The Labor and Delivery Story...

...mostly, I'm doing this so my daughter has something to look back on and see how she entered the world. God knows I have no time to write it all down in her baby book. Apparently, all I had to do to go into labor was to write about how bad I wanted to be IN labor and how late I was. I wrote the "late" post on Tuesday. Wednesday was my last day of work because I had planned on being induced on Thursday if I didn't go into labor on my own. Wednesday at work I started having some contractions. I went home and Anthony made a spicy red sauce for dinner. Contractions started to pick up! We went for a walk after dinner, and contractions were pretty steady at about 15 - 20 min apart. I got home and noticed I lost my plug (tmi?? oh well). Anthony wanted to call his mom but I told him last time this happened the contractions stopped, so let's wait to see if this was really it. We went for another walk around 10:30 Wednesday night to see if we could speed these contractions along, they were all over the place after that walk, anywhere from 20 minutes apart to 7 minutes apart. We fell asleep timing the contractions. I woke up at 4am with some more serious contractions. Anthony woke up, and I told him to sleep because if this was it, he needed to be rested and there was nothing he could do right then. I came downstairs and started timing them and watched a few movies on t.v. Finally, during Regis and Kelly Live, they were steady at 10 minutes apart. I called to dr to let them know I was in labor and it started the night before, she said to do light house work, walk around and get things going faster. Anthony and I decided to run last minute errands that we needed to get done. By the time we were at Walmart, my contractions were like 7 minutes apart, and pretty intense. I had to stop every few aisles and breath through them while Anthony went on and got the stuff we needed. We then had to stop at the firehouse so Anthony could fill out some paperwork since we knew we were going into the hospital that night. We got home around 4:30 and my contractions started to be 5 minutes apart. I told Anthony to get our bags in the car cause we were leaving in the next hour. My sister in law came to pick up the dog, and I just sat on my exercise ball crying out in pain every 5 minutes. My contractions were VERY intense by now. I couldn't talk or move through them anymore. All I could do was breath and try not to lose my breath crying. I called the dr to let them know, the nurse asked how bad they were and while on the phone I had another contraction. She said I needed to get my butt to the hospital because she could hear over the phone how intense they were. We got in the truck and by now my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and I didn't have any time to recover in between them, so I was so overwhelmed and losing energy fast. We got to the hospital and every contraction brought tears. We got up to triage and because there were so many people there they took my vitals and hooked me up to all the machines in a room. The nurse said baby was doing great but my contractions were only a minute apart. The dr came in to check how dilated I was, and I was only 3 1/2 cm dilated. I couldn't believe that was it in 24 hours, I had only dilated 1/2 cm from that previous Monday when I went to the dr. The dr told me that she wouldn't give me the epidural until I was 5cm. I was in so much pain I couldn't believe it, and the contractions weren't slowing down, they were one on top of the next with no time to recover at all in between. I tried a bath, and that was so uncomfortable, so I got out and tried to walk around the floor. I barely got around the corner from my room and I couldn't move I was in so much pain. The dr saw me and told me to head back to the room and she would check to see how far along I was. By this time I was throwing up with contractions. The dr checked and I was 4cm dilated. She told me she would call the dr for the epidural. They came in asked a few questions and then it was time to get down to business. I can't believe the pain that came next. You have to sit still while they are doing the needle for the epi. I was having contractions every minute, literally, so there wasn't much of a window for me to be able to be still. The contractions had me doubled over. First time the needle went in with the catheter, I felt a sharp pain go down my right side all the way down my leg. NOTHING like what I was told an epidural would feel like. She tried again, same thing, and again, same thing. 4 times this lady tried and paged the head dr because something wasn't right. The head dr came in and told her to try another spot and she did. This time, went in with no problems. 4 times she hit my nerve wall, and it was incredibly painful. I was pissed! Finally, relief though. Within minutes of the epidural being administered I no longer could feel my contractions. I had now been up over 36 hours with only 4 hour of restless sleep in that stretch. Now, I was trying to rest in bed. Anthony was fantastic through this all. Very encouraging, very loving, very helpful, so amazing. I couldn't have made it as far as I did without him. My blood pressure dropped at one point, and Claire didn't like the contractions at one point, but other than that everything went text book. My contractions started to dwindle around 2am. They came in to say they had to start me on pitocin so that my contractions could start up again. I was only 5cm at this time. Anthony and my mother were down in the cafeteria getting something to eat, and ate down there because I couldn't eat anything and I was starving. Around 2:30 they started the pitocin drip and told me they would be in every 1/2 hour to up the dose until the contractions were as intense and as close together as they needed to be. The dr came in around 3 and upped the dose. I was doing fine, resting, chatting, getting anxious because there was NO turning back now (like there ever was)! I started to feel my contractions again, to the point they were pretty uncomfortable again. When the nurse game back in I told her to see if I should up my epidural, she said they would have to check first. The dr came in at 4am and checked and said the reason I could feel it was because I was ready to push! I was really scared now, they scurried around the room getting everything set up, and I was pushing by 4:10am. Every time I pushed they commented on how much hair Claire had I couldn't believe they could see. Anthony said over and over again how he didn't want to look, and he watched the WHOLE time! She was getting stuck each push and wouldn't come out. Finally, the dr told me that I was tearing in front instead of back so in order to stop that he had to perform an episiotomy. I was shocked because I know they don't do those anymore....unless of course it's a necessary measure. The dr cut and stated, and I quote..."those are dull!" To which the other dr said, and I quote..."it's not my job to keep the scissors sharp." WHAT!?!? I couldn't believe that! After that was over, one push and Claire practically FLEW out! I pushed for a little over an hour, mostly because the dr was trying to get Claire out without having me tear or have to cut me and finally realized I was just too small to get anything more than a donut hole out! hahaha, there was a nice little nob on the back of Claire's head that was stuck for the longest time. No cone head because I wasn't big enough for even that! They placed Claire on my chest and she was the most gorgeous thing I had ever laid eyes on. I looked up at Anthony, mostly to reassure me that this was real and not a dream. I couldn't believe she was finally here, that I survived labor and delivery, and she and I were both healthy! They continually rubbed her hard to keep her crying, the dr's stitched me up. I made a comment about how thankful I was that Claire didn't have the Italian nose, the dr was Italian! He joked I better watch it or he would use the stitches that would have to be removed! And that's where the story of my life as a mother began...the best story that will ever be told by me. She is amazing, beautiful, miraculous, and all ours! I loved her more than I thought possible the moment I laid eyes on her!