Madison's Birth Story...Part 2

      After a long, but exciting night, we were ready to start my induction on Thursday, September 5th. I knew it would be a long day of labor, given that I was only 1cm dilated. Shift change for the hospital happened at 7am, so waited for the day nurse and our new doctor (#2 of 3 during our hospital stay) to come before starting the induction. We absolutely loved our day time nurse! She was so kind, funny and encouraging. Once the Pitocin got started, she went to get me a rocking chair so I could rock to hopefully get Madison to drop more. I was so thankful to be able to get out of bed. I hadn't been able to lay on my back for the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy due to sciatica pain. When we got to the hospital, they didn't want me to lay on my side because it could reduce blood flow to the umbilical cord. After a night of laying on my back, I was more than happy to be able to get out of bed! The nurse told me to rock and she would come check after 30 minutes to increase the Pitocin. I started rocking and having some contractions, but they weren't anything painful or even uncomfortable.  My thoughts were that I either had a really high pain tolerance or the Pitocin wasn't fully doing it's job yet.  ;)  The nurse started the Pitocin at 2 mg/minute and within 2 hours, it was turned to 20mg/minute, the highest it could go. 
       As the day went on, the doctor came to check my progress every few hours.  Given the high dose of the Pitocin and my lack of pain with the contractions, the nurse was pretty convinced that I was not progressing.  I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes, but they were not painful and barely uncomfortable at most.  As the day went on, I was still only dilated 1 cm.  By 4pm, the doctor and nurse decided that we were going to stop the induction for the day and start Pitocin again Friday morning.  I was beyond discouraged by this point, thinking that we would for sure get to meet little Madison on Thursday.  The good news was that I was going to get to be unhooked from the monitor and eat dinner!  I hadn't eaten since lunch on Wednesday, so I was excited about eating and getting to have something to drink. 
       By 5pm, the nurse came to unhook me from the monitors.  I thought I was going to be unhooked until midnight, but she said I only had 1 hour to be unhooked.  I hurried to take a shower and enjoy my free time.  After taking a shower, I laid in the recliner in the room, which was the first time I was truly comfortable during the hospital stay.  One thing we learned quickly in the hospital was when a nurse or doctor said something was going to happen at a certain time...it never did.  Whatever they said would often happen up to 2 hours later than expected.  This wasn't true, however, when it came to the monitoring!  At 6pm on the dot, the nurse came in to have me get back into bed and start monitoring me and Madison again.  She also gave me a medicine called Cervidil, which was supposed to help my cervix begin to soften and hopefully dilate.  She said I would have the Cervidil all night and then start the Pitocin again on Friday morning.

     Selfish side note...when we went to the hospital on Wednesday, I had freshly washed and straightened hair. It looked great! After my shower on Thursday night, I had to dry my hair in bed without a mirror and didn't have my straightener. I was very sad that my hair didn't look good anymore. Fast forward to 4am Friday morning...I could have cared less what my hair looked like...I was in pain! Needless to say, my hair was not pretty by the time delivery came. =)

    When it came to the induction not working on Thursday, I was extremely frustrated, but happy to be able to eat dinner. My parents brought us pasta from Cheesecake Factory and I drank about a gallon of apple juice throughout the evening. The food was so delicious, but I wasn't able to eat much. All the fluids, baby and medicine made me full very fast. We spent the next few hours hanging out in my room. The nurse brought in a fold out bed for Eric, but they took it away a couple hours later. They said it was in the way in case I had Madison in the middle of the night, so Eric was back to sleeping on the recliner for night 2. =) 

   Around 9pm, we started to get ready for bed.  The nurse gave me an Ambien before I went to sleep, with the hopes that I would be able to sleep. I was nervous to take it since I had never taken a prescription sleep pill, but I decided to give it a try. I convinced the nurse to let me sleep in the recliner, so we moved it closer to the heart rate and contraction monitor since I had to be hooked up while I sleep. The nurse told Eric he could sleep in my hospital bed, but he decided to go sleep in the lobby. I fell asleep around 9:45 and slept great! I woke up around 11:45 and felt very shaky. The nurse said it was a side effect of the medicine and not to worry. I was able to fall back asleep and sleep until around 3:30 am. At that point it was Friday morning and things really started to intensify with my contractions. The next 8 hours were the most amazing, unexpected and emotional time of my life. 

