A's Birth Story (Finally!)

So, on Sunday (June 3rd, my lil' sis' b-day) I kept having this wierd feeling, umm, down there. Like I was leaking or something, but there was hardly any fluid at all and I had had so many false alarm feelings before. I didn't want to send the girls to the sitter and trek on down to the hospital for just a false alarm, so I figured it was better to take the wait and see approach. If the contractions started coming, I'd surely have enough time to get to the hospital! Anyway, this went on all day with no contractions, so I chalked it up to me just wanting it to happen versus anything actually be labor-icious about it. (I did call my mom just in case, and she changed her plane ticket to arrive on Monday instead of Tuesday, which was when I was supposed to be induced). So we went about our day and went to bed as usual. At about 2am I woke up to a terrible contraction, but I figured it was just a BH and tried to go back to sleep. But they just kept coming In fact I was starting to get a little pissed because I couldn't get back to sleep thanks to my contractions! Finally, I got the brilliant idea to just get up and start timing them. So I went downstairs (so as not to wake the Hubs) and got on the computer to do what any woman in my situation would do: Google for signs of active labor. Of course I didn't find anything particularly helpful, but it was comforting to think I was doing something rather than just sitting there. After about an hour of my contractions coming at very regular intervals of about 5min apart, I starting thinking that maybe this wasn't another false alarm. So I went upstairs to let Hubs know. Unfortunately, I may have cried wolf one too many times.
Me: I think I'm going into labor.
Hubs: (muttering sleepily) No you're not. Go back to sleep.
Me: (a little indignantly) Um, I'm pretty sure about this. My contractions are coming every five minutes apart.
Hubs: (sleepily) Mmm hmm. Just get back in bed.
Me: (getting angry) No, I'm serious. In fact I'm getting one right now. Ow, OW! Now get your ass out of bed and take me to the hospital!
Hubs: (yawns) Can't it wait until morning?
Me: Only if you want me to have this baby on our new bed.
Hubs: (springing out of bed) And off we go!

So, we woke the girls up and packed a quick overnight bag and took them over to BS's house. J seemed very confused and a little scared about the whole situation. She didn't even want to get out of the car when we got to BS's (and she loves it over there), but C was pretty nochalant. She is a heavy sleeper no matter what, so I don't think she cared about anything except going back to sleep. Then we headed off to the hospital. We arrived and parked in the emergency room parking lot (it was only about 3:30-4am so the front doors were locked). Immediately we were directed to Labor and Delivery on the 3rd floor. I, being the person in labor, was concentrating on being able to walk through the pain and neglected to listen to the directions from the front desk staff. My Hubs also neglected to listen for reasons I have yet to figure out. Luckily most of the doors around us were locked, so we were able to navigate ourselved to the right elevator by process of elimination.

Once we got into L&D, they hooked me up to the machines, measured my cervix (3cm) and started measuring my contractions. They were looking pretty wimpy on the monitor, but, by this time, I was absolutely sure I was in labor because they felt so strong. After about an hour, my nurse checked my cervix again and I was up to 4cm, so it was determined that I was, in fact, in labor. (Me to Hubs: "Told you so!") So I was transferred to a delivery & recovery room and given a permanent nurse (her name was Cam Cameron, no really!) who was really awesome. They asked me if I wanted my epidural now or if I wanted to wait. Having done the whole brave thing in the past (and not having one for C's birth), I immediately said yes. L&D apparently wasn't too busy that night b/c the anesthesiologist came in right away (yay!). The epidural was fairly easy, although I did get some pain in my right lower back, which kind of freaked me out. Then my blood pressure started to drop (this is a normal reaction to an epidural), which makes you feel very dizzy and faint and can actually be a little scary, but they put some shit in my IV which made it stabilize and pretty soon I was just sitting there, happily numb, waiting for my baby to come. After what seemed like a very short while, Cam checked my cervix again and announced that I was already at 8cm. Although they had paged my doc, he obviously wasn't going to get there in time, so the doc on call came over to deliver me. Hubs held my hand and I pushed for about 15 min (same as with C) and out popped A.

So, after my crazy experiences with C (extremely long and difficult labor) and J (scary labor worrying about her health), I finally got the "normal" experience I was hoping for. And, it was really quick! I woke up at about 2am with the start of my contractions, and A was born at 8:36am, so I was only in labor for about 6 hours. Not too shabby! The recovery this time around did seem harder, though. I had a lot of joint pain (horrible feeling like your joints are bing pulled apart), so it was difficult to even get in and out of bed. Plus, Hubs had to go back to work right away, so it was just me and the kids after my moms left (thank god she was there for the 1st two weeks and basically did everything!). I've posted before about A being a difficult baby, so I won't repeat all that here but that has definately added an extra level of stress to the whole experience. Luckily it seems like his constipation is clearing up and his stuffy nose has finally cleared up, so I can stop stressing out about his breathing. Also, we moved his bassinet downstairs and out of our room, which seems to have helped quite a bit with his sleeping (and mine!), so I get at least a couple of hours at a time.

So that is my story. I feel like it is so boring after all the excitement of C and J's births, but I am so happy to have had the whole experience of going into labor on my own (even though it wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it would be!). Hope you all enjoyed it!