Okay, before getting to the birth story and pictures, STEFFFF!!!!!
Congrats!!! I'm so excited for you!
So as I had posted, I went in for my 39 week appointment on Tuesday at 5:30pm, and was disappointed that I hadn't progressed at all from the week before. The doctor offered to strip my membranes and I said sure, and honestly it wasn't any more painful than a regular cervical check. So I went home, and noticed right away that I was spotting lightly and was crampy, but I'd heard that was normal after a membrane sweep and didn't have my hopes up at all. After maybe an hour or so, I started feeling like what I thought may have been contractions, but it also felt like I had to poo really bad so I wasn't sure if it was just that. I kept running to the bathroom to try, and finally I was able to go and thought "damn, guess it was just poo." Well, almost immediately after I got a contraction, and it was PAINFUL. I'd been trying to time these things (whatever they were) but they were so random and sometimes I couldn't figure out when exactly the began or when they ended, and it was happening so randomly I still wasn't convinced it was happening. After maybe an hour of the guessing game, all of a sudden these things were getting INTENSE and painful and we're already coming every 1.5-2 minutes.
I thought no way, labor doesn't start that fast right? I thought it was supposed to be gradual, I thought early contractions were only supposed to feel like pressure, not immediately be so painful and certainly not immediately 1.5-2 minutes apart. So I told my husband who promptly started getting excited and freaking out. I still wasn't convinced thought so I called my mom (who lives a mile away) and told her to come over because I wasn't sure what was happening. So she came, and she told me that with how fast they were coming she really didn't think it was labor. Husband offered to make dinner and I figured I better eat so agreed and he got everything started, had water boiling on the stove and everything when all of a sudden it got to be too much and I told them both it was time to go, NOW. It was only 8:00PM by this time so it had only been 2.5 hours since the membrane sweep. The real contractions had only started maybe 20 minutes before that and in those 20 minutes they went from bad to OMG I CAN'T MOVE.
Luckily I had finished packing my hospital bag the day before, and hubby threw the last minute things in like our cell chargers, loaded up the car, got me in and we took off. The hospital is less than a 10 minute drive from our house so we got there very fast, and as soon as they were able to wheel a wheelchair out for me, I got another contraction and couldn't move to get out of the car. Once it started to subside, I got in and off we went to triage. By this point, I couldn't handle the contractions. As you guys know I went into this very much set on doing it without an epidural but the pain was so much worse than anything I had anticipated. So they hooked me up to the monitors and left me and my husband in a little curtained off area in triage. They did a cervical check and at this point I was 4 cm and 100% effaced (was only 2cm and 50% effaced at 5:30.) My contractions kept coming just as fast and only getting harder and harder and I admit, I lost my cool and kept yelling "FUCK!" and "I CAN'T DO THIS!" pretty much over and over. After an hour, they finally got to take me back to my delivery room and luckily I got a SUPER awesome nurse. Cervix checked again and I'd gone from a 4cm to 6cm. At this point I was desperate for an epidural. Problem was that the anesthesiologist was back logged and I ended up having to wait about 2.5-3 HOURS until he was able to get to me.
I gave up any sense of dignity at this point and couldn't stop yelling, fuck, I can't do this, HELP! over and over. I felt like such a little bitch, I thought I had a pretty high pain tolerance! Oh well. I was BURNING up so I asked my husband to keep lifting my sheet to fan me off, and my mom started fanning me off with something else. They kept trying to tell me I was doing good but I knew I wasn't so I kept getting pissed and telling them to stop.
