December 24
9:00 a.m. I noticed that my
Braxton hicks contractions were getting to be consistently 8 minutes
apart. I was kind of excited because up
until that point they had been sporadic… never consistent.
2:00 p.m. My contractions were
getting closer together, so we decided to call our friends who had offered to
babysit. They arrived after our kids woke up from our nap and we headed to the
hospital.5:00 p.m. I waited in the triage area at the hospital where the nurse examined me and told me I was still 4 cm and my contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart (I had been to the doctor the day before and she had measured me at 4 cm so I hadn’t made any progress). I was given the option to go back home or the doctor could either give me pitocin or break my water to try to help me progress. Since my doctor was the one on call that night and the next 2 days, we decided we wanted to stay so that she could be the one to deliver our baby. We asked if she could break my water.
6:30 p.m. I was transferred to a labor and delivery room.
7:30 p.m. My doctor was actually on her dinner break, so another doctor came to break my water.
8:20 p.m. The contractions started getting very intense at this point and were coming every 2-4 minutes. I was still only 4 cm though and was discouraged that the strong contractions didn’t seem to be doing anything…
9:20 p.m. Contractions continued to be intense and I had progressed to 5 cm. But I was so exhausted from the intense contractions and felt weak and a bit dizzy since I hadn’t eaten dinner and the last food I had eaten was a snack around 3:00. So, I inquired about an epidural and was given the okay to go ahead. Before I could get the epidural, I had to get an IV with fluids to make sure I wasn’t dehydrated. That took about 40 minutes.
10:45 p.m. Ethan had to leave the room as I got the epidural.
11:00 p.m. My doctor came and checked me. I had progressed to 7 cm! They had to put some instrument inside to monitor the baby since I had gotten an epidural. The doctor told me the epidural wasn’t really working because I wasn’t supposed to be feeling anything... I had figured that was the case since my contractions were still very painful despite the epidural.
11:05 p.m. My doctor left the room because she had to go help with a c-section. But she told my nurse if anything were to happen, call her and she would come immediately. Then my nurse left the room to go get Ethan from the waiting room. Immediately after she left the room, I had an extremely intense contraction and I felt the urge to push! While the nurse was out of the room, I had 2 contractions that were extremely intense and I felt the urge to push.
11:13 p.m. My nurse came back in the room and I told her, “I am feeling the urge to push.” Then immediately I got another contraction and she decided she would check me even though I was in the middle of a contraction. After she checked me, she called the doctor and said, “You need to come now.” The nurse also asked me, “What’s your husband’s phone number?” (Evidently, she couldn’t find him in the waiting room…). Ethan answered the phone and she said, “Come now!” My doctor came immediately. She said, “I knew this was going to happen!” She had told me that once I went into labor that it would probably happen very fast. She was right because I went from 7 cm to 10 cm in just a few minutes! I asked for a mirror and I’m so glad I did. After 3 pushes, the baby crowned and it was so cool to see because it really gave me the motivation to push even harder…
11:26 p.m. Bradley Daniel was born after the 4th push. They announced, “It’s a boy!” I was a bit emotional and almost cried; I finally had my baby in my arms! Bradley cried when they laid him on my chest. But then he stopped crying and laid still and quietly on my chest.
37 weeks 6 days pregnant. This was taken outside the hospital before going in. I was excited!
Outside the hospital, excited to meet our little one soon. Was it going to be a boy or girl? We were excited to finally find out. :)
In my labor and delivery room, eating ice chips in between contractions.
I got to hold Bradley immediately after he was born! What a precious time!
About an hour after he was born
Bradley weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz. He was 19 1/2 inches long.
Daddy and his son
Me and my little boy
On the way to our post-partum room, they let us choose a Christmas beenie for his head.
Giving birth is an exhausting experience... even for the dad! :)
5 comments:
What a great story! I'm a little jealous of the time you had before you checked into the hospital to take pictures. I've always been rushing to get to the bed on time! :P I'm so thankful it went smoothly. Deliveries seem to be such tense times - pain, emotions, a little scary, a little excited... And now you can enjoy your newest little sweetheart! Question: Were YOU waiting to find out boy/girl, or were you just keeping the rest of us in the dark? :)
Thanks, Sarah. To answer your question: With this pregnancy we didn't find out the gender. It was fun to be surprised! We didn't even decide on a boy name until a week before he was born. And it was funny because in the hospital we kept forgetting his name since we had just been calling him, "baby" for 9 months... :)
Finally finished this post and enjoyed it! So glad everything went so smoothly. So fun to journal every moment. I'm sure our little ones will enjoy them later :)
Excellent job at getting the birth story written so soon! :-). I have yet to write Elijah's and I'm fuzzy on details...I was going to ask my midwife about them as I know she always keeps notes. However, I forgot to at my 6 week (and final) appt. Oh well. :-). I am so very glad you could have another vbac! That's awesome the pushing stage was short for you this time. It makes such a difference. Congrats, again. He is so precious. :-)
Oh, and I love the Christmas beanie! Too cute. :-)
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