Fact: My baby was! :)
I have been MIA from the blogging world for about a week or so...completely due to the fact that my little bundle of preciousness decided it was time to come out! Sunday, March 4, I posted about all the little tricks I had tried and complained about this boy not wanting to come meet us...little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be heading to the hospital. He's a punctual little guy and was simply patiently waiting until his due date - the day we had been counting down to for the past 9 months!
It all started Monday morning, March 5, at about 6:30 in the morning. I was feeling a little crampy, but thought that maybe I had just been sleeping in a weird position. I got up to use the restroom and thought I'd waited just a little too long and had possibly "leaked" a little on myself. Oops. Let's be honest - it happened once or twice during the pregnancy. So I got back in bed and tried to sleep; however, the cramps were continuing but weren't unbearable. About this time, Andrew woke up for work and I told him I thought I was having contractions but wasn't sure. He suggested to start timing them and they were about 8 minutes apart. We continued to hang around the house - me in bed, him getting ready for work. I was tracking the "cramps" on my phone and giving Andrew updates. After about an hour, they were consistently 4 minutes apart - with some erratic ones coming in 2 minutes apart. I definitely didn't want to be the "little girl who cried labor" so I called the nurse. Our conversation went like this:
Me: "I think I might be in labor."
Nurse: "If you think you're in labor, go to the hospital."
Me: "But I'm not really sure..."
Nurse: "Did your water break?"
Me: "Maybe..or I may just be tinkling on myself."
Nurse: "You need to go to the hospital."
(She probably thought I was a real peach...)
So off we went to the hospital at 8:00am. As I got out of the car, there was no doubt that my water had broken, so I waddled on to check-in. Pretty quickly, I was seen by the triage nurse and within an hour, I was moved to a labor room.
Immediately, I informed anyone that would listen that I wanted an epidural. I did have that thought of "this isn't so bad...I could probably go all natural" for a split second. Good thing I remembered great advice/warnings from friends that I would get this thought and to not give in to it - get the epi! Thank goodness for friends because by the time I got the epidural, I was 6cm dilated and really starting to get uncomfortable. In comes the anesthesiologist - 15 minutes later, I was feeling fabulous! Two hours later, I was 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced. They let me "labor down" on my own for about 45 minutes since I was feeling no pain at all. At about 2:45pm, the nurse said it was time to push...
* The scary part of this whole experience happened right before this - the doctor and about 4 nurses came rushing in, slapped an oxygen mask on my face, told me to focus on breathing, and proceeded to tell me that the baby's heart rate was dropping too low during big contractions and started discussing "options" of possibly using the vacuum extractor or c-section. Yikes.
Thank the Lord that none of that was necessary. It was time to push and the doctor felt confident all would be fine....45 minutes later Davis Charles showed his beautiful face at 3:31pm. Immediately, they placed him on my chest, Andrew cut the umbilical cord, and then we just sat there staring at him, then each other. All we both could say was "look at him" - and that's exactly what we did for what seemed like hours. It was the most amazing moment in both of our lives (I'll speak for Andrew). I have never felt more love for any two things in the entire world - at that moment, my two men made my life complete!
**Side note: As a whole, my labor was wonderful! I would use the term "easy peasy" but I don't want to jinx myself for any future pregnancies. My nurse did comment that I had a really great epidural and said she wished all deliveries were as easy as mine. I smiled, laughed, and carried on conversations with the doctor and nurses through the whole thing. When all was said and done, I would have to say that peeling the tape off of my back (due to the epidural) was the most painful part of the delivery. I know, I'm extremely lucky and blessed!
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