The Hagberg Hoopla: February 2011

We had our appointment for Sunday, January 30th, 2011 to get start the induction process. This is my last picture before leaving for the hospital! 41 weeks pregnant. Definitely enjoyed being pregnant, but ready to breath normally again and meet our little one!

We had heard great things about Abbott Northwestern Hospital, so I was excited we were going there to have our baby. We had taken classes at Abbott as well so we were somewhat familiar with the place, which was nice. Jeff took a picture of me in the lobby when we arrived. I was so nervous, but mostly excited and definitely didn't know what to expect. I've wondered about this day, not just since being pregnant, but my whole life of hearing about people's birth stories. What is mine going to be like? We were about to find out.

When we got up to the labor and delivery area, everyone was expecting me. It was like I was a celebrity! There were not many patients in at the time we arrived, so people seemed focused on us. It was 6:30 pm. "Oh, you're Rachel Hagberg. We're expecting you. Your room is over there." So they told me right away to slip into something more comfortable, aka hot hospital gown...ow ow! ha ha

I know. I look good. ha! This was the beginning of many hospital gowns, I actually didn't mind them at all because they were comfortable and easy on the tummy!

Jeff, excited to be a daddy! He got real used to hospital rooms and sleeping in them. So this was the beginning of our journey that was about to take place over the next couple days.

Some of these pictures are not super flattering, but I don't really care because its just how I looked! :) They checked me and I was still 1 cm dilated and 70-80% effaced. I got the Cervidell put in at 8:40 and then baby and I were hooked up to monitors and checked on all night long (ended up being a less than restful night because of it!) They did give me Ambien to help me sleep, thank goodness. It turned out that I was having contractions already when they hooked me up to the monitor. They said I probably would have come in that night even if we weren't scheduled! Funny thing was that I didn't feel the contractions. I thought I was just really tough, but I'm sure there is another explanation.

Jeff and I waiting to start feeling the contractions...

The next morning, January 31 at 6 we woke up and snuck in some breakfast (the nurse let me even though I wasn't supposed to eat. How in the world would I have been able to go through everything without at least something in my stomach? Thank you nurse!!) At 9:30 they took out the Cervidell and checked me again, and broke my water. The contractions started getting stronger shortly after and I was feeling them...in my back. Bummer, back labor. So I put on a cute hospital robe and we took a walk down the hallway. When we got back, I tried the birthing ball for a bit, and Jeff got to help me breath through my contractions which was kind of fun even though they were painful because we had practiced this, and he was so ready to do his job. It was adorable. And I love that we got to be a team and he was there to help me through it as an active participant! Jeff and I watched the Office while we were breathing through the contractions, but I don't think I really paid attention to much of the Office. Eventually it was getting pretty painful and my contractions were so close together that I wasn't coming down from them, they were going into one another, so I said bring on the epideral. My back was killing me.

This must have been post-epideral? Let me just say I was probably more terrified to get the epideral than to give birth. I don't know why, but I just was. At 12:15 I got the epideral. We had a great anesthesiologist who was so great at explaining every single step to us of what was happening. "Ok, now I'm going to just feel your spine. Now I'm going to clean your back, this will feel wet and I'm going to clean it three times. One, two, three. Now I'm putting a piece of plastic over your back, you will feel that now." He was very calming and reassuring and I appreciated him so so much. I definitely had the right guy for being so terrified. I wasn't totally numb, but my back pain went away. It was like the medicine knew exactly where I needed it! Fascinating.

Now I just had to lay here and wait to progress.

I told Jeff to take a picture of himself to show he was a part of it. ha ha

So this is the last of the "happy pictures" for a while because after this, I started having a little less fun. No one said birth was easy, right? I was well aware that things might get tough, and they did. The back labor continued, and although I was feeling it less due to my friend the epideral, my body was reacting to it. I got a fever and my body was shaking all over which was causing my back to tense up even more. We also found out that the baby was head down, but facing the wrong way--hence the back labor, and baby was now jammed in my pelvis, more specifically up against my tail bone. My tail bone was in a lot of pain and my back and neck were killing me. The shaking was making everything worse and my back and neck were having spasms. We had them put more meds in me but they could only do so much and I was stuck at 8 cm, and baby was stuck in me. We tried to go on for several hours and at a certain point, I couldn't even turn over from side to side because the pain was so bad, I couldn't stand to be flat on my back even for a slip second while switching sides.

The monitor on my belly wasn't reading contractions well enough so they tried to put an internal monitor in. I think 4 different people put it in me and took it out of me and it just wasn't working, and it was very uncomfortable adding that to the mix. At one point, they even got "the nurse with the long fingers" to try and put it in! So funny. But even ol' long fingers couldn't get it in, and I was still at 8 cm.

Finally at around 11pm after my body had been through a lot, the Doc came in and broke the news that we really should have a C-Section. I had prepared for this reality during my pregnancy because 1/3 of births are C-sections, and many of my friends had them and had positive things to say about them. I was not against it, but after going through everything I went through already, I felt like I had done it for nothing and felt defeated. Jeff helped me work through that momentary disappointment and then I was relieved because at that point I don't think I had the energy to push anyway! Good choice, Doc!

But then the reality set in how C-Sections are performed. The patient lies FLAT on her back. No way, I couldn't even do that for a second with out hyperventilating. How was I supposed to lie still for an hour of major surgery flat on my back? I warned the Doctor that I didn't know how I was going to get through it, and she seemed to think I would be fine. But fine I was not. Jeff was taken to another room as I was wisked away to surgery. They moved me to the flat operating table and I had to hold my head up with my hands so I would not lay flat. I kept trying to put my head down and I couldn't, my back and neck were having spasms and I was in the worst pain I have ever felt. I started bawling in front of about 10 strangers I hadn't even met yet. I think it was clear how much pain I was in and I was terrified and Jeff was not there yet. I was on a ton of meds at this point and exhausted so everything was fuzzy, like a non-reality, but my pain was very real. All of a sudden I was flat on my back. How did that happen? How was I not feeling it? Without telling me, they injected something into my catheter in my back and it must have been strong because the pain was gone and it was gone quickly. I thanked that man who put that in me a million times...I think too many times. ha ha I was beyond grateful. Jeff came in and we were ready to start cutting me open! I was ready. Scared, and exhausted, but ready to meet our baby.

I heard him cry right away, it was so fuzzy because of all the drugs I suppose, but he was here and he was breathing and he was crying and he was a BOY! The doctor said it was a boy and Jeff said it was Clark! 12:19 am on Tuesday February 1st, Clark Jeffrey Hagberg was born. I could not have been more proud of my son, and I hadn't even seen him yet!

My little cone head :) Even though we had a C-Section, he was stuck for hours already! Poor guy had been through a lot too!

Daddy got to cut the umbilical cord. I wish I could have seen all of this, but I was being stitched up behind a big curtain. I'm glad someone was taking pictures!