The last few weeks of my pregnancy, I was measuring at least 2 weeks ahead of my due date. My doctor agreed to induce me on June 28 (my due date). The 3 weeks before I was due, I was sure I was going to go into labor early just like I did with Boston and Titus. I had contractions 10-15 minutes apart, but a lot of the time it was more like 5-7 minutes apart. I went to the hospital twice, only to be sent home again for not truly being in labor. I tried everything you could possibly think of to induce myself (including castor oil... BLECH) and nothing worked.
Finally June 28 came and we left for the hospital at 6:40 AM. We live in Payson and I was delivering in Draper, so we had to make sure we left with plenty of time to get to the hospital by 7:45. We got McDonald's for breakfast and Cody and I were both in such good moods.
We got to the hospital at 7:30, so I let the nurses at the front know we were there a little early. She asked if my name was Katie and I told her it was. I didn't even think about how they wanted my legal name, because I was always called Katie at the hospital and all my appointments. They got me to my room and the nurse brought my wristbands in and asked me to make sure everything was spelled right. It turns out the girl who was scheduled for the 7:30 induction was also named Katie, so they brought me all of her tags.They got everything switched around for us, got me hooked up to the IV and around 8:30 they started the pitocin drip.
Things were going fine and I wasn't feeling any pain. We watched HGTV and just talked with each other. My mom was in Idaho and making her way home that evening, so I kept her and my sister updated to make sure everyone would make it when they needed to be there. I felt like my body was hardly progressing and Grey didn't want to drop down so I wasn't effacing more than the 60-70%. They upped my pitocin dose by 2 points (maybe that's the wrong term) every 30 minutes. When the pitocin got to an 8, I told the nurse I should probably get my epidural since the anesthesiologist was already on the floor. the contractions were feeling like period cramps, but nothing serious.
The anesthesiologist came and did my epidural around 11:45 AM, but it took 4 tries before it was right. The first time, i was feeling all the medicine go in my left side. The second and third try, my heart rate would sky rocket and I would get really light headed every time they would give me the test dose. He said the epidural looked flawless and he wasn't sure why I would be feeling like that. Finally, the fourth try was the one and it started working.
They checked me at 12:30 and my water broke. I was still 3 cm when I was checked and same effacement. The contractions were 1.5-2 minutes apart so they turned off the pitocin since my body figured out what it wanted to do on its own. Tacy got to the hospital shortly after that and they got me using the peanut ball to make sure Grey was in the right position since he wasn't dropping down any further. I asked my nurse what the worst case scenario would be if he was too big to drop down for some reason. She told me flat out that if it came to that, they would pull my knees back to my ears and a nurse would get on the bed and push down on my pelvis until either my pelvis or the baby's clavicle broke basically. That was terrifying, but they said that would is very unlikely.
At 3:00 I was checked again and was 4 cm and 70% effaced. The nurse came in and had me turn to my other side with the peanut ball and started my pitocin again to make contractions strong. About every 30 minutes they would have me switch positions with the peanut ball. I would go from my right side, to my left, to no peanut ball and sitting straight up. I started feeling my contractions again pretty strong and had to have the anesthesiologist come in two more times to up my dose. During all my contractions, I would have to squeeze the hospital bed rail with one hand, squeeze Tacy's hand with the other and Cody would push on my lower back for pressure. I was in so much pain and was shocked I was feeling so much with my epidural.
I was finally dilated to 5 cm at 3:50 PM and I stayed a 5 until 6:00 PM when I jumped to a 7 and was an 8 by 7:20. My mom was able to make it around 6:45 PM thanks to her friend's super speedy driving. She came perfect timing because I had started panicking and having anxiety about everything, which only made the pain worse.
When it finally came time to push around 7:30, I was completely exhausted. Every time I pushed, I would get intense pain deep in my left shoulder. I still don't know why that happened. Every contraction they would have my push for 10 seconds 3 separate times. I felt like I was making no progress. At one point, I started hearing my midwife whispering to the nurses that they need to get ready and I knew that one of the nurses had just taken my mom's spot holding my leg. They were preparing to do what the nurse told me earlier was the worst case scenario. That was probably the only thing that gave me enough motivation and energy to keep pushing.
Since I'm dramatic during labor and get bad anxiety, I kept telling me to just cut me open and be done. I told them I couldn't do it anymore and I just needed to get a c-section. They wouldn't do it though. Finally, I could tell the energy in the room was changing and they could see his head more. It hurt so bad to continue, but I did and my little angel baby came out "sunny side up". That means he was face up in my pelvis rather than face down like most babies are born. Using the peanut ball all day was supposed to put him in the right position, but for some reason he didn't shift.
Little Greyson DeMan was born at 8:05 PM and weighed 9 lbs 11 oz and was 21.5 inches. It gave me some satisfaction knowing that his size plus being face up made the labor so hard. They laid him on my chest and it was such a relief. He had the most perfect little arm and back rolls. Everyone was shocked he was so huge!
Every time a nurse or my midwife came in to check on me, they would mention how most women who have a large, sunny side up baby have to get a c-section and they were shocked that I was able to delivery him vaginally. I had to laugh a little because all I wanted in the moment delivering him was a c-section. I'm grateful now that I didn't have to have that done because of recovery. He has been the sweetest little baby and such a great eater for me. We love him with all our hearts!
