Monday night, January 20th. About 7 pm
We had just finished dinner and were starting to get a little anxious about leaving the kids and heading off to the hospital. I had been a little emotional the weeks leading up to this moment and all the feelings I had been having all came to a head. I was rocking Brilee before bed the previous week and just had a break down thinking I would never be able to rock her again and I would never have time to lay with Brennar and pretty much feeling like their little worlds were about to come crashing down and it was all my fault. It was rough. But all day Monday we kept pretty busy, wrapping up everything we needed to for while we were at the hospital and all the little things I wouldn't want to do our first few days home. But, then we finished dinner and I didn't know what to do with myself. I wanted to play with the kids, and I also wanted to just sit on the couch and I wanted to finish a few more little things, but I was so nervous and nauseated that pretty much the only thing I did was sit at the kitchen table. So we waited for about an hour and then said good bye to the kids and we were off to the hospital.
Our last picture as a family of 4
Brilee telling the baby she was ready to meet him!!
On our way to the hospital Clint decided he needed to eat some more, so we had to stop at McDonalds, if I already wasn't nauseous enough!
An hour later we were walking into the hospital.
We checked in at the ER and someone came down and took us up to labor and delivery. As we got to the nurses station, the charge nurse tells us she has a room for us, but that there were so many people that they couldn't start my induction until some point during the night. Awesome. So, until about 11:30 we just sat there. When she finally came back she said my doctor had called to make sure we made it and that he wanted me to get a cytotec at 2 am. So, no harm done when they didn't get us going right away. At 11:30 the nurse took down all of my initial information and had me get my gown on and she started my IV. They decided to monitor me for a few minutes then too. She told me she would come back in 20 minutes or so and take the monitor off me until 2 when she gave me the medicine. She ended up not coming back until 1 and said it turns out I was having a lot of contractions on my own so I was going to have to keep the monitor on. I had started feeling contractions back at 22 weeks and they never really stopped throughout the next 4 months, but at about midnight I could tell that they were actual labor pains, not just BH. Yay!!! I had started labor on my own!
At about 2:15 my nurse comes in and gets the medicine ready and starts to check me. I was at 3 cm!! So, didn't end up needing to have the cytotec. So, there I was just having to hang out in labor for the next few hours. Finally at 5 the nurse convinced me I could get my epidural. Don't get me wrong, I pretty much would like it from the moment I walk into the hospital, but I really didn't want it to stop my labor like I had heard it could. She checked me again, and I was at a 4, slow progression I thought. A few minutes later the doctor was in the room and I was being hooked up to that magical medicine that makes everything all better! And also getting my pitocin started too. When they start your epidural you can't really sit up anymore, and the laying down was giving me such bad heart burn. They gave me some pepcid through my iv, but it didn't really work. Then I was getting sick feeling on top of that so I got some zofran. But, nothing really was helping and the throwing up started:(
At 7, my doctor came in to break my water and check me again and I was still only at a 4! I was super disappointed. The nurse came back at 9 and again I was only at a 4, maybe 4.5. She told me to get some rest because it would probably be awhile. Rest? Seriously? I hadn't slept a minute since we had checked in. Around 11 she came back and finally I was at a 6. Yay, slowly but surely I was making progress. She said she would be back around 1 to check me again. Mind you, they keep giving me these 2 hour rest windows, but still come in about every 10-15 minutes to do something. At about 11:30 I started feeling pressure, and it was finally something I remembered feeling with Brennar and Brilee. I debated for awhile on if I should call her back to check me again, seeing that it had only been about 20 minutes from my last check, but after going back and forth I decided to have her come back. Well, it was time!!! So, in the 45 minutes since she had checked me I went from a 6 to ready, now that's what I'm talking about!! My doctor was at his office across town, so they called him right away, it took him about 30 minutes to get there. Then once he was there they got everything ready, explained to me how to push, where to put my hands and legs, and everything else I seemed to have forgotten since Brilee was born.
Clint took one last picture of me before go time!
He sat down at 12:40, told me that on the next contraction we would start pushing, and that's what I did. I pushing for a full 10 count, took my breath, started counting again, got to 3 and he told me to stop pushing that his head was out. What??? I couldn't and didn't believe him, so he had me look and there he was. At 12:43 the most perfect little man was placed on my belly!!!