When I found out that I was going to be admitted to the hospital that night at 37 weeks because I had developed preeclampsia, I had so many emotions running through my head. I was happy, excited, relieved, nervous but mostly afraid. I had thought that I still had 3 weeks left but here I was about to have the baby as soon as the next day. I wasn't necessarily mentally prepared for what was about to come but in hind sight I'm kind of glad it happened the way it did. I tend to over analyze and obsess over little things so I know that if I were to have been coming up to my due date I would be a nervous wreck. After I called my husband to let him know what was going on he got his affairs in order at work and let them know he was going to start his 2 week vacation. He was also surprised but excited that all this was going to happen so fast. When I got home I finished packing up the little things that I needed to put in our hospital bag. I had luckily started packing it a week ago just in case. Since we knew now that we were most likely going to be away from home for potentially 3-4 days we decided that it would be best for us to take our dogs to day care while we were gone. Since our dogs were puppies we have been taking them to day care once a week to get some extra play time in. My husband and I work long hours so by the time we get home from work we are beat. So doggy day care was something that we knew they would love but also it would help them grow up to be used to meeting new dogs. So after I finished packing up our hospital bag, I started getting the dogs food ready for day care. Our cats on the other hand just stayed home and we had someone stop by once a day to check up on them. I had bought an automated cat feeder earlier in the year to try and help with the cats vomiting problem. It seemed to help since they were now used to a strict timed feeding schedule and I was able to set the feeder go off more often and in smaller amounts. So all I really needed to do to get the cats ready was just to make sure their water and feeder was full and that was about it. Shortly after I finished getting ready my husband arrived home and we packed up the car with our hospital bag, diaper bag, infant car seat and the dogs. After we dropped off the dogs at day care we headed to the hospital to be admitted. They first brought me to a smaller room to check my vitals and to start monitoring my contractions. My blood pressure was still high and I was having irregularly spaced out small contractions. I was surprised that I was even having contractions at all since I couldn't feel them or could tell when they were happening. Since I wasn't in active labor yet they were going to wait until midnight before they started to give me any medication. We waited for about an hour before they moved me into a delivery room and started me on an IV. Around that time my mother showed up and waited with us. At midnight they gave me a drug to help soften my cervix and I tried to relax and sleep as much as I could all while I was hooked up to all these monitors. After getting only about a couple of hours of sleep, at 5am they started to give me pitocin to help induce labor. I could start to feel my contractions by about 8am but the pain still wasn't unbearable. At that time I was still 2 cm dilated so they were going to break my water to get things going. I requested that they give me an epidural before they broke my water. I was really nervous about getting my epidural. I'm not really one to be afraid of needles but just the idea of having one inserted into my back terrified me. I was so afraid that I was uncontrollably shaking all over while I was getting the epidural which made me even more nervous. They tell you to be completely still and to not move and I was uncontrollable moving. Luckily the epidural was placed perfectly and I was starting to relax. So much so that after they broke my water at 9am I took a nap for about an hour. At 10am they checked my progress and I was now at 4 cm and I took another nap. At 12pm they checked me again and I was at 6 cm. At this time they started to put a peanut birthing ball in between my legs to help move things along. At about 1pm I was starting to feel some cramping and some pressure so they checked me again and I was fully dilated. Now it was time to push. After a few pushes her heart beat started to drop so they put an oxygen mask on me and had to use vacuum extractor to get her out as quickly as possible. A vacuum extractor is a soft cup that attaches to your baby’s head with suction and is used to help guide the baby out of the birth canal. Since they were using the vacuum extractor a team from the NICU rushed in and all together there were about 15 people in the room. Normally I would have been annoyed that there were so many people in the room but at the time I didn't care. I just wanted to get her out. After a few pushes with the vacuum extractor she was out and my husband cut the cord. While the NICU team examined her head from where the vacuum was suctioned my doctor sewed me up from 2 small tears that I had gotten. On my daughters head there was some swelling from where the cup was placed on her scalp but there was no bleeding. They weighed her and got her measurements. She was born at 1:20pm weighing 5 lbs 14 oz and measured 17.25 inches long. The NICU team left and they then placed her on my chest for skin to skin contact and also her first nursing session. I had been leaking colostrum for months while I was pregnant and when I was in labor I leaked so much that they needed to change my gown. I tried to nurse her as soon as she was put on me but I was unable to get her to latch. Luckily since I was leaking so much I was able to get a few drops of colostrum in her mouth. She was very lethargic so we waited to try to feed her again until we were moved to our recovery room. After about an hour after I delivered I was able to stand up and walk to the restroom to clean up a little. They gave me a pair of the oh so glorious mesh underwear, peri bottle and jumbo maxi pad. After I cleaned up we were then moved to the recovery room. All in all the whole process was not at all as I had expected. I luckily didn't endure much pain and it all happened pretty quickly. It wasn't until the recovery that I experienced the most pain.
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