It has begun!

We have arrived! Checked into the hospital at 9 and after lots of paperwork and questions and the ever appealing backless hospital gown we are ready! Had dose number one of cytotec, it's like a little shot that tastes like water or something that closely resembles water (maybe my cold is helpful as it might taste worse but I can't tell!) I get to take it every two hours tonight and see what happens. I am hooked up to a monitor for contractions and one for the babies heartbeat all night. Dom is getting his oh so comfy looking "bed" set up and we are watching transformers so who knows if or when we will go to sleep, although I get an ambien if I want one Dom is on his own! It's 10:45 now, I get my next drink at 12:20, I'll update periodically if I am awake and not in pain, cheers until then!

2:45am- I've had 3 rounds of drinks, sleeping between them is surprisingly easy so far, getting up to pee not so much though cuz I am hooked up to machines! Dom has full on sweatshirt and pants on and I'm over here partly sweaty in my dinky little gown, thanks will for the "the room is freazing" advice, I am definitely keeping it cold in here! Every time the nurse comes in to check on me she asks if I feel anything... Not yet! She assures me, oh you will. Back to sleep for now though.

3:40am- I jinxed myself, can't fall back to sleep now and starting to feel contractions. They don't necesarily hurt yet they are just uncomfortable but this is probably because they are still farther apart I am guessing. So I guess this stuff is working...hopefully! I should just enjoy this uncomfortableness until the real ones show up huh ;)

5:00am- still awake, had my last drink about 40 mins ago. Rated my contractions as a 3 for now (1- no pain, 10- worst pain). At 6:30 I get an iv (not my favorite part of a hospital stay, but she said I have good veins, go me) and they start the pitocin and check to see if I am dilated anymore. So I think I am done sleeping for good now. Have moved on to watching tv, this early in the morning my options are bible channels, infomercials, news, the hills reruns or sportscenter... Wow I chose sportscenter, I surprise myself sometimes. I don't know if I will feel like updating between the start of pitocin and my eventual but inevitable cry for an epidural, but Dom will be updating periodically via facebook. Back to the oh so distracting sportscenter for now ;)

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So all of the above was posted periodically from my iTouch in the hospital during the induction and beginning of labor, I had added another post from there but it didn't save, so here I am back with the rest of the day!

After the IV the doctor came in and broke my water at 7:30, I think I was about 2-3 cm at this point. Apparently breaking the water plus the pitocin worked wonders and fast because by 8:00 my contractions were at an 8 on the pain scale and they were coming every 1-2 minutes. Felt like there was no breaks in between sometimes. We learned if I wanted an epidural I would have to wait until the anesthesiologist was done with a c-section around 8:45, and I needed to have a bag of fluid added to my IV 15 minutes before the epidural. So I think about 8:30 I asked for the fluid knowing I would get the epidural soon. I think the hour of 8-9am was the loooongest and hardest waiting for that epidural! They turned my pitocin off or down, not sure which one, because the contractions were coming so fast. All the breathing exercises helped but I did not want to do or say anything during the pain, I pretty much was silent for hours. I think I scared the nurse because I pretty much didn't talk the whole time haha. And I felt like a narcoleptic zombie, between every contraction all I wanted to do was sleep and it felt like I was either falling asleep or passing out between each one. When the epidural came I think there was a little light shining down and a halo over the anesthesiologist. Best decision ever. Screw my fear of needles, stab that sucker in my back! It actually didn't hurt at all after one pinch it was over and sweet relief followed! It was a weird feeling in the legs, numb/asleep/tingly. I could still move them but they were so heavy. My right side was completely numb, my left I could sometimes feel a contraction but it was nothing like before and I think it slowly faded to nothing. I made it to 6cm without the epidural and that was definitely as far as I could have gone, I think I would have just passed out without it. After the epidural I was a happy camper, I started talking again and even though I could still feel when the contractions were starting from the top of my tummy it wasn't painful and I could finally rest a bit. By 12:00 I was fully dilated, which surprised me, that was fast! And the nurse went to call the doctor and see what she wanted to do. Around 1:30 I think I started trying to push but it was hard because I couldn't feel the pressure I was supposed to be feeling to tell me when to push. And baby was OP/sunny side up/head down but facing upwards instead of downwards. The nurse said babies can be delivered this way though it's not the easiest. The next few hours consisted of trying to push and see what happens, which wasn't much in the beginning. Once I could feel the pressure though I knew when to push and it felt easier, but at the same time I was having back labor (horrible pain in my lower back) because baby was flipped the wrong way and the epidural does NOTHING for that! By the time the doctor got there at 4 and suggested we use the vacuum to help pull the baby out, I basically said whatever makes my back not hurt, let's do it! So everything was set up and ready for delivery, Dom was in charge of holding a leg and the nurse had my other leg, I couldn't lift them at all. I pushed and pushed and pushed for what felt like forever because it HURT everywhere, every single muscle in my body was being used! I didn't know what was going on but the vacuum slipped off a few times and it got messy, ew. I guess his head was coming out but then when I couldn't push anymore it would go back in and it did this a few times. When he got closer, the doctor asked if I wanted to feel his head, um no, just get him out of me!! Finally after some oxygen for me and a ginormous effort pushing, baby Logan was born at 4:24. He went straight from the doctors arms onto my tummy and all I remember is balling and thinking how big he looked! It was quite amazing really. They then took him and weighed him and did all their little tests on him in my room and then I delivered the placenta and the doctor showed us it and ew it was nasty and giant! Then the doctor sewed me up. Unfortunately the comment we got at the 37 week ultrasound, "he has a good size head", ya that comment, meant your 7lb 9oz baby has the head of a 10 pounder (at least that's what the doctor said afterwards) that plus the fact that he was sunny side up left me with a 3rd degree tear. All I knew was she was stitching my up for a loooong time, I didn't want to know how bad it was but later they told me, ouch! After all that was said and done our family came by one by one to see him and then I tried breastfeeding for the first time and we were off to the recovery room upstairs.
We just couldn't stop looking at him and were so excited he was finally here! Breastfeeding was painful and hard to get the hang of at first, but the lactation nurses were sooo helpful. Logan didn't really want to eat much while he was there and he kept having to get a glucose test when he would go past 5 hours of not eating, but he always passed. He did not pass his hearing screening on his right ear though, he failed twice so we have to go back and get another one done in October. He was circumcised on the 16th and we left later that day for home sweet home. It was all an amazing experience that makes the whole pregnancy worth it of course.
A few more weeks of healing for me and hopefully I will be back to normal! Hopefully this post baby belly will be going away soon too, it still looks like I am about 20 weeks pregnant, I knew it wouldn't just magically disappear but hopefully it will not cause too many more comments about when I am due, since I have gotten two of those already and I have to say ummm this is leftover from my newborn! haha that sucks! I am feeling contractions every once in awhile too when I breastfeed from my uterus trying to go back down to size. My body is sore but nothing too bad. I have some hospital grade Ibuprofen for when things get painful, but so far it hasn't been anything as bad as the labor haha. So I think that is the best update I can do for now about the labor and delivery, of course a lot has happened since we have been home but I will save that for another time! Thanks to everyone who came by the hospital or the house, those who called or wrote us messages and everyone for welcoming Logan, we love and appreciate you all!!!