WARNING: This is extremely long but I wanted to remember everything. :)
The next morning at the doctors (Friday the 12th) I talked to my doctor about it and she decided to go ahead and run some tests. There were two blood tests I needed to take. One was a liver function test and one was a bile acid test. The bile acid test was the one that would for sure tell me if I had it but the test takes a week to come back with results and you have to be fasting to take it which I wasn't. So she decided to send me in for the liver function test, which the results would come back that same day, and base my diagnosis off that. If anything looked off on that one she would induce me just to be safe. I went and got the blood test done and then came back in for an NST to make sure the baby was doing okay. Which he was. I waited all day calling and calling to see if my results were in and they finally came back normal. Which was good, right? They were telling me it was good but I was still convinced something was wrong. My doctor send me to get the bile acid test the next morning (Saturday) after I had been fasting so we would now be waiting on those results ALL week. Knowing that the chances of a stillbirth happening were getting higher and higher the further along I went in my pregnancy did NOT sit well with me. I'm not sure if it was my motherly instincts or the fact that I had been having such a horrible pregnancy that I wanted this baby out ASAP but I went a little crazy. I started emailing and calling multiple doctors explaining my situation. I did not feel like it was worth the risk to wait a whole week for the results if something was actually wrong. And if nothing was wrong, great! I would get to be done being pregnant sooner.
Finally Monday rolled around and I heard back from someone! My doctor had gone out of town so her nurse emailed me back saying she got my email(s) and was going to forward them to another doctor. A few hours later I got a call from the doctor she forwarded my emails too. She told me that based off what I had described and how far along I was in my pregnancy she would go ahead and allow me to be induced early. When she said this I thought she meant in a few days or something...nope. She wanted me to come in in a few hours!! I started panicking! Tyson was in a lunch meeting and so I started calling him (which he ignored) and so I texted him and said "THEY WANT TO INDUCE ME THIS AFTERNOON!" Thankfully he was able to leave the meeting and come home so we could finish packing our bags and go. By the time he got back we only had about an hour before we had to leave. I called my mom to come over and watch Ella and off we went! It was a little surreal leaving our house and leaving Ella knowing this was the last time she would be an only child and that when we came back home we would have a new baby!
When we got to the hospital we got all checked in and set up in our room. It was 3:00 and I was sure I would have him by that evening because of how fast my labor was with Ella. I was wrong. They hooked me up to the monitors and saw I was having tonsssss of contractions. I knew I was and had been having them for weeks and weeks. Well turns out if you are having too many contractions they aren't able to do much to induce because the medication they give you is supposed to make you have contractions, which I already was, and they didn't want me to have even more and the baby not get a break in between. They checked me and I was at a 2 (which was an improvement from when I was checked Friday at a big fat zerooooo) and 50% effaced. I knew then it was going to be a lot longer labor than Ella. They finally agreed to give me something to help "ripen" me. Which just meant to make my cervix thinner. They said they could give me this pill every 3 hours as long as I wasn't having even more contractions. Well it gave me TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE contractions ALL NIGHT LONG. Tyson was able to dose on and off through out the night between the nurses coming in every 5 minutes it seemed like. My contractions were back to back and I had no break. It was constant. They started at about 6pm after they gave me the first dose. At about 11 (when it was supposed to be wearing off, but it wasn't) I decided to try and get in the bath. They had a nice big jetted tub that I sat in for a while that helped a ton. I was able to relax a little bit and my contractions slowed down. After I got out she gave me my next dose which started everything up all over again. I was having back to back contractions again that were killllllling me. I ended up getting in the bath a few more times but it only gave me temporary relief. My nurse had said that once I got to 80% effacement she would start the pitocin as long as I wasn't having too many contractions. Well..I was having too many. And also she never checked me. All night. Which I thought was weird and really frustrating because of all the pain I was in. It had to be doing something, right?
