The Labor & Delivery

I am recording my labor story, mostly for myself--it is really long and may make some uncomfortable, so feel free to skip it! Heather don't read this until AFTER baby girl comes. :) 

35 weeks arrived and the doctors gave me the green light to start walking and returning to more normal activity. I was thrilled, and also convinced that between the complications and the early arrival of my other babies that he would come early. I scrubbed the house, finished organizing, made many stock-up costco trips and kept things ready for going into labor at any time. 37 weeks -- dilated to a 2 and not effaced. 38 weeks -- still dilated to a 2 and not effaced.

Sunday morning (7.24 and almost 39 weeks) I woke up with tons of cramping and semi-regular contractions. Went to church and kept watching for things to get more intense. We went for long walks, I sat on my ball rotating my hips a lot, did lots of squats and things just kind of stayed the same without getting more intense. I was pretty much in early labor from that point on. Good times...

I had an option to be induced on Wednesday morning because of my GBS and agonized over the decision. My mom was leaving town Saturday and I really wanted my mom to be here for the delivery as well as taking the kids to her house. Ultimately I decided against it. I wanted to keep things as natural and healthy as possible and my experience with pitocin previously was extremely painful. So I went in for another appointment on Tuesday and found out I was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced. I was very hopeful that the "labor" I had been in for almost three days at least did something.

Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:30 to go to the bathroom and noticed that the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't go back to sleep. So naturally I got up to fold laundry. At 6-ish I called my mom to come over. They were getting pretty regular. I had been having so many contractions for so long that I was kind of used to the pain and kept wondering between each contraction if it was going to stop. Since I was Group B Strep positive, we needed to be at the hospital a good 5 hours before delivery, so we decided to head over and arrived around 9:30am. At that point I was dilated to a 4-5. They got the saline and antibiotics going around 10.

Leaving for the hospital

Getting settled in for the day

My contractions were still going strong, but I had been so anxious to get things going for so long that it felt good! I was excited and walked around and around the whole third floor doing lunges and working that baby down. My doctor came by at 11:40 and I was dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced. She went ahead and broke my water. We went for another walk and quickly my contractions got a lot closer together and extremely intense. I got in the jacuzzi tub for about half an hour which felt amazing and really helped me relax. Then got out and tried a few different positions. I started getting a little nervous with the intensity, but we had an amazing nurse that was so helpful and by my side almost the whole time. I finally found comfort lying on my side with Jared pushing into my back and my mom rubbing my feet. My poor mom had left to grab lunch while I was still smiling and laughing and came back to find me throwing up and in pain. I kept wondering if I should ask to get checked again because I felt that I was either close to or in the transition phase but I was so in my little world that speaking took too much energy.

Suddenly at the peak of a contraction I told my mom & Jared I had to push. My mom went running out yelling to the nurses to get in there. I was still lying there with my eyes closed, but could hear everyone rushing in and shouting things. They started yelling to page my doctor and the resident doctor because the baby was coming out!! They made me hold the baby in for THREE contractions which was the most unbearable thing I have ever done. It was so powerful and intense and I was freaking out pulling on the side of the bed begging for the doctor. She finally came running into the room in her stiletto heels yanking the scrubs on and trying to get her gloves on as fast as possible. I don't even know if she had sat down yet, but in one push his head was out. The cord was around his neck, so she hurried and cut it. Next push they had me watch the rest of him be born (1:17pm). They laid his warm little body on my chest and I was in so much shock at everything that had just happened. It was the most intense and amazing experience of my life. To be able to feel every sensation and every pain was absolutely incredible.

Tired...

He didn't make the full time with the antibiotics so we had to stay 48 hours afterwards, but luckily it didn't cause any problems. He was absolutely perfect!!