I left the doctor’s office, went to Wal-mart to pick up a few last minute things, and drove home to get ready to go back to the hospital. I arrived back at the hospital around 6pm and the induction probably started about 7pm. The doctor estimated about 6 hours and labor would have started. Well it didn’t. I would feel some hard cramps when I walked around but they would subside when I laid down and on top of that I had a vicious headache. With the headache and little contractions keeping me awake I decided I would ask for some Demerol so I could have a decent night’s sleep and try again in the morning. The nurse had to check me before administering medication and I guess that got things working because the contractions then started around 2:15 am.
Labor kicked in after that and by 5:45pm the Demerol had worn off and I had virtually no pain control only a little nitro gas. I asked the nurse to get me some Demerol a little early and of course she had to check me again. I was about 3-4 cms dilated at the time. And once again, that kicked things into high gear. Demerol hadn’t started to work yet so I used the gas to control my breathing. Within 15-20 minutes I was ready to deliver my baby. But there were two big problems: firstly, the doctor wasn’t “on the premises” as my nurse so politely put it. The nurses would have been perfectly ready to deliver the baby but the second problem was that he was necessary to be there if we were to collect my baby’s umbilical cord blood. For more information about that click on the link at the bottom of this blog.
So here I was ready to push, and couldn’t. What an awful feeling. It was only a matter of minutes but it seemed like forever to me. I started to push as soon as he came in the door and moments later baby girl Jordan was born at 6:27 am. And she was in trouble. Her umbilical cord had been tightly wrapped around her neck, but thankfully this didn’t cause any problems.
She’s such a precious addition to our family. I believe she’s the most content baby we’ve had. It’s hard work keeping her 21 month old sister from picking at her but we’re learning to balance life with our 4 little ones. My mom came to stay with us way back when my water broke and she just went home today so it will be interesting to see how I cope with out “da Momma” around to help. My mom hadn’t been able to be present for any of my other deliveries so I wanted her to be here for this one as it will be our last. If I had any doubt about whether I wanted more children, it would have been erased during this pregnancy because I had so much pain the last 3 months. In all 3 of my previous pregnancies I had muscle pain under my ribs on the right side. With each pregnancy it got worse and proceeded to my back and other side. I was in nearly constant pain from about 25 weeks on. Sometimes it was bearable, other times I could do nothing but lie on the couch. It was the reason I haven’t blogged since then; I couldn’t sit up to a computer long enough to write more than a few minutes without pain. Even though we didn’t have the baby early like we thought, I am so glad my mom came to stay with me for the last 2 months because it made things so much easier. Thanks Mom, I miss you already!!!
