Wednesday evening, we left our house around 4:00 and I had a really hard time saying goodbye to our dogs. I knew that this was the last time I'd see them before the baby was here and everything would be different then. I think it was all just hitting me and I got a little overwhelmed...I just couldn't stop crying.
We made a stop at the studio to pick up my camera and take one last belly photo, then we headed to the east side of Wichita to eat our last meal at Chili's. We talked a lot about what was about to happen - it was the perfect way to start off our birth experience.
At 6:00pm Wednesday evening, we arrived at Wesley and headed up to the labor and delivery floor. We had to wait about an hour in the waiting room for a delivery room to be available for us. Once we got to our room, I changed into the lovely hospital gown, and Adam and I were half giddy/half what-is-about-to-happen-oh-my-gosh. Okay, maybe that was just me.
Rachael drove down from KC to be here for everything, and she arrived about this time. She ended up spending most of Wednesday evening with us, and it was nice to have the company. A nurse came in and started my IV, took all my vitals, and hooked me up to a contraction monitor and fetal heart monitor.
After awhile, the resident who was there - Dr. Oller - came in to talk to us about the drug they were going to use that evening to begin the process. It was called Cytotec and was just a pill they inserted and it dissolved over time. It's main job was to soften my cervix, but for many women, it also jump starts contractions. They did regular checks of my progress. I started out at what he said was 2cm and 30% effaced (so different from what my OB said).
Adam set up the pull-out bed and tried to get comfortable for our long night. At some point during the night, I started having very mild contractions. I wouldn't have known they were contractions, but the monitor on my belly showed that they were. After feeling those, I realized that I'd been having them at home over the past few weeks, but it was basically just a tightening, so I just thought it was the baby moving.
About 5am on Thursday morning, they came in and started the pitocin. This is the drug that was supposed to put me into full-on labor...and it did! I started having more regular contractions, and then my water broke on it's own at 6:15am. That was quite the strange experience. We were still kinda sleeping, and I changed positions. Then I heard a little pop in my stomach...and I felt a little trickle of fluid. Then a big gush. I said "Adam..." he woke up and looked at me, "I think my water just broke." He bolted out of bed, and helped me to the bathroom, while it kept gushing.
After my water broke, the contractions started becoming a lot more intense. I couldn't talk through them and would have to just focus on my breathing. I progressed pretty quickly after that and was told around 8 or 9am that I was at 4cm and that I could have my epidural. My thought was, "Already?" Adam encouraged me to go ahead and get it, so we called for the anesthesiologist.
Getting the epidural wasn't bad at all. The lady explained everything she was doing before she did it. I sat on the side of my bed, curled over around the baby to open up the spaces in my back. I got a shot to numb the area, and that was probably the worst part, though it wasn't bad at all, just a little sting. Then they put in the epidural cathedar and taped it all up. My legs slowly started getting warm and tingly, and the contractions slowly started to ease up. Once I couldn't feel them at all, I was a little giddy and feeling great.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur, and I attribute that to the epidural. It messed with my brain. I slept on and off, and my parents and Adam's parents hung out with us. Rachael was there too...and since she's a nurse, she asked my nurses lots of questions. I had some great nurses - Rosie was the nurse who was with me through most of my labor and was amazing. Unfortunately, her shift ended at 3pm, so she wasn't around to meet Sutton.
I progressed pretty fast, and the doctor made a comment that we might have a baby sometime between noon and 3pm. But unfortunately, when I hit 7cm, I stalled and stayed there for several hours. They kept changing the amounts of pitocin that were being administered to try to get the contractions to be most effective. During the course of the day, I had some great residents work with me - Dr. Loney and Dr. Cooper were both great. At 3pm, Joni came on as my nurse and she was great.
I got really scared towards the end because the baby's heart rate kept dropping with each contraction. At one point, it went below 100bpm and my nurse called to tell the doctor that. Hearing the concern from her, just made me freak out and start crying. They gave me an oxygen mask and had me lay on one side (I had been switching, laying on both sides) from then on. His heartbeat continued to drop during contractions, but not nearly as much, and I guess that's normal.
I went from 7cm to 9.5cm pretty quickly, but there was a small "anterior lip" of my cervix that wouldn't go away, so they kept putting off pushing. After awhile, they decided we should just go ahead and start pushing because he was very low. We started pushing around 4pm.
Before the pushing.
Pushing was interesting...I didn't know if I was really doing anything because I couldn't feel it. I just did what I thought I was supposed to, and they said that was perfect. With each contraction, I would push three times, 8 seconds each. Each time, they kept telling me he was getting lower and lower. They even told me he had light-colored hair at one point. I was slightly discouraged through all of this because my OB wasn't there, and no one had made any mention of calling him - which I knew they'd do if I was close. I guess towards the end, the baby wasn't moving down much, but no one told me that. They started discussing the use of a vaccuum.
Towards the beginning of the pushing, I started having an ache in my left abdomen. It wasn't too horrible, but each time I had to curl over it to hold my legs and push, it got progressively worse. The nurse in charge of anesthesia came in and gave me more medicine since it looked like I might be pushing for awhile. It didn't touch the pain. It kept getting worse and worse and worse. And I kept having to fight through it and push through it and it was the worst pain I've ever felt. Worse than contractions had been. At one point, I was having the horrible pain, I was pushing, and the nurse was poking my belly with a needle to see how far up I was numb. That was the worst moment.
