would have to deliver Enok without the doctor being there. Luckily his heart rate never dropped too low for too long, so we were able to wait. At 7:45 they had me close my legs and turn on my side to keep baby inside. Pretty much my uterus is awesome and was trying to push baby out without any extra help from me, but he needed to stay in until the doctor got there. At 8am the doctor walked in, washed up, got his gear on, got an update from the nurses, they positioned me, had me push, and out came baby! I didn't even tear! Enok was born at 8:04am and weighed 4lbs 15oz and was 18 inches long and was the most perfect thing we'd ever seen. Philip cut the cord, they wiped baby, put him on my chest, and Philip and I just stared at him feeling so amazed by this little being that we helped to create. I turned to Philip and told him that we should do business again sometime =) I really enjoyed giving birth to my little guy..... where the story gets not so blissful are in the hours and days following delivery.... this story is to be continued...... but for now meet Enok Franklin Roberts =)
What an amazing story! I love it. Thanks. That's going to be me in a couple hours! Hopefully it goes as smoothly as yours did. He's so perfect and precious!
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