On Wednesday, August 5, I went to the doctor for a follow up visit to find out about the protein levels from my 24 hour collection and the status of my blood pressure. At that visit, it was confirmed that I had developed preeclampsia and would need to be induced sooner than later. The doctor did not waste any time making arrangements with the doctor on call and sending me to the hospital. He told me to go straight home, get my things together, get Dawn and go to the hospital. Talk about a major rush of adrenalin. I was immediately filled with all sorts of emotions. They ranged from “oh my God” this is the big day to “is something is going to be wrong with the baby due to the issues with the preeclampsia”. I called Dawn and told her to get home as soon as possible that it was time. I also made all of the calls that I was supposed to make to our families while I was driving home.
When I arrived at home, I could tell that Dawn was really nervous. It was funny that she was more nervous than I was. Well truthfully, I was nervous but was on a mission to get our things together and get to the hospital. It took us about 20 minutes to get everything together and we were off to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 5:30pm and we checked in and taken to a room within 15 minutes. Once in our room, the nurses checked all of my vitals and got everything entered in to the computer. Once that was over the waiting began. We waited on Dr. Chappell to come by to decide whether she would begin the induction that evening or if my they would just monitor my blood pressure. She came by around 8:30 and decided to start me on Pitocin to get the contractions going. I anticipated that things would begin to happen sometime within the next couple of hours. Unfortunately that was not the case.
Mom and Dad arrived at 9:30 that evening hoping that their grandson would be born within the next couple of hours. Now we all just sit and wait for things to begin happening. Annie, my nurse, continued to increase the Pitocin every 30 minutes hoping to get the right dosage to cause some significant contractions. Still nothing happening after 4 hours, so the waiting continues. We tried to get some sleep but with my dad snoring loud enough for our neighbors to hear and the fact that someone came in to the room every half hour to check my vitals, sleeping was almost impossible.
After a couple more hours of receiving the Pitocin, we got a bit of a scare when Mason’s heart rate dropped significantly. Annie came in and had me move to my right side, then to my left side then back to the right again. At first she didn’t tell me what she was doing. Once she saw Mason’s heart rate recover, she told me what was happening. I asked what could be the cause and she said he could have been laying on his umbilical cord and could have just pressed it the wrong way. Of course, this scared the crap out of all of us. They had to decrease the Pitocin to allow time for Mason to fully recover. What that meant, was basically starting the entire induction process all over again. We continued through the entire night with not much happening with the contractions.
At 7:30am, Thursday, August 6 Dr. Chappell was finishing up her shift so she came in to tell me that Dr. Gunter would be coming on and they had discussed my status and that he would be in to see me within the hour. Dr. Gunter came in around 9:30am and asked if I was ready for him to break my water. I said, yes. Let’s get things moving. I was not sure what to expect but let’s just say it wasn’t bad at all. Within an hour of breaking my water, I finally started feeling contractions. A lot took place between 9:30 and 11:30. Wow, this is really happening now. My contractions were pretty significant at this point and I was dilated to a 6. At 11:45, Val, my nurse for this shift, came in and asked if I was ready for my epidural. I told her I would wait a little longer. Boy was that a big mistake. Within 15 minutes, I was begging for the anesthesiologist to get to my room. As my luck would have it, the anesthesiologist was busy with the 4 other women in active labor on the OB floor. I was begging for someone to get to my soon. I was dilated to a 9 at this point and in pretty significant pain. FINALLY the anesthesiologist got to me and administered the epidural at 1:00pm. Within 15 minutes, my pain had pretty much had gone away. Love the drugs! For all of those women that delivered their babies without drugs, you deserve a medal. I do not know how you did it but more power to you!
