As most nights in the last few weeks had been going, I woke up around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, March 6 and simply couldn't fall back asleep. After stirring around for an hour I finally decided to go downstairs and watch some tv. I really wanted to fall back asleep so after one episode of Top Chef, I went back upstairs. At this point, I started feeling what I considered to be braxton hicks. They were measurable and relatively consistent so I still kinda freaked out a bit. I woke Gary up in a slight panic. "Was this it? How do we know? This could be the real thing but it may not be!" At 4:45 a.m. or so, I decided to take a shower to see if they would continue.
They didn't.
I was slightly relieved but that didn't last too long. The contractions started back up again a little bit later and though they came and went several more times over the next few hours, with each return they were definitely stronger. At this point I thought perhaps this was in fact early labor and decided to stay home for at least the morning. I wasn't fully convinced this was the real deal so I really thought I'd be going in to work after they went away. Owen went to daycare and Gary went to work as well. Why did I let him leave? Silly me.
By 10 a.m. I couldn't handle it anymore by myself. I was an emotional mess even after I kept myself busy with dishes and loads of laundry. I caught Gary as he was headed in to a meeting and said, "COME HOME" as I choked back tears. At this point they were mildly painful but I still wasn't fully convinced anything was happening. By 12:30 p.m. we decided it was time to find out. After taking a picture of what could be the last bump photo, we headed to the hospital.
As we were when Owen was born, we were the only OB patients for the day and got the big delivery room. And again, upon the initial exam, I had made ZERO progress. I wasn't too shocked; I even said as we walked in that I wasn't convinced that we'd be staying.
Our nurse wanted to wait a couple of hours to check me again so we decided to walk around the hospital. At this point, the pain was a bit more and I kept thinking, "WOW, this must be going really fast or at least I hope so!" The pain level was definitely higher than it had been this early with Owen and within a couple of hours of contractions with him, I was 6cm. When it was time to be checked, I thought for sure I'd be at least 4 or more cm along but sadly, I was a mere 2cm. Though thankfully, because I had made progress, I was officially admitted!
As the contractions got worse, I quickly realized how hungry I was. I had been way too preoccupied at home to even think about eating so I sent Gary to pick us up some lunch from the Co-op. I just had to have some garlic lover's pasta salad :) As I waited for him to return, I went down to visit my previous co-workers in the marketing department. I held a brave face as I worked through some more contractions but it helped to pass the time while I was without my husband. After we ate and rested a wee bit, I then sent Gary to pick Owen up from daycare and get him settled with his grandparents at our house. (I'm pretty sure at this point we had also turned on Food Network; we watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ALL DAY! I couldn't have picked a better time to go in to labor! This is a show we used to watch all the time with we had cable) While Gary was gone this time, I got checked again and was at 4cm. The pain had gotten incredibly intense and I kept thinking WHERE ON EARTH IS MY HUSBAND! Looking back at my texts, I sent him a message at 5:19 p.m. that said, "I need you here!!" Thankfully, he returned right around the time my epidural did at around 5:30-5:45 p.m. How people are able to go without one is beyond me. I can't imagine fighting through the ever increasing pain and then having to push out a baby...
As it had done with Owen, the epidural slowed my progress (or at least didn't speed it along). By 7:30-8 p.m., I had only made it to 7cm. The doctor on-call decided to give me pitocin at that point. By 10:30 p.m. or so, I was fully dilated and I felt that I was physically ready to labor down. Mentally, not so much. Almost immediately I started to shake and cry. I remember how this went with Owen and feared that I'd experience that and more with Jack's delivery. With Owen, my epidural was either turned way down or lost efficiency after nearly 12 hours and I felt just about everything, in all its painful glory. By 11:15 p.m. I somehow was able to push that aside and said I thought I could start pushing. Much to my surprise, I had no pain! (Seriously, epidurals are the best!) I felt really okay while pushing but little man wasn't having it. Near the end his heart rate dropped so after a push or two more, he was born with the assistance of a vacuum at 11:45 p.m. And might I add that Triple D was on all the while :)
Once I was taken care of, the doctor said I could have a little more skin-to-skin time before we took Jack's stats. But after hearing the nurses say how big he seemed, I was really eager to find them out officially. I was thinking maybe 8lb or so. Crazy me - our little nugget was 8lb 14.5 oz!
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| Jack Henry, born at 11:45 p.m. on Friday, March 6. 8lb 14.5oz and 21 1/2 inches long. |
This time, I can really say easy peasy :)
Welcome, Jack Henry! We are so lucky to call you our son!
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