Please note that this WILL have some graphic details at times and it will be lengthy so be warned. If you don't think you want to hear the graphic stuff, then please just don't read it. :) That being said I will begin my story:
On Friday March 2, 2012 I woke up at 7:00am with some pains in my abdomen and I laid there thinking....is this it? Is this contractions?! I was freaking excited! I debated all morning trying to figure out if they were the real thing or not?! At one point I even thought it could have been gas....embarassing I know! I was so mad that I couldn't tell! Anyway, I had an appointment that day with the doctor so I would find out soon enough. I had to go to prenatal testing at 11:00 (which I feel was kinda rediculous) because I was "over due". So I went and the monitors confirmed that I was having contractions! After that I went to my doctor and she had semi wonderful news for me! She said that Cason FINALLY dropped, and I was 90% effaced but...still only 3-4 cenimeters dialated (which was how far along I was on Monday of that week)! She said it was very likely that he would come that day if not then by the weekend so we cancelled the stupid induction! (My doctor said I would have to go in Monday for an induction even though I would have only been 41 weeks and 2 days....I was mad about that and frankly, I wasn't planning on showing up for it.) After that she introduced me to the lady who would be delivering if I had him that weekend. I was kind of upset because she just said it like it was a fact, no big deal. But I was really too excited to worry too much about it at that point.
After all that I went home and started aranging babysitters for Trinity and calling everyone to let them know it was probably happening today. I picked up Bradley from work and we then decided to finish packing our bags then go to a party that I had been planning on attending. At this point my contractions were getting closer together but they were random. I would have them every 5 minutes then every 10 and they weren't painful at all. We got to the party at 3:00pm (and I had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get there! I figured that would help speed things along) and Trinity had fun playing with friends. It was a Dr. Suess party for kids...fun! While we were there my contractions got closer together, Bradley helped me time them, they were 3-5 minutes apart. At about 4:30 the contractions started becoming slightly uncomfortable so we decided to take Trinity to the babysitters and head to the hospital because it was 20 minutes away. It was a good thing we left when we did because we caught a lot of traffic on the way. It was really funny to me just walking on in the hospital all calm and the nurses were like can we help you? I said ahhhh yes, I'm having contraction 3 minutes apart (still not too painful at this point)! So they did the dumbest thing I thought. They lay me in a bed and strap me to monitors! We had to wait forever for a doctor to come check me! I was disapointed when she said those numbers...again....I was still only 3-4 centimeters! They told us to come back in about 2 hours. (I wish I could have known that I wasn't that far along, because I would have stayed at home and labored there a little longer. We were too far from the house to go back now.)
This was right before we were admited: having contractions 3 minutes apart!
I have to say I looked pretty good to be that far along! lol Aside from being ginormous that is!
So Bradley and I leave to go get something to eat and the contractions are getting more intense but walking helped sooo much. That was what helped me throught the first half of all this, walking, walking, and walking some more. Sitting hurt when the contractions came. Also, I got nausous just walking into McDonalds to get a sweet tea so I ate nothing. It was weird. My body was like, yes I'm hungary but I'm too busy for food right now, please don't feed me or I'll puke. lol After only an hour I told Bradley we have to go back and if they tell me I haven't dialated more, I will cry! Sure enough, they checked me and I was 7 cenimeters! Woohoo! I was relieved! They took their precious time setting up a room though! So at this point my contractions are still 3 mintues apart but pretty uncomfortable. I had to pause when they came occationally, but nothing too bad. At this point I believe it was 7:00 pm and they got me set up in the beautiful labor and delivery room! Then the fun really started.
As the nurses were getting my room set up I saw a nurse bringing in a bag for i.v. fluids and I said, "Why do you have that? My doctor told me we would not need an i.v. and I don't want one. I was told that I would have to have an i.v. catheter just in case anything went wrong they could have easy access." The nurse looked at me with a blank stare for several seconds, like I was speaking another language! I could tell no one had ever questioned that before. She asked who my doctor was and then said "OHH OK!" (You will see that my doctor has a name at this hospital...lucky me, even though she wasn't there) So the next thing I see them doing and explaining to me is the monitors...those dreadful things again! I said...again..."I was told that I wouldn't have to be hooked up to those things and that I could walk around during my labor!" The nurses, once again, looked at me for second like they were shocked, then said they would go check on it right away. They came back saying that I would have to be on the monitors for 20 minutes and off for 40 minutes. I was fine with this. The responses of the nurses when I asked for them to not do these things was quite funny. I could tell they didn't like being questioned and it was not my intention to do so, I just knew what I wanted. It was like they had never been told "no" or even questioned about these unnecessary procedures! But then that's how I was with Trinity. I didn't know anything and they were the doctors so I just let them do whatever. My point in this is not that doctors are wrong...no way. My point is that not everything they do is necessary and I had my information to back it up.
