Labor

Everybody has a birth story and I have heard at least a dozen of my friends stories leading up to Raya's delivery.  Some easy, some difficult but one thing is for sure after having gone through it myself now, no two stories are the same, but I enjoyed hearing all the stories so I will share mine!

So EDD was April 14th which came and went with no delivery.  I saw my doctor on April 19th and I had made some progress but she wanted to talk induction plan just in case.  She scheduled me for induction on Wednesday April 25th IF she did not come on her own in the upcoming 5 days.  She also had me do the NST (non-stress testing) on Friday the 20th and Monday the 23rd.  I attended both and everything checked out normal, fluids levels were good and baby's heartrate was strong and normal...so I was sent on my way from the nurses with "we'll see you Wednesday".  At this point I had come to terms with the dreaded induction that was around the corner :( To make matters worse the ased me to come in for my induction at 5:00 AM and to call them at 4:00 AM to make sure there was room for me in a room...WHAT????  I am not going to be sleeping for the rest of my life and I have to get up at 4:00 AM, makes no sense to me :( Tim and I headed to bed Monday night saying "let's enjoy our last night of sleep for a WHILE!!"

Sure enough as nature would have it I was woken by contractions that felt like BAD period cramps at about 3:00 AM in the morning on Tuesday!  I had experienced some contractions earlier in the week but just as I learned in class and from my doctor, if I was able to go back to sleep they were not real contractions...well I was up and down to the bathroom about 12 times between 3 and 5 AM, everytime I stood up I had to pee again.  It was hard to keep track of the contractions becuase of how often I was frequenting the bathroom, I thought "Oh I must have dropped!!", I had been told about a bazillion times leading up to my due date that I hadn't dropped yet so I thought this must be what it that is??  Tim was mostly sleeping but knew I was in an uncomfortable state and finally at about 6 AM after much of my signing and complaining of cramping, he said OK let's start timing these contractions.  After about 40 minutes he said "I think it's time to take a shower".  According to his timing my contractions were about 3.5 minutes apart and pretty steady.  I was freaked out at this point (was I REALLY ready to do this??  after all the waiting and now I was nervous) and convinced him to let me take a bath to see if that eased up my pain.  The bath didn't ease up the contractions, but it did give me a chance to relax a little and shave my legs knowing that VERY soon I'd be heading to the hospital!  Tim was anxious and wanted to get going, I was taking my time since I didn't want to spend my whole labor in the hospital and I think I was stalling based on my nerves.

I had a small breakfast of toast and applesauce. I think it was about 8:45 or so that we headed to the hospital.   We were admitted to triage and right away I was checked and hooked up to heartbeat and contraction monitors.  Just as Tim had timed, I was contracting about every 3-3.5 minutes and at this point I was at 4.5 cm dilated.  It was really real when the triage nurse told me we are admitting you, looks like you are going to have this baby by dinner time.  WHOA!!!  Tim was sent to the car to get our bags and we were assigned a labor and delivery room.

I got to room 307 at about 11:00 AM and again got hooked up to the monitoring machines, I was still in a good place pain wise so I didn't want an epidural yet.   My mom and Tim's mom arrived shortly after and we just hung out and played the waiting game.  I had brought Moulin Rouge with me (one of my favorite movies) so I had Tim put that in the DVD player.  I used the exercise ball to open up my hips and tried to walk around. They told me that my contractions were stronger than I was leading on, which made me feel good, I wanted to go as long as possible before getting an epidural.  My doctor came in and checked on me a few times and at about 1ish my doctor broke my water and I was at about 6.5 cm dilated.  They told me that my contractions would start getting more intense and that was no lie!  By about 2:30 I almost couldn't concentrate and I told Tim I think it was time for the epidural.  By 3:00 PM I was feeling MUCH better and relaxed and  when my doctor came to check on me and I was still at about 6.5 cm, she ordered that I get some pitocin since I was stuck at 6.5 cm for a little while. 

Relaxing in bed, capturing the moments of the day

 Just before the pain REALLY started, laboring on the excercise ball

At 6:15 PM my doctor came back in before her shift ended to see what my progress was and I was 10 cm finally!!!  It was time to start trying to push, wow!!  crazy!!  HERE WE GO...