A Labor Story

We arrived at the hospital at about 5:00pm February 5th, 2010.

We walked into the Labor and Delivery wing and explained that my water had broken. Before I knew it, once again I was in a hospital gown and strapped into a fetal monitor. A nurse came in to check to see how far dilated I was and I was still at 1 cm.. ( am I ever going to dilate?!?) Contractions had hardly started as I lay into the bed and nothing was painful (yet)...

She called the on call doctor and received the order to admit me to the hospital. Yay! Once again, we were admitted. That much closer to our baby!

Not too long after being admitted to the hospital contractions begin to get painful, and family starts to arrive.

The nurse decided it would be helpful for me to dilate quicker and the baby's head to further engage if I were to walk for an hour. So once again... we walked. This time was quite different than before. Painful contractions stopped me in my tracks every 2 minutes and the pain continued to get stronger and stronger. By the end of the hour I felt like there was no relief and realized that there is no turning back from the pain I was quickly tumbling into.

Walking through the hospital while enduring contractions.

I lie back into my bed and the nurse checks me again. I'm only about a 2 but I have started to progress! The nurse suggests a shower to help with the painful contractions. She says that the hot water can help relax my muscles and possibly ease the contractions. So I agree to test the theory and hop into the shower. I only lasted in the shower about 5 contractions and I was out. I couldn't stand through them anymore. Once back in my bed the nurse set up my IV and administered some pain medicine. I would have liked to have done things without the pain medicine but I was past my point of pain tolerance. I should have just skipped the pain medicine because it did nothing!! After about another hour of ever growing painful contractions the nurse came in with the anesthesia cart and told me she had called the anesthesiologist. He arrived at the hospital within 15 minutes and administered an epidural. OH MY GOODNESS!! My life had changed forever!! To be free of that pain was so incredibly amazing!! I have some serious admiration for women who go all natural! It was so great to hear the nurse say " You are having a really strong contraction right now! Do you feel anything?" and to acknowledge her with.." really?? I feel nothing!!" Finally, relief.

After the epidural was administered I decided that we all could use some sleep. Heather and Richard had come to the hospital along with my mother. Heather and Richard went home to get some sleep while my mother made herself a bed on the couch and Sterling made himself one on the floor ( the nurse gave him a sleeping pad...sooo awesome that they had those there!!) We all were in and out of sleep for hours. The labor was still taking it's toll on my body although I couldn't feel it and I was throwing up quite often because of it. No one told me that it is common to throw up during labor before, but my nurse said it was very very common.

Trying hard not to throw up, but loosing the battle...

After a long night of being in and out of sleep the nurse came in at about 7am to check my progress. I was about 7 cm!!!! We were all so excited!! We were getting so close! About an hour and a half later I was at an 8. From the time I hit an 8 the room became a whirl wind of nurses and I feel like it all blurred together. I was actually going to be able to deliver naturally and it would be soon!! The doctor arrived at the hospital at around 9am and checked me again. I was basically ready to go by that point. They wanted me to have a few more contractions and then it was time to push!!

Once it was time Sterling and I braced ourselves. Our last moments together before our miracle is born

In between contractions and pushing.

10am. The nurse comes in and says " it's time!!" From that point on I was making every effort possible to push that little guy out. From the time I had started pushing to the time my baby boy was born was about half an hour.... I had absolutely no tearing and no episitomy was necessary! The nurses were all amazed at how calm and relaxing my delivery was ( yeah, easy for them to say!!) earlier that night a medical student had come in to ask if she could observe in the birth, and how can I say no to someone furthering their education!? So she sat in on the delivery and she said that she had never seen anything like it before. My little guy and I were just way too in sync I guess! Everything was perfect and my delivery was everything I had hoped it would be.

My beautiful baby boy was born. We did it!!