Monday night:
We drove 2hrs south to meet with the birth mom and dad and their social worker. We were going to have dinner and get to know each other. When we got there, I was very nervous. Even though they already picked us, it felt like an audition. We saw them walking in and hugged each other at the door. We sat down and she got down to business. We spent an hour discussing openness in the adoption, religious views, her medical history and looking at pictures. She was direct, blunt and very open. I appreciated all of it since I didn't really know what I was doing.
Then it was over, they didn't want to eat. They just left. I was worried, but after several phone calls, our social worker told us they really liked us. We got a good feeling about them. He is quiet, but seems like a good guy.
The next step was to drive 2 more hours south and spend the night in the middle of nowhere. We had to be at the hospital at 8am. Induction started at 9am. The birth mom told us her previous deliveries were fast. The last one went in 25minutes. We hoped for another quickie.
I think I slept an hour Monday night.
Tuesday:
We arrived at the hospital on time Tuesday morning. We met the doctors and nurses and while we were still nervous, we were there, and we knew it would be a great day. We were so wrong!
They started her meds just after 9am. The doctor had to go do a c section then was going to come back and break her water. 3.5hrs later (longest section ever) she came back and couldn't get the water to break. They did another ultrasound (they did one in the morning to verify the baby wasn't breech--she turned) to check things out and kept trying. Nothing happened. Finally at 4:30pm, it broke on its own. We were hoping that was all she needed, again wrong.
Hour after hour, nothing. She got to 6cm and stalled. It was getting late, the mom was beyond tired and hungry and she was in pain.
During all the drama, the mom and I became "special" friends. She was not a bit shy about having me help with the most intimate things. I have a whole new appreciation for labor and delivery nurses!
While I've never gone through labor and contractions, I can imagine its an awful process. We would have a couple good minutes then she would lose it. She screamed at the father, the nurses, doctors and while she didn't scream directly at us, I couldn't help but take it personally. All we heard was how painful it was, she was hungry, miserable, we were all against her, we were so mean, she was going to go home, nothing had started so she could stop at any time, it was too soon for her to be born and on and on and on. I have to admit (and I'm not proud), but I lost it. Jon and I left the room to give her a break and I balled for at least a half hour. I just wanted it to be over.
Finally at 11:30pm, the doctors gave her a break. They stopped the medication, let her eat and she got some sleep. They decided to restart the meds at 5am Wednesday. They were hoping the break would be the jump start her uterus needed to get that baby out.
Wednesday:
We were up at 4:45am. Day 2 of no sleep, no shower and little food. At 7:30, they checked her and reported she was stalled at 6cm again. The doctor told us that if it was her first baby, she would have gone into a c section by now, but since she has had several kids, they wanted to let her go a bit longer. She was on antibiotics and had no fever. The baby looked great on the monitors so no one was worried.
The hospital gave us a "parents room" right off the nursery. Its small, but it has a fold out bed so I can't complain. All the nurses have been amazing to us. They all have southern accents (apparently no one told them we're in Ohio) and are so sweet.
To be continued....
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