My contractions continued to get stronger and closer together so we were thinking it would soon be show time. Well, Mason obviously wasn’t in any hurry to get here so we waited another 2 hours hoping things would happen soon. At 3:30, Val and Dr. Gunter came in to check my progress and decided that it was time for me to start pushing. Dawn and my mom were my leg holders during this process. My legs were completely numb so they had to lift them and hand them to me in order for me to push. I pushed and pushed and pushed for an hour and the little booger was still not ready to come out. Dr. Gunter checked to see where Mason was located and determined that his head was turned slightly to the right which was part of the reason he was having difficulty moving further down. He suggested that I lay on my right side to see if he would turn on his own. After 30 minutes of laying still, Mason didn’t turn enough to make a difference. It was at this point that Dr. Gunter said he would suggest a forceps delivery. I asked him if it would hurt Mason in any way. He responded by saying not on my watch! Dr. Gunter then left to go check on other patients. He returned in a few minutes and said he had to go do an emergency c-section on another patient and that I would need to labor down for the next hour until he could return. They turned the Pitocin down and we waited. While this was a bit discouraging, it was good for me to rest. I was completely exhausted.
At 6:00pm, Dr. Gunter came back in my room and asked if I was ready to have my baby. I said, YES, let’s get him out. I pushed for another 30 minutes and at that time, Dr. Gunter said in order to avoid a c-section, he would suggest that I stop pushing and let him deliver Mason via forceps. I told him to do whatever he needed to do to get Mason out. I was ready to meet him. As Dr. Gunter got everything together, I was pretty anxious at this point. I was really worried that the forceps would hurt my baby. The nurse told me that if I had to choose a Dr. to do the forceps delivery, that Dr. Gunter was the best there was at that hospital. This of course made me feel better.
After 3 tugs with the forceps, Mason was delivered. His cord was wrapped around his neck so Dr. Gunter had to take care of that before putting Mason on my chest. As soon as Mason was placed on my chest, I began to cry. I was crying so hard I couldn’t see him. I said can someone get me a tissue, I can’t see my baby. Val wiped my eyes and I got to see my little Mason for the first time. Words cannot express the feelings that I felt at that time. He was absolutely perfect. Dawn cut the umbilical cord and they took Mason over to get him cleaned up.
Mason Parker Grooms came in to this world weighing 7lbs 12ozs and was 21 inches long. He was healthy and passed all of his first tests. After he was all cleaned up, the nurse gave him to his GiGi (his gradmother). GiGi held him for a few minutes then gave him to his MiMi (Dawn). After Dr. Gunter was finished fixing me up, I was able to hold Mason. It was the most amazing time ever. He was just adorable! The nurses came to get him to take him to the nursery to give him his first bath and check him over again. It took about an hour for them to do their thing before they brought him back to me. As soon as he was returned to us, I was able to feed him. He did great for his first time breastfeeding.
We were then transferred to another room for the remainder of our stay in the hospital. Mason stayed with us for a little while then went to the nursery so we could get a couple hours of sleep before it was time for him to eat again. Those few hours of sleep were needed and were just enough to get us through the night.
On Friday, August 7 Mason got to meet his Aunt Stacey, Uncle Eric and cousin, Joshua. Joshua was so cute with him. Several other visitors came throughout the day to meet Mason. It was a great day. Friday night was a bit rough. Mason cried a lot and seemed to have gas or was it pain from his circumcision. Not sure but he was not a happy camper. We finally got him settled down enough to eat and he went to the nursery for a few hours so his mommies could get a couple hours of sleep.
On Saturday, August 8 we were all ready to go home. The pediatrician came in to check Mason out and gave him a great report and released him to go home. Dr. Miller came in to check me and gave me a good report to go home. We were all excited to leave and get home. As we got in the car and was leaving the hospital, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I began to cry and said to Dawn that the realization had just set in. Again, words cannot describe how I was feeling at that time.
You may have noticed the title said Mason's 2nd bath. Well, the reason I didn't post something about his first bath is because I was too nervous to let Dawn leave my side long enough to get the camera to take pictures of him! I was afraid I would drop him or that he would slide in the water. I am a bit embarrassed to say that my knees were actually weak when we finished! Mason on the otherhand did not know that I was freaking out. He LOVED the warm water and did great. So far he loves getting a bath. I hope that doesn't change for a long time. For now, I have decided that Dawn can do the bathing and I will do the drying. Sounds like a great plan to me! Until next time....
