N entered this world a week and a half early. I had been having Braxton Hicks A LOT in the days/weeks leading up to his birth so we started to think he was going to come early. Plus, I was huge and at my OB check a couple days before, the doc said he thought I would have N that weekend - I was 2 cm dilated. I woke up on the morning of the 12th to use the restroom and, as I got out of bed, I felt a gush of fluid. It was my water breaking. A little while later, I started having contractions. I wasn't positive it was my water breaking or "real" labor so I waited a little while before I called T at work to let him know. My mom had been visiting and stayed on after hearing that the OB thought we would be having a baby that weekend. So, I wasn't alone. A couple of hours later and consistently more intense contractions, I called T to tell him to come home and I called work to let them know I wouldn't be in that afternoon. Unfortunately, by the afternoon, my contractions had stalled. Around 4 pm, we called my OB office and were told to immediately go to Labor and Delivery because it had been so long since my water broke. OOPS. Apparently, I should have called that morning. With B, my water didn't break until I was at the hospital so I thought that when my water broke with N, I just waited until my contractions were 5 minutes apart and 1 minute long and then went to the hospital. I was wrong.
T and I got to the hospital where my OB office had called ahead to let them know we were coming. They wanted to check to make sure my water had broken since my contractions were so inconsistent now. The first two tests came back negative. The doctor was thinking I had a urinary tract infection and that I actually had urine leaking which was the gush of fluid I had felt. However, they did one last test on me and that one came back positive. My water had broken, I hadn't peed myself . Let me tell you, that was a relief LOL. I was so embarrassed to think I might have called off work, had T come home early and gone to the hospital because I had peed myself. But, now that it was confirmed, I was admitted and started on Pitocin to strengthen and make my contractions regular.
I had decided I wanted to try natural and skip the epidural. However, by about 8 pm, I caved and asked for the epidural. My contractions were so intense and coming so frequently, I was having trouble coping with it. Unfortunately, they had trouble giving me the epidural. I was stuck 3 times before he got it in. And let me tell you, being hunched over your huge belly and told not to move while having contractions every 2-5 minutes for so long while they tried to get the epidural in was so not fun. When I was told it was finally done, I was so relieved. I felt some relief initially but it wasn't as strong as I remembered with B. Within a few minutes, however, I realized that the epidural had only taken effect on one side of my body. So, my right side was doing OK but my left side was not effected whatsoever. The pain became so intense that my mom ended up leaving with B. She had wanted to be there for the birth of N but we decided it wasn't a good scene for her with me in such pain. It was starting to upset her. The nurse paged the nurse anesthetist to come back and check my epidural because there was obviously something wrong but that was about when things started getting interesting.
When I came in to the hospital I was 3 cm dilated. When I was checked before the epidural, I was still 3 cm but coming closer to 4 cm. The nurse and doctor thought I would have the baby by about 3 AM. However, when the nurse realized the epidural wasn't working she checked me again. In about an hour, I had progressed to about 6 or 7 cm. The anesthesiologist came in around this time and checked my epidural. He decided to give me more drugs to see if that would help. It didn't. He then decided that he would have to remove the epidural and reinsert it. While he was getting ready to do that, my contractions were right on top of each other and I was in A LOT of pain. The nurse realized at this point that the reason the additional meds might not be working was because I may have progressed even further so she checked me again. I was now at 10 cm. So, in the space of an hour and a half, I had gone from 3 cm to 10 cm. The baby was coming FAST and the nurse starts calling for the doctor. Unfortunately, the doctor was in the middle of a C section.
With B, I never felt the urge to push because of the epidural. But, this time, I was in essence having a natural birth and most definitely could feel the urge. The urge came on so strong I told the nurse I had to push and I had to do it now. She starts telling me not to push, the doctor isn't there yet and that I should start blowing like I was blowing out birthday candles. She was so calm and so wonderful, I was lucky. She started getting everything ready and kept trying to get the doctor in there. The urge came again and she helped me fight it off again. At this point, the anesthesiologist has gone in to the surgical suite to get my OB. The third time the urge came to push, I couldn't hold it off and starting yelling out that I couldn't stop and had to push now. As I started pushing, my OB came into the room. He looked down and right there was the head emerging. About 4 pushes later and N had entered the world. It happened incredibly quick and I am embarrassed to say that I yelled out a few times as I pushed N into the world. Instead of being born at 3 AM, N came into the world at 10:30 PM. I had been admitted at 5 pm and progressed from 3 cm to 10 cm from about 8:30 PM to 10:15 PM or so. It happened so quick that even the nurse and doctor were surprised. And despite changing my mind and wanting the epidural, I got to have a natural birth essentially whether I wanted it or not.
So, here we are one month later. It is becoming difficult to remember what life was like before N. B absolutely adores him. He is finally starting to settle into a semblance of a schedule so we are getting a little more sleep. Breast feeding him has been a bit difficult but we are getting the hang of it. He just had his one month checkup and has already gained 2 pounds. We have our miracle boy and are so thrilled. We are all looking forward to how our family will evolve and what the future holds for us. It has been a long, arduous journey but it was worth it. We are so thankful for our doctors, our family and our friends. We were one of the lucky ones.
