So I guess its time to finally write down Joel's birth story, for a record for me if nothing else. Feel free to skip this post if you don't want to hear about his birth.
My due date (October 8th) came and went. We really wanted him to come on his due date since our doctor was going out of town October 10th for a week. You can't rush these things apparently, though try as we might. I think we tried like every wives tale there was. I ate dates, drank pineapple juice, walked up and down stairs, did lunges, went on long walks around the neighborhood and grocery stores every night, ate spicy foods, everything. Nothing worked. Stubborn little boy. Like his father.
The hospital won't let the doctor induce until a week past your due date. So we went in for an appointment with our doctor's father (they work at the same practice and she was out of town). Finally, I was dilated enough to strip my membranes. We were thinking that he would strip the membranes, go home, and hopefully go into labor that night. That is not what happened. When the doctor measured me, my belly had dropped. Like a lot. Which we took as a good sign that labor was imminent. It was too low for our doctor's liking though. He said my fluid felt low. So they called the hospital to get me set up for a non stress test. They didn't open for those tests until like 10. Our appointment was at 8. Once we got over to the hospital and checked in, we sat down for the non stress test. They hooked up a monitor to hear his heartbeat. They wanted to make sure his heartbeat went up and down to make sure he was moving around. I tried eating fruit snacks (the only thing I had to eat that morning) and poking him to no avail. So they get out something to wake him up. It vibrated at a frequency that the baby doesn't love. That got him moving around. Then she did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels. She checked in 3 spots and it was low in all spots. So that was that. I was getting checked in and taken upstairs to get induced.
After I got checked in and into a lovely hospital gown, Josh had to go pick his mom up from the airport. My parents had flown in the night before, so they kept me company while Josh left. They started me on the pitocin drip around 11. Josh got back about noon. At first, I was great, didn't feel a thing. The contractions barely felt like cramps. Then it progressed to menstrual cramps. And then harder. And then painful. The only thing that was helping was sitting forward with Josh applying counter pressure to my knees. One of the nurses told us about different positions to try. We absolutely LOVED all the nurses we had at Intermountain Healthcare. They were amazing. Everyone was so nice and accommodating. I've always heard that pitocin made contractions painful, and I can attest to that. They were quite painful. And I wasn't progressing very quickly. Dilating very slowly. Everyone thought it would last well through the night. I could not handle 12 hours of those contractions. So I gave in and got the epidural. And let me tell you, that was blissful. The pain was completely gone. I was numb from about my hips down. And chilly. Luckily Josh had brought a blanket from home. Hospital blankets are not very warm, or soft for that matter. And after the epidural, I actually got to rest a little. I was getting worn out already. I never ate breakfast since our appointment at the doctor was so early and they wouldn't let me eat once I got checked into the hospital.
After I got the epidural, I spent the rest of the day lying there, being turned from one side to the other every so often. I watched movies, talked to Josh, played on my tablet. Anything to pass the time. And the nurses would come check my progress and Joel's heart rate. And they broke my water sometime in there. At one point, his heart rate was lower than they would like, since the contractions were too strong. So they turned down the pitocin, and I got a shot to slow down contractions. And they kept putting fluid in since they had already broken my water. And inserted an internal monitor to his head instead of on my belly to more closely measure his heart rate and the strength of the contractions. Before, he would move around and the heart rate monitor would be off. I wasn't sure what was really going on, the nurses around me were all moving so fast, so busy. I just know everything turned out okay, and went back to normal.
Around midnight, I got to 9 or 10cm. But couldn't push since the doctor had an emergency cesarean section he had to perform. So around 1am, he came in and checked and had me start pushing and left. The nurse, Heidi, stayed with us and coached us through pushing. I pushed for about an hour and a half with no progress. And probably would have kept pushing like that if they hadn't noticed the meconium. Joel had had his first bowel movement. Which is bad since he was breathing it in through the amniotic fluid. So then they had to get him out more quickly. I ended up getting an episiotomy, which helped immensely. And Dr Glenn used suction to help a little bit to get him out, but luckily not forceps. He told me the suction just gave the last 10 or 20 percent to help get him out. He had a hard time getting his head through. Even with the episiotomy, he still tore his way out a little bit. Then they took him over to get cleaned off. I got to see and hold Joel for like 10 seconds before he had to go to NICU to get the meconium out of his little lungs. Josh went with him to the NICU where they put a sleep apnea machine on him to help get the meconium out. Luckily, he only had to stay for a few hours. We got to see him after his bath in the nursery and meet the pediatrician. Then we got to take him back to our room with us and have skin to skin time that we couldn't do right after he was born. He was so tiny and precious. He seems huge now comparatively. But it is also almost 4 months later.
