This
is more for me to remember, than for all of you. So I am going to be very detailed because I ask my mom every year to tell me my birth story on my birthday and I don’t want to forget
a single thing about Ramey's!!!!
Warning!!! A lot of TMI but not as much as there could be = )
Harry
went to work at 2:00 pm.
Mom came over at 4:00 pm.
Dad was boarding a plane for Minnesota at 4:30 pm.
At 5:00, I sat up in bed and felt a pop. I went to the restroom and I was pretty sure my water broke. If it hadn't broken all the way, I was at least leaking something. So we called labor and delivery
and they said, “Come on in, girl.”
So I called Harry and told him what I thought was going on and he didn’t
believe it. He said he would stay at work until we knew what was going on.
Mom and I gathered all my
things and headed to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Dad was in the air somewhere between Oklahoma and
Minnesota.
Warning TMI: as soon as I got out of the car my
water gushed down my legs and I said to Mom, “It’s happening!” I stood there in shock and Mom told me
to go into the hospital. I walked up to the counter. I told the lady at the counter that my
water had broken and mom walked in and saw my pants and said, “Oh my gosh!”
That is when the nurses actually looked over the counter and saw my pants. It was pretty
embarrassing, but since it was after hours and a Sunday no one had been in the waiting room to see anything. Once the nurses saw my pants, they sprung into action. No one else was in labor so I had three
nurses taking care of me when I got there. They took me to a room and mom texted dad so when he landed
he would turn on his phone and see that my water had broken. I was kinda of out of it because it was
all so crazy that I put my gown on backwards and had to go back and change
it.
They got me checked in and I
signed all of the papers and they got my iv started. Of course my little veins gave them trouble and my first
vein blew so they had to do another one.
Mom called Harry and he was trying to find someone to come into the
pharmacy so he didn’t have to just shut it down. Finally someone called him back and came in so he could come
to the hospital. Shortly after
that Nini (my aunt) showed up. I wasn’t having any contractions, my luck… I
have them for 14 weeks and then nothing!
They checked me and I was a 2-3.
At 8:00pm they started pitocin to make me have contractions. They nurse told me to tell her
about 30 minutes before I wanted the epidural because the anesthesiologist would have to come in
because he wasn’t at the hospital.
I wanted to wait and not get the epidural for awhile, but my mom and
Nini really wanted me to get it as soon as I could (which was now.) Then Liz, my nurse came back in and
said that the anesthesiologist was already on his way anyways so I could get it
as soon as he got there if I wanted, so I told her okay.
Well the pitocin started working right after I
told her I would take the epidural when he got there. The contractions would not stop. I didn’t have 5 seconds between the end of one and the
beginning of another. I was in so
much pain and couldn’t breathe or catch my breath between them. I called Liz and told her and they
stopped the pitocin. I laid on my side because Ramey didn’t like the pitocin and
his heart rate dropped. The
contractions got a little bit better but were still pretty bad but not as
bad.
They checked me again around
9:30 and I was a 5. Then the
anesthesiologist got there and got me ready for the epidural. I was pretty nervous but once it was in
I felt much better. While I was
getting the epidural I did have a few contractions but nothing like it was
before. After the epidural, I
could just feel a little bit of pressure when I would have a contraction, but I
was only having one every 15-30 minutes.
I got the shakes pretty bad which sometimes happens, so it made it so I
couldn’t sleep because I was shaking so bad. My blood pressure also dropped so they put some oxygen on
me. I was laying on my side
listening to some classical music just trying to relax. Ramey kept going off of the monitor so
they were going to put in an internal monitor, which goes under the skin on the
top of his head. I really didn’t
want that. They had the package
open and everything ready when another nurse came in to check to see if she could get
him on the monitor and she did, thank goodness. She said she doesn’t like to use the internal monitor if she
doesn’t have to. I know that is
isn’t a big deal, but I really didn’t want a little thing in Ramey’s head, so I
was glad that we didn’t have to.
Meanwhile Katherine and Ryan got to the hospital and so did my best
friend since 6th grade, Katie.
Around
11:30, they came in to check me again but I hadn’t noticed any contractions and
if I was having any they weren’t registering on my monitor, and the nurse
thought that surely I wasn’t measuring what she thought I was so she brought in other nurse and had her check me.
