We called our good friend Brittany to come over and sleep at our house so we didn't have to wake up our soundly sleeping 2-year-old. Once she and her husband arrived, we left for the hospital.
At the hospital, they monitored me and I started having irregular contractions on top of the constant abdomen pain. Finally, around 6 a.m. the doctor decided to admit me for fear of an infection around my placenta and the only way to rule it out was to deliver.
I was only dilated to 4 cm when they admitted me, so they decided to give me pictocin to try to speed up my labor. After about an hour on pictocin with no real change, they broke my water. They asked me about pain management and warned me that the contractions would start to get strong, but I remembered from my last delivery experience with Grady how much the epidural slowed down my labor so I told myself I'd power through them for at least an hour. And they weren't kidding about strong contractions, but Josh was amazing and he would watch the monitor and talk me through each of the contractions. After an hour, the contractions brought me to tears, I finally asked for the epidural knowing how tired I was and that I still needed to push.
The epidural came fairly quickly and the nurse that was with me for labor and delivery was amazing. She held me still as I had to endure getting the epidural through intense contractions. Once the epidural was in they checked me and I was 9 cm dilated! So I had gone from 4 cm to 9 cm in just one hour after having my water broken! I was so relieved that all that hard work was not in vain, but this relief soon turned to panic when the nurse called out a code and the room was flooded with 8 hospital personnel. I couldn't make eye contact with Josh and they shoved an oxygen mask on my face and beside me was a table full of surgical tools ready for emergency delivery! Griffin's heart rate had dropped to 80 bpm and mine was very low as well. They moved me from side to side and asked me to take big deep breaths, and were able to get Griffin's heart rate back up quickly, but it was a very intense few moments. I cried tears of relief when they told me that everything was fine and they didn't mean to scare me. I was happy to know that they could tell he was in distress and were ready to deliver him at a moment's notice to keep him safe. After all that, I was able to rest for a little over an hour before it was time for me to push.
The epidural I had this time was SO much better than the one I had with Grady. I could still move my legs and I could feel uncomfortable pressure, but no pain when having to push. It only took about 30 minutes of pushing and I had myself another sweet baby boy. When his shoulders were out, the doctor told me to reach up and grab him, it was an amazing feeling to pull him out and bring him to my chest. He was born at 1:48 p.m. He didn't cry very long when he was in my arms. We had beautiful, sweet first moments together. And the Lynchburg College nursing students that I allowed to watch my delivery thanked me with tears in their eyes.
At this point they were still concerned about infection because Griffin's temperature and heart rate were elevated and I was running a fever. The NICU team came and evaluated Griffin and determined that he just needed to be monitored to make sure his temperature went down but they thought he seemed perfectly healthy. My fever quickly left soon after delivery.
They're still unsure what caused my intense abdomen pain and fever but I am so thankful that there was no infection found.
Griffin weighed 7lb 1oz and was 19 inches long at birth.
Praising the Lord for a safe and healthy delivery and baby!
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