Happy Birth Day

Last Thursday night I was sitting at Anne's looking through her ever-expanding collection of Every Day Food Magazine. After an impromptu deep freezer purchase, we had decided to make a bunch of freezer meals to use after I had the baby, and just throughout the upcoming weeks. I had felt great all day, but I had an instant feeling of nausea. It came on really suddenly and I ended up going home about 10 minutes later because I felt so sick.

Once I got home, I was still really sick and started throwing up. I threw up a few times, tried to eat a few things to settle my stomach, and threw up more. We decided to just go to bed and hope that I felt better in the morning.

I didn't sleep well from about 11:30 till 2 am. I was awake enough to know that I didn't feel good and that I was having contractions, but I was too sleepy to get up or do anything. (plus, I had been having pretty strong contractions for a good week so that part didn't really phase me.)

At about 2 am I decided to get up and walk around a little. I went out to the living room, walked around, facebooked, read blogs....you name it. The contractions seemed to be more frequent than what I was used to, so I decided to start timing them. I found a cool contraction timer online and sat on the couch timing them for about an hour and a half. They were about 3 minutes apart.

At 4 am I decided to go wake Jason up to time the contractions with me. I walked around for another hour and by this point the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and stronger. We decided to go to the hospital to get checked. I showered, Jason packed bags (despite all of your awesome advice, I had yet to pack a single thing...) and we were on our way!

We got to the hospital about 6 am. After visiting with my dad in the ER for a few minutes, we made our way up to L&D. they checked me and said I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. (I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced on Tues at my doctors appointment.) They said they would watch me for an hour and if I made any more progress they would admit me.



They checked me again at 7:15 and said I had made a little progress. I was now a 3+ and still 90% effaced. They called my doctor who said to go ahead and admit me (woot!)
After checking in, we called and started letting people know where we were. Jason's parents (along with his brother and family, who just happened to be in town from South Carolina) started the drive up from St. George, with strict instructions that the baby MUST wait until they arrived around noon.

Lots of family and a few close friends hung out with us all day in the hospital.




They hung out. They ate. I ate popcicles and drank water.


Anne showed up with these aahhhhhhmazing donuts from Beyond Glaze. I got to look at them, and know they were just as tasty as they looked. (and eventually got to eat one many hours later)


I texted, blogged, facebooked, and really just tried to pass the time!


I had 2 nurses in L&D. One was awesome, fun, helpful and overall a great nurse. The other was from a hospital in Richfield. Apparently they don't get much OB action in Richfield, so their nurses come here to brush up on their skills. The trainee girl I got was horrible!! She gave me possibly the worst IV ever (Jason and I had to actually talk her through how to hook it up and draw my blood. Seriously?!) Then, I was given Penicillin because my strep-B test hasn't come back from the doctor a few days before. The Good Nurse warned me it stings a little in the IV, so they kept the dose pretty low. The Incompetent Nurse came in a little later and didn't know how to adjust the dosage and ended up opening the line up ALL THE WAY. I had searing pain shooting up my arm, it was like battery acid flowing through my veins. I yelled that she needed to turn it down, which she finally did once she figured out how. GAH!

By 9:30 I still had not made any more progress and the contractions had started to die down a lot. The doctor said I couldn't have an epidural until I hit a 4 and threatened to send me home if I didn't make progress sometime soon. (um yeah, I was SO NOT going home at this point.) I asked to be unhooked so I could walk around a little. By "walk around" I actually meant that once all hospital staff was out of my room, I jogged in place, did lunges, and stair-stepped on the back of my hospital bed for a good hour. It started the contractions up a little, but they still weren't as strong as they had been that morning...but it was okay!! The doctor checked again and I was now dilated to a 4 and ready for an epidural, yay!






The epidural was not near as bad as I thought it would be. A little sting from the local anesthetic, a tiny bit of pressure and cold, and done! I could still move my legs (this becomes a key point in the story later) but I had no contraction pain and generally felt great.

I was dilated to a 4 for.ev.ver.

forever.

really really long time.

no progress made.

2 hours later? yup, still a 4.

2 hours after that. 4. still. no. changes.

They ended up breaking my water around 1:15. The only I will say about my catheter is that Incompetent Nurse did it and was really, well, incompetent about the whole thing. And it hurt later when my epidural wore off.

Yeah, it wore off. Remember how I could move my legs the entire time? Apparently that can either mean The Perfect Epidural or, 'oh wait its not in right and we have to do it again.' Mine was obviously the latter. I started feeling everything below my hip bones (still numb to contractions though. Thank goodness for small miracles) so they called a second anesthetist in to re-do the epi. He did a great job and ten minutes later I couldn't have wiggled my pinkie toe if you paid me.

Oh, and during all this? Yeah, still a 4.


FINALLY around 4:20 they gave me Pitocin to hurry things along, and hurry they did. I went from a 4 to an 8 in 20 minutes! After that it was smooth sailing. I was a 10 at 6:30. the doctor wanted me to rest at a 10 for thirty minutes and said I could start pushing at 7.



The nurse came in and had me start pushing with each contraction. She told me to rest in between because it usually take an hour or two for a first time mom. After about 2 pushes there was no way I could do that for 2 hours, so Boston and I decided we were going to do things a little quicker. 10 minutes later he was ready to say hello, so the nurse went to get to doctor.

Oh, wait. He went home. So, stop pushing till he gets back, k?

I wanted to kill the nurse. And the doctor. WHO GOES HOME?! Also, about not pushing? Not possible. It's just not. It took him a few minutes to get back but we soon saw him sprinting into the building. Once he got to my room it was like a pit crew at a Nascar race. GOWN! HAT! GLOVES! BED! GO!

About 30 seconds later, the best thing that ever happened to Jason and I arrived!!!







He was a little early so they had to check his lungs and everything before I could see him. Everything checked out great, he was a healthy 6 lbs 9 oz and 18 inches long.


I absolutely love this photo...the proud daddy!

Welcome to the world, baby Boston! We love you so much!!