Thursday night I did not get ANY sleep. It wasn't the normal "I'm tired, but can't fall asleep" it was "Wow, I'm not at all tired right now".
Friday was my 41 week appointment. I was scheduled to have a NST and an appointment with the midwife to get a progress report and schedule an induction for the middle of the next week. During this entire pregnancy, I wasn't scared or intimated or anything by labor. The only thing I didn't want was to be induced. I was bummed that it was looking to have to be that way. So after walking a bunch, bouncing on a labor ball for 4 days rather than sitting in an office chair, and another way to induce labor (I wont get TOO personal here haha), I finally said: Ok, Lord. If inducing is the way to go, help me be ok with it and enjoy the rest of my pregnancy. This was why I couldn't sleep Thursday, thinking, not labor.
Well at 4:47am I woke up (after only 2 hours of sleep) to go to the bathroom. I went, then when I was done, I went more. I was surprised because its been months since my bladder was able to hold that much liquid! The thought crossed my mind that it could have been my water, but definitely didn't want to get my hopes up, so to bed I went. In the course of about 35 minutes, I had 2 or 3 contractions. I was then getting excited! I woke Zech up at 5:30 (when our alarm goes off) and told him I was having some contractions. He asked if he should go to work. I really didn't know, and that's what I told him. So we got up and got ready for the day. In the course of an hour, I was still having a few contractions and I went to the bathroom like 5 times. I finally put a pad on so I wouldn't have to rush to the bathroom every time. I finally convinced myself that my water probably broke. So I told Zech and he simply said "I'm staying home" with a glimmer of excitement in his eyes =D
We decided we'd take a walk to Jake's (a 15 minute walk at a normal persons pace). We made it down the street and I decided it was impossible. So we walked back home and drove to Jakes. I got a bagel and a tea (which I think I sipped once). Once we got home I called Labor and Delivery and explained that I thought my water broke, they told me "We'll see you in a few minutes!". So that was it: we were headed to the hospital!
We drove by Angel's to drop off the exercise ball (birthing ball, whatever you prefer to call it) because it needed to be aired up some more. We told her we'd call her once they admitted us and we had a room, since we had no idea how long that would take. I secretly thought that they'd tell me to go home, even though I knew that there was no possible way they could.
So we made our way to the hospital and checked in at 9:45am. They confirmed my water was definitely broken (breaking?.... broked...) and that I was at 4.5cm dialated. They told me to walk around until the nurse came and got me. I guess they had to clean the room that I'd be staying in. That was at about 11:00am. I walked for what seemed like forever. Ever since they checked me, my contractions were WAY worse than what they had been. Now I could barely walk and had to lean over to bear through them. After about 45 minutes of walking I was starting to feel nauseous. I thought it was because I was dehydrated (believe it or not, the hospital did not even have a water fountain in the labor and delivery area. Unbelievable!). We finally made our way up to the front desk to check and see if the room was ready. No way could it take an hour to clean out a room (right?). Well the nurse said, "Yeah, its been ready! We've been waiting on you." Great. I've been walking and
So Zech text Angel giving her the clear to come down and (I believe) texted the family telling them we were at the hospital and we'd let them know when baby was here and when we were ready for visitors.
We got our room just in time too. The contractions were making me more nauseous and within a few minutes of getting to our room I had to throw up twice. (my poor bagel). After that, the nurse came in and hooked me up to the wireless monitors. Which sucked, only because they were VERY itchy. I'd forget that they put this gel all over them, itch my stomach and then have gel all over my hand! When you are in labor and vomiting, the last thing you want is to feel sticky and gross haha.
I toughed through the contractions until about 2pm. Prior to this, I had not taken any birthing classes or anything, so I wasn't doing any "Lamaze" or "Bradly" or any method to help. I had done a lot of research and looked up some techniques just in case, but ultimately I was not prepared. I did read somewhere that however you deal with pain now, will most likely be how you will cope with labor (to a degree). I had Angel there as my Labor Coach and Zech there as... well...my husband and support. I kind of felt bad because I didn't "use" them until it came down to pushing. It was as if I just had them there to "run errands" (Hand me water, get me a new "doggie bag", etc). Which I guess is why they were there as well, not just to do what the books say...
