Luke's Birth Story *Gory Detail Warning*

Contractions woke me up at 2am December 20th, 2011 (my due date).  I knew right away it was the real thing even though I had thought that several times, including exactly a week before when I went to the hospital thinking I may be in labor.  I waited about a half hour before I woke Jason up, then waited another half hour before we called my mother in law to come over to watch Emma.  We got to the hospital about 3:40am.  By then the contractions were getting to the point that I really didn't want to do this whole baby thing anymore.  When the triage nurse checked me I was at 6 cm already; just a few days before I was at 3 cm (which I had been for weeks).  At some point soon after that, the labor and delivery nurse came and wheeled me up to the delivery room.  I want to say it was close to 5am by then, and I was waiting for my mom to get there and for my damn epidural.  The contractions were getting so bad that I was crying and getting extremely nauseous.  The wonderful nurse was so patient with my ridiculous freaking out, and she also got the anesthesiologist to come give the the epidural before they even did my blood work because I was freaking out so much.  I was sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna.  That wonderful man came and did my epidural, and while he was I started feeling an immense amount of pressure, though I did not tell the nurse yet in fear they would start having my push before I was good and numb.  It took some time but the epidural took effect.  The good thing was it didn't numb me as much as the one I had with Emma, so I could still feel the pressure (even though at the time that freaked me out).  When they checked me again I was 10 cm already!  My water hadn't broken yet, so the nurse said that the dr. could come in and break it and I could start pushing.  I asked if we could please wait for my mom, and luckily she got there a few minutes later.  My dr. wasn't on call, but the dr. that was, was really nice.  The dr. broke my water and I pushed through 3 contractions and he was born, it took like 5 minutes!  He came so quick that during the last contraction they made me stop pushing because his head was out and the dr. didn't have her 2nd glove on yet.  He came so quickly I was shocked.  That's the thing I've already learned; having one child prepares you in no way for your next child.

Emma's Birth Story *Gory Details Warning*

Found this record of my labor and delivery with Emma, thought I'd post it since I'm going to post Luke's.