She said, “How does June 24th for a birthday sound?” There was only 30 minutes left in the
day!!! None of us could believe it since I had gone from a 5-10 in 2 hours and
was at a +2! Normally it takes one
hour per centimeter. So I was
ready to push, they just had to get everything ready and set up and call the
doctor. My doctor was out of town
of course, so Dr. Bishop was going to be my doctor. I had never met her but all of the doctors are Lakeside are
great, so I wasn’t worried.
Rewind
to what was going on with Dad. He
got off his plane and immediately called mom. He was so mad and upset that my water broke as soon as he
got on the plane. There was a
flight back but it was booked and he couldn’t get on. The people for the airline said there were no other options
and that he couldn’t get out.
Katherine and Ryan got on the computer and found a flight to Dallas at
7:30pm. He got booked on that
flight and was in Dallas around 10, I think. There was a 10:30pm flight from Dallas to OKC. If he couldn’t get on that flight he
was going to rent a car and get back as soon as he could. At this point we thought I would be in
labor for quite a while, we had no idea it would go so fast! The 10:30 flight was booked. He was going to offer $500-$1000 to
someone to get on that flight, but we realized with security and everything
that he couldn’t just get on the flight that way. Dad told them what was going on and he was so upset that Delta
offered $200 and 2 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat. No one would. Dad even tried to put money on top of their offer, but they
said he couldn’t do it. Some woman
high up in the Delta family heard what was going on and said they would pay
$600 and 2 vouchers for anyone who would give up their seat. Someone said to her that she couldn’t
do that and she said, "yes I can!"
So 2 people volunteered and dad got on the flight. He landed and called mom at 11:45pm and
said he was on his way. At this
point we were prepping me to push.
We didn’t want Dad to speed and get in a wreck or a ticket, so Mom just
said, “She is progressing, just get here when you can.”
After
Mom got off the phone, Ramey’s heart rate dropped super low, I think it was in
the 70’s (it has been 140s) so the nurse started massaging his head. They were trying to feel if the cord
was wrapped around his neck or compressed against his head but couldn’t feel
anything. Since we didn’t know why
his heart rate had dropped so much, we had to wait for the doctor to push. Normally the doctor just sweeps in the
last push to catch the baby.
Ramey’s
heart rate went back up once Liz massaged his head for awhile and everything was
okay for the time being.
We
heard a knock at the door and assumed it was the doctor and said come in. We heard “Little girl!” which is what
my dad calls me and we all yelled, “Stop!” Remember I was ready to push and everything was hanging
out! Thank goodness there was a
curtain drawn and we stopped Dad in time. They covered me up so Dad could come in and see me before I pushed. We used this opportunity to let Sissy,
Ryan, and Nini come in to since we were still waiting on the doctor.
At this point it was about 12:05pm, so
his birthday would be June 25th- the day before Harry’s birthday and
2 days after our 5th anniversary. Liz said that I would probably only have to push 5 or 6
times!
Dr.
Bishop got there and it was time to go.
Dr. Bishop checked me and said I was a 10 but actually at station 0 and
not +2. She thought whenever they
had to massage Ramey’s head he got pushed back up. So I would have to push longer than anticipated. I pushed for awhile but wasn’t pushing
as much as Dr. Bishop wanted or need me to and after each push Ramey’s heart
rate would drop. Normally if the
baby’s rate drops it is during the push not afterwards. The other weird thing is I wasn’t
having many contractions at all. I
would have them every 7-10 minutes.
So instead of pushing 3 pushes per contraction, I was doing 4 because we
didn’t know when the next contraction would be. Dr. Bishop told me that I needed to push harder or she
would need to help Ramey come out and I really didn’t want her to use the
vacuum or forceps.
Liz
grabbed a towel and held on one end and I held on the other. I would pull as hard as I could on the
towel while she did the same thing and push at the same time. It just gives you something to focus on
and really helps.
It was pretty funny because Mom was telling me to pull (meaning the towel) and Liz was telling me to push. Katherine said they were so confused in the hallway. And Harry got so tongue-tied because they were both saying different things that some gibberish came out of his mouth and we all burst out laughing (even the doctor) in the middle of pushing. Everyone outside the door didn't know what was going on in the room!
Once I had the
towel I only pushed about 5 or 6 times, I think. His head came out and normally you wait for the next
contraction which is a a minute or two later, but since mine were so far apart,
Dr. Bishop had me push another time and out he came!
