I went in on Sunday evening for a gel application to jump start things, and boy did it ever. They sent me home just after 9pm and told me to call whenever I woke up in the morning. Well, I woke up at 1:30am when my water broke and my contractions were already 4 minutes apart and pretty painful. We made it to the hospital about 2:00am and I was 4cm. At that point I was ready to give in to an epidural because all the contractions were in my back and extremely painful! When they checked me not even an hour later though I was 8cm so there was really no med option and just knowing that things were progressing that fast I knew I could do it. About 3 contractions later I was fully dilated and pushing. Everyone is right, pushing feels SO good at that point! Now quite sure how long I pushed, Ben and I are guessing maybe 20 minutes, and she was out and perfect. :)
Labor was the easy part...
A couple of hours later they had me up to go to the bathroom and I almost passed out. My bp was down to about 80/50 and I was bleeding a lot (more than normal that is). They put me on oxygen and started a catheter and waited for the doctor to come assess the situation. Apparently my uterus didn't stay firm enough as it contracted, which lead to excessive bleeding and clotting. So, he ended up massaging it down and manually working the clots out (AWFUL) and then they had me on several different IV meds throughout the day to keep my uterus firm. I am doing much better now, but my iron level is still extremely low and I'm on some supplements to get that back up. I am actually in the blood transfusion range, but I seemed to be doing well enough that they didn't think that was necessary. I just need to be careful to not over-do it right now.
We got discharged around lunch time today and are in the process of settling in at home. I am sure I will have plenty more pics to post in the coming days, but here are a few. I can't believe I'm a mommy!
