So the story goes that we went in to get checked the morning of the 18th (41wks gestation and our 3rd Anniversary) and as of the day before I hadn't made any progress so the doctor asked us what we wanted to do. I told him we wanted to "get the party started" and he completely understood since I had been in numerous times over the last month thinking it was "time" but never was - making zero progress but still having lots of contractions. He told us to go to the hospital at 4p on the 18th to start the induction process with Cervidel.
We got to the hospital at 4p and our doctor got there at 5p after we had been admitted. He told us it could take up to 12hrs for it to take effect - however, he checked me and I was at 2cm - praise the Lord - finally making a little progress! I still thought it would be a 12hr timeframe so I prepared my mind to hang out until we would really get things going at 5a on the 19th. Well..that didn't exactly happen. I went into active labor within 15mins!
At 8:30p, the nurse decided it be best to take the cervidel out as my contractions were every 3mins and I was seeming to be in active labor on my own. At this point I was 5cm and 80% effaced. In 3 hours I dilated 3cm and effaced another 30%. This was truly going to happen.
At 10:30p they checked and I was 100% effaced and 6cm. At this point I was crying for an epidural as the contractions were a bit more than I could bare. Neal kept encouraging me to go a little longer but this was one of the only times I was strong with him and said, "If you don't call the nurse to get the anesthesiologist, I will!" The epidural was in by 11:30p and I "rested" - not slept, mind you - for 3hrs when all of a sudden I started feeling really strong contractions again. I started thinking to myself - I thought I wasn't supposed to feel anything! Well, that wasn't the case. So, I called the nurse and she gave me another bolus injection of the epidural medicine and that didn't do anything after 15mins. I called her probably another 5 times throughout the next 3 hours to give me another injection hoping this next one would kill the pain of the contraction as I wasn't able to even rest now as Neal was sound asleep next to me - I was jealous! Again, I thought to myself - I thought I was supposed to be able to sleep like he is! Rude awakening for this mama. :)
At 5:30a, the on-call doctor came in and checked me and I was finally 10cm and still having the strong contractions every 1.5 - 2mins. so she encouraged me to push at the next contraction. These were long contractions - I pushed 5x each contraction. I was hoping it wouldn't take long to bring our little one into the world, but after 2.5hrs of pushing, our doctor finally got there and told me he could help with a vacuum since little did I know that the head hadn't moved further down for over an hour. Probably a good thing no one told me - even Neal! My doctor told me I would still have to push as he was only going to be able to guide the head. After only 2 contractions, Ritter was born.
Neal got on the phone to his parents to see if they were on their way to Chicago to spend Christmas in Austria. They were already on their way so they got to meet Ritter on Face Time that morning.
Since I had an epidural and was not steady on my feet - kind of like a waddling penguin walking on balloons - I had to settle for watching Neal and our nurse give Ritter his first bath.
That night my parents (Ahni and Papa T) came to visit.
The first night Ritter did well - he slept for a solid 4hr stretch and then 2hrs at a time. The next morning Neal's grandparents - Grammie and Grandpa - came to visit which meant a lot to us.
We were discharged Saturday morning - the 21st. We enjoyed our time at the hospital and were given excellent care. Moms from our church weren't kidding when they said we would be well taken care of! This is what Ritter went home in. :)
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