At this point I completely lost track of time so my times are estimates from this point on. My contractions were getting stronger so every time I looked at the clock I forgot what it said a few seconds later, lol! I took advantage of the spacious room by walking around. I probably looked like some crazed animal pacing the fence because I was walking in a continuous circle over and over. I started focusing less on what was going on around me and more on what I could do to make the pain bearable. Breathing through the contractions was what helped but I swear it was so hard to do. It was soon time to be hooked up to the monitors and get the stupid i.v. catheter. I hate needles more than anything! And I my veins are quite hard to stick so that doesn't help. It took not 1...but 3 different nurses, sticking me 3 different times to get it! 2 weeks later and I still had scars from 2 of them! (Oh I forgot to mention that one reason they wanted me on monitors was because my blood pressure was a little high. It was like 140-160 and mine is usually pretty low. I was thinking, 'I am having painful contractions!! What do you think my blood pressure is going to do?!')
Those 20 minutes went by pretty fast and I was up and walking through my contractions again. As the contractions got stronger I had to stop during them and breathe. That was really hard for me. At this point my body wanted to moan or yell even but that made the pain much worse and I knew that would help nothing. I told Bradley to tell me to breathe because I couldn't make myself. Bradley was there the whole time but pretty much just to sit. I didn't want touched or talked to at all! It was crazy.
I didn't make it the whole 40 minutes off the monitors before I climbed in the bed. I was in too much pain to focus on walking or anything else. I was trying very hard to breathe through the contractions but it was becoming increasingly harder to do. I had to force myself to. Breathing through the contractions really did help, it just took a lot of focus. I looked over at Bradley and told him that as soon as Cason comes I thought I would probably pass out from being so tired and weak. I felt like a looser being so tired and not having done anything yet! Bradley made a good point by reminding me that I had been having contractions all day. That is your body working whether you realize it or not.
I was also very thirsty but the nurses said I couldn't have anything but ice chips....that's sucks. So Bradley walked out for 3 minutes to get me some. I then heard a "pop" and gush....yep my water broke! Funny that Bradley missed it, he missed it with Trinity too! lol I called for the nurse and found it frustrating that I had to yell 3 times in the call thingy "MY WATER BROKE!" I disliked that stupid call button. Bradley made it back before the nurses even came in! This was at 9:25p.m.
The top lines are Cason's heart rate, the bottom ones are my contractions.
The line that goes almost to the top of the paper is the contraction I had when my water broke. :)
Speaking of nurses, I had the very best labor and delivery nurse ever!!! She would come in periodically and make sure I was ok and ask if I needed anything. She also helped me through some contractions and was just very encouraging!
A couple minutes later the nurses come in and called the doctor to check me, I was about 9 centimeters. He did lots of what I felt was unnecessary "checking" but whatever. He then told me to push towards his hand (gross I know) but I felt immediate relief and was like ok lets do this! They told me I was 9 centimeters and I could start pushing if I wanted, or I could wait. I opted to wait because I figured if I pushed now I would be pushing for a long time. Plus my body didn't feel the need to push yet.
Now this was when the contractions were just ridiculously painful. I remember telling Bradley if they were just farther apart I could deal with it. I also told him that I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion as soon as he was born! I was soo tired that I tried to sleep in between contractions! lol So I tried, and succeeded once or twice, sleeping for 2-3 minutes! Haha! It didn't take long before I decided I was ready to push, I couldn't wait anymore.
The doctor and nurses came in and started getting things ready and we tried a few pushes. My sweet labor and delivery nurse actually asked me if I wanted to move to a different position to push, I was shocked they would let me in the hospital! But I was in so much pain that I couldn't budge!
Now the lovely male doctor who actually delivered was really bad at the pushing. He was telling me I was doing it wrong or to try holding the handle bars different. After watching him for a few minutes the doctor who was supposed to be delivering (she had an emergency and couldn't) said, "let her do it on her own." He didn't like this, but complied. I was like wow! This encouraged me to actually push more, even though I was exhausted! My wonderful labor and delivery nurse helped count while I pushed and that helped so much! It gave me a goal: push to ten and do it again! Bradley even counted for me a couple of times and I found that very helpful! It was probably the most he had been able to help the whole time! I loved him being there!
So I pushed for, I'm going to guess about 30 minutes but probably less. I was doing fine, breathing and pushing with my contractions then...I screamed and said "it's his head isn't it?!" Bradley says I screamed 'it's on fire' too, but I don't really remember....I just remember that, yes, it did feel like fire. (This was the only time I had made any real noise the whole labor) Then I pushed about 5 more times and out came my baby boy! They gave him to me right away and I remember thinking 'yay, he isn't too big' lol I was so worried that with me being 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant that he would be big and it would be hard labor...I'm so weird. I actually didn't cry with Cason, I did when I held Trinity. As soon as I held Cason I just felt like everything was right and I was so happy he was here.
The doctors continued to work on me and make sure I delivered the placenta and that my bleeding was regulated.....this is a whole other story because I can NOT write short apparently! lol I will have postpartum details later, and they won't be near as long as my birth stories! Thanks for reading!
Cason, only about an hour old.
