On Monday, June 25,2012 at around 1:30am my water broke. I wasn't sure what exactly was going on, so I called Triage to see what to do. They told me that I should come in and they would do a test to see if in fact my water had broken. We were told not to rush, so after showering and packing the car just in case I was in labor, we hit the road. We arrived at Merriter hospital at around 3:15am.
After doing a test, they confirmed that my water had indeed broke. Jordan and I were in shock and could not believe we were about to have a baby! I had myself convinced that I was going to have him late, so to have my water break a week early was quite an awesome surprise!
After waiting a few minutes, they brought us to our birthing suite. They drew my blood, and then placed an I.V. in my arm (just in case I were to have an epidural later, or a c-section). Surprisingly they were able to get my blood with one draw ( I had started chugging water b/c a different mom had told me to hydrate yourself as soon as you know your in labor). The I.V. was not as smooth. After several attempts, the fourth finally was successful.
Since I was having contractions, they told me to try and get some sleep and they would check my progress later in the morning.
Around 9am they came in and checked and I hadn't progressed at all. They decided to give me
Misoprostol. It is a pill that is inserted to help ripen and move the dialation process along.
Four hours of contractions went by and I still had not made any progress, so they decided to insert another pill. After another four hours of contractions and no progress they decided to give me
Cervadil. This is a long string-like thing that is inserted and is another way to help ripen and move the dialation process along.
Here I am using the birthing ball which was the most comfortable for me during contractions. It didn't last long though becasue my blood pressure rose so high that they ended up confining me to bed.
The Cirvadil I could tell had more effect on my body because my contractions were even more intense and painful than the ones earlier. So four hours later I was very upset to find our that I was only dialated to a 2. The Dr. that was on call at the time decided I needed another pill inserted. After waiting a long time.....a new Dr. that came in (because the other one's shift was over) and was confused why they wanted to put another pill in me- she thought I should get
Pitocin. This is injected through the I.V.- again to jump start labor. (This Dr. I liked a lot! Smart lady!)
With Pitocin on the way, and after 31 hours of contractions and no sleep- I decided I wanted an epidural. This was a very big decision for me to make, becasue I really really wanted to try for a natural delivery. I was so thankful for the epidural though because it took the pain away almost immediately, and I finally was able to get some sleep. The Pitocin also seemed to work wonders on dialating me compared to the others because after being hooked up at 10am, I was ready to start pushing at around 7:45pm.
The Dr. that was on call at the hospital had to deliver 2 other babies, so they had to call in another Dr. At 8:20 the new Dr. finally arrived and I was able to start pushing. At 10:28, Leyton was born.
It was scary at first, because the cord was wrapped around his neck so they snipped it and put him on my chest. My precious little boy was purple and they immediately grabbed him right back and started yelling to get more nurses and pediatricians from the NICU. We were confused and they kept telling us he was fine, but I was a mess! I couldn't hear him crying, I couldn't see him. All I did see was Dr. after Dr. rush in the room. After 15 minutes, but what seemed like forever, I heard my little boy cry. They said that he was taking breaths here and there.....but wasn't able to breathe on his own at first. When they finally handed him to Jordan, I knew everything was going to be ok.
I did hemmhorage, and they had to insert a pill to stop the bleeding. It didn't work, so again they entered something into my I.V. Thankfully that slowed the bleeding.
After 45 hours of labor, and a few scares we held our son and thanked God for our precious little miracle- Leyton Lee Howard.
We had lots of family waiting for his arrival.
G-Ma Laura
G-Pa Kyle & G-Ma Donna
G-Pa Mike & G-Ma Bonnie
Great G-Ma Phyl
After our visitors we enjoyed a nice Dominos pizza dinner while Leyton had his first bath.
We were then moved into our recovery room for the next day and night.
