Hudson's Birthday
Ok...so here's the story the best I can remember. I know it's only been 6 weeks, but a lot less sleep has been going on throughout that time:) My due date was April 28th which came and went with no action. I wasn't surprised because I hadn't been feeling many contractions and at every check up I wasn't showing any signs of dialation. I think the last time they checked me on April 28th I was dialated to a fingertip (which isn't even a 1). So, after my 40 week appointment the doctor began bringing me in every 2-3 days to do a non-stress test to monitor Hudson's heart rate. This is routine for my doctor if you go past your due date. We went in to my doctors office on Friday May 1st for the first test. He said everything looked just fine, but he didn't love what he saw, so he sent me across the street to the hospital to do further evaluation at the fetal monitoring center. If they didn't like what they saw, they would send me in to be induced immediately. At this point I started getting my hopes up that today might be the day. I went to the fetal monitoring center and they tested me for about an hour. The sonographer was acting like she was going to send me up to Labor and Delivery for about the first 30 minutes...Hudson wasn't moving like he should have been or responding the the baby zapper (this little hand held noise maker that is supposed to wake babies up and get them moving). She assumed Hudson was sleeping so they gave me a spritzer and he started kicking right away. His heart rate responded like it was supposed to, so I was sent home and scheduled for a follow up NST (non-stress test on Monday). Let me back up just a little. On Thursday, April 30th my induction date had been set for Thursday May 7th. I was so disappointed that it wasn't earlier. The earliest my doctor will induce is at exactly 41 weeks which was on Tuesday the 5th (hospital policy). I know that is only a 2 day difference but at that point 2 days is huge:) They said there weren't any openings available until Thursday but if a spot became open they would call. Well, one of my best friends out here is a labor and delivery nurse at my hospital. Later that day she called to see if it had been changed to Tuesday and it had. Woohooo!!! I was so excited. So we were scheduled now for Tuesday, May 5th at 7am. Monday finally rolls around and I have NST appointment at 10:15 at my doctors office. One last look before I go in on Tuesday. My plan was to go to my appointment, meet some friends for lunch, then run errands, and come home to finish packing up all of my stuff. The appointment went well. Cheryl, my nurse practicioner said she thinks everything looks good and took the heart rate strip in to the doctor to review. She had me wait in the waiting room. A few minutes later she called me back in and said, "Well, Dr. Wheeler wasn't convinced by what he saw and wants to be safe. So you need to go across the street and admit yourself to be induced." I know it was only one day earlier than my scheduled time but I was so surprised and excited. Guy and I were both a little disappointed that we weren't going to get to experience the spontaneity of going into labor, so this added that little bit of excitement. I immediately called Guy at work and he asked if he had 5 minutes to wrap things up at work:) I told him of course. So he did and then was off to the house to pick up our stuff then he would meet me at the hospital. I called my girlfriendds that I was supposed to have lunch with and they re-routed to the hospital instead! I checked in at about 11:00, did some paperwork, and my nurse (another friend of mine, Sarah) had the pitocin drip going by noon. We pretty much hung out all afternoon with no action. My contractions were slowly getting stronger. At noon I started out dialated to a 1. By 6:00 I was a 3 and my doctor came over from his office to break my water. He wanted to wait until then to make sure my cervix had thinned out and softened enough. After my water broke then the real pain began and I had my epidural by 7:30. Hoorrray for epidurals!!! I was dying. At 9:30 I had only dialated to a 4. I was a little frusterated at this point and getting ready for a long labor. My parents were able to get on a flight that afternoon and arrived in Orange County at 10:40. Guy left to pick them up around 10:30 (the airport was only 10 minutes away). The nurse came in again to check me at 11:00 and I was a 10!! Crazy!! I was shocked! So my parents came in and hung out for about 30 minutes and at midnight I started pushing. Excatly 12 hours later. At 12:48 Mr. Hudson Ellis Tomcheck was born. I couldn't believe that I had to only push for 48 minutes. Knowing he was going to be such a big baby I was thinking I might even end up in the OR for a C-section. Everything went better than I could have ever imagined. Guy and I are so in love with our sweet baby who now weighs almost 12lbs. and is 24 inches long. He's growing up way too fast. Gosh...I sound like my mom:) Thank you Jesus for our precious little miracle.
