Labor of Love, right?
My labor with our bundle of joy started about 3 am Saturday morning though I wasn’t quite sure if it was the real thing or not. We had enjoyed dinner that evening with Chris’s whole extended side of the family at a nearby Seafood restaurant. Some would speculate that it may have been a key factor in bringing on my labor! The last time the family gathered at this place, my sister in law, Kelly went to the hospital with false labor. :) I have to give her credit for calling it Friday night… So, now we know what to do for anyone close to giving birth… Take them for some seafood at Blue Water Restaurant. :)
I had contractions for about 3 hours, but I gave up on timing them since they were soooo very irregular. They went from 2 mins to 6 mins apart or so. After an hour of timing them, I got up and packed my toiletry bag and then surfed the net while I watched Gilmore Girls! Finally, when they were getting more painful about 5:45 am I called Dr. Peach since he was on call at the hospital until 8 am. He told me to go ahead and come in so they could monitor things and see if it was the real thing.
So off to the hospital we went after getting everyone up and ready and all our fifty bags loaded in the car! We got checked into OB triage about 6:45 am, and they hooked me up to the fetal monitor. The nurse informed me that my baby’s heartbeat was dropping during contractions so they were going to give me oxygen and put me on an IV, since that’s really all they could do right now since I had just gotten there. Just what a laboring woman wants to here. At this point my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and were seeming to come more regularly. She checked me about 7:30 am, and I was about 1-2 cm dilated.
I think because of the drama of the heartrate dropping, they decided to admit me right away. Otherwise, I don’t think they would have with me being only dilated barely to 2 cm. The funny thing is that after she checked me around 7:30 am, things settled down and everything went back to normal. They kept telling me over and over, “Things look good now. Everything’s fine now.” I think they thought I might freak out or something so they were trying to reassure me. :)
At almost 8 o’clock, Dr. Peach came in and checked me, and I was at 2-3 cm. He asked me if I wanted to go ahead and get my epidural (sorry, if you’re an epidural hater… *cringing*).
I got checked into my birth suite soon after and was getting my epidural amazingly by 8:45 am! Before I got the epi though, Chris was Mr. Analyze the data for me as he was letting me know that this contraction I had just panted through was not as bad as the previous one. I didn’t appreciate his analysis needless to say. :) Thankfully, I got the epidural and it kicked in before too long, and I was in “happy juice” heaven. :)
At 9 o’clock I was 4-5 cm, and Dr. Peach broke my water which speeded up my contractions from every 5-6 minutes to every 2-4 minutes. Did I mention that my fabulous Dr. Peach decided to stick around a little while even though he had been on call for about 24 hours I think? I don’t know of many doctors that would be willing to do that.
Unfortunately, by around 10 o’clock, my contractions had spaced out to about 8-9 minutes apart which the nurse had told me would happen because of the three bags of fluids I had gotten in the IV. Soooo….. that meant it was Pitocin time. ;)
The Pitocin did speed up my contractions but about 11 o’clock I was only a five, and Dr. Peach had decided 20 minutes earlier he couldn’t hang on any longer and made the switch with Dr. Holman. (I like Dr. Holman and am happy that it was him who was next on call… fyi.)
Since things were slowing down, and Dr. Peach had predicted earlier that I would have the baby by around 2 or 3 pm, all the family decided to go get some lunch…. and so did Dr. Holman.
Soon after they left I started feeling a bit of pressure and told Chris it would be funny if everyone left and the baby would decide it was time!
When the nurse came in shortly after that, I felt the pressure again and decided to mention it to her. When I told her I was feeling the pressure, she gave me a look because she had just told Dr. Holman he should have plenty of time to go out and get some lunch. She quickly checked me and announced that things were ready and I was at 10 cm! She hit the call button and told someone to page Dr. Holman to get him back to the hospital. Chris then called the family to come back as well. They were all still in the parking garage so they headed back up for the wait! This was 11:35 am. In about 30 minutes I had gone from a five to a ten! Crazy.
The nurse had me lying still and soon Dr. Holman came rushing in. Our family waiting outside the room said he was actually running down the hallway to get to the room. :) They got me situated and ready to push, and he initially told me to go ahead and push before he even had his blue surgical jacket on or the equipment table uncovered. He stopped me however, because the baby was starting to move when I was just breathing before even pushing. He got things how they needed to be and then it was time. I started pushing at 11:54 am, and on ONE contraction in less than a minute, at 11:55 am our Baby Wade was out!
Before too long, they let the family come in, and Haylee had a few minutes with us first. She was so good with him and was just so excited. Wade had lots of visitors and we are so thankful that he came on his own and was born healthy.
So that’s the story of my Labor of Love… Definitely much easier the second time around…
So glad everything worked out so well for you! Hope you’re recovering nicely, also!
Neat to hear. Hope you are feeling well also. Have been praying for you. Hope things are starting to settle into a routine for you and that you’re also getting some rest. Did Chris get to take some time off for after the birth? I know when Lilli was born, I was so thankful that Matt stayed home that first week with me, it really helped us make the transition. I was super emotional after her too, so it was good to have my “rock” around for support. ;) Thinking of you.
You did fantastic.. NO matter what opionions people have on epidurals. Why would you want to scream , holler and kill your husband when you can get the happy juice and enjoy , savor and remember all the details. So happy everything went well..
So glad to hear the real version since I kept getting slightly different accounts from everyone! ;) Also, I totally agree with amy on this one! The happy juice is just plain awesome… When the anesthesiologist -sp? walked in I told him something to the effect that he was my favorite person ever at that moment! Anyways, glad everything went so well!
[…] Wade decided to appease me and escape the teasing, though I did go into labor Leap Day night. […]