Finally after the super long wait, the anesthesiologist came in and got me prepped up. It was SO hard sitting still in the position they need you while he worked. After he got it placed, as he was asking me how I felt and certain questions, I noticed my heart had started to race and told him. So he had to do it all over again. The whole process took about an hour so that was another hour and 15 minutes of the most insanely painful feeling I've felt. But holy cow, once it kicked in, I felt NOTHING!! Biggest relief of my life. I rested, husband fell asleep, mom watched some TV and I just kept watching the contraction monitor and noticed my contractions had gone waaaaaay down and were pretty far apart. And since I hadn't felt anything, I had worried that it completely stalled my labor. I was also getting really nasty heart burn and kept burping up stomach acid so my nurse let me have some maalox which helped a little. But about a half hour later, I knew I was about to puke so my husband grabbed one of those pails to puke in but it ended up shooting out all over him. I felt so bad but I couldn't stop, it kept spraying all over him. He did his best to remain cool and telling me it was okay but he kept gagging. I felt bad but it was pretty funny
Nurse came back to check and I was already at 9cm and as she was checking me, I had a contraction and my water broke which felt weird, I felt a hard pop and I don't know why I bothered asking her what happened, I knew what it was. Unfortunately there was meconium and she did let me know they would have to call in the respiratory team for when I delivered so I started worrying. Another 45 minutes later, I was at a 10 and ready to push. At this point my mom left (we let her know we wanted this to be private) so she waited right outside the door. Husband and nurse counted down the 10 seconds of pushing, and I took short breaks between to catch my breath, then when I felt ready to push again, I let them know and they counted me down.
I could tell when it was getting close, even with the epidural it was really damn painful. My husband had agreed to not look but he couldn't help it. He kept telling me "he's right there! you're doing so good!" He was getting so excited, it was really encouraging. Finally the doctor came in, literally minutes before he came out. The nurse warned me "okay, you're going to start feeling more pain" so I knew the head was on it's way out. One more good strong push and I could feel his shoulders and then he was out, up on my chest and my husband and I lost it. I've never seen him so insanely emotional and he just kept yelling "oh my God, oh my God!!" and I couldn't even mutter a word, just a loud "UHHHHH!!!!!!!!" while I bawled my eyes out. After a few short seconds on my chest (which I was grateful for considering the meconium situation!) they whisked him off to the little area they had set up to check his breathing and everything. I tore, not sure how much but the doc stitched me up and owwie I'm so swollen. But he was great! He puked up some meconium but other than that he was perfectly healthy and the respiratory team gave him the all clear VERY quickly. His apgar scores were 8 and 9.
The past few days have been a mix of a little stress and a whole lot of excitement and love
Had a little trouble breastfeeding the first couple of days but he's gotten the hang of it now, milk has come in and he's pooping and peeing up a storm. Had a little incident this morning, I put a diaper on him a bit too loose and when I went to change his diaper next, I put him down and all of a sudden he was laying in a huge puddle of his own pee. It was EVERYWHERE, he was squirming, it was all over his head, back, legs, arms and hands. And to make matters worse he kept trying to stick his hands in his mouth. I felt horrible but it was pretty damn funny.
Anyway, here are some pictures
Very shortly after the birth. Daddy was clearly excited
https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/Pink4Flower/62208CB9-090C-4554-B947-C3FCE0C5959E-14660-00001005F5462A06.jpg
Very exhausted mommy and wide awake baby.
https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/Pink4Flower/4CBB6DC9-62DD-4488-BF8D-22AF9CD000DD-14660-000010060F6C5DB5.jpg
Leaving the hospital. I was in the middle of a hot flash.
https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/Pink4Flower/AD7480D6-7B70-47CF-A5DF-A7A2B3FD0F2D-14660-0000100628502188.jpg
Big beautiful eyes
https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/Pink4Flower/67669541-1770-48B1-81B4-7372202C474E-14660-0000100659032DE4.jpg
Concerned, confused or annoyed.. not sure
https://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e21/Pink4Flower/3387882A-0992-4320-9276-659201C052EE-14660-0000100662C423B5.jpg
Hope your lil one decides to come out soon!
It's good to have a reason to want things to wait, so you can be happy either way. Here's to the long haul!
lol, i waiting to meet already 