I didn't need massages, I didn't need anyone breathing with me or reminding me to breath. I just needed to focus for myself and go through it. And that worked for me and made it all bearable.
The nurse had previously gone over some options for some medications that would ease the nauseousness and vomitting (or rather, dry heaving. A bagel doesn't necessarily fill the stomach much). She gave me some of that at about 2pm, then at about 2:30 they gave me some other medication to ease the pain of the contractions (I was hoping it would help the nauseousness go down as well). Well it did not work lol. I wasn't nauseous for about 30 minutes, but the second medication they gave me made me nauseous. So I decided I would go ahead and get the epidural. I had gone into this with the mindset that I'd like to avoid the epidural if I could, but also that I knew I had no idea what labor was like, so would try to put getting the epidural off as long as I could but wouldn't beat myself up over it if I ended up getting one. I think I would have been able to go a few more hours without it if I wasn't dry heaving during each contraction (which were about 2 minutes apart from the time I got into the room until the pushing stage). Drying heaving during contractions are no joke, they suck, epic-ly, and if you know me well you know how much I loath anything including throwing up.
The midwife came in to check my progress (6cms) and had the anesthesiologist come in to start the process. Luckily I only got contractions while he was taping my back or prepping his stuff, not when he was actually putting a needle in me! The epidural didn't work right away. It took about 25 minutes for it to work on my right side. It didn't work at all on my left side. So they propped me up so that I was leaning on my left side (to let the medicine "fall" that way). That didn't work either so they gave me another medication (I should have written down the names of these meds lol). That worked for my left side. I was able to take a good nap (I think it was about 2 hours of sleeping).
When I woke up I was feeling the pain of each contraction again, but just on my left side. I was wondering if the meds were wearing off. Turns out they weren't wearing off because it was hooked up to the epidural drip, meaning I was getting a constant drip of meds.
The nurse suggested at about 5:30 to have the midwife check my progress and then they'll decide what to do with the meds from there. She asked if I was feeling any pressure at all, and I wasn't, only the pain I was feeling before the meds worked. Angel asked if I would feel pressure because of the epidural, the nurse assured her I would. So I was in no hurry to get checked again (I was very quick to shake my head no when they mentioned it). We had agreed that I'd be checked at 6pm. Well at 5:35 the midwife came in and said she was going to check me. I wanted to cry (getting checked is not very pleasant!). Luckily, she didn't have to completely check me. She could see his head so she said that we'd start pushing shortly. Yay!
I wont go into to much detail here, but I do want to say a few things about the experience. 1. I couldn't feel anything, so it was great. 2. Angel did such a great job as "labor coach". She would count during the contractions, it was amazing because it gave me a beginning and and end, instead of "push as long as you can". 3. Zech was amazing. He completely amazed me. He wasn't grossed out (well he didn't show it if he was), he was excited. Thrilled. Ecstatic. You could see it all over his face and in his eyes. He was so excited and that pumped me up. He was so encouraging and I am so happy and am very blessed that God gave me him as a husband, to be by my side throughout life. So about 45 minutes worth of pushing and we had a baby boy!
Isaac James
Born at 6:27pm
19.5 inches long
6lbs 13oz.
(you may have already seen these pictures, but I wanted to add captions and all of them in one spot).
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| He cried for the duration of this picture, and then was just wide eyed and looking around the rest of the time. |
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| My favorite picture. If only it wasn't a tad bit blurry! See Zech's face? Precious |
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| Part of his first bath. So tiny =D |
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| As Sam said: "He's even cute when he's crying!!" This was that night, he was hungry. |
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| This is day 2. Waiting for them to let us go home. This was my view from the bed. My lil baby, and my man, both sleeping. |
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| I told him to look excited, so no this is not his "real" excited face. This is his exaggerated excited face lol |
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| Isaac getting weighed. |
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| I tried to photo bomb this picture. I could only lift myself so high, so just imagine me making a funny face here. |
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