I spent all night the 18th uncomfortable. Almost hourly I was waking up to contractions. Not wanting to go into Labor and Delivery only to get sent home I forced myself to lay back down and get some more sleep.
The morning of the 19th I woke before the alarm to more contractions. Giving up on getting more sleep, I slowly got myself ready for the day. (It took 4 times as long to even get out of bed due to every move causing a contraction) I kept thinking.. Was this it? But it's so early. I'm only 36 weeks. The girls woke up and got themselves ready for school. I decided to walk them to the bus stop to see if a change of activity would cause the contractions to stop. Not feeling hungry, I couldn't even force myself to eat something... Instead I was feeling nauseous.
I was very wrong... the contractions did not stop with the change of activity they steadily got worse. I was so uncomfortable I could not even sit and wait with the kids for the bus. Instead I paced. I explained the back up plan with the kids one more time as we waited. By the time the bus finally arrived I was ready to cry. I was trying to be brave for the older kids but scared that it was too early. (only 4 days sooner than my other kids.. but days matter)
I get home and place the call to my doctors. The contractions have been steadily 3-5 minutes apart for 2 hours now. I am told to hurry up and get to the hospital. The nausea got much worse and I was puking. This scared me because in the past I have only puked when i reached 5cm and was going into transition. I call my mom letting her know we need to go get checked and finally woke my husband. The drive to the hospital was torturous, over railroad tracks and through busy Monday morning traffic.
We finally get to L&D and they ask you the stupidest question. "Why are you here?" For fun.. really.. I'm having contractions and need to be checked. They get me hooked up to the monitors and sure enough the contractions are still coming steady. They check me and I am 3-4 cm. After a long annoying wait. (I'll get into that horrible almost 3 hour labor limbo in another post) I am finally admitted to the hospital.
Once they get us set up in our own L&D suite and leave us alone, I break into tears. It's so much earlier than our other kids. (OK, really only 3-4 days but I was hormonal and in labor) We call my parents to let them know that today is really the day and we will be having a baby soon. Our older kids are with them and excited to find out their baby brother is on his way.
Just 2 hours later and I was 5-6 cm 90% effaced and they were ready to start my epidural. This was a much easier epidural than last time. I hate needles but that is one needle I was grateful to get. They had already started my pitocin over an hour before. The wicked runaway freight train of contractions from pitocin were overwhelming.
Less than an hour later during a cervical check (6 cm and fully effaced) my water suddenly breaks. There was a shocking amount of water.(shocking for the nurse) It actually sprayed up the nurse's arm and across the floor. She was shocked at the amount of clear healthy fluids there was.
After my water broke the contractions were becoming more intense. The Anesthesiologist forgot to hook up my actual bag for the epidural. I only got the original bolster shot. They came back and hooked up the full bag with relief button. Now I was feeling blessedly numb, but only down one side. Thanks to having me lay on my side, my epidural was pooling down one side. My whole left side was beyond numb but my right was feeling everything. I had to physically fight my half dead weight body to turn over and watched in horror as my left leg just flopped uselessly. I begged for the epidural to be turned down and luckily they listened.
Now is when it becomes a whirlwind.. 30 minutes after my water broke I was at 7-8 cm. The nurse told me I had plenty of time and was taking her time setting up the room. She was gone only 10 minutes from the last time she checked me when I felt intense pressure that was not relieving between contractions. She went to check me again only to discover I was fully dilated with baby at +4 station.(right before crowning) She hurriedly called the doctor who was in the middle of another delivery and wouldn't be able to make it for another 20 minutes. My pitocin was quickly turned off and we waited. As each contraction crashed over me the pressure was intense. (my epidural was slowly wearing off.. instead of turning it down they turned it off) My husband joked between contractions. The nurse worriedly told me not to laugh or we would be having a baby without doctor's assistance. We jokingly asked if we could charge them for delivery services if that happened.
The doctor finally arrived and no sooner did she place my legs in the stirrups but the baby was crowning. My wonderful doctor used counter pressure rather than an episiotomy
Magnus Raymond was born at 5:23pmWeighing 6lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long.
I will continue with his post delivery saga in a later post.
Fluid on the lungs, NICU stay, pumping, zombie walking every 2 hours, unhelpful staff and worse than just unhelpful.
