Birth Story

I finally have time to sit and write this down. Most of this is for my use when scrapbooking, so I don't blame you if you don't want to read it.

I started having contractions on Wednesday, June 22, while I was at work. I went home and rested and talked to the nurse on the phone about 5pm. I felt like I had the flu. She thought I was in labor and should go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30pm and they hooked me up to all the monitors and thought I was only about 1 cm dilated. They did not like my urine test and determined that I was dehydrated. The baby's heartrate was up around 195 bpm, so they pumped me full of fluids for 3 hours and sent me home. Luckily they also included a sleeping pill. Unfortunately it only worked until 2am.

I woke up at 2am in lots of pain. It just felt like one really long contraction. My stomach was very tight and most of the pain was in my back. I tried taking a bath to relieve the discomfort, and I actually ended up sleeping in there for a while. Then I tried sleeping in the living room chair and then the sofa. I had a regular doctor's appointment at 8am on Thursday. I was still in pain and having contractions when I arrived at the doctor. She thought I was at 2cm when I arrived at the office. I was hooked up again to the machines to monitor my contractions for about an hour. The place was not very busy that day so I was able to walk around the back half of the office to try and get the contractions more regular. She checked me again after being there for 3 hours and said that I was at 3cm. She sent me home to walk some more and then go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital around 1pm on Thursday afternoon. They hooked me up to the machines again and monitored me for about an hour. My contractions were really strong at this point, but I was still feeling them mostly in my back. The nurse thought I had progressed some during this time so at 2pm I was finally admitted to the hospital. We went upstairs to labor and delivery and got hooked up to more machines. They pumped me with fluids again and at 3:30pm I got my epidural. This was actually not as painful as I thought it was going to be. After that I was in a much better mood, but I had not eaten since 6pm the night before. They kept checking me all the way up until 8:30pm and everytime I was at 3cm. They gave me pitocin at some point to try and help things along. The nurse checked me again around 10:30pm and I was fully dilated. This surprised everyone. I could tell she was correct, because I was feeling a lot of pressure from the baby's head.

We started pushing around 11:15pm. This was not very painful, but it was a lot of work. I could feel lots of pressure by this time. After pushing for an hour he was finally ready to come out. It felt like an hour before the doctor got in the room. (It was probably only about 3 minutes.) They tell you to not push while you are waiting on the doctor to get there. That is the hardest thing to do, and I thought he was going to come out without the doctor there.

He finally came out to meet us at 12:24 am on June 24, 2005. It was our 5 year anniversay.