While it's still fairly fresh in my mind I wanted to write down how my "labor day" unfolded. I was actually really surprised and lucky that everything went so smoothly.
My original due date was Nov 23rd but they kept telling me I was measuring about a week early. That could mean something, or could mean nothing. However, last weekend I was feeling "done"...i had planned on working through last week and having Friday be my last day of work, but by Sunday night I really just couldn't do much of anything mentally or otherwise and I told my boss I just had to go & start my leave. Good thing I did!! It had been tough to sleep for a while anyway but that night I was up constantly and around 5am I really thought that my water had broken. I was having cramps but nothing too much, although things just felt different. I lost my mucus plug. My next OB checkup was scheduled for Thursday but I called & they saw me at 9am. My doc said that I was 80% effaced and 2cm...so I knew that things were warming up. My cramps were about 10 min apart so we had a lot of time. After the appt we were hungry & went to the coffee shop downtown and got some coffee & breakfast, took it down to the park. It was really cold (for here in Nov) and didn't stay outside very long.
We came back home and I was able to do the majority of my early labor here. Throughout the day Jason timed the contractions, and of course painted my nails! In the meantime I tied up some loose ends with work and so did he. J did a lot of last-minute cleaning stuff. I called mom to give her a "heads up" that we could be going to the hospital tonight or the next day, and apparently she heard "come mom as quick as you can" and got to our house around lunch time. :) I told her we were just going to sit around & look at each other but she was ok with that.
Somewhere in the early afternoon my contractions started getting much stronger and I couldn't get much comfort or relief when I changed positions or moved - and that's when I realized that it was really coming and there was no turning back! At some point J tells me that it's snowing outside! Here? Snow in November?? NO way! And there were actually flurries - nothing stuck, but still always fun to see it here.
Throughout the day I ate a little here & there. I would have thought that I would have been more vocal and expressive throughout the contractions but I was just the opposite. I became very withdrawn and maybe introspective, if that's the right word. During the contractions I would take deep breaths and close my eyes, never saying anything. By 8pm I was about 5 minutes apart but I only had a few really strong contractions. But I knew that it was time to start getting ready - get my and J's packed bag together, etc. So I made the announcement that it was officially time to go to the hospital. Our hospital is literally 2 miles away so I was not very worried about getting there.
We walked in the hospital at 9pm and when they checked me I was 100% effaced and 4cm. The nurse I had for L/D was named Erin and she was absolutely fantastic. It was a huge blessing to have a great person helping me out there. Of course I requested the epidural as soon as I could. When they came to do it, they actually had to poke twice because the first time they didn't have it in the best place. During both procedures I was having contractins & had to be still for them...but the weird thing was that I didn't really feel them during it. I think that I was so focused and concentrated so much on my "happy place" that I didn't really notice. (yes for those of you who know Happy Gilmore...think midget riding a horse and that dreamy music they play). Why THAT particular scene kept coming up, who knows! So by 10:30pm I was a little drunk on the epidural and feeling no pain!
Some people can sleep through some parts of it after getting the epidural but I didn't. I definitely relaxed, and used the iPod some...however, I thought it was fully charged and it wasn't so I didn't want to "waste" it. I probably should have used it more. In the meantime, Jason's parents were called and they showed up around midnight or so. So there were 3 family members out in the waiting room literally all night.
When I arrived at the hospital I was the only one in labor, and mine was still pretty early on. However, just around the time I could have started pushing two or maybe three women came in and NONE of them had epidurals so they couldn't control or hold-off on pushing. So the staff had to tend to them as well as the one doc on call that night - who happened to be my OB that I really like. At around 3pm they said I would start pushing soon....and then it was 4am....and then it was 5am... I can't remember exactly how long I was pushing but my best guess was that it was maybe 45min to an hour. And when they were actually serious about saying "it's time" they saw that I was starting to have a fever. (which turned out fine)
It's definitely true what people say about an epidural - they are great! I can't imagine why anyone on the planet would EVER make a different choice. It's also true that it's hard to push in the right place when you can't feel those muscles. It probably took me about 3 rounds of pushing to figure out how to do it. It's amazing how exhausting it gets to be. But it's like a really good workout. I imagine it's like doing a marathon or something similar. Between pushes I would just close my eyes or get J to feed me ice chips. It was just me and him in there, along with the nurse & doc.
I really have to say that it's a pretty amazing experience. And considering how scared I have always been of the whole idea of childbirth, it was really a positive and pretty exciting experience...definitely not as terrifying as I had thought. The emotions and sense of awe is too big for words.
4 years ago
