I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, and I knew they wouldn't let me eat after I got to the hospital, so we stopped at Whataburger and got taquitos on the way. I only got one, which was a BIG mistake. Next time I have a baby, I'll stuff myself before we get to the hospital.
We got checked in at the hospital, and they confirmed that my water had indeed broken and that Stella Kate would make her appearance soon. Unfortunately, my labor wasn't progressing very quickly. I stayed dilated at a "one" for about four hours and was given pitocin to try to speed up labor. The pitocin worked -- the contractions were extremely painful and close together -- but didn't work well enough. By about 1:00 in the afternoon, I was crying from the pain of the contractions -- and still only dilated to a "one."
Ben and my parents had been trying to keep my mind off of labor all morning, but it wasn't working anymore. I decided that I needed to have an epidural immediately, if not sooner. While I was waiting for the epidural, I didn't think that I could do it anymore. I told Ben to "just get me a c-section!!" Right as I was at my lowest point, the door to my room opened and my best friend Luci (Stella's Aunt Luci) walked in. As soon as I went into labor, she packed up herself, her husband, and their two kids and drove to Dallas from Edmond, Oklahoma, to be with me. She couldn't have arrived at a better time!
Just after Luci's arrival, the anesthesiologist came in. He was without a doubt my favorite person in the universe at that time. I had been so afraid of getting the epidural, but it was a really easy experience and immediately began to ease my pain. I continued to labor for a couple more hours, not in pain, but still not making much progress -- I was dilated to a "three" at about 3:00 that afternoon (nearly nine hours after I'd gone into labor).
My parents, sister Kate (who drove up from Austin as soon as she heard the news), Luci, and, of course, Ben stayed with me all afternoon. Since I wasn't making much progress, they decided to turn up the pitocin even more.
Unfortunately, that caused Stella some stress, and her heart rate began to decrease every time I had a contraction. They repositioned me on the bed several times to try to reduce the stress to her, but it didn't work. At one point, there were half a dozen people frantically trying different things to make her heart rate come back to normal, and one of the doctors looked down at me and said "If it doesn't go back to normal soon, we'll have to take you in for an emergency c-section." Talk about scary!
Luckily, they were able to resolve the issue and my labor continued. By this time (about 6:00), I was dilated to a "seven," and by 8:00, the nurse told me I was ready to start pushing! I couldn't believe that my sweet girl was about to be born. Delivery was really easy compared to the rest of labor, and at 9:28 p.m. on Sunday, December 12, 2010, Stella Kate was born!
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