I had a lot of contractions for a few days. One an hour and occasionally, every 20 minutes. Early Sunday (November 17) morning, the contractions were every 6-8 minutes. My OB had said once things had gotten regular not to wait to go in. So I decided to get moving. I was going off my previous birth experiences, when active labor had started with them they were fast. (Read Liam here and Miriam here) So Bill and I got the kids in the car, dropped them off at Brenda and Joes and headed into the hospital at about 4am.
Everything was so layed back. Since my contractions were not particularly painful, just a bit of pressure, we were able to check in slowly. I was about 5cm dilated. Once we got down to my room we got the IV started and my blood work off and I knew within an hour I could get an epidural. Which was crazy to me, because I didn't feel like I needed it yet. But, we were still expecting my labor to pick up all of a sudden, and I didn't want a crazy painful birth expereince either, so we went ahead with it.
It took effect and we tried to rest. I don't remember sleeping much. At about 10 am they wanted to break my water, because my contractions were still about 5 minutes apart and I hadn't really made any progress. I was a little nervous, but at 11 am I let them do it. It made my contractions come more frequently, and I progressed to 7cm. Also in this time we kept calling the anesthesiologist back down because my pain level kept going back up. I was poked a prodded a lot as she tried to tell what was working and what wasn't. I had pain meds pumped into me a couple different times. It would take the edge off for a while (I got a 20 minute nap!) and then I would start to feel them again.
I don't remember what time it was that I was checked again and was still 7cm. No progess. I was afraid of this senario too. What if I didn't progress? They started me a on a little pitocin at some point (another thing I was not very fond of). The nurses were wondering if he was "sunny-side" up, or just positioned badly. I'm thinking it was probably close to 3pm that we rolled me on my side and put this pillow thing my nurse called a peanut in between my legs, trying to encourage baby to move. Soon enough, we could tell that he moved out of my right side into a more central position.
All of a sudden I felt what seemed like a really forceful kick (exactly the same thing that woke me up in labor with Miriam) and I had a contraction that was considerably more painful. They had just given me a dumbed down version of the stuff they give people having C-sections, but it did not work! My contractions got really hard. I was pretty much hanging onto my husbands hands/arms trying to breathe through contractions. It was hard work! I was sweating up a storm. I really can't even begin to describe how difficult it was to work through those contractions. I felt them in all their horrible glory. I made Bill stand/lean just so the whole time. He and all the nurses were very supportive, that much I know, but everything they said was sort of in the background. I was also vaguely aware of all the activity going on in my room as everyone (I was the only gal on the delivery floor) was getting ready to deliver the baby. The time in between contractions was a wonderful rest time.
Finally time to push the baby out! I pushed through one contraction and had a rest, but I could tell baby Nathan was right there, ready to be born. My doctor said, lets push him out on the next one. I think I said "Okay." And I did! One benefit to that was being able to tell just how much farther we had to go and just pushing that baby out! They say he jumped out of there. Amazing how as soon as he was born, all the horrible pain was gone! He had a great healthy set of lungs! They let him rest on my chest for a good long while. Daddy cut his ambilical cord.
I guess it's true about the rush you get right after, because I really felt good! We had his name picked out and written on the white board in the room. Nathan Eisen was 6lb 14oz, 20 inches long, born at 3.55 pm.
My sister in law had reminded me many days before that it was all part of his story. He is already his own person with his own little history. We made it and he was healthy.
*Part 2, recovery story coming soon!
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