Day 3 of Madison's birth story to come...

 

Madison's Birth Story...Part 1

I wanted to make sure to write down Madisons birth story so we can remember the day our lives changed forever. It ended up being quite a long story, so I'll break it down into a few posts.

In the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I had tons of what if thoughts. Labor and delivery, especially with the first baby, is full of unknowns. When will I go into labor? Will I wait until my scheduled induction? How long will it take? How bad will the pain be? What will she look like? The questions were running through my mind! I can say that through Madison's birth, I learned a lesson in patience and giving up control. A couple days after Madison was born, I told Eric that I felt like I was already forgetting certain parts of her delivery. He told me that was probably for the best. =) Here is Madison's long birth story, so we can remember it down the road.

On Wednesday, September 4th, I left school around lunch time to go to a meeting. On the way to the meeting, I wasn't feeling great, so I stopped to get some lunch and a drink to bring with me. During the meeting, my back was hurting pretty bad, which was not something totally abnormal. Throughout the meeting, I was having contractions and back pain. I got up a few times to walk around and decided to time a couple of the contractions to pass the time. They were consistently 9-10 minutes apart, but not extremely painful. Towards the end of the meeting I started to feel nauseous and thought it was because I was hungry. After the meeting, I called my mom and told her I wasn't feeling too well, so I was going to go home to lay in the bath and would call her if I needed her to come over. I also called the doctor to check in about my contractions. The nurse said to take a bath, lay down for an hour and see if they went away or got better. 

When I got home around 4pm, I ate an apple, drank some water and laid in the bath for about 20 minutes. My back started to feel better, but I kept feeling nauseous. I got out of the bath so I could go eat a bigger snack. Shortly after getting out of the bath, I started throwing up uncontrollably. I called my parents to come over to stay with me in case I needed to go to the hospital. (Eric works at the hospital, so that's why he wasn't coming home. If we needed to go to the hospital, there was no need for him to come all the way home.) I decided to call the doctor back at 5pm to tell them that I had been throwing up. My contractions were still about 10 minutes apart. After talking with the doctor, the nurse told me that they wanted me to head to the hospital to get monitored and make sure I wasn't dehydrated. Since I have had issues with the umbilical cord, the doctors have been a little more cautious. When we left for the hospital, I was sure that I would get fluids, be monitored for a couple hours and be sent home. I called Eric and told him to finish up his paperwork, get some dinner and meet me at the hospital. 

Fast forward...we got checked into the hospital and hooked up to the monitors. After a little while, the doctor came in and said things looked good and I was most likely going home after they monitored for a while longer. I was scheduled to be induced the following Monday, but since I wasn't 39 weeks, the doctor couldn't induce me because there wasn't a medical need. Eric got to the hospital around 7 and we started to call some people to tell them what was going on. After that, everything kind of started to blend together and the hours passed.  We hung out in the hospital room, convinced that I was going home and this was just a false alarm.  At some point between 8-9, the doctor and nurse came running in the room, saying that Madison heart rate was dropping and rising, showing that she was in distress. The doctor said he was going to induce me to see how Madison tolerated labor, but I needed to wrap my head around a possible c-section. Since Madison's heart rate was inconsistent, there was now a medical reason I could be induced. As we were waiting for the induction to begin, her heart rate continued to not be as stable as they wanted it to be. The doctor said there was one person in labor before me and then we were going to move towards a c-section. I was surprisingly calm about the thought of having a c-section, knowing that keeping Madison safe was the most important thing. They nurse gave Eric his gear to wear in the operating room and started my IV. 

By this time, it was after 9pm and Eric was excited that he was going to become a daddy on Hump Day. ;)  My parents, grandparents, Eric's parents, Michael and Katie were all at the hospital by this point. I couldn't believe what was happening and that we were going to meet our baby girl! The doctor came in a few times to check on us and keep us updated on when we would go back to surgery since the hospital was extremely busy that night. As time passed ( I think around midnight), Madison's heart rate started to improve, which we were so thankful for. The doctor decided to go back to trying to induce me and see how Madison handled it. He kept having to wait for people to deliver, just in case the induction went bad and we had to go straight to a c-section. By this time, it was 4am. We hadn't slept, I hadn't eaten since lunch and we were ready to get things going.

