And, We're Off

Well, I didn’t sleep much last night.  We were up getting things ready until about 1am.  I slept for about ½ an hour while Mitch was finishing up, then I woke up when he came to bed and couldn’t get comfortable again after that.  I think I looked at the clock last at 3am, and we got up at 5:30.

At 6, we had to call the hospital to make sure that we were still good to come in for an induction today, and were pleased to know that we could still come in.  I don’t know what I would have done if they had told me there was no room at the inn, and we had to wait longer.  The waiting has been excruciating.

We got checked in quickly, and were moved up to labor and delivery by about 7:15.  The nurse got me all prepped, then tried to put in an IV.  She first tried on my right hand.  She was using a he needle, and it actually felt like she had pricked me in TWO places.  Eventually, the vein blew, and she had to try again.  The second time, she tried it in my left arm and used a smaller needle.  Other than the initial prick, I didn’t feel that one.  Unfortunately, she couldn’t get it into the vein, so she had to call in some backup.  After digging for more than 5 minutes, the second nurse came in with no success.  A couple of minutes later, a third nurse came in and continued digging.  She blew the second vein.  She put it in one more time, this time in my left hand.  That hurt more than the previous one, but not nearly as bad as the first.

Twenty minutes, three tries, and three nurses later, the IV was in.

Next, it was time for the doctor to come in and break my water.  That process was a little different than had been described to me, and parts of it were fairly uncomfortable.  When that was over, they tried to catheterize me in order to monitor my contractions, but after a few minutes, that wasn’t working, and they decided to try again after I get my epidural.

I forgot to tell the nurse that we’re doing cord blood, so she had to draw more blood.  She stuck me once, but after about 5 minutes, she was unable to draw enough blood to finish up, so she ended up taking the rest out of the IV.  Neither of those hurt thankfully!

Around 9:15, we started the Petocin.  I think that I am feeling contractions now.  They’re pretty annoying, I have to admit.  I’ll have to get the epidural because I am having a v-back.  They want the line in just in case we have to have an emergency c-section.  I may ask for it soon just to get it over with.  I’m kind of tired of getting stuck at this point!

This is my final baby bump picture.  I didn't remember that I had left it on manual focus, so this is the best one we got.  Oh well, you can see the bump at least.