WELCOME BRINKLEY ADELYNN STRUSKA
March 4, 2013
7# 12oz 19.5in
This pregnancy all the way to delivery was very different from my first. Part of it I am sure is just because it was a different time and a different kid, but some of it had to do with having pregnancies pretty close together. My body definitely did NOT handle this pregnancy as well as the first. Because of the difference I was pretty nervous about how this labor would go because I felt like my first baby went so well and I really enjoyed the experience. Now, I do have to say I enjoyed this experience too but it was night and day different. So onto the labor part....
I was pretty tired of feeling so awful and so fat and pregnant that around 38 weeks I increased my activity and started doing more than I had, cleaning, walking, chasing my 1 year old more. On Sat. March 2nd, I walked to Safeway and back with Hadley, then me and my sister in law went to lunch at a Chinese place (some say that helps) then walked around the shops until I was totally pooped out. Mind you I had been having Braxton Hicks Contractions for several months now. Walking always increased them but never seemed to do much more. Later that afternoon I decided to try the dreaded Castor Oil (which my nurse friends recommended). I hardly got any of it down because it made me gag and throw up. I did however get enough to give me diarrhea but not to do ANYTHING to my contractions. I was a bit disappointed to say the least. On Sunday March 3 I went about our normal activities of church followed by lunch at Culvers. Then headed up to the outlets to use my Gymboree gift card. After I bought my girls a few adorable things Joe, Hadley and I walked laps outside in the lovely 60 degree weather. We then headed back to the Springs for church after walking for about 2 hours. That night before bed I noticed a few little changes but I'll spare you the gory details.
Around 0230am Monday March 4 I woke up having some "uncomfortable" contractions. They weren't terrible and were definitely tolerable but more uncomfortable than they had been previously. I decided to get up and walk around the house a little to see if that helped at all. I went back and forth between walking and sitting on my exercise ball. Joe woke up to find me sitting on the ball and wasn't able to go back to sleep until he got up and packed his bag-just in case, I all the sudden told him we needed to go. Of course my bag and both girls bags were already packed. Then he went back to sleep. I finally laid back down around 4am and got a little sleep here and there until 530. I got back up and continued walking and sitting/stretching on the ball. Once everyone else woke up we all got ready and headed to the mall to walk some more. We walked for a few hours then ate Chik Fil A in the mall food court and had planned to walk awhile longer until my doctor appointment at 1545 but I decided I needed to rest as I was pretty exhausted. I had also called my mom by this time and told her she probably should head down right after her haircut just in case something more was happening. I chose not to say anything to anyone else as I was afraid that I would be jumping the gun and any announcement would halt any progression. I tried to relax at home but that just wasn't easy. I continued to have more uncomfortable contractions but I wasn't too worried as my SIL Mickie that is a labor and delivery nurse said to stay home until I couldn't walk or talk through a contraction which I could still do at this time. Snow began to fall and it looked like a blizzard outside. I decided to go to my appointment by myself and if I needed to I would come home and get Joe then head back to the hospital.
