Birth Story!

Well, Little Number Three has made her arrival - about 12 days ago, in fact, but I haven't had a chance to write since then (shocking, I know).

I wanted to make sure I chronicled her birth story before the details got too blurry in my mind.

The week before her arrival, I started having stronger contractions and they were more frequent and more uncomfortable.  I saw my OB (and good friend) Philip, who told me I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced, but that the baby was WAY low.  He also told me I would probably be feeling a lot of pelvic pressure - well, that was certainly the case.  I was peeing every hour and having a hard time even walking due to the pressure.  After a week or so of contractions and worsening pressure, I went in to be checked again, only to be told that I was STILL 2cm and now maybe 80-90% effaced, and that the baby was still low.  His words to me that day, "You're definitely going to have this baby soon!"  I decided then that I could definitely be an OB.  Obviously I was going to have the baby soon; I was 10 days from my due date.

Anyway, all that week I slept terribly and was grouchy.  I was sick of contracting (with the contractions not even doing anything, labor-wise), sick of feeling huge, and just sick of being pregnant altogether.  I tried not to feel that way.  I tried to really enjoy every moment of those last days, because like I've said, this was probably my last pregnancy and why rush it?  But the constant discomfort was getting to me.

On Friday morning, January 18th, I woke up at my pretty typical time of about 6:15am (such is the life with 2 early bird kids).  I had slept amazingly well the night before and woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed.  Of course, I made my way to the bathroom and then climbed back into bed.  Over the preceding few days, every time I got back into bed it caused a contraction.  True to form, it happened again, but this time, the contraction was...a CONTRACTION!!  I instantly knew it was different and grabbed Scott's hand, waking him up.  I told him to start his stopwatch just so I could see how often they were happening.  Lo and behold, the next one came about 4 minutes later.  And after that, WOW, did they come on quick.  And strong.  I headed to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, and Scott started getting dressed.  Dad was already up and I told him, "We're going to have a baby today!"  I had only had a few contractions at that point but I knew!  I spent the next hour and a half getting ready, eating breakfast (aren't I a good patient?), and pausing every 3-4 minutes to lean over and have someone rub my lower back.  As they were getting substantially stronger and more frequent, we headed to the hospital around 8am.  I have to say, this car ride was way better than the one when I was in labor with Sam.  I had done a little bit of mental preparation this time with how I wanted to work through the contractions (until I got my epidural, of course).  My big focus was to relax my face.  That really helped.  I also promised myself I wouldn't swear and I would try to be as un-dramatic as possible.

On the way to the hospital, Scott called Terri, our neighbor and CRNA extraordinaire, to see if she would be available to start my epidural when I got to the hospital.  She was in a case but said she would be free around 9am.  When we got to the hospital, there was no parking so we parked illegally.  I was definitely uncomfortable at this point, but I wanted to take one last pregnant picture outside the hospital.  While I was waiting for a contraction to pass so we could take the picture, Scott's squadron commander walked by and Scott told him we were there to have the baby.  His response: "Really?  But the hospital is on divert!" (ie, closed to new patients due to being full).  Of course, we took our picture and went right in.

When we got to the triage desk of L&D, Scott announced that I was in labor.  The nurses looked a little panicked, confirmed that the hospital was on divert, and then quickly found me a room.  I love those nurses.  Philip (my OB) came up a few minutes later, found that I was at 5cm, and confirmed that I wanted to VBAC.  He told me, "We'll have this baby born before noon!"  He was stuck in another case at the time so said he would be back to check me.  In the meantime, they started my IV, took some labs, and prepped me for the epidural.  The whole time, my contractions continued and Scott rubbed my back through each one.  It was definitely not comfortable, but I can say with complete honesty that I loved the labor experience.  I focused on keeping my face relaxed and staying calm.  It really really worked and made each contraction tolerable.  I still wanted my epidural though!

As soon as my labs came back normal, Terri put in my epidural.  THAT isn't fun either, but once it kicked in, I had the same reaction that I had with Sam - basically, I thought, "Well, that was a waste - as soon as the epidural went in, the contractions stopped!"  Unlike with Sam though, they came back this time.  Not as strong but I definitely still felt them.  They checked me and I was 7cm!  Wahoo!  Then my OB came back and offered to break my water - I was ready for the baby now so I said sure.  No point in prolonging things now that I had experienced labor the way I had wanted to.  Shortly after that (I can't remember how long - 5 minutes or 30), the pain got way worse, and was in my back.  They said that was "transition" but I didn't care what it was - it HURT.  I tried to move onto my side, which was no small feat given that my legs were numb.  As soon as I did, I felt better, but then before I knew it, everyone was trying to get me to move to my other side (apparently the baby had some concerning heart rates when I was on my side, but no one told me what was going on so I was confused and aggravated).  They put me on oxygen and I guess that helped.  Somewhere around this time, the nurse checked me again and pronounced me "10cm and complete," and they called for Philip so I could start pushing!

He got there pretty quick and I remember asking if there was room for me in the OR if necessary.  He assured me there was.  I don't even know why I asked that.  I started pushing and I immediately felt so frustrated.  I couldn't feel myself pushing at all, I just felt like I was tensing my abdominal muscles and making no progress.  Everyone said I was pushing, though, so I must have been.  Apparently the baby started crowning and someone asked, "Do you want to touch the hair?"  I did NOT.  I wanted to be DONE.  And, a few minutes later, just like that, I was.  Done.  I have a vague recollection of him telling me he needed to cut an episiotomy and cloudy memories of everybody saying, "PUSH!!" and counting to 10, but the thing I remember most clearly is looking down and seeing my beautiful baby girl and getting teary-eyed - there is just something so unbelievably miraculous about that moment.

She was born at 11:33am, before noon, just like my OB had predicted.  The next few minutes were a blur - they cleaned her up while I got cleaned up and finally I got to hold my precious angel.  She was so stinking cute!  She nursed right away and curled up in my arms and fell asleep.

Scott and I just kept saying how smoothly everything had gone from start to finish - a great night's sleep the night before, a couple of hours of real-deal contractions, a stellar epidural by my favorite CRNA, 10 minutes of pushing, an uncomplicated delivery by my OB, and a perfect, healthy baby less than 5 hours after it all started.  The recovery has been better than I expected too.  Overall I couldn't have asked for a better d-day. =)