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| Wyatt Joseph Peters- The Delivery |
Click on the picture above to view the photos of our little Wyatt's welcome into the world...
On Wednesday, August 10th, Joe and I left our home as a family of 2 for the last time. We headed over to Athens Regional Medical Center where we checked in and were taken to our room in the labor and delivery unit. Because I was being induced, they had to make my cervix favorable for delivery. One of the nurses applied Cervadil, which is used to soften the cervix. The Cervadil has to remain in the cervix for 12 hours, so Joe and I settled in for the long night after enjoying a milkshake from the McDonald's across the street.
August 11, 2011:
7am~ the nurse came and removed the Cervadil application. They also went ahead and put me on a low dose of Pitocin to help jump start contractions and labor. Breakfast (fruit and oatmeal) arrived shortly there after and I ate at 8am.
9am~ my doctor came to check on me and insert the balloon catheter into my cervix to help dilate me. The procedure hurt VERY bad, and all I kept thinking was, quite asking me if I'm OK and hurry up! The catheter is inserted into the baby's side of the cervix, and then the doctor inflates the balloon and gives it a tug so that it sits right at the opening of my cervix. The purpose of the catheter is to mimic the baby's head so that the cervix dilates enough to where he can then break my water and have the baby's head come down to continue on with labor and delivery. The doctor suggested having IV pain medication administered to help take the edge off as the contractions would be starting...I obliged. After they had inserted the catheter, I began having mild contractions and I was still trying to adjust to this balloon catheter device. I don't tolerate pain in my lower abdomen very well and what typically happens....did. I threw up my breakfast. The one meal that I was going to get to eat that day had escaped me.
12pm~ My doctor came to check on me and see how I was progressing. At this point, it was looking as if the catheter was working. I had dilated to 3-4 cm and the doctor felt that was enough to go ahead and remove the catheter and break my water. They also upped the dosage of Pitocin which caused me to have stronger contractions. Fortunately, they weren't bad and were totally manageable. Most of my contractions were being felt in my lower back. I would watch the monitor and when I saw one coming on, I would have Joe press on my back where I was feeling the pressure of the contraction. Worked like a charm! Because I technically ate at 8am, I couldn't get an epidural until 2pm. My friend Sarah gave me a little bit of advice and said that the moment I felt any discomfort, I should go ahead and request the epidural because it takes the anesthesiologist about 45 minutes to come down, insert the epidural, and for the pain meds to kick in.
2pm~ I informed the nurse that I wanted to go ahead and get an epidural. At this point, the contractions were getting much stronger, but I was able to push through them. The anesthesiologist came down around 2:25 and did the procedure. Getting an epidural was the one thing that I was terrified of. You watch it being done on other people and the needle looks like it's a foot long, or someone tells you that they don't just insert a needle...they drill into your spine, etc. All I kept telling myself was don't look at anything the doctor brings into the room...just hold Joe's hand and breathe. I'm not sure why I got all worked up over this whole epidural thing, because all if felt like was a bee sting.
3pm~ I can no longer feel the contractions, but I also can no longer feel my right leg. Very awkward feeling and annoyingly uncomfortable. I had to get someone to move my leg for me if I wanted to change positions. It was also about this time that I started to really miss my breakfast. It didn't help that my visitors were so kindly eating all sorts of yummy foods right in front of me...everything from sandwiches, quesadillas, milkshakes, fried chicken (oh the horror!), etc.
5pm~ The doctor came in to check on me and I had dilated to 5cm. He said he was going to go and have dinner with his family but would be on standby should anything major happen.
7:30pm~ Doctor returns...I'm still at 5cm. He said he would be back around 9:30 to see if we've made anymore progress.
9:30pm~ Still at 5cm. At this point, the doctor says that maybe we should think about the possibility of having a C-Section. He said we could wait and ride it out, but you might run into the fact that the baby is just too big to fit through the birth canal and we'd end up having to have a C-Section anyway. Throughout my pregnancy, I was never opposed to having a C-Section. In fact, I told my doctor that if I was going to be in labor for 24 hours in pain, then I had no problem in skipping all of that and just having him cut out. Fortunately, I wasn't ever really in any pain throughout the laboring process, but I do have to admit that I did get a little emotional after having sat there ALL day long and not being able to cross the finish line, so to say. I was also worried that I wouldn't be able to properly bond with my baby by having that immediate skin to skin contact. Joe and I talked things through and he calmed me down, like he always does, and I knew that moving forward with the C-Section was going to be the right choice and even if I wasn't able to immediately put Wyatt on my chest, we would have plenty of time to bond.
