On September 28th at 7:48 am we welcomed into the world our dear little Sophia. She has quickly become the second love of my life. I simply adore her. Even when she's screaming at the top of her lungs... she's freakin' cute.
So here's the story....
On my due date, Friday the 27th, I called my doctor's office because I noticed some red bumps on my arms that were kind of itchy. I was pretty sure it was nothing serious, but I thought I would call and ask anyway. They told me to go to the hospital that day for a non stress test and then Saturday I should go get blood work done. I guess there is a condition that can happen late in pregnancy that affects your liver and can cause a rash. Its called cholestasis. I'll tell you now, that it turns out I did not have this, something I am very happy about because if I did have it, it is very likely that I would have it in subsequent pregnancies.
Anyway, I go in for the NST with my mom and Kostya. First thing my mom notices is that I'm having contractions (a fact that I was not aware of until she pointed it out) and so like a good mother she started timing them :P. They were actually really regular. So the nurse comes back in after a while of monitoring Sophia's heart rate and says, "Well, I've got good news and I've got bad news. The good news is that you are going to have this baby today, the bad news is that I'm not really happy with what her heart rate is doing." Her heart rate wasn't terrible, but I guess it just wasn't super great and combined with the fact that she was already full term and the possibility of me having cholestasis, they thought it was a good idea to induce me. So they sent me up to labor and delivery.
I got there in the late afternoon and they told me they were going to try using a pill called cytotec to start the labor process. They give you doses every three hours and by the second dose I was definitely feeling the contractions. I was also dilating fine so they told me I wouldn't even need the pitocin. People, if you can avoid being induced I would highly recommend it. My contractions were out of control, and all the nurses could say was "yeah... that's the cytotec...". At one point the nurse told me, "you know, we normally see maybe three or four contractions on the monitor at a time, but you've had five and six sometimes..." There were times when the contraction would just start to go down and boom it would go right back up. It felt like non stop contractions. I made it probably a couple of hours and the nurse offered me fentanyl. That helped for a little while, but made me a little loopy. Seriously, the room was spinning. Finally, I asked for the epidural and I'm glad I did when I did because the anesthesiologist was just heading into a c-section. I don't know how I could have waited any longer. I was disappointed that I had to get one so early because I wanted to be able to move around as long as possible, but it was definitely worth it.
The nurses would come in and check on me every hour or so and help me roll over (because of the epidural) which was kind of annoying when all you want to do is either have the baby or sleep. But the good news is that I was making great progress. All in all I think I was in labor for about 12ish hours, which for being induced is not bad at all. Early morning the nurse came in and said I was at 10 centimeters so technically I could start pushing, but the doctor wanted me to wait another hour so that the baby could come down as far as possible on her own. (By the way, my doctor was not on call :( so I had to use a different doctor. He was good though. Except for the moment when I told him that I could feel him putting in the stitches and he said, "Sweetie its all in your head, you had an epidural." and I said, "Well, then the epidural is wearing off because I can feel it and it hurts." and he said, "Oh, well we better hurry then."). Anyway, an hour later the nurse comes back in and we start pushing. About fifteen minutes later she says, "uhh, we need to stop until the doctor gets here." I guess she was coming pretty quick. The doctor came in and we started again. Seriously, before I knew it I had given birth! It was definitely one of the strangest and most awesome feelings/experiences of my life. Unfortunately, Sophia was having some trouble breathing and they had to take her to the NICU to put a CPAP on her. I asked if I could see her though, and they did let me hold her for a couple minutes before they took her away. Not being able to be with her right away was probably one of the saddest/most disappointing parts of the whole experience. But I'm glad she is healthy.
So that, in a nutshell, is how little Sophia came into this world. I have to say, I am so grateful to the nurses that helped me. They really were so awesome, kind and supportive. They all wrote on a card that they gave to me after, which I think is a really cool thing.
So far Kostya and I are loving being parents, even though it means less sleep and a slightly more messy apartment. I can't wait to see what the future holds for our little family.
