At my doctor's appointment on Thursday, my doctor set my induction date for Wednesday if I hadn't already gone into labor. I wasn't dilated enough to get my membranes stripped, but my doctor checked me aggressively. I figured that I was definitely going to be getting induced on Wednesday since I had hardly any progression in the previous few weeks. I started planning our last Friday as a "single couple" and also thought about how it would be the last Saturday in awhile that we could sleep in together.
Friday morning I woke up and noticed that I was having a lot more consistent contractions and they were even a little bit painful. I had been having so many Braxton Hicks contractions, but these were definitely stronger. I decided to start timing them and I was getting about every 6 minutes. I timed them all morning and afternoon and they stayed in that range. I decided to go to the pool to try to ease the back pain that I was having, but it seemed like my contractions let up a bit. However, after the pool they were back and even more painful and stronger than before. I was still timing them and they were about 4-6 minutes apart at that time. When Jordan got home from work, he wasn't really convinced that I was in labor. He kept saying, "when you go into labor" and I kept saying, "I am pretty sure I am IN labor right now!" Not that he wasn't supportive, but I think he was just imagining there being a few more "fireworks" instead of me just moaning through contractions. My mom was planning on driving up from St. George when I went to the hospital, but I worried that if my contractions stayed consistent, I would be going to the hospital in the middle of the night or she would be driving up too late. She decided to go ahead and come up since my contractions were staying at 4-6 minutes apart and they were getting stronger.
Since I thought that this would be our last Friday night, we decided to go get a bite to eat before heading to the hospital. I thought that if my contractions stayed consistent through dinner, we would go to the hospital, so we packed our bags and headed out. Still after dinner, we were unsure of what we should do, but we decided to go in anyway (7 pm). We had no idea what we were doing! The experience was completely surreal as they checked us in. They decided to keep us for an hour to monitor to make sure they could keep us. My contractions stayed between 3-6 minutes apart, but after I wasn't progressing at all, they decided to send me home (8:30 pm). I was SO bummed. The nurse told me to come back as my contractions got stronger and if my water broke. I was so frustrated because I figured my water wouldn't break, and I didn't know how to determine on my own if I was progressing. My contractions were already strong enough and consistent enough, so I had no idea what I was going to be looking for. I knew we were in for a long night.
After we got home, Jordan needed to go to the store to get a shower pole since my mom was coming up and we still don't have our guest bathroom set up. He wanted me to stay home, but I decided to come with him anyway. We drove to Target, got out of the car and as we were walking up to the store, GUSH! My water broke. And kept going and going and going (9 pm). I was soaked! I felt like a little kid with liquid running down my pants leg. We had to find something plastic for me to sit on for our way back home. We ran home, cleaned up, changed, grabbed our bags again and were off to the hospital again. We were SURE they were going to keep us, but as the nurse checked me again, she said that the water breaking test wasn't coming back positive. She was trying to tell me that I had a bladder spasm or something else. I was absolutely positive that I didn't pee my pants... this was definitely different, so it was a bit frustrating being told what happened. Since I was so adamant, the doctor came in and checked and got the same result, but they decided to do an ultrasound to check my fluids. They didn't find very much fluid, so they decided to keep me. Guess I just did a REALLY good job cleaning up! The doctor wanted to start me on pitocin to try to get things going, but I asked to hold off and let my body do it's own thing and try to get a little rest. They told me if I wasn't making some serious progress by about 3:30, they would start me on it.
Finally my mom arrived at the hospital (10 pm) and we just sat around waiting to see if things were happening. Even though I was still at about a 3, around midnight they offered me an epidural. Since I was already holding my breath through my contractions, I decided to just get one so I could try to sleep. I was sooo nervous for the epidural. I had heard horror stories of huge needles that are a foot long and super thick, so I was making myself sick just thinking about it. It wasn't even bad at all. In fact, I am pretty sure my IV hurt worse than the epidural. After it kicked in, I was finally able to relax! We decided since I would likely be having a baby the next day, we would call it a night. With all of the machines beeping and just the nerves of being in labor, I wasn't really able to sleep. It also didn't help that the nurse came in about every 30 minutes to check my progression. I was actually progressing faster than I would have imagined at by 2:30, I was at about a 6. The nurse came in and told me that the baby's heartbeat was dropping with each contraction, so they were probably going to have to do a c-section. Before they did that, they gave me a shot to stop my contractions to give the baby a little rest and to see if I could avoid the c-section. Sure enough, it worked... but I definitely didn't sleep a wink since I was so nervous about the baby and the shot made me shake like crazy. I was so glad that I listened to my gut and avoided the pitocin because I am sure that I would have had to get a c-section because of the acceleration with the labor.