10:00pm~ I let the doctor know that I was OK with moving forward with the C-Section. He also made me feel confident that I was making a good decision and that there was no need to worry about anything. In fact he said, "Everything will be perfectly fine. Nowadays, C-Sections are one of the most common surgeries performed in America." Maybe it was the drugs or maybe it was just me trying to be funny, but I replied..."Really? More common than boob jobs?" This is the point where I should have inserted my foot into my mouth because I looked over at my nurse and definitely noticed that she'd had a boob job!!! After the doctor left the room, the nurse and I laughed about it. She said that she exclusively fed her 3 boys breast milk and the money she saved her husband from having to buy formula would cover the cost to have her girls put back in place! She then prepped me for surgery and wheeled me back, sans Joe. They would come and get him in a few minutes (turned out to be about 45 and poor Joe was a total stress ball and could barely stand up straight to walk back to the operating room).
In the operating room~ I get back to the operating room and Adele (one of my favorite singers) is blaring in the background. Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffet were the other options but I think the doctors and nurses felt those CDs were a little over played and were happy that I opted for something different. At this point, I'll always remember that the songs "Rolling in the Deep" and "Rumor Has It" were the last songs played (that I remember) before our son was born. The nurses transferred me over to the operating table and strapped me down...as in I felt like I was about to get a lethal injection. At this point, I started to feel a little nauseous. They gave me some oxygen and continued to "numb me up". Fast forward to the doctor poking with something and asking if I could feel it or not. The only place I could feel it was right where he was about to cut. I made sure I to tell him that I still had feeling there...maybe he didn't hear me!?!?! Then I feel this scratching sensation...yep, he was definitely cutting. I told the nurse, "Uh, I can feel him cutting me...it's quite uncomfortable." It never really hurt, but the fact that you know there is a guy on the other side of the curtain with a scalpel in his hand slicing you open is a very disturbing sensation. It felt like a cat scratching me over and over again in the same place. I think was around the time I passed out (first of many). I really don't even remember Joe coming into the room.
The delivery~ I woke up and said, "Ow! That hurts!" I've never felt so much pressure on my abdomen before. The doctor said they were almost there and that this particular layer was the hardest to get through. At 10:55pm, I heard the sweet cries of our son. Boy does he have a good set of lungs! For some reason, it felt like eternity to get the rest of his body out, but Joe said it was only about 5 seconds. They took him over to the scales and cleaned him up and weighed him. He was 8lbs 8oz and 20" long (although we think he may have been a little longer because he was 21.5" at his 2 week appointment). I had passed out again but the nurse came over and said, "Lindsay, your son Wyatt is here" and I immediately woke up and reached out for him. I don't remember much of this, but Joe said that the nurse said they needed to take him and I refused to let him go. As they finally got him out of my grasp, Wyatt reached out and grabbed my hair and wouldn't let go of it. I'd like to consider this our first bonding moment :) Joe followed Wyatt to the nursery to get him fully cleaned, check vitals, etc. as I waited to be stitched up. At one point, I woke up again in pain and told the doctor that whatever he was doing was hurting. He said he only had 3 more staples to put in...STAPLES!!! I stopped asking questions at that point.
Recovery~ Joe and Wyatt came into the room and I got to hold Wyatt for the first time. It was love at first sight and he was the most perfect looking angel I had ever seen. I held him against my chest and gave him the biggest hug. At one point, he started crying and I sang him "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. I would sing this song to him while I was pregnant and the minute I started singing it to him, he stopped crying and looked right into my eyes. Ahhh....love at first sight! All of my worries about not being able to bond with him had totally escaped my mind.
Mother baby Unit~ We were wheeled over to the mother baby unit after spending about 45 minutes in recovery. Wyatt met his Granny LiLi (my mom) and Grandma DeDe and Grandpa Joe (Joe's parents). I think it was close to 1am at this point and shortly there after, Joe, Wyatt, and myself settled in for our first night as a family of three.