As I was working through this pain and through pushing, they brought up the vaccuum possibility and also called my OB, Dr. Kauffman. I was getting discouraged and so we decided to take a break from pushing while we waited for Dr. Kauffman to get there. The nurse's anesthetist thought the pain in my side was probably being caused by the baby pushing on a nerve, and she said there wasn't much they could do to stop that kind of pain. While I was resting from pushing, I had them lower my bed so it was flat and they turned me on my right side because I thought that position would be more comfortable. While I was laying like that, they gave me a different kind of medicine through my epidural (which I didn't even notice, Adam told me this later). So somehow between the change of position and the new medicine, my horrible pain slowly went away.
Dr. Kauffman got there right as the pain was ending and asked if I wanted to continue pushing on my own, or if I wanted to use the vaccuum. I told him I could give him two more contractions worth of pushing. Between him and Dr. Loney, they were my hugest cheerleaders. They kept telling me how good I was pushing and how he was getting lower. Adam was on my left, giving me oxygen between contractions, and he was so helpful too - whispering in my ear, brushing my hair back from my face. I love him so much more after this whole thing.
The two pushes didn't quite do it, but I found the strength to continue somehow...I just didn't want to have to use the vaccuum. With the encouragement of my doctors and nurses, I was able to push harder than ever at the end, and finally, after two and a half hours, Sutton Grey was born at 6:35pm. They held him up for Adam and I to see and he had the hugest conehead :) and I started crying, of course. Adam and I couldn't take our eyes off of him. Adam went down to see the baby and they asked if he wanted to cut the cord. We'd discussed beforehand that he didn't want to, but then the doctors surprised me and asked if I wanted to. So I cut his cord, which was super weird just because the consistency of the cord was not what I expected!
Sutton Grey Dreher
They took him away to clean him up and do some screenings, and I just couldn't stop staring at him across the room. He was perfect and BIG. He kept crying and crying, and I found out later that my dad and Rachael had been pacing outside my room (because no one was giving them updates), and they heard him crying and that's how they knew he was here! They went and told everyone else, and they all came and stood outside the door to hear him.
Dr. Kauffman and our boy.
About 15 minutes before he was born, Dr. Kauffman asked me to make a prediction on his weight. I said 9 pounds. He ended up being 9 pounds, 2 ounces, so I was very close! They had him for about 30 minutes before they gave him to me, which was pretty sad, but I was being stitched up and they wanted to finish all his tests. When they finally handed him to me...nothing else mattered. He was beautiful and perfect and healthy, and I was so in love!
Holding my son for the first time.
Probably about an hour after he was born, all the family came in to meet him. We'd kept his name a secret until then, so when everyone came in, I was holding him, and I said "This is Sutton." It was a pretty awesome moment. I think I probably cried then more than anyone else. :) My mom held him a little bit, and then all the family left. It had been a long day. We had several friends come to visit that evening, and we stayed in the delivery room for about 3 hours after he was born.
Around 10pm, they brought me a wheelchair, but my legs still weren't really working so I needed a lot of help getting into it. We went up to the recovery floor and got settled into our room. That first night was awesome. Sutton slept wonderfully and only woke up once. Adam slipped right into the role of being a dad and changed all the diapers since I wasn't mobile. He also learned how to swaddle Sutton in a blanket because that's what keeps him happiest. Sutton loves his daddy.
We spent the next day resting in the hospital, and I was actually able to take a shower on my own, which felt great. Rachael hung out with us both days we were in the hospital, which was wonderful because since she's a NICU nurse, she was able to answer lots of our questions. She even went with him Saturday afternoon when he was circumsized and she said he did great. We also had an echocardiogram done Saturday morning due to a heart murmur they heard. Adam went with Sutton to have that done. Everything came back normal, thank goodness.
Sutton (making one of his many funny faces) and I with Aunt Rachael.
Sutton's first experience with clothes.
Three generations of Dreher men. Sutton has the responsibility of carrying on the Dreher name.
We were finally able to go home around 3:30 on Saturday, so we loaded Sutton up in his carseat for the first time and went for our first car ride. He didn't even notice. When we got home, the dogs were so excited to see us after 3 days of being apart. They were also very interested in the little person we brought home with us. They kept trying to smell and lick him. We got lots of pictures of them meeting Sutton for the first time. Since the novelty has worn off, Axl is mostly disinterested and tends to leave the room when he starts crying. Diesel, on the other hand, is very curious and always needs to know where Sutton is. He likes to try to lick his head, but we don't let him. The barking hasn't phased Sutton at all, which is what I expected since he heard them bark so much while I was still pregnant with him.
We're settling in here at home, and I'm sure I'll write more about that later. It's hard to imagine having time/motivation to do anything else right now - cleaning the house, going to work, etc. Hopefully these weeks we have off will help that feeling.
The most amazing thing so far is the bond that's formed between Adam and Sutton. Adam is the most amazing, hands-on dad I've ever seen. Since I've been so sore, Adam's been doing the majority of the diapers and getting up at night. He loves holding him and talking to him. The love we have for this little person is so much more than I ever could've imagined.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. We had an awesome delivery experience, despite the pain, I wouldn't change a thing!