The nurse checked me again at about 5 and I was complete! I was completely in shock since I had been sent home not even 12 hours before. The baby was still really far back, despite the fact that I was fully dilated, so the nurse wanted me to push to see if it was worth going full force yet. I pushed and not much happened, so they wanted to wait a little while longer before having me push with each contraction. The shifts switched at 6 am, so no one came back until about 6:30! By this point, I had a LOT of pressure on my tailbone from where he was sitting and it was nothing that the epidural could relieve. We started full force with me pushing 3 times with each contraction as HARD as I could. I figured since it had been 1.5 hours since I was at a 10, I would be pushing for about an hour and then we would have our baby... WRONG! I pushed for about 3.5 hours straight. After not sleeping all night and then having to push as hard as you can with only about a minute or two for a break, I wore out very fast. By the end, I wasn't even really there. I would give it all my might and then just collapse... couldn't talk, couldn't open my eyes, just had to lay there. I broke down bawling because I felt like I just couldn't do it anymore. It was hard to want to keep going because I was hardly progressing after giving it my all. Finally after what seemed like forever, the baby was crowning, but the on call doctor was just finishing up another delivery and they wanted me to stop pushing. With how far progressed I was and since I had been pushing for the last 3 hours, there was no way that I could just STOP pushing. It was so strange to not even be able to control my body, but with each contraction, it would push on it's own. Finally the doctor was able to come in, and it was back to pushing as hard as I could. I don't even remember how long I pushed with the doctor in the room, but he was close. He still wasn't coming, so I had to get an episiotomy and they used the vacuum. I really didn't want to have to do either of those things, but I was so ready for him to be here (and not like I had much say anyway...). At 9:47 am with one final contraction and four extremely hard pushes, he was here! I was so overwhelmed and exhausted, but felt immediate love for my little one. They laid him on my chest to get all cleaned up. It was a completely surreal moment. Luckily I had my mom film the moment he was born, so I can relive the moment now that I am all sane and with it! Although he was a good color when he was born, he turned slightly pale, so they took him to the nursery for some fluids. He also had a small cut on his head from the vacuum, so they had to mend that up as well.
6 lbs. 15 oz.
Not a fan...
Meanwhile, I had to get stitched up. Unfortunately, I had a category 4 tear (the most severe type), so she was literally stitching me up for over 30 minutes. It was over two hours before I got to see my baby again! I remember they brought him back as Jordan and my mom were leaving to go and shower, etc, so I got to spend a few minutes with my son by myself. It is amazing how much love you automatically have. I just sat there and bawled thinking about how this perfect little baby is mine FOREVER! And I would go through all of the hell of it again for him.
The proud new daddy holding his baby for the first time
My beautiful mama
First father's day pic
Cuddling with grandma
Holding the baby after a LONG first night at the hospital
Love this pic cause it looks like he is smiling
Auntie Kate came for a visit
We stayed in the hospital for a few days. Since we didn't get any sleep the night before (and I didn't take any naps that day), I let them take Owen to the nursery for a few hours that night. I kept waking up and missing him and counting down the hours until I got to see him again. We came home on Monday morning and have just been adjusting back to our new "real life" and trying to recover. It has been so great to have my mom here to help out. I don't know how people do it without someone coming to stay with them to help! We love having our little snugglebunny around now. It is so fun to watch everyone oooh and ahh over him because I think he is just so perfect :) We are definitely lucky.
All ready to go home! And looking miniature in the carseat
Leaving the hospital
My friend
Natalie also came to the hospital and took some pics of him. I LOVE them!
