I guess it's only appropriate that on Pete's one-week-old birthday that I sit down and write about his birth.
I went to my regular weekly check up on Monday February 24th. I thought my water might have been leaking, but when we checked it hadn't. I was dilated to a 2.5 and was 75% effaced. To be honest I was a little discouraged that I hadn't dilated more (from a 2 the week before) but I was happy to hear that all those braxton hicks had been doing something! My goal at the appointment was to convince Dr. Haderlie to strip my membranes. Luckily he was already on board with my idea and it didn't take any convincing!
I left my appointment optimistic that maybe, just maybe, I would actually give birth at some point {those last few days feel like a lifetime}. I was still one week away from my due date - but to be honest, I was feeling really impatient and besides, my other two kids came early so I figured my third would obviously be early! :)
Not a whole lot happened the rest of Monday - just a few contractions here and there. Tuesday I woke up in tears - for no reason at all. According to my sister Tiffany you always give birth within 24 hours of waking up in tears {which proved true in my case}. I went on a walk down to the mail boxes by myself {with huge sunglasses on to hide the tears}. When I got home I had a little crying session in my closet and in the shower and then I pulled it together and got everyone ready for the day. It felt kind of good to let out some emotions.
My mom came over for moral support and to lend a helping hand. We dropped off Truman at music class and then walked around the neighborhood while Bodie biked. I was still only having about a contraption an hour.
After lunch at Cafe Rio and quiet time for the boys we went out for another walk, this time with Dallin and Becca on the 4-wheeler. Becca needed to get out of the house, after being in an accident a week ago that completely shattering her ankle. I loaded up Truman and Bodie in the double stroller, turned on my RunKeeper App to mark how far we went and we were off. The fresh air felt so goo, we walked all over Midway enjoying the beautiful afternoon. At one point Truman and Bodie both got out of the stroller to run down the bike path. Bodie ran 1.5 miles - I think I might have a cross country runner on my hands!
We walked up the driveway at about 6 PM right as my phone started to ring. It was Dr. Haderlie calling to check on me since he had not seen me back at the hospital after stripping my membranes. I told him I had just gotten back from my third walk of the day. He could not believe I had not gone into labor {I am sure he was headed home for the night and he wanted to see if he would be getting a late night/ early morning wake up call}. After seeing me on Monday he had me set up an appointment for Wednesday. I asked him what the game plan was since stripping my membranes didn't really get us anywhere. We talked about a few options and then agreed we would see where all this walking had gotten me at my appointment in the morning.
Tuesday night once the kids were in bed I took my usual hot bath to relax before we crawled into bed. By the time I laid down to sleep I was having more contractions, but still nothing to exciting.
At 1:45AM on Wednesday morning I work up to some more serious contractions. I timed them {there's an app for that!} and an hour later decided to wake up Gregg. We laid in bed and debated going into the hospital. I think knowing when to go into the hospital is the hardest part. Dr. Haderlie kept telling me, "as soon as you have consistent contractions, come in." And I have to admit I was really worried about going into active labor quickly based on my past deliveries and, I did NOT want to miss out on the chance to get an epidural!
The contractions got more consistent {7-10 minutes} and more painful so we got up, showered, and decided to go in. It worked out great that Dallin and Becca have been staying at our house the last 10 days while Becca has been healing from her accident. We woke them up to tell them we were going in - I told Dallin I would text him with any updates and that I would wait until a more reasonable hour to call my mom to come over to watch the kids.
When I got the hospital they watched the babies heart rate and my contractions for the first hour. I continued to progress {duhh} so at 5 AM they called Dr. Haderlie to come in {I did feel bad about the early morning wake up call - the only thing that made it better was that about 30 seconds after I got to the hospital another one of his pregnant patients also checked in - so it was two for one}.
When Dr. Haderlie checked me I was dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced, and more then ready for my epidural! By 7:30 AM I had my epidural in and was dilated to a 6. He broke my water and then told me to try and rest.
By about 9 AM I was fully dilated and ready to push. I don't think the nurse believed me when I said, "I feel something, and I think I could push." When she checked me she immediately put my bed back and said, "don't move, I'm calling the doctor."
At 9:30 AM we were ready to rock and roll, everyone was in their places including a student doctor. Throughout the entire morning I had been throwing up - which I was really embarrassed about {I have thrown up during all of my deliveries so far}, and with everyone in the room ready for me to push my contractions suddenly stopped {my contractions had been every 2-3 minutes} and all my body could do was throw up. Everyone sat there watching me, waiting for a contraction so I could push all while I continued to throw up.
After waiting what felt like forever {I think it was about 15 minutes} they finally put a few drops of pitocin in my IV. After three pushes he was here, and he looked so small to me! I had been guessing he would be about 7 to 7 1/2 pounds. They laid him on my chest and all I could do was cry!
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