The Labour Story

A few people have asked me to tell them the whole story, so for those of you who can’t handle it, just skip this post. It is a little long because I wrote it out for myself, so feel free to skip any section you want!

So Monday night rolls around, and I am talking with Mick about everything that was going on that week and all we had to get done (I am a BIG to do list person, it makes me happy). When all of a sudden I felt like I peed my pants a little. So feeling stupid I run to the bathroom but I was relieved to see I didn’t pee my pants. Well as the night went on, I started feeling cramp like feelings. In our childbirth class they emphasize that you are not to go to the hospital until you are uncomfortable enough you can’t talk or contractions are 8 minutes apart. I am lying on the floor with a heating pad yelling at Mick, WHAT TIME IS IT? So I can keep track of timing. But they aren’t unbearable and I can talk just fine. I keep saying to Mick, we will be lucky if we make it to the morning. I immediately panic and start packing bags. Also, for some reason, start writing in my journal. I am ordinarily a very good journal writer, but I haven’t don’t so good since I got married for some reason.

Finally at 4am I called the health link to ask if my water had broken. The nurse told me your water could have broken, and since you are strep B positive I would just go in. This answer seemed to relieve my stress and I fell asleep on the couch! I drove Mick to work and ran errands all day. I met Mick at home and we agreed to go to the hospital. They would probably send me home right away but it is better to go and be safe then not go. Mick had a meeting so I convinced him to drop me off and just pick me up on the way home. So up I go, at the admitting desk I timidly tell them I am worried my water broke, so nervous they are going to laugh in my face. They hook me up to the monitors and run a few tests. Wouldn’t you know it, they couldn’t believe I waited all day, and the baby’s heart rate kept dropping so I was admitted! Now, to get a hold of Mick! Only 10 minutes has passed since he dropped me off so he hasn’t even made it to work for the meeting yet. I wait for a while and keep trying his work number. So I call my mom to come over, who luckily called my dad. About an hour later, Mick walks into the office and my dad tells him I am in the hospital and had to emphasize, they are admitting her, you better get over there.

Eventually Mick shows up. I am moved to a delivery room and am put on pitocin to speed up conractions. I still hardly feel any pain, just uncomfortable crampy feelings. My stomach is itchy; I had to keep the monitors on because of the baby’s heart rate dropping. Debbie and Mick are counting contractions and telling me when I should feel more. We all took bets on the time the baby would be born, I was hoping for 10 pm (it was probably around 9:00) and Brandon had guessed 4am and I wanted to kill him for being so cruel and wanting me to suffer that long. April Hughes, a friend of mine who was on shift that night said I wasn’t very far dilated and it would probably be 9am. I could have killed her. I am starting to get more uncomfortable. I got the epidural (and for those of you who have never had one, the IV hurt 10,000 times worse than the epidural, which I didn’t really feel). Debbie and Mick are now bored and pull out the phones to text and get onto facebook. I just sleep. Throwing up seemed to help get me dilated because after my next nap the told me it was time to push! I somehow convinced myself this was a 10 minute procedure and was disappointed when the nurse told me to expect 2-3 hours. This was not so great and I could feel a LOT more than I thought I would. I was still sleeping between contractions/pushing so I kind of wasn’t all there, but I remember yelling that I was ready to be done with this. The nurses told me his head was out and I could touch it, to which I was disgusted and said, UM NO! I remember yelling, if his head is out, can’t you just PULL him out? And little man was born at 4:25 am, 6lbs 11.8 ounces and 20 ½ inches long.