The birth story post

I think birth stories are usually pretty cool. I'm gonna tell Grant's now. I'll leave out any details that are too gross or just TMI. And if you don't like birth stories, skip this post and just look at the next one whenever I get a chance to put another one up.

Well.... you can read my previous post, that's how it began. Monday morning started with early labor pains that were usually not very evenly spaced but still pretty intense beginning at 3 AM and dying off about 7 AM. I felt very excited that the baby was probably coming soon, but also annoyed that there were some plans I'd probably have to rearrange for the week. I called my mom (the designated Lincoln- sitter during my hospital stay) and told her the baby would probably be coming in the next few days. She was very excited, told me to make sure I had the things packed for me and Lincoln and the baby and then "Take Lincoln on a walk or go mop the floor or something. Then the baby will come!" I was pretty annoyed that she seemed so very excited about these gross and painful symptoms coming so early. My mood for the whole day was just generally annoyed. I used the day resting a bit, finishing up some things and packing.

Contractions started again at about 6 PM, a little before Mike came home on a work break. Our microwave broke while he was trying to heat up food, and I just had to go upstairs and deal with the pains in bed. Can contractions be stress induced? I don't know, but it certainly didn't help.

After Mike left at 7 and I'd been timing the pains for a while, I decided they were exactly 8 minutes apart for one minute . I'd called in earlier that day and confirmed that my dr. goes by the "411" rule- contractions 4 minutes apart, 1 minute in length, for an hour. Then you head to the hospital. The last thing I wanted was to go and be sent home, so I decided Lincoln and I had to go to the grocery store before they got any worse or any closer. Nesting instinct, we were out of milk.

We went to the store for a few necessities, with Lincoln riding in the front of one of the toy car/grocery cart things he loves, pretending to drive. And me pushing the heavy thing keeping an eye on my cell phone, keeping track of the contractions. I noticed in passing that exactly in between the 8 minutes- at the 4 minute mark- I'd feel a little bit of tightness but not any pain really, and it was only for a few seconds. I was sure that didn't count as a real contraction. But every 8 minutes it was "Oh wow.... I'm gonna have to stop... and sit on this stack of canned food... wow I'm sure glad they put that here."

My mom called when I was almost home and told me she thought I should go to the hospital while I could still manage to drive there (pulling over every 8 minutes) and she'd meet me there to get Lincoln. I told her, "Well, I still really don't want to go just to be sent back home and then I'd have to arrange for Lincoln to come back to me.... no, I think if the pains are still this bad- and even if they are still at 8 minutes- when I have my appointment tomorrow at 11:30, he'll send me to the hospital to finish it. But I'll let you know if we don't wait until then."

I got home, slowly put groceries away, and let Lincoln fall asleep watching TV. Mike got home a little after 11 and asked if I thought we should go. "No, these stupid contractions hurt sooo much but they're too far apart!!! You time them for a while!" He verified that just as I thought, 8 minutes still. To cope with the pain I did some of the natural child birthing positions I'd read about. After all I've heard about the wonder of 'going natural', I'm surprised at how much they only helped a little bit. At about 2:30 I tried the bathtub, I've heard that can be even more effective. It didn't help me at all.

About 3 AM I told Mike I was going to call the dr. on call and ask him if every contraction had to be equally intense; because it was every 4 minutes really and has been for hours, but only every other one is bad. Mike suggested I just wait until my appointment time. I suggested that he.... well, I suggested something not very nice. I talked to the dr, but only for a minute before another one started and I just threw the phone at Mike and said,"You talk!" The dr said there's actually nothing magical about the "411" rule in his opinion, and if it's really that bad I should of course go in.

So we (mostly Mike) got Lincoln up, got our stuff and drove to the hospital. To get to Jordan Valley hospital we drive right past another hospital, one we live just a few blocks away from. As we drove past it I whimpered and mumbled,"Let's go there instead." Mike chuckled and drove on past. We met my mom at the hospital doors, got poor tired Lincoln into her car, and got me inside with a wheelchair, writhing in pain.

I realize this is where many birth stories begin, with the arrival at a hospital. This one is almost done actually. Once I got into a room with a hospital gown on, the nurse checked me and said with surprise,"Oh, you're at 6 centimeters." I groaned. No wonder it hurt so much!! I looked this up a few days later to confirm this fact. Early labor is about 1-3 cm dilation, and active labor is 3-7 cm. So I had gone through almost all the active labor in my own bed and bathtub. Needless to say, when the next sentence from the nurse was,"Would you like an epidural?" I said,"YES! Soon! I've done enough natural childbirthing at home."

She ran to the hallway and it seemed that 10 seconds later the room was full of people hurriedly putting in an IV, getting me ready for the epidural, assisting, taking notes, whatever. They quickly got me hooked up to antibiotics when I confirmed I would need them and shouted at one of the staff,"YES! I need the Group B strep medicine now! I need the antibiotics! HURRY!" She kinda flinched and said,"Well, we'll do it as fast as we can...." I tried to apologize through a contraction. Mike explained for me that the labor went too fast last time to get through the entire dose. To appease us, it was put on the fastest flow possible and good news is we finished it this time.

The epidural went in me really fast while I tearfully clung to Mike and sobbed from the pain and fear. See, I totally love the epidural. It helps so much. But I still have a fear of an anesthesiologist getting it just a tiny bit wrong and paralyzing me. Luckily, it went in just fine again and the only problem was my already low blood pressure took a sharp dip. The anesthesiologist ran out in a panic to get a medicine into my IV to stabilize it, and it worked out just fine.

I was checked immediately after the epidural and had dilated to 9 cm in those few minutes. As the staff was walking out to let us get some rest before the pushing stage set in, I asked the nurse to notify my dr that I wouldn't be at my 11:30 appointment. I was assuming that whichever dr was on call would be the delivery doctor. She smirked at me and said,"Dr Epstien will be here within the hour for the pushing stage, and to break your water if necessary. He knows." I wasn't feeling any of those massive contractions anymore, so Mike and I got some rest for about an hour and notified some family that the baby would be a little early and would arrive very soon.

So Dr Epstien came, broke the water for me, and about a half hour later my gorgeous baby boy was out! I was so happy to have him out of me, in my arms looking up at me with that angry little face.

He's only a week old today and it's already like we don't know what we did without him in our family. Well, we got more sleep, that's for sure! He is beautiful and amazing.