Labor and Delivery

As Saturday rolled around and the month of January came and went I was still pregnant. You could say I was beginning to lose my mind ever so slowly, what had my Dr. told me - you will be having a January baby, I don't think you will make it to your next appt. - none of these things which came to be true. As the last weekend rolled around I was starting to lose hope that this baby was ever going to come out. I had tried walking, rocking, drinking the red rasberry tea, eating spicy food, everything I could think of or had heard of to get labor into action with no luck. Sunday I actually felt that nothing was happening with my body, no contractions, nothing - even little junior didn't seem to be as strong in his movements, which I can imagine he didn't have much room left. I was actually feeling like I had when I was 7 months pregnant instead of 8 1/2 months. I decided on Sunday night that I would call my dr. on Monday morning and try to get into an appt. by saying the baby wasn't moving as much and just something seemed very off (which in reality was the truth, I was just make it seem a little more extreme than it was). Monday morning rolled around and I got up and ready for work, dropped Katelynn off and phoned the dr.'s office, their answering service picked up and stated they didn't start taking phone calls until 8:30am so it was off to work for me. All I could think of was not wanting to listen to people say "You are still pregnant", "You are still at work?" - Yes, I am still here. I called back a little before 9am and talked to one of the nurses at the clinic and she let me know that all the dr.'s schedule their surgeries on Monday mornings and no one was available, she made some suggestions for me and I was a little demanding that I see someone so she decided to send me to Labor and Delivery at the hospital to be hooked up to the machines to monitor little guy and his movements to make sure everything was as it should be. Oops, I didn't mean to push it to that extreme and waste people's time and money, but it was too late at the point so off I went to the hospital and up to Labor and Delivery and of course I hadn't had much breakfast to eat yet at that point and didn't have time to stop and grab something quick. I got to the hospital and was hooked up to the machines in triage and was answering questions from the intake nurse and then she said "You just had a contraction, did you feel that?" - Nope, I felt nothing, then she said I had another one, still I didn't feel anything. As we were talking and she was completing paperwork she heard my Dr. outside the door and went and grabbed her to see me quick. In came my dr. and she said something about me being in there and we chatted and of course I made something comment about still being pregnant even though she didn't think I would be, I can't remember exactly what I said, but I know that she gave me a look! She asked me then if I wanted her to check me and I said "yes" and the nurse let her know that I was having some contractions. She checked me and I was at 5 cm already and she said that I was definitely in the early signs of labor and to go ahead and admit me and we'd be having a baby today. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, I was not completely prepared for that response. Dan had went to work, all my bags were at home and I wasn't going to be able to go and get them and pack the bathroom supplies that I wanted and I hadn't eaten enough for breakfast (and knowing from having Katelynn, they were not going to let me eat now). Phone calls were made and I told Dan to high tale it home and get my bag and get back to the hospital because it was 10am and at around noon the dr. was going to come in and break my water and the nurse was thinking it wasn't going to take long for little junior to make his appearance into the world. Our neighbors were on-call for Katelynn so that was all taken care of and went pretty smoothly. Dan got to the hospital at about 11:50am and the Dr. came in right at noon and said I was already at 6cm and went ahead and broke my water and advised me that if I was going to get the epidural then I probably needed to do it now because things were going to progress so quickly. So the lady was called in and we let her know that last time I had this done I had a panic attack and was hoping for different results this time around. Everything did go pretty smoothly, one side was more numb than the other, but all was working well. I did have a couple small problems with my blood pressure dropping to low and not feeling so well and having to be shifted around and needed extra oxygen, but it all worked itself out. (I always wonder afterwards what it was like to be Dan in that room watching me turn white and kind of going in and out of it and having people work on me, he hasn't really ever said too much about it, but I'm sure he had some thoughts running through his mind). At a little after 3pm the pressure was really starting to get intense and I just figured that the epidural wasn't working so well on the one side and I was just feeling the contractions, but when the nurse came back in and saw that I was clutching the bedside and checked me, I was at 10cm and it was definitely time to start pushing. She told me "Do not Push" I need to call the Dr. and get her over here. Thank goodness my Dr.'s office is attached to the hospital and here she came running down the hallway after they called her and then everything went really quickly. Once it was time to push, I had 3 contractions and pushed for a total of 6 minutes and out he came. This was definitely a different experience than Katelynn, there was no "Ring of Fire" with him and I really never even felt that I was pushing (probably the epidural), but I do remember the immense relief that my body felt after he came out. So there he was and everything was good and I can't believe that I went to work that morning and had a baby later that day and now it has only been a week and it feels that he has been here for months.