October 20, 2011... The happiest day of my life....

It was like any other day, I woke up at 2 am to do my normal bathroom routine, but today was different.  My water broke after I went to the bathroom.  I woke up my husband that was sleeping in the bed right next to the bathroom.  I said, "Dale, Dale, my water broke; and I AM ON CALL for work."  I don't know which was more scary being on call for work or having your water break without having any contractions.  Dale called OB/GYN for me because it was 1 hour in and I was not contracting at all.  They told us to wait it out for 1 more hour and then come in.  So that is just what we did.. We waited, and waited and waited but no contractions.  Dale called them back and said we are not contracting yet.  We were told to come in right away.  When we got to the hospital I got wheel chaired up to my room 301.  I am not sure that I needed a wheel chair ride, but it was included in the room.  So we got up to the room and the doctor came in after the nurse had her paper work all straightened out and put in the computer.  The nurse checked my dilation. I was 2 cm dilated at this point.  Too soon to push.  She said because I was not contraction they were going to start me on Pitocin. Did you ever have pitocin?  They called it the killer medication of induction of labor, and let me tell you it was bad.  I contracted ever 1-2 minutes and never dilated.  The pain was so bad, that my blood pressure went up to 210/115 at one point.  I am still dealing with the blood pressure issues now 2 weeks after delivery.
Dr. Jamison was one of the OB doctors on call that day, she came in and said, her blood pressure is too high we need to start an epidural.  The anesthesiologist come in and started the epidural, and eventually it turned into a spinal, I couldn't feel anything.  I couldn't move anything from the waist down.  It was scary.  I think an epidural you are supposed to have some sensation.  I had absolutely no feeling from my rib cage down.  It was a little bit scary.  In the mean time however, I didn't feel anything so they turned off the epidural completely and when it wore off I had the worst pain imaginable.  It was quite the experience.
When I was 7-8 cm dilated the doctor (Dr. Petkouv) asked me what I wanted to do.  I remember saying, "Let's get this over  with."  so at 7 cm dilated I pushed and pushed and pushed.  I believe I pushed for 2 hours.    But the baby still wouldn't come out.  The doctor had to do suction on my little ones head to get her out.  her head was turned the wrong way making it very difficult for her to come out.  With one leg completely numb and not able to feel and the other leg I could feel everything, made it quite hard to deliver a baby.  I pushed when I thought there should be a contraction, unsure if I felt one or not by this point.  need less to say I pushed and I delivered a 5 pound 10 ounce baby.  I did however get 2 stitches because I pushed before I was totally dilated.  But I am one happy mama.. So the details of the event is that I was in labor for 16 hours, and pushed for about 2 hours. But I couldn't be more happy to be holding my baby Gabriella Raye Richter.  She makes my world complete.  She is my whole world.  I love you Gabby :)