10 days old!

For all those who are interested here is our story:Last monday 3/9 I was scheduled to be induced.  I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. I was dilated to a 2.  Then I was started on Pitocin, they increase the Pit every 30min  for 2 hrs then you are at the max dose.  I was starting to feel some contractions by the time I was at the max dosage an hour.  By 1 pm I was only dilated to a 3, the doctor said getting to a 3 or 4 takes the longest.  About 3 p.m. the contractions were getting a lot stronger and were coming every 30 sec to a minute.  At this point I was about a 4 and I was in a lot of pain.  I had originally thought I would try and go natural but also I just wanted to wait and see.  At this point I thought the pain is only going to get worse and stronger and I really didn't have much of a break between contractions.  So I got an epidural at this point.  When I got the epidural I could tell that it was more on my left side than my right but the Dr. said that with in an hour it would even out.  I felt better after 15 min or so, I was able to watch T.V. and talk to Russ.  I could always feel my contractions on my right side but they were bearable.  After about an 1 hrs, the contractions started to get painful.  There was a button to press if you needed an extra boost of medicine, I had pressed it twice because my right side was pretty painful.  The machine started to beep and the anesthesiologist came in and fixed it and said,"You know you aren't suppose to be completely numb you are suppose to feel some pain." He said this in a very rude voice that made me feel very stupid.  When my nurse came in I told her that I could feel almost everything on my right side and what the Dr. had said. She told me we want you to be comfortable so I can have the Dr. come in and fix your epidural.  I didn't want to call that Dr. back in because he had made me feel stupid. So I said its okay. But with in 10 min, my contractions were so hard and close together that I felt like I was going to die.  I asked for him to come back and fix my epidural.  Well at that point all of the anesthesiologist were in the O.R. so no one was available. I took about an hour for him to come back.  In this time I went from a 5 to a 10 in a period of 45 min.  The pain was so excruciating all I could do was scream and cry and ask when the Dr. would be there.  Russ was a great help, fanning my the entire time, that was the only thing that made me feel somewhat bearable.  The nurse was wonderful also she said with me the whole time and would press on my back when I was having a contraction.  The Dr. finally got there and fixed it and with in 15 min I felt so much better.  I could still tell when I was having a contraction but it wasn't painful.  I could even move my legs well my R leg, my Left leg had received all of the medication so it was pretty much a log.  I started pushing at 5:30.  At 8:15 (almost 3 hrs of pushing) the Dr. told me that the head was not making it past the bone and after that long of pushing I should have had her already.  He told me my options were to keep pushing on my own, or try the vacuum.  But the babies heart rate was dropping every time I was having a contraction sometimes even as low as 60 bpm(it should be above 120)  but the Heart rate would come right back up in between contractions.  He said that the vacuum might irritate the baby and she might not tolerate it well and in that case I would need an emergency C section.  Or she might tolerate the vacuum just fine but she might not fit, in that case we could have a calm C section.  So we tried the vacuum and I pushed my brains out because I did not want a C section especially after 14 hours of labor so far.  And she came out at 8:37 p.m.  She had a little cone head due to the long travel as well as the vacuum.  But the next morning her head was back to normal and perfectly round.  She weight 7 lbs 1 oz. Was 18 1/2 inches long. Her APGARs were 8 and 9.  

Now she is 10 days old.  We are both doing well and adjusting to life.  Unfortunately she doesn't sleep well at night but great during the day, but I have heard she will adjust in a few weeks.  

Russ holding Alyssa in the sling

Alyssa in the sling

The day she came home from the hospital 3 days old.

10 days old. Sleeping she always likes her hands by her head.