Day 2 of Madison's labor to be continued...

 

Madison Elisabeth Konesheck

                                                      Madison Elisabeth Konesheck

                                                      September 6, 2013  10:19 AM

                                                             7 lbs. 9 oz.    20 inches

                         

6 Days Until Madison's Birthday!

 

We officially found out today that I will get induced next Monday, September 9th!  We are so excited finally meet Madison!


Since last Tuesday, August 27th, my doctors appointments have gotten interesting again. Madison has been a little lazy on the stress test monitoring. She had to get "shocked" by the doctor with this little thing that looks like a small microdermabrasion scrubber. On that same day, I was worn out and really not feeling good. My doctor could tell I was worn out and began to discuss how work was going and looking towards an induction. (It turns out my allergies hit me hard the next day and I have had sinus issues for a week now.  I am finally starting to feel better.)  He did an ultrasound that day just to make sure Madison was growing properly and had good fluid around her. Everything checked out well! She has a small head and big belly...just like her mommy right now! Her head was measuring about 35 weeks 6 days and her belly was measuring 38 weeks 4 days. I'm ok with her head being small at this point! 

 

Today, September 3rd, she was being VERY lazy! After 3 shocks, 45 minutes of monitoring and an ultrasound, Madison finally got moving and "passed" her stress test. As we were watching the monitor, Eric and I were both preparing ourselves that today could be Madison's birthday. The doctor did another ultrasound.  Her fluid was still good, she had a strong heartbeat and her umbilical cord was flowing well, so off we went!  I will go back to the doctor on Friday for my last OB appointment! 

 

The doctor is going to schedule is for an induction next Monday, September 9th. The single artery umbilical cord was the original reason for the twice a week monitoring. We consider ourselves very lucky to have made it this far without bed rest. Madison is more than ready to come out and we are more than ready to meet her!  From what we know so far, we will go to the hospital Sunday night to get prepped and start the induction Monday morning. So...the final countdown is on... 6 more days until we finally meet Madison!

 http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me01zbd6ir1qlbwk6o1_500.jpg

38 & 39 Weeks

This update is a couple days early, but I know the next few days are going to be busy!

August 26 & September 5, 2013

Baby news: Our baby is 20 inches and 7.25 pounds!

How far along? 38 weeks 5 days

Total weight gain/loss: I finally hit the 20 pound mark! My belly button is still hanging on, but starting to stick out a little more. 

Sleep: I slept so good over Labor Day weekend! I slept from 11pm- 8:30am each day. I even took a 2 hour nap in bed one day...I felt amazing afterwards! 

 

Thankfully I have been sleeping a little better at night.  I still wake up every 1-2 hours and rolling over is extremely painful. I am thankful that I have been feeling more rested lately. I get up at least 3 times a night to go to the bathroom, between midnight to 6am, which is comical at this point. 

Best moment this week: We made it through the first week of school! Overall, it was a great first week seeing all the kids back at school and meeting lots of new little ones. It is so funny to hear some of the things the kids say about my belly and Madison. For Labor Day, Eric and I had a low key weekend. We stayed at home almost all day Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, Michael, Heather and the kids came to visit. 

Cravings: I still can't get enough orange juice. Surprisingly, I have been tired of water lately, but still very thirsty. I have been craving lemonade a few times a week. 

Movement: Madison has run out of room. She will stick out her bottom or feet here and there, but she doesn't have room for big movements anymore.

Wedding rings/Swelling: Rings are officially off. I have been wearing another ring that I have in place of my wedding rings.

Mood: The first few days of school were rough! I was physically and mentally exhausted. As the week went on, things got a little easier. I'm not to the point of being miserable, but I am definitely ready for the next stage and to meet Madison. 

Looking forward to: Monday, September 9th will be Madison's birthday! I will be getting induced that morning if she doesn't come this week. We are excited to have an end in mind!

Anything Else??

17 weeks to 38 weeks...holy belly!