Baby Watch 2011

Baby Watch 2011:

Today has been...a very difficult day.  Things haven't exactly gone as planned. Young Master Roland is still firmly ensconced in my womb.  They started me on pitocin at 6 this morning...it's moved things along somewhat, but I am not much more dialated than when I started.  Contractions, however, are coming strong and regularly.

I am feeling very frustrated with my body.  I've been walking as much as possible and trying to help things along, but it just seems like nothing is going on.

And before anyone says, 'I told you so...' please don't.  Yes, I likely should have waited and let this go naturally.  Rubbing it in will likely be a quick way to get you removed from my friends list.  :)

The day really started getting rough when my nurse made some comment about me being on a full liquid diet...no one had told me anything about that, I was STARVING, and I was pretty much terrified that I was going to have to live on juice and soup until the baby came.  Luckily, they did bring me food, and I didn't have to eat the natives.

My Dr. came in around 330 this afternoon and checked me, and gave me the not-so-good news.  High likelihood that the sprog will come tomorrow...but he won't be here tonight.  Looks like he will be a Long Night Baby!

Shortly after getting that news from my Dr, I had a bit of a meltdown.  My mom left and Colin and I discussed what we were going to do.  I was kind of feeling like giving up ad going home...but the nurse told me that even though it didn't seem like it, I am making progress, and that she is confident that I'll have him tomorrow.  So...we decided to stick it out.  Try another night here, try to get me comfortable enough to sleep.

Not long after THAT, they decided they needed to take my IV out and put a new one in.  The line kept kinking up, but it was twisting at the insertion point...not much you can do except take it out.  I wasn't really pleased with this, but not much I can do...I'd had almost 2 bags of saline and lots of water, so the thought was that I'd be hydrated enough to be ok.  They pulled out the first IV and went to work on the second one.

I warned the nurse doing it.  I told her I have very difficult veins, I have a hard time with IV's, and that they terrify me and HURT me, no matter how good you are.  Obviously, she didn't listen.  She prodded around and found a vein on my left hand that looked...dicey...and decided to shoot for it.  From the moment she put it in, I knew I was in trouble.  She started rooting around, trying to get it in position...and spent about 10 minutes digging and manipulating it while I just sobbed.  I thought Colin was going to come across the table and strangle the poor woman.  She finally got it where she thought it would be ok and put the saline on...only the promptly blow the vein when she tried to flush it.  I've got a huge bump and a lovely bruise forming for her troubles.

After that, I told her I needed some time.  She was pretty shaken, probably because I was so upset and obviously in a lot of pain.  I told her I was going to take a walk, and she said she'd have someone else come and give me another IV.  Probably a good thing, because I was again on the verge of a total blowout.  Mom came back in, which was nice (I am SO happy my Mommy is here...) and I took off to curl up in the visitors lounge with everyone.

By the time I was ready to have someone else even attempt an IV, we would have had to start the pitocin again from the beginning.  The nurse talked to my doctor, and he said it was fine to just leave it off, since I was nearly done anyway.  Probably a good call, because I think I would have said 'no' and just left.

The nurse who came and gave me my new IV was fabulous.  She's normally an ER nurse, but she is up here helping out.  It still hurts, which is to be expected for me, I guess, but at least it is in and hopefully won't be going anywhere.  We taped it down good, so hopefully it won't slip or wiggle...unfortunately, she had to do it on the side of my wrist, so that makes existing tough.

They also found me a chair that I can sit in without immense pain.  My back is killing me, and these beds are terrible.  They had brought me a rocking chair earlier, but it is really too hard for me to sit in comfortably.  They found a nice padded glider (it was that, or my brothers were going to drag a damn easy chair from the lounge in for me...whether they liked it or not...) and that has helped a lot.  I will likely be putting my feet up on it to sleep tonight.

I'll be getting another Ambien tonight, and hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep.  I'm pretty tired right now, but I really don't want to leave the hospital without my baby in arms.  Everyone tells me that tomorrow looks favorable, so I'm going to keep my hopes up and do what I can to make things happen.

My parents took off for the night which is totally ok...they're going to try to get some good sleep and come home early.  Colin and I are watching some TV.  He has been SO amazing...helping me do stuff and helping me walk and just generally being a god send.

Tonight, I'll take a hot bath and a sleeping pill.  Tomorrow is another day, and everything will be great.  Thank you all so much for the kind words and the thoughts and prayers.  I can't respond to everyone individually, but they are so very appreciated.  I love you all!