I have so much to say about Grayson's birth day, so I will be back! After I uploaded all my pictures, the post wouldn't save without me going ahead and posting it. We are all doing great and will be home tomorrow afternoon! Thanks for all the comments, prayers and well wishes. We are so happy and blessed to now be a family of four!
Can you believe how cute he is?! Our day went fairly smooth. My sister, Darrin and I made a quick trip to Starbucks before getting to the hospital. We arrived around 9:30am and they admitted me right away. I changed, they got me set up on the monitors and started pitocin around 10:30am. The nurses checked and said I was still around 3cm and 75% effaced and said they would be back to check on me periodically.
We just hung out in the room, sister and I shopped online and Darrin made some phone calls. The nurse told me that in about an hour my doctor would be there to break my water. About 12:30pm I started feeling the contractions come on, but not to where I couldn't handle them. I guess it was around that time that my water broke naturally. We called for a nurse to come in and sure enough it had. We started guessing about what time we thought he would make his debut. Sister said around 6:30pm, Darrin said 7ish and I thought around 5:45pm.
Then Darrin and Sister left to go by the gift shop and grab something to eat. I'm not sure how long they were gone, but I remember calling Darrin to tell him to come back because my contractions were getting stronger. About that time the nurse came in and asked if I was ready for my epidural. I told her that I was ok, but that if they could give me some pain medicine that would help. She said the anesthesiologist was next door and if I wanted, he could come by my room next. Since I was unsure what I was dialated at and didn't know when he would be back I said okay. I was feeling stronger and stronger contractions that were lasting about a minute long each so I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it much longer.
This is when it got hectic. The epidural caused me to have a severe drop in blood pressure. At that time, they had me on my right side to even out the epidural, and the baby's heart rate and variability looked bad. They then gave me effedrine to bring my blood pressure back up and also gave me an oxygen mask for the baby since he was having decelerations. (sharp drop in heart rate)
I was scared and in pain. I stared crying, I didn't like wearing the oxygen mask and it was making me feel nauseous. The effedrine made me feel so shaky, I was shivering and couldn't keep from it. I was also worried about my epidural. I was thinking something had gone wrong, I was going to either have to redo it, or it just wasn't going to work during labor.
About 10 minutes went by and the anesthesiologist came back in. He added more to my epidural and I was told to roll over to my right side. I waited just a few minutes for the numbness to even out and then they checked my progress. I was fully dilated and he was at a +2 station. She said it was time and that if I coughed he would be here! She called in my doctor and shortly after we started pushing. I pushed maybe 5 or 6 times and he was here!
Grayson Paul Snider
3:30pm
6lbs 12 oz
20 in long
