On the day before Asher was born, we had our new friends, Alison and Colin (and their then almost 3 month old daughter, Lily) over for dinner and a favor. Our bed frame had arrived that week, and we knew almost no one in town, so I had begged and pleaded if Alison could please bring her hubby over to help my hubby put this humongous thing together since there was no way I could help him. Actually, they are so super gracious that I just had to ask once, and they were more than willing to help out. And bring dinner with them no less! Can you ask for better guests? I think not!
With the bed done, that night I rubbed my belly and said, "Okay, baby, it's okay if you need to come out now." The last of our furniture had arrived, and we were finally getting settled into our new house. My plan for the next day was to finally buy some baby clothes! We had been so busy with everything else, and I was saving the best for last. Ha! The next day I would be exactly 38 weeks pregnant.
Shortly after midnight that night, I awoke for a midnight bathroom run (those are very frequent at that point in pregnancy!). I felt an unusual dampness. I checked it out while Eric slept and then quickly grabbed my What To Expect book to find out what this was. I felt excitement in my chest. I determined that maybe I had lost my mucus plug? That meant that labor was probably imminent, though it might not occur for another couple days. Yay! This baby would be coming soon!
Well, actually, a puddle had gathered on the floor, and it wasn't from me not making it to the bathroom. As it grew bigger, I knew for certain that my water had broken. Just kidding! This baby would be here much sooner than I expected! I woke up a sleepy Eric, and we headed to the hospital.
You know that part where the doctor tells you that if your water breaks to go right to the hospital? Well, what they don't tell you is that if you have no signs of progress whatsoever, you're going to be in for a rude awakening. I was examined, and I was not dilated at all and only slightly effaced. Meaning that the only sign of labor was a broken bag of water. My doctor wanted to start pitocin (induces labor) right away. What?! My plan was for a natural labor, and like many mamas before me, it wasn't looking like it was heading that direction. I asked for some time to see if things would change. The doctor agreed to give it a shot.
A couple hours passed, and I was feeling real contractions. I hoped and prayed for progress. But when I was checked, I was only 1-2 cm dilated, and this was not what they wanted to see. So, by 3:30am, I gave in and I got a drip of pitocin much to my chagrin. Once that stuff kicked in, I.was.in.HELL. My contractions were HARD and FAST and PAINFUL. I barely had a break, if any, between them. And they turn the amount of pitocin up every hour or so. At one point, I literally was having no break at all between contractions, and the nurse considered turning it down (yes, please, PLEASE!) but then decided that they were slowing down to allow me about 15 seconds in between, which was okay (WHAT?! NOT OKAY!).
Eric was an excellent birth coach. I moved from the bed to the birthing ball and everywhere else I could go, but it was so awful that nothing helped at all. Nothing made it better or tolerable. I just kept telling myself to hang in there because surely I would make some progress after all this torture and then I would see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I was checked after about 6 hours, I was dilated only 2-3 cm. I realized in my exhaustion and pain that this could go on forever.
After another hour, I changed my mind about natural childbirth and said to please, please get me an epidural ASAP. Eric looked at me carefully because he was worried that the next day I would blame him for letting me get one after 9 months of me saying No epidural at any cost! I assured him that this would not be the case and that I was of clear mind and knew what I wanted and go tell the nurse right now please!
That epidural was the most wonderful thing ever. I felt amazing and actually slept! And my body was able to relax and unwind, and what do you know? I dilated to 9 cm in one hour! And soon thereafter, I was pushing!
And then there was my beautiful baby boy in my arms at last. And even though he was two weeks early, he weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces (thanks for coming early!). And then it was worth every second of hard labor.
2 comments:
It never turns out how we think it will, does it? It's hard to appreciate before your baby is born but now we know that having a healthy baby is REALLY all that matters. Congratulations Mama, you've made it through the first year of Motherhood!
Man, he probably would have been over 9 if he actually came on his due date...
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