The Chappell Family : Nathan Jens Chappell

Born July 5, 20 inches long and 9 lbs even. He was measuring big for his gestational age so he had to get some glucose testing to make sure that insulin and sugar levels were normal. This was my hardest labor and delivery but we've been recovering quite well now.

This labor and delivery was really rough. I went in pretty late on the 4th of July. I hadn't started dilating at that point. But, since I'd had three babies before they decided to induce me a week early with the gels. We weren't sure how big Nathan was going to be, but I thought he'd be around 7-8 lbs since that was how big my other kids were (except Logan who was only 6 lbs). I was really concerned about a huge baby. I didn't want to end up with a c-section because of his weight. And since he was measuring quite big for a while with the growth ultrasounds (which has been wrong with all my other kids, by the way), we decided to induce early. Plus with Rick's school schedule, we thought it the best choice at the moment.

I've only been induced with pitocin before and not gels. Those gels hurt very badly. I remember it being around 12:00 AM and I put on the Age of Ultron (they have a great streaming video service at the hospital I delivered at) to distract me because of how bad the cramping was. The second dose of the stuff made my body react even more intensely, and so they had me get up to get it out of me.

I had only dilated to about 2 cm by the time morning came around, and I was feeling a bit bummed out, wondering if we had made the right decision with what was essentially an elective induction. I was actually pretty weepy. I remember asking Rick if we should just cut our losses and leave before I was strapped down with the pitocin. We put on "Ant-man" then to distract me once again, and then I got up to use the restroom and my water spontaneously broke. So, the decision was already made for us. I felt so much better about having the baby after that.

I asked for an epidural after that because my contractions got really intense. Of course it took forever to get it since they had to flush my body with fluids on the IV. I asked the L&D nurse for a catheter while I was getting the epidural and she said that they don't give them at this hospital. I wouldn't feel my bladder anyways, because of the epidural.

I remember being annoyed with the answer but I didn't fight it at all. I wish I would have looking back because I think that and a late and neglected diagnosis of a UTI really messed with my body right after delivery. After the epidural, the dr checked me and said I was at a 4. After an hour, the nurse came in, I was a 10. But the baby hadn't descended yet so they gave me another hour or so, to see if my body would do it on it's own.

After the hour, the nurse came in and started me pushing to get him to descend. Ugh. Talk about horrible. I had started to shake like crazy and I was so cold. My whole body was trembling and I could barely talk.

Anyways, after about twenty minutes, Nathan was born. I don't remember a lot of what happened though except being super cold and shaking like nobody's business. Rick thinks I went into shock from the loss of blood. I spike a fever as well and while I was getting stitched up, the nurses called the doctor about me because of the heavier bleeding. She told them to give me a shot that would help with clotting and then they decided to finally hook me up to an IV of antibiotics to help with the UTI.

After an hour or two I started to feel better and my poor Rick was finally not looking at me so frightened. Anyways, I was glad that everything worked out, I didn't have to be wheeled back for surgery.

I was only super annoyed that the stupid nurses or lab didn't catch the fact that I had a UTI to begin with. I should have been hooked up to the antibiotics to begin with.