The Big Day(s)

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

It’s 9:30pm, I’ll try and remember everything that has happened up till now. We arrived at Madison Memorial Hospital (Rexburg, ID) at 8:00pm and went up the stairs to the maternity unit. After picking up the little phone at the entry way and letting the nurses know that we had arrived, we were led to room 3004 where Parker’s “great exodus” will occur.

The room is spacious and comfortable (as comfortable as a hospital room can be anyway) and the nurses have been great. Our nurse tonight is an older woman who has been doing this job for 31 years now so we’re in good hands. Our nurse had Nykele put on one of those fashionable hospital gowns, and then strapped these little sensor belts that are there to measure Parker’s heartbeat and let us know how frequently Nykele’s having a contraction and how long they last. The nurse took Nykele’s vitals, her blood pressure was a bit high and she’s running a little on the warm side. I think she may be a bit nervous... I wonder why? Anyway, I’ll be sleeping in this “comfortable” chair at Nykele’s bedside... it doesn’t even recline all the way, whose idea was that?

At 8:45pm the nurse had Nykele take a little pill called cytotec, an inducer that doesn’t require an I.V. drip and thus allows for Nykele to get up and move around a little more without the inconvenience of getting tangled up in the I.V. line or wheeling around a drip bag stand when she gets out of bed.

Nykele’s mother Melanie, Jaycie (Nykele’s sister for those of you that don’t already know her) and Josh (Jaycie’s special friend) came to see how Nykele’s doing. Nykele’s mother will be staying here for a week or so, and my family will be arriving tomorrow to see us and our new baby, and to drop off my little sister for her first semester here at BYU-I. It should be quite an exciting and rewarding weekend.

At 10pm Melanie, Jaycie and Josh headed home for the night and Nykele was given her sleeping pill in hopes of helping her sleep through the contractions she’s been feeling since shortly after given the inducer. Nykele’s worried about being able to sleep very well through the night, the contractions have been getting stronger as time has passed tonight.

Well, we’re both going to try and sleep now... I’m not expecting much out of tonight’s rest, I’m beginning to wonder if the hard laminated floor would be more comfortable than this recliner.

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

7:30am... Nykele and I are both up, we probably got about 4 hours of sleep last night but the warm sunlight coming into the room helps us feel a little more awake. Dr. Evans (the doctor that’ll be delivering our son) hasn’t been in yet, we were hoping that we’d know by now when he’d be breaking Nykele’s water to get the labor process started. We’ve got a new nurse now, her name is Jen and she’s quite a bit younger than our last nurse.

Oh, speak of the devil... Dr. Evans just came in to break her water, so things are going to get a little more interesting. I’ll be back as soon as he’s finished.

I’m back, Dr. Evans broke her water at 8am. It was a painful experience for Nykele, I felt a little helpless watching her try and cope with the pain. She hasn’t really made any progress as far as dilation is concerned, so that’s probably why breaking her water hurt so bad. As the doctor was jabbing the little water breaker past the cervix, Nykele started snapping her fingers trying to distract herself from the pain, then Dr. Evans started singing “Incy Wincy Spider” in hopes of distracting her further... he’s not the best singer, but I think that that helped distract Nykele even more. :) The doctor inserted these little sensor wires that better measure her contractions and the baby’s heart beat. With those sensors inserted, there’s no longer any need of the external monitors that gave somewhat sporadic readings.

11:30am - Dr. Evans called Jen (our nurse) to have her check and see if Nykele has dilated any... after the nurse came and checked the report was, “not much if any”. Hopefully we’re not heading toward a C-Section. Nykele’s contractions have strengthened and they’ve now got her on a pitocin drip to help increase the frequency of her contractions. Hopefully the contractions will help aid the dilation process, we want to have a smooth pregnancy, then again who doesn’t?