Wednesday, September 6th
I had my 38 week doctor appointment. He did an exam and said that I was 3, almost 4cm dilated and 70% effaced. He said while it was great progress, he did not anticipate me going into labor in the next few days.
Thursday, September 7th
I got up and got ready for Hunter's first day of preschool. I took an official 38 week bump picture and some pictures of Hunter with a "First Day of Preschool" sign. Took him to preschool, came home, realized that I had really lost my mucus plug, finished up the last of the blanket orders that I had so I could call it quits until after the baby came, went to the post office and mailed them out, and then picked up Hunter at school. To celebrate Hunter's first day of school, I let him choose where we were going to go for lunch. He chose Wendy's and wanted to go inside and eat. So we sat in there for a half an hour and chatted about his day at school, giggled at his jokes and just had a really great time. Looking back, this brings tears to my eyes...my last date with Hunter before he would have to share my time with a little brother.
After lunch, I felt like I needed to finish up some last minute "get ready for baby" shopping at Target. Hunter and I cruised through the store picking up things like a nursing tank, travel sized toiletries, nursing pads, etc. On the way home, I called Jesse and just told him to keep his phone near him...just in case.
6pm I started having regular contraction and started timing them. They were about nine minutes apart. Hmmm, is this the real thing? I decided to watch a movie to distract me, Julie & Julia.
9:45pm I called my parents to give them a heads up that we might be going to the hospital, contractions were about 6 minutes apart.
10:30pm Headed to the hospital, contractions were getting stronger and were 4-5 minutes apart.
11:30pm Got put in a L&D room and they checked my cervix...2.5cm. What?! That's less than what the doctor said at my appointment the day before!!
Friday, September 7th
1:30am Contractions continued to get more painful, but slowed down and became inconsistent. Still at 2.5cm.
3:30am They sent us home because of the irregularity of the contractions. On the walk out to the car, I had contractions every few minutes and they were horribly painful. But slowed down on the drive home. I was in so much pain during these contractions that I told Jesse that I wanted these contractions to stop completely and wanted to be induced, like I had been with Hunter. I begged and prayed that they would stop.
4:15am Got home and tried to go to bed. Had a contraction every time I shifted in my sleep.
6:00am Here comes the real thing. Woke up screaming in pain and this time they were about 3 minutes apart and there was no talking or breathing through them. I became a crazy woman. They about knocked me to my knees and had me crying in pain. Jesse told me to get in the bath and see if that helped. Nope.
7:00am At this point, I was in too much pain to even dream of timing the contractions. I thought I was going to die. I insisted we go back to the hospital. Jesse was nervous they they would just send us back home, but I screamed and said I didn't care (in not such polite words). On the way to the hospital, I began throwing up and couldn't stop. Jesse wanted to stop on the side of the road, but I just wanted to get to the hospital immediately.
7:45am Got checked into the hospital and my cervix was checked. I was at 5cm. The nurse said this was happening that morning. Yay! What a relief.
9:30am Got an epidural and was checked again, 6+cm. I knew right away that the epidural was not as effective as when I had Hunter. I was feeling the peak of the contractions and they were still pretty painful, but they did provide the relief of being in pain for the full 90 or so seconds. I dozed in and out of sleep for awhile.
10:45am I woke up to being back to the horrible pain of the contractions, just like before the epidural. I told the nurse, she pressed the epidural button to give me some relief. It never kicked back in. I cried and tried to breathe through the contractions. I was thinking "This was not my plan!! What did I not take birthing classes again?! I don't know how to do this!" But the nurse was awesome and tried to walk me through my breathing. They checked me again and said my water was bulging and put me on some pitocin in hopes for my water to break. No luck.
11:30am They got the okay from the doctor to have a resident doctor come in and break my water. I was at 8cm. And let the screaming begin. I'm pretty sure I have never been in so much pain in my life. In between contractions I apologized for yelling, I was so embarrassed, but with each contraction the pain got worse and worse. I might of said "I can't do this!", "I think I'm dying", "Just get him out!!". Within a few minutes I felt what I had heard of as the "ring of fire" and felt the need to push. They called the doctor to come. There was a young resident doctor there in the meantime who I had agreed to have assist the doctor earlier. The pain and urge to push got more severe. The nurses were telling me not to push until the doctor got there....but the resident quietly told me that he was there and if I had to push, it would be just fine. I held out, watching the door, trying to wait for the doctor to arrive. He wasn't coming fast enough!! I was having a contraction and gave it a half push to try to relieve some of the pain. The resident was right there and said it was fine.
11:51am The next contraction I pushed and out came Hudson! The doctor walked in the room right as he was born. The resident immediately put him on my chest. He looked so little to me! And the pain immediately lessened. I barely had torn, but they gave me a few stitches. I watched as Jesse bathed him for the first time and put him on the scale, 7lbs 11oz and 20 inches.
I couldn't believe how fast I went from feeling so horribly to feeling like normal. Within a half hour, I felt good to go. I was up and walking to the bathroom and felt awesome. The pain was intense, but I am grateful to of experienced a whole different type of birth.
