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Better late than never...my labor story!
I haven't been on here much the past couple of weeks, Baby J is keeping me very busy but he's absolutely adorable and handsome. I really can't take my eyes off of him, I can't believe he is ours somedays!
I'll try to keep this short....we'll see how successful I am!
So, 3 weeks ago today, it was the ice storm. Between the nasty weather and a cold I was battling I decided to call out of work for the day. A lot of people have said maybe I had some sort of instinct about what the day would eventually hold and tha'ts why I called out of work.
I was having a jammie, rest up and get better because you are due to have a baby in about 2 weeks kind of day. DH came home for lunch. I had been laynig on the couch watching TV and sat up when he came to join me on the couch. When I did I felt something come out of me. Not knowing what it was, I headed to the bathroom. My undies were damp and as I wiped myself (sorry for the TMI) I found I was losing my mucous plug. Naturally I told DH but we both knew I could lose the mucous plug and it could be days before labor set in. However, at my appointment the day before my dr. told me I was 2.5cm dilated and 75% effaced so given that we knew we weren't so far off. It at least prompted us to double check our labor & hospital bags, etc. and make sure things were ready should we have to go to the hospital soon. DH headed back to work and I continued to leak some fluid.
I started to question if my water broke so Icalled my dr.'s ofice which was closed due to the storm but spoke to the on call dr. who suggested I go to the hospital just to double check to see if I was leaking fluid or not. So I called DH at work and suggested he come home so we could do that. While I was waiting I was sitting on the computer, checking my email and decided I should shower. When I stood up from my chair I realized there was NO denying my water had broken as it gushed out of me a la the movies! I called DH again and told him and I called the on call dr. again to let my practic know we were heading in.
By the time DH got home and we got the bags in the car, etc. we got to the hospital around 5pm, checked into triage where there was no denying my water had broken so we were under the 24 hour time clock to deliver. As of this time I'd only had 3 contracts over a 2 hour period so when we got to L&D they told me they were going to give me pitocin. They had to wait for the dr. who was on call that night to give the order though and he was in the OR doing a c-section. Finally about an hour after I got the L&D they started the pitocin (around 7:15pm).
When the on call dr. finally got to see me he said he expected that since it was our 1st baby we could expect to maybe have the baby around 7am in the morning.
Around 9:15 I asked for the epidural. They had ticked up the pitocin about a half hour beforehand and now contractions were coming pretty steadily and were getting mre intense. I felt like a wimp in someways but I was sure glad to have that epidural. It did take a little longer than the norm to take effect with me but when it did I was able to get some rest as we were sure to be up all night.
I was feeling good with the epidural and I was continuing to dilate on track, etc. so things were moving along. Around 2am my epidural ran out and anesthisiology came in to "reload" me. At this point I was starting to feel a dull ache in my abdomen which before I knew it turned into full on painful contractions that were coming on very quickly. Anesthisiology came in again to tick up my epidural and give me something else but there was no relief. I was in more pain rather than less. I was numb everywhere but my abdomen so I was feeling every contraction.
I kept asking the nurse to change which side I was laying on thinking it would help the pain. Nothing helped. They asked if I wanted to push as it might provide some relief and I said whatever they thought would help so I started pushing around 3am or so. It was tough and at some point I almost passed out, at another point I almost puked. They gave me an oxygen mask to use in between contractions. Before I knew it though the nurses were calling for the dr. to come in and DH told me the baby had hair lol (I had been really obsessed in the last few weeks as to what the baby would look like, would the baby have hair, etc. lol).
The dr. who was supposed to deliver for us was deliving another baby, so suddenly I had this other dr. in there I hadn't seen at all but he was great and frankly, at that point, we all know that you don't care WHO delivers the baby, you are just ready to have that baby out!!
I pushed through the next few contractions. I felt half out of it and didn't ask how close I was for fear that I was nowhere near enough and the dr. was just in there for precaution. But as I was pushing one time the nurse said "Look down, look down!" and there was our handsome little boy's face and before I knew it the rest of his body popped out. DH was the one to announce "It's a boy" and everything after that felt a blur - DH cut the cord and next thing I knew I was staring at our son on the warming table screaming his head off and thought to myself that I had never heard anything so wonderful in my life!!
In the end it all went so fast and was an amazing experience. I could have done without the epidural not working in that particular location but it was all so worth it. At least I did have many hours of it working great and got some relief then. The nurses said likely J was just in the wrong spot when the epidural ran out so the new "reload" just wasn't going to cut it. In the end though I pushed only a little over a half hour so I really can't complain.
And that was MUCH longer than I anticipated this story to be....so for all of you who have made it to the end I commend you and your attention span ;-)
Re: Better late than never...my labor story!
Well that made me teary-eyed! Thanks for sharing Jeremy's birth story. He is a keeper for sure - such a cutie! My epidural with DS didn't work too great either and they had to up it several times, and I was still in a LOT of pain! Not fun. Anyway, congrats to you. Enjoy that beautiful son!
Running on the Rhode
I hate you very much
Yep, I'm crying over here.
Beautiful story Robin, I am so so happy for you!
"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." - Alex & Ani bracelet
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It took 5 failed IUIs and a failed IVF, but our FET worked!
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Our baby girl was born on April 27, 2011!