I left for my appointment pretty early just in case, which was a good thing because the roads were TERRIBLE and already super slick. I arrived at the doctor and went in for my appointment. I was hoping to at least be dilated to 4cm but knew that I most likely wasn't yet. (I was dilated to 1cm the previous Wed). Well my doctor checked me and his exact words were, " How do you feel about having a baby today?" I was soooo excited I could hardly contain myself. I was already dilated to 6cm!!! I practically jumped off the table. My doctor suggested I go right next door and not go home because of the weather and the fact that this was my 2nd baby and may come quickly. He called next door to let them know I was coming. I went and parked my car in the garage and walked up to the 3rd floor, of course after calling my husband and work to let them know I wouldn't be there the next day or for a few weeks. Joe and my mom got everything together and called Christa our kids Colorado Springs Grandma. Christa met them at the hospital and took Hadley (without her bag since Joe was trying to remember a million things and forgot that little detail, but since Mike and Christa are so awesome they were able to wing it). I walked into labor and delivery around 4pm and had a room ready for me, no need to even go to triage. That was kind of weird just walking into my labor room. The nurses were in there waiting for me. I got changed and all hooked up to the monitors. I had a nurse and a student nurse. The student nurse was in her senior practicum and was pretty nervous although very nice and very attentive to me and my needs. She hadn't had much experience with IV's so I let her put mine in. She did a pretty good job although the placement is always terrible and for some reason those suckers hurt! ha. Once they got that placed they ran in my first dose of antibiotics (for being strep b positive) and started fluids. By this time Joe and my mom had gotten there which made me feel a LOT BETTER! My contractions had gotten much worse by this time which I think had something to do with having to be in bed instead of able to walk around and move through them. My doctor came in to check me around 1730 and I hadn't really progressed at all (also I think due to being stuck in the bed) so he decided to go ahead and break my water. After that I was able to get up and walk a little bit but my contractions had increased in pain considerably. I was trying to go drug free. The nurse suggested I try and walk in the halls, I headed towards the door and almost feel to my knees with a contraction and decided at that point to go ahead and get an epidural. No one wins a prize for being in the most pain. ha ha. So back to bed I went. They checked me prior to getting the epidural and in the 30 min from my water being broken until then I had gone from a 6 to an 8. I was still able to get the epidural which was amazing and by that time it was 1815! Of course the epidural does come with a catheter and some oxygen because baby decided to be difficult and her heart rate slowed, I however felt like I was floating on a cloud. Shift change is at 1900 and the student nurse was pretty bummed because she really wanted to see me through until the end. The day shift nurse checked me around 1840 and said I was "almost" complete but she still felt a little bit of cervix. As she gave report to the night shift nurse she told her that I would probably be complete 10cm the next time she checked. They both had told me that if I really felt like I needed to push to let them know but they encouraged me to not push and to let my body keep working so that I wouldn't have to push as long once the time came. Around 1900-1905 I was REALLY feeling like I needed to push. I knew the day shift nurse wanted to get out of there and go home but being a nurse I HAD to be difficult (haha of course not on purpose though). So I told them I needed to push. They set my legs up and decided to let me push through a few contractions. Well the first contraction came and I PUSHED, unfortunately for them the baby was crowning. So they quickly told me to STOP pushing and pant through the contractions but definitely NOT to push! They called the doctor and told him baby was crowning. Joe could see the baby's head and I was NOT HAPPY. Do you know how hard it is to not push when the baby is sitting there........It's hard and UNCOMFORTABLE and the epidural had started wearing off at this point! haha It felt like an eternity waiting for the doctor but I obeyed and tried not to push anymore and they tried to make me feel better by saying that it helped stretch me out so I wouldn't tear as bad (of course at that point I didn't really care if I tore). Once the doctor got there and got ready he had me push a 2nd time in which the baby's head emerged and he told me again to stop pushing. I suctioned her nose and turned her around and had me push one more time and out came her body. A total of 3 pushes and she was there. Perfect and healthy and with a head FULL of dark, thick hair! She was 7# 12oz and 19.5in long. They laid her on me and I helped rub her off a little and then they had to take her away because she wasn't "pinking" up like she should. The nursery nurse worked on her for quite awhile. I knew she was going to be okay but it seemed to take forever for her to respond and do what she was supposed to. She even had to have some oxygen while she took her sweet time adjusting to life on the outside. During that time the doctor put a few stitches in different places, which I felt most of and it was pretty uncomfortable. Once that was done and Brinkley started cooperating I was able to hold her and nurse her which she did awesome at. Soon they took her to the nursery to be checked out and bathed. The nurse refused to let me get up because I had blacked out with Hadley when I first got up, that and I was bleeding more than she liked. That part made me pretty nervous because I felt like she was worried about it and even did end up calling the doctor. I was given some extra medicine to help stop the bleeding which I guess helped enough. The nurse still wouldn't let me out of the bed but she encouraged me to try and pee which I thought I probably could go and I know the postpartum nurses like it better if we've peed so I agreed to sit on a stupid bloody bedpan which I had said before I would never use. haha It was quite the experience. That about sums up the birth part. We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours due to the group b strep and had a pretty uneventful time other than after Hadley met Brinkley she decided to throw up all over my hospital bed, me, the floor and herself. However, she did manage to miss the baby. I am still not sure what that was all about but it made for an interesting time for sure. Hope this post wasn't too long that it bored everyone, but I mostly wrote it for myself to remember the little details.
