BabyTigger - Good luck tonight! I hope your labor goes smoothly and quickly for you.
Well that was Joey who posted for me earlier, though I see he didn't identify himself like I suggested. I'm sure you're all just dying to hear about my labor so here it is.
I think I mentioned that my OB worked with my husband Friday and told him to just have me come in Saturday, he'd be there all day, and we would just get an induction going. Well our hospital doesn't do inductions on weekends, so my OB had to fudge some stuff to get me admitted (as the charge nurse Saturday is one whom no one likes and she was getting militant about me not being in labor). So cervix was totally closed, 50% effaced (if that...), baby at -3, and though I was contracting steadily Friday and Saturday morning, they were about 8 minutes apart and not very strong. My OB then did an ultrasound where he decided the fluid was low enough to get me into labor. This was around 9:45am.
11:30am they put in Cervidil and within 20 minutes or so I was contracting regularly and decently strong. At 3pm they checked me and I was at 3cm, contracting every 2-3 minutes, but baby still -3. But it was enough progress that they took out the Cervidil and let me labor on my own. Contractions stayed strong and frequent, but at 6pm I was only 4.5cm, which they found a little odd given that this was baby #3 and I should have been moving a bit faster. They let me keep going on my own though, no pitocin/cervidil/water breaking, which was nice.
The contractions, while they were strong and frequent, were not all that painful, but when I realized around 8pm that I likely had another 10 hours or so to go, I decided to get an epi so I could take a nap cause I was exhausted. (My husband woke up around 5am Sat morning, which woke me up as well.) After they put in the epi, the OB intern came in and said she was going to break my water to speed things up, but before she did that she checked me again for dilation/baby's presentation. I was still only about 5cm (it was after 9pm), but then she said she thought she felt the umbilical cord and was getting her chief resident to check. OB chief came in and said the baby's arm and cord were presenting first and she was getting the attending.
Things moved kinda fast then, with my OB explaining that if they broke my water that cord would come rushing out before the head and we'd be in an emergency c-section with the baby out within 2 minutes. He sort of gave us the option of waiting it out to see if my water broke on its own, hoping the baby moved beforehand, and risk having a stat c-section with the baby in distress or to just consent to the c-section and do it in a calm, rational manner. So clearly there was no real choice there, we told them to get the OR going and I was back there at 9:40pm.
My biggest gripe here was not about actually having the c-section, but I kept thinking that maybe if we didn't induce labor and waited till it happened naturally that she wouldn't have been in such danger, so tons of mommy guilt. And I also thought about my 2nd pregnancy where my water broke at home and if that had been my son's presentation, or it happened with this baby, they would not have survived. But I had to put that aside pretty quickly and focus on what was actually happening, which helped quite a bit.
So she was out at 10:03pm (oddly enough, my son was born at 10:03am), healthy and yelling, with the stats my husband and Patsy posted above. They did make an attempt for me to see her, and they let Joey hold her and stuff, but I was really shaking a lot and sort of delirious so my attention was minimal. The one thing I was totally unprepared for was the amount of pain involved after the baby was out, which I guess was from something my husband called "bladder clasps" or something like that. Not just the pressure like pulling out the baby, but it was actually sorta painful, which was weird cause I was so numb. I also didn't realize it would take a good 45 minutes to sew me back up.
So we're both fine now, but the recovery is definitely different this time. I guess I wouldn't say worse than my other deliveries, but very different. Of course there is the incision site pain when I stand, walk too fast, etc., but there's no v-pain from pushing/tearing so it's a trade off. But getting up that first time was insane, that pain was crazy. And that pain mentioned above, when they were stitching me. Seriously, that stuff combined, if I had to have a c-section with my 1st, I would have reconsidered having 3 kids. My OB told me the incision is great and if I want to have a VBAC with my next kid it would be totally fine and I just stared at him and said "No way, this is it, I am done, totally done." Of course, my husband was anyway
, so that works out well.
I coughed earlier and took a Percocet cause the coughing made me feel like I was dying, so now I am sleepy and since my husband just went home to get a change of clothes, I think I'll nap. He pretty much got the day off today, which was nice. He had to get his case started this morning, but the attending he was working with was the same one who did my epi and told my husband he should really spend the day with me, not in the OR, so he let him go after that. He's on the schedule for tomorrow but should be able to get out around noon and will be able to take me home after that. Of course, if the baby came just 2 hours later, I'd get another day, but no such luck. It's just as well though cause I do need to get back to my other kids as my daughter was crying last night that she missed me and I felt terrible. My husband and mom were with them all day, but I guess it's still all confusing to a 5yo.
Oh yeah, and my clever husband was very elusive with her name from what I hear, but it is Scarlett Elizabeth. Apparently he thought it would be funny to announce that we picked a name but not what it was. And he sort of just started telling people that was the name so I figured "Fine, if you really hate Tierney that much we'll go with Scarlett." Luckily I liked both.
Baby Scarlett! 8lbs 1.4oz, 20.7"!!! 
