It was the night of January 18th and I had become fed up with my pregnancy, even though I had a little more than three weeks to go until my due date. I expressed my frustrations to my friend over the phone saying how the weekend before I felt contractions, but since then, I had not felt anything. I demanded chocolate cake from my sister and as she delivered it, I jumped several times trying to get the baby out. Little did I know what was in store!
My husband was away at a conference and coming home late that night. He arrived home at 3:30am, which of course woke me up, so I did what any pregnant woman would do, I went to the bathroom! As I sat on the toilet I noticed that my shorts soaked. Hrmm, what could that have been? I did not think much of it so I went back to bed. That morning we woke up, same thing, wet shorts, still, I did not think it was anything. I suggested to go out to bunch at our local favorite diner. After some delicious baked oatmeal, which I would later regret, we stopped off at the post office to pick up some packages. As I waited in line, I noticed my jeans felt wet, and I looked down, and they were wet! It was so embarrassing. I quickly walked back out to the car, showed my husband. He about turned white and said, “Call the doctor now!” I called and told them I thought my water had broken, and we were told to pack our bags and head on in to the hospital.
When we got home, my husband could not have been cuter, and I could not have been more freaked out! The baby was coming! Luckily our friend was on her way over to get the keys to house sit for us when we were going to go to the hospital, good thing she came that day. We grabbed our bags, said goodbye to the dog and headed to the hospital.
In shock, we called our parents, by the way, my in-laws were en-route to Cancun, Mexico so we actually could not get a hold of them, and well, we told my parents we’d keep them posted. We entered triage around noon, video camera in hand, and waited for them to conclude, yes this is labor! I was 4 cm dilated, my bag of waters had definitely ruptured, and we were off to the labor and delivery room. Holy crap! I learned that because my water had broken, we needed to have the baby by about 3:30am the next day. At this point, I had still not begun to feel contractions and was wondering when my labor would start.
Once we arrived in the room, I was hooked up to antibiotics, and placed on the fetal monitor. I was encouraged to do some laps to try to progress my labor. I walked and walked and walked, peed, had some italian ice, and watched a Bring it On marathon on Fox Family. Still nothing was happening. My doctor arrived to check my progress and decided I needed to get induced. I started to cry because I knew that this was going to be no walk in the park. My whole birth plan from that point on went out the window. They started the pitocin, and it took about a half an hour to work. My first contraction I felt was not so bad. Then, the next one was worse. I thought, well, I better go to the bathroom while I still can. I had about 3 contractions on the way there, looked at my husband and demanded the epidural. He, knowing I wanted to try to go natural, tried to encourage me against, but, in the end the epidural won. Through much screaming and painful contractions two minutes apart, the anesthesiologist arrived. They hoisted me up in the bed, and placed the epidural. It hurt really bad, but I figured, hey, my contractions have got to get better soon. Much to my dismay, the epidural did not help after 45 minutes, my nurse encouraged me it should work soon, but she called the anesthesiologist just in case.
I should take the time and discuss how much of a champ my husband was. Unfortunately I could not use him as my coach, it was too weird, so he stood behind me and rubbed my back, since about the only thing I could do was lay on my left side. He was very encouraging and patient.
After another 45 minutes or so, our nurse sort of panicked. She could not find the baby’s heartbeat and had to call another nurse into the room. I did not catch on to her worried look, but it sure freaked Kyle out. So began the movement of the big fat preggo. I rolled from side to side, was given oxygen, and ended up on all fours, mean while the contractions getting stronger and stronger and closer together. All about the same time, Eli’s heart rate came up, the anesthesiologist adjusted my epidural and they discovered that I was 10 cm dilated feeling the urge to push. My pain got less and less, for now, my epidural worked! My midwife finally had arrived and decided that I could rest while the baby descended in the birth canal before I had to start pushing. It was at this time, my family had arrived and came into the delivery room with cameras and happy faces. Being paralyzed from the waste down, I had no choice but to smile for the camera.
It was about 10:30pm and time for me to start pushing. I laid on my back, and did that ridiculous hold your breath and count to ten and repeat three times. After about a half an hour I was convinced he was not coming out. My contractions were starting to become very painful, the epidural was no longer effective. They brought out the mirror to show me my progress, held me open and showed me my son’s head, still way up there! That boy sure did have a full head of hair. I soon became very nauseated and up came the baked oatmeal and cherry italian ice, several times over the next hour. I pushed and pushed, laying on my side mostly, Kyle holding my leg, my nurses encouraging me. Every time I laid on my back, I threw up. We tried the squatting which hurt worse so it was side pushing all the way. Finally, my midwife came in, kicked my butt into gear and had me back on my back pushing, not letting hold my breath any less than ten seconds. Some progress! I saw that head pushing ready to come out! Now that mirror was coming in handy! I pushed like there was no tomorrow and POP, out came the head! It was the most insane, amazing, and weird feeling in the world. I pushed one more time, and out came the whole baby! Welcome to the world Elijah Michael! They quickly suctioned him and placed him on my belly. I really did not cry or laugh or anything. I was just in shock and what had come out of me after two and a half hours of pushing. Our little man was born at 12:52am, 6 pounds, 6 ounces, 19 inches long. What an amazing miracle. Kyle and I were in awe of what we had created. Our baby boy had finally come!