I had been to the hospital I think 3 times prior to being in actual labor thinking I may have been in labor.  My biggest fear was not getting to the hospital in time, I realize many people plan to have their babies at home and I think that’s just wonderful; however I am certainly not one of those women.  I would have preferred getting the epidural prior to any contractions starting, to my dismay they don’t do that, hmph.  May 4^th, 2009 I went to the hospital thinking I was possibly in labor, the nurse in triage was very nice although I did get the feeling she thought I was silly for not knowing.  She said “You will know when the contractions are real”.  Everyone says that, what if I’m the one idiot who doesn’t know???  What if I have an extremely high tolerance for pain (hahahaha ya right).  May 6^th, 2009 (38 weeks and 6 days pregnant) I went to my weekly doctor appointment, my mom came with.  I was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced, which was twice as much as the week before, in both departments.  Just as the week before, my doctor mentioned my mucous plug was dissolving.  At this point I was pretty darn over being pregnant, so I asked my doctor when we would speak about induction (other than my own mother, all of the other mothers I know have had to be induced so I figured I would too).  She told me that we wouldn’t talk about it until I was past my due date and said she didn’t think I would make it to my next weekly appointment.  I didn’t believe her.  I had been walking and sitting and rocking on the birthing ball (which was an exercise ball up until I sat on it while pregnant, hehe), anything natural I had heard of to help labor along and so far nothing so I had given up.  I went home after my appointment and took a 2 hour nap.  I had been having frequent Braxton Hicks contractions for a long time (weeks if not a couple months by then) but after my nap, although they weren’t more painful, they felt different than they had.  At the time I figured that was wishful thinking on my part.  At 7pm I decided to go to bed and lay down because I was starting to get uncomfortable, I lay on my left side and drank a lot of water, that pretty much stayed the same for hours.  Jason and I turned off the lights at 11pm like normal, by then the contractions had become more painful than they had been.  I lay in bed for maybe a half hour to 45 minutes and had to get up because I was beginning to be in pain.  I went to the living room and went to a website I had found weeks earlier that had a contraction timer on it.  They were already only 1 and a half to 2 and a half minutes apart.  They seriously went from meh kind of uncomfortable to very painful within a half hour and were already that close together.  During that time I took several trips to the bathroom and during one of those trips found the rest of my mucous plug and bloody show (read too many pregnancy and labor books).  At that point I went into the bedroom to wake Jason up, but he was already awake.  It was about 12:30am (May 7, 2009), luckily we had already packed our suitcase of the essentials and I had an extensive list of last minute items to pack, which I was thanking God I had made because I was in too much pain to think.  I knew for sure with no question that I was in real labor; I had to be because if this wasn’t real labor and there was worse pain I was going to feel I knew I would die.  We had already arranged for the feeding of the animals and everything, so I felt good leaving the house, good thing I was organized.  We got to the hospital a little before 1am.  I just had Jason park so he didn’t have to go back out after walking me in.  We checked into triage (which I was familiar with having done it several times before) and got into a room.  I got into a gown and into the bed, hooked to the monitors.  I could plainly see on the screen how much bigger these contractions were than my tiny little painless ones I had seen on the monitor just days before.  I was already more dilated and effaced.  The nurse in Triage was the same one from a few days before when I was there.  She was very nice and helped me find a good breathing pattern that helped a teensy bit with the pain.  Then the nurse paged a doctor from my doctor’s office that was on call and he said to admit me, which was good cuz I wasn’t leaving.  I don’t know why, but I insisted I didn’t need a wheel chair and walked up to the labor and delivery floor, well I took the elevator, but it was still a pretty long walk in a gown, in labor.  I really couldn’t have prepared myself for how horrible contractions were.  People tell you so many different things, “oh they aren’t that bad” or “they’re like really awful cramps”, my sister was the only one who told the truth, she said “You will know because you will feel like death in near”.  I was ready to bang my head against a wall in order to knock myself out.  I’m not very tough, I asked for the epidural at the triage counter.  I had never planned on having a natural labor but I didn’t really know how soon I would ask for the pain to be relieved.  So I got into the labor room, which was so weird and cool at the same time, this was where I was going to give birth, it still didn’t seem real.  My first nurse was subpar (and that’s being nice).  She told me to lay on my left side, so I did, then she went to the right side of the bed, grabbed my right arm (twisting it behind me) and proceeded to try to find a vein.  People always have trouble finding good veins and she just kept telling me to stop moving, stop cringing.  Oh excuse me Miss nurse it’s not like I’m in the worst pain in my life, good lord.  So she tried one vein and she did not succeed, I still have issues with my right arm because of her amateur attempts to start an IV.  She ended up getting another nurse to help and they finally got it in.  I proceed to continue to ask when exactly that epidural will be, “oh any time any time”, ya right.  Well my body’s natural reaction to ‘cleanse’ itself before labor prompted me to call the nurse and tell her I had to use the restroom, and stat.  Needed help because of the IV and huge pole I was connected to.  While waiting for the doctor to relieve my pain I threw up from the pain, no fun.  So after that, around 4am the anesthesiologist came in.  I love him, hehe.  I was a little scared of the whole needle in the back thing.  I’m not scared of needles or shots or IVs but the thought of a needle in the spine and the catheter inserted in made me cringe.  Luckily the contractions were so very intense, and still a minute apart at the most (had been since they started) that I didn’t even notice.  Oh by the way, I think it’s hilarious they warn you of all of the possible side effects of the epidural when you’re sitting there in pain.  I would have agreed to anything at that point!  They told me it would take about 20 minutes for the epidural to work but it pretty much helped immediately.  I did indeed tell that doctor I loved him, and I meant it!  I didn’t really believe prior to that, that anything could have taken that pain away.  I don’t know how anyone goes through a long labor naturally.  At the point when I had gotten the epidural I still had 9 more hours of labor to go, I wouldn’t have made it, especially since I didn’t sleep all night.  The nurse then attempted to insert a catheter into my bladder; luckily I was numb because she had trouble with that too.  She, again, had to go get another nurse to help with that.  I couldn’t believe it, like aren’t IVs and catheters normal things on a labor and delivery floor?  Oh ya, Jason was there during all of this, but I was a little bit distracted.  He was able to get some sleep off and on in the fold out chair. Happily at around 7am there was a shift change and I got a new nurse, she rocked and luckily she was there through my delivery.  At some point that morning I tried to move a little and shifted my weight and felt a huge gush.  Called the nurse and indeed my water had broken.  Every time they checked me my dilation and effacement was progressing and so was Emma’s position.  My doctor came in and said hello sometime that morning as well, she had several patients in labor as well as a few surgeries.  My nurse was very attentive.  At 10am my nurse (I think her name was Hannah) told me my doctor had one more procedure to do and if I didn’t mind she wanted me to labor down for a while so the baby would come to a lower station before I started pushing.  I was already 10 cm and 100%, and since I wasn’t in pain and preferred not having to push for 3 hours (or however long it would’ve been) I didn’t mind waiting, plus I was scared.  At 11:30am my nurse had me start pushing.  That moment that she asked me to push for the first time was so surreal, I knew I was in labor but like this was IT!  So I pushed, and I pushed and I pushed some more, then I threw up again.  Then the nurse had me stop for a few minutes and had my doctor paged.  At 12:45pm I would say, my doctor came in.  I had assumed I would get an episiotomy but my doctor informed me I had already torn, that kinda sucked in my mind.  She got all gloved up and ready.  Now although I was numb and all, the next 2 sets of pushes were so intense I thought I was going to pass out.  I could feel my heart beating so hard I thought I was having a heart attack or something.  I remember vaguely Jason saying something like “You’re almost there”.  Then there she was on my chest!  I couldn’t believe it, there she was, all this time and she was here.  It’s all kind of a blur, but I know they took her over and did whatever they do and Jason went over there with her.  I delivered the placenta, she fixed me all up and that all seemed like it took forever.  My doctor told me she thought it would be a good idea to remove a small mole I had in that area since I was already numb, so I agreed (later I would wish I wouldn’t have).  Now, I had been shivering almost the whole time I was in labor from the epidural, but it kind of came and went with the intensity.  They gave me some shots into my IV after labor and I began shivering so bad I begged for something to make it stop.  My body was so tired I couldn’t take the shaking, and it was so bad I couldn’t even hold Emma AND my jaws felt like I had been punch on both sides by a heavy weight boxer.  They gave me a shot of something and it stopped after a few minutes thank goodness.  My doctor said she couldn’t take the catheter out because I was too swollen (obviously because of the multiple multiple failures to put it in), so I could have it taken out the next morning.  That turned out to not be such a bad thing because I didn’t have to make any trips to the bathroom.  They brought me some juice which I drank much to fast since I hadn’t drank anything since the night before, and then proceeded to throw up again.  What a day.  I count that my labor started at 11pm because that’s when the contractions started hurting, so it was 14 hours, not bad for a first baby.