He
was so purple at first and wasn’t breathing yet. They put him up on my chest and I really couldn’t believe
that he was here. He was born at
1:03am. He weighed 7 lbs 5 ounces and was 19 inches long. They took him over to his little area
and I guess had to suction out his lungs twice because he was gurgley, I didn’t
know this info for a couple of days and glad I didn’t know at the time. His first apgar score was a 7 and his 2nd was an 8.
Harry
took Ramey to the door so Dad, Katherine, Ryan, Nini, and Harry’s Dad could see
him. Then I got to do skin-to-skin
(also called- kangaroo care, which I did a huge project on in college). After we did this for awhile, Harry
went with the nursery nurse to give Ramey his first bath. He wasn’t too happy about it. Then they came back and we went to
sleep… I think. I was so
exhausted, I don’t remember a lot after his bath.
From
the time my water broke to delivery it was 8 hours and 3 minutes! My mom was in labor with me for 21
hours and most first time moms are in labor much longer than I was. I think God gave me a pretty easy labor
and delivery since my pregnancy was so difficult. I had been so nervous and afraid I would not be able to push
Ramey out since I was so weak and exhausted from the 71 days of bed rest! But I did it! I couldn’t believe it.
Since
I had Ramey so early in the morning we basically got an extra day at the
hospital, three nights. We were in
the same room that I had Ramey until about 3pm that day and then they moved me
to a smaller room with a much more comfortable bed.
Katherine
was so excited to see her nephew again that she came up at 8:30am on Monday
morning. She was the first person
in the family that got to hold him.
We had a ton of visitors while at the hospital and it was great to see
everyone love on our little guy.
Everyone
who came in the room (ie. nurses, hearing check lady, photographer, etc) said
how much hair he has! I had dark
hair but not anywhere near as much as Ramey. Harry calls it his “money maker,” lol.
Dr.
Adair, our pediatrician came every day to see Ramey and check on him. She said he was perfect! She did say that he was still losing
weight but could lose up to 12 ounces, which would be 10% of his birth
weight. We had an appointment on
Friday, the 29th for his first visit and she would check his weight
again then.
My
feet started to swell horribly after I had Ramey. I had at least 4 bags of fluid so that is the main
cause. But since I was on bed rest
my feet didn’t swell like normal pregnant ladies, so mine had to make up for
all of it in a day. They hurt so
bad and I asked every new shift nurse about them and the doctor but they all
said they were fine. It just
really concerned me because I had never seen my feet look anything like that
before and I hadn’t read anything about feet swelling after the baby.
Ramey and I were also suppose to get a
massage before leaving the hospital.
On Monday evening I started asking people about it. On Tuesday, they said that is normally
the morning you leave. So
Wednesday morning, I asked the morning shift nurse and she was on top of
it! She went to find out where the
lady was and of course she wasn’t there that day! I just knew this would happen. But she said I could call and schedule and appointment
for free for Ramey and I. I just wanted my stupid massage!
They
took Ramey to get circumcised around 9:00am on Wednesday (7-27-12). I had cuddled him all morning because I knew it was
coming. I was not happy at all
about it but it wasn’t an option for us to not have it done. They came and got him and brought him
back 35-45 minutes later, he was 2nd in line to go. They brought him back and the nurse said
he did great. He cried harder
having his diaper changed! (Which
he still hates most of the time.)
We
were all ready to go around 10:30am, check out was 11:00. So we called the nurse and Harry loaded
up the car. She came in and cut
off all of our bracelets and made sure they all had corresponding numbers,
meaning we all belonged to each other!
Then Harry pulled the car around and we put him in his carrier and went
outside. The nurse was so sweet
because we asked her to take a picture and then she got all fancy and said,
“Oh, now you go over there, and you do this.” She was as excited as we were, it was precious.
All
of the nurses for me and for Ramey were amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience there, minus
missing my massage, lol. It was annoying to be woken up at 6:00am to get blood drawn and vitals taken every few hours, but it goes with having a baby at a hospital I guess. (not that I would ever do a home birth!)
Mom
was waiting for us at home, so I called her once we were in the car. About 5 minutes later she called me
back and said, “Were the cleaners suppose to clean today?” because they had
just showed up at the house.
Obviously we needed to reschedule and I had completely forgotten it was
Wednesday. They weren’t even upset
or anything, they were so excited I had had Ramey since they had seen me on bed
rest.
I'll post some pictures later!
More
to come later about being at home…..
