August 12th, 2011
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5:something AM - Alarm went off (like I was really sleeping anyway...). Today we're going to have a baby! I took a nice long shower and we got everything settled around the house, said our goodbyes to Simon and headed to the hospital at 6:30.
6:30something - Checked in on the 3rd floor. Everyone I came in contact with would look at my chart or paper work and see "41 weeks, 2 days" and sigh and express their pity for me.
7:00ish - We got settled into our room, which was thankfully (for Jed) right across from the galley where he could fetch me popsicles and ice chips and met our first nurse of the day! She was wonderful!
7:30 - Dr. H arrived and cracked lots and lots of jokes (that's his thing, he was one of Jed's favorite doctors we saw) and then he broke my water. I was already 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced so I had a good start to go from! At this point, Dr. H also guessed that baby J was about 8 lbs. HA. They monitored baby J for 30 minutes and then I could get up and walk around. They said they would give me until 10 or 11 to progress a little before they would start pitocin. We walked the halls for a little while and they monitored the baby again, and then we walked again, etc. We passed Dr. H in the hallway and he suggested I try skipping. Jokes. I started to feel some real contractions but nothing was too terrible yet.
Shortly before 11 - The nurse starts the pitocin so I was stuck in bed :(
11:06 - (I know this because I texted my sister) Contractions already are getting stronger! This is good!
Shortly before 1 - I started to not feel so awesome. I was also incredibly HUNGRY.
2:00ish - The nurse checked and I was still only at 3 cm but more thinned out. This was a bit discouraging and I was starting to get more and more anxious and unable to rest in between contractions because they were getting more painful. The nurse suggested some fentenol to help me relax so my body could start doing what it was supposed to do! We thought about it for awhile and decided to try it and it helped A TON! It made me feel a little crazy but it helped distract me and rest - the contractions were still painful but I didn't focus so much on the pain.
3:00 - New nurse! She was even better than the first!
5:00 - At this point I had had 2 doses of the fentenol and was only able to get one more dose. I had only progressed to 4-5 cm and it was looking like this whole labor thing would never end. So around that time I decided to get an epidural - I went in not sure what I would do about pain management because I didn't know what it would be like! I am glad that I decided to get the epidural because it ended up being such a long day and I was able to rest again and store up some energy for later. Plus, it helped me progress later on!
5:30 - I texted my sister and said I was feeling "Awwwwwesome!" Ha. I was at 5 cm and the doctor said he was going to go home for dinner. More jokes. I asked him how much longer this could potentially take and he said the extreme was 7 more hours. Yikes.
6:00 - 8 cm! The epidural really helped my body relax and progress!
6:30 or 7:00 - 9.5 cm! I got another new nurse - she was FABULOUS and so sweet - she checked in a lot which was really nice as we neared the end of the day. She suggested that that I just relax and labor down so that when it was time to push, I was really ready and wouldn't have to push for as long. So I rested some more and tried to even fall asleep.
9:00 -I started pushing. And then I threw up. (TMI? Sorry.) Pushing, pushing, pushing. Jed and the nurse were both incredibly encouraging and their praise really helped so much. Jed told me I was the best laborer ever. The doctor came in a little before 10 and turned off the epidural. Rats. At this point, things got a little crazy and I don't really know what all happened but Dr. H was working at a furiously fast pace and like Jed said, a SWAT team of nurses came in right before baby J arrived. As it turned out, I was just about to birth a 9 lb 4 oz baby who had some rather large shoulders. The doctor had to perform some of his fancy doctor skills in order for the baby to be born as quickly as possible. (I will gladly explain this more in detail in person if you'd like).
10:14 - It's a........ GIRL! A beautiful baby GIRL!
I was totally shocked (I really thought allllll along that baby J was a HE.... obviously all of you blog voters were right and I was wrong) and I burst into tears out of relief, exhaustion and excitement. Because of the fast and furious delivery, I wasn't able to really see or hold her right away as she needed to be on oxygen and monitored for a little while. Jed followed her as they checked her out and weighed her and then he was able to bring her over to me and I got a quick glimpse of her sweet little face before they took her to the nursery.
A little less than 2 hours later, we were finally able to move to the mother/baby floor and our first stop was the nursery so I could FINALLY, REALLY meet my sweet girl. Lots more tears. She was just so perfect and beautiful and I was totally overwhelmed with the greatest of God's miracles... LIFE!
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