For the record- July 8th was my guess, although i never thought i would be right!
People kept asking me "have you been having contractions?". All i could say was that i wasn't sure. It's hard to say you have or haven't when it's nothing i've ever actually experienced before. Around 4 in the morning on thursday though up until 530ish i could say for sure i was. They weren't horrible, just cramps that would come and go every few minutes. They got stronger and made sleeping not so easy.
The plan for Thursday was to go to the dr, come home and get some stuff done, pick up emily and grace to go walk around cherry hill mall (i figured walking would be good for me and it was too hot to do it outside so why not go shopping while i walk!), then go to the grocery store and come home to get some cleaning done. Very busy day.
9am rolled around and i gave the dogs a treat and told them i would be right back. I went to the dr, was so distracted that i forgot to pee in the actual cup, so i then had to drink lots of water and try again later at the end of the apt. The midwife did an exam and said i was already 3cm and 75% effaced. Part of me was totally shocked but the other part of me expected it since i've been taking the oils, walking, doing everything i naturally could to move things along.
I took a picture in the bathroom while i waited to have to pee again. Lovely i know! (but im glad i took it! ended up being my last one)
Blood pressure was way high (which since may it randomly has been here and there) and the midwife was not happy about that. She also suspected my water had broken and that there might not be any fluid so i needed to go get an ultrasound. She seemed concerned with everything, which concerned me! Then when i finally did pee in that cup (i remembered to hold the cup under this time!) my protein was also high so she said "yup, you're having a baby today. head to the hospital"
Ummm, what! Excuse me. Come again!?
I really was not prepared for that. The poor secretary at the desk when i was checking out asked when my next apt needed to be and i said i was headed to he hospital to have a baby and totally lost it. Sobbing. She probably thought i was insane.
She wanted me to head right across the street to the hospital, not to stop home first. I was not at all ready for this so i had to call Mark, tell him what was going on. He freaked out and ended up hanging up on me! Then called back a minute later realizing he hung up on me. I sent him a text with all the stuff to pack, because naturally i had not finished getting it all done. Then i called my mom and told her to get her butt home from the shore (we had just gotten home ourselves the night before!). Called sarah, who had just gotten off an evening shift at the hospital and was about to go to sleep, told her what was going on and asked if she could take care of the poor dogs who i had told i would be right back to!
The labor floor was busy and I had a million different staff coming in and out, none of which were consistent because everyone was so busy and they kept telling me I was headed home soon. "No Diane said we were having the baby today" i told all of them and I just kept getting the same response. Probably not, we will see, doesn't look that way.
Wonderful, I had gathered all the troops, collected myself, come to terms with what was going on, and now they tell me this probably won't happen!? It was a little frustrating. I sat there from about 10 till 3ish waiting to hear what was going on. Mark and my mom had made it there, Sarah was there and already called out of work for that night, everyone had been expecting to see a baby.
My pressure was good but they baby's heart rate was not, there were dips and no real jumps. Which apparently is not good. So despite the hospital nurse and attending objections my midwife said "we are definitely having this baby- you don't mind do you?". So things were back on again.
Pitocin was started around around 4:30. I was petrified. I have heard horrible things about that drug. It meant hard fast contractions were on their way. I waited and waited but no horror. Contractions were very manageable, not much worse then gas pains. They were getting a little more intense so i decided to get IV meds to help relax me a bit, maybe i could sleep. As with anything in the hospital it takes forever so i just said lets do the epi while we still can. They checked and i was 4cm, -1 station, 90% effaced at that point.
Around 6:30 i got the epi, which was scary, but not bad. It was more uncomfortable then anything else. The most painful part of labor though came when the anesthesiologist had the needle in my back and a contraction came on. I was bent over, which was not comfortable, could not move, and trying to work through it. Once it was in and the contraction was over though it was totally fine. I could still move my legs around and feel them, they just felt heavy. About 20 minutes later I couldn't even tell I was having contractions, it was pretty amazing.
I just hung out for a while. By 7:30 i had already moved to 6-7cm. Because the transition from 4 to 7 was so fast the baby dropped down quickly which messed with his heart rate yet again. This got everyone worried because he was in distress. They decided to break my water to check for meconium. It didn't seem as though there was any which was good but they still started setting up for a C-section because of his stress level. I was not happy about this at all. I did not want a c-section!
Everyone started heading to the hospital, anticipating a very long night of waiting. We figured at that point the baby would probably have a Friday birthday rather then a Thursday one.
One of my favorite shows in the summer is Big Brother, the premier was that night at 8pm so the plan was to watch it. Since i was not in pain i figured that would be no problem at all, it would help pass the time. My dad set it up for me so i could watch the live streaming on the laptop because the tv in the room was terrible. I saw maybe two minutes of it before I started feeling something strange. Pressure, like I could feel the baby moving. I mentioned it but no one seemed concerned because they said there was no way it was time to push. WRONG! There he was. I was at 10cm and ready to go.
Everyone started rushing around getting ready. They reminded me that pushing can take a couple hours. Nope, wrong again. Three pushes later and he arrived! Turns out my water had not totally broken, they broke the remaining bag and there was in fact meconium so they had to rush him away. This was disappointing because i was hoping to wait and cut the cord after it was done pulsating. But nothing i had hoped for went my way so why should that have!
4 hours of labor, 3 pushes. 7/8/10. 8:56pm. 5lb 3oz. 19". Perfect and beautiful.
Holding daddy's hand.
Mommy holding Grayson for the first time.
Look at that face!
Daddy holding Grayson for the first time.
Grandma and Grandpa joe.