The next morning (really the same morning for me because I hadn't slept a second) we waiting for more doctors and nurses to come in and decide what they were going to do. They still hadn't checked me to see if I had progressed and I was super annoyed. I hadn't eaten since the day before at like 2. I hadn't slept at all and I was still hurting a ton. It was not a good combination. They gave me ANOTHER dose of that "ripening" medication at like 9 am (keep in mind they still didn't check me?!?!?) and it all began again. Finally I got my new nurse to give me some pain medication in my iv. It only helped for like 20 minutes but it was the best 20 minutes ever. I was finally able to breathe! At about noon another doctor came in and said if I hadn't progressed she was going to try a balloon method. Which they basically stick little balloons up there and fill them with water to help dilate you. Ouch. When she came to do it she FINALLY checked me and I was at a 3 and 80% effaced. Now to me that sounded like NOTHING. I expected to be more because of how many contractions I had been having all night. But it was enough for them! She told me I didn't need the balloons and that she had to go take care of a c section really quick and when she was done I could get my epidural and start pitocin. FINALLLYYYYYY I would get relief and we could actually get things going. They came in about 3 and gave me my epidural and started the pitocin after it was in. For some reason both times I've got an epidural it doesn't work on my left side all the way..which is really annoying but it's better than nothing. I would never even consider not getting one. I was able to relax a little more now and at about 5 she checked me and I was at a 5! Things were going good! My nurse said I should have him at about 2 am. I said no way, I'm shooting for 9 pm. I. WAS. STARVING. One of my nurses snuck me in two saltine crackers and those have never tasted so good in my life. I ended up throwing them up not too long after (I had also been throwing up the last few hours) but it was worth it. My parents stopped by with Ella to visit since we figured it would be a while longer and I wasn't in as much pain so she wouldn't be freaked out. She was a little nervous coming and was a little confused why I was in a weird bed and why I couldn't get up with her. At about 7 I told my nurse I was having a ton of pressure in my left side and that I almost felt like my body was pushing on its own. She checked me and I was at a 9.5!! Apparently my body finally figured out what it was supposed to be doing. We assumed he would be here in the next hour or so. They wanted to get the rest of my antibiotic in since I was GBS positive and also they wanted me to get to a +3 station before I started pushing, I was at a +2 and he was positioned on my left side and wouldn't budge! So we waited a while longer. We waited for them to get the room set up, and for the doctor. Finally at like 9:45 they said I could try a few practice pushes. By this point my epidural was almost worn off even though I had been hitting my little button to give me more medicine the last few hours. So I could pretty much feel what I was doing. We did a few pushes and the nurse told me to stop so she could go get the doctor because he was coming soon! Soooo we waited AGAIN (so much waiting) but I continued to push during the contractions until she came. Once the doctor came in he was pretty much out and I only had to push a few more times and he was here! He ended up having the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times!! Luckily he was okay and was still able to be placed right on me after he came out. Tyson cut the cord and he laid on my chest for about an hour before they took him to get weighed and measured and all his shots. He was 8.8 pounds and 20.5 inches long. Which is HUGE for being a week and a half early!!
He passed all his newborn tests and screenings and we were able to go home a few days later! The morning we left I got an email with my test results for the cholestasis and everything looked NORMAL. Thankfully everything was fine but it made me wonder now since he had the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times that if he would have gone to term and got even bigger if that could have ended up really dangerous with the cord getting tighter since they weren't doing anymore ultrasounds. Also, my doctor had mentioned after I had him that my placenta looked old and crunchy in some spots. Sorry for the gross description, but that's what she said. She asked if I smoked- which I obviously didn't and then asked about if my due date was accurate which I also didn't know because they kept changing it at the beginning. I guess your placenta starts to go bad after about 41 weeks. So it also makes me wonder if they were WAY off on my due date and I was actually a few weeks further along than they thought...based on his size too the pieces could all fit together...kind of. It's one big mystery now but me and him are both safe and healthy! It was a win win because I got to be done being pregnant at 38.3 weeks, and if anyone saw me then they KNEW I was ready. I'm sooooo thankful I am no longer pregnant and that I have two cute kids that I get to raise. It was hard but it was alllll worth it. Lets just hope I get some strong pregnancy amnesia before I decide to get pregnant again or I don't know if it'll happen.
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