It started on Friday morning, May 20th. I was having a lot of discomfort, feeling very crampy, and I suppose having some contractions off and on. I called my mom, who immediately left work to come be with me at my request. Afterall, I thought "today's the day!" ...it wasn't. Mark was home, as he didn't have to work that Friday, so we all went to breakfast. From there, we went to get some last minute things at Walmart. We didn't have diapers, or wipes, or a number of other necessities that I couldn't believe we had waited that long to purchase! After walking around Walmart for a good hour or so (and having a passerby state to her husband, "that girl is about to have a baby right here and now!"), we went home and everything stopped. No more discomfort, no cramps, no contractions. I was pretty saddened. After all of that, today was NOT the day.
Saturday was the day of the dance recitals (yes, two of them) which I had helped all year long preparing the students for ... never knowing if I would even get to be present for them. I was. All.Day.Long. Everyone asking, "when are you due?" and giving me strange looks when my response was, "Today!" The 'why are here?'s and 'are you crazy?' or 'should you be jumping up and down like that?!'s were hilarious to me. I knew there was absolutely nothing happening. Baby was cooperating. We had a deal that if he/she wasn't going to arrive at least a week in advance, then he/she had to come late so I could attend the recital. It worked!
Sunday was completely uneventful. I thought, maybe, just maybe, after all that dancing and jumping, something HAD to happen. Nope. Nada.
Monday we had our final post due-date OB appointment. I was technically 40weeks and 1 day at this point, as they had my "official due date" as the 22nd. I was checked, and there was no progress. Nothing. She said she could maybe give me a centimeter if she was feeling generous, but no effacement had occurred. Although she did warn me with the fact that I had a very soft cervix and that if something did happen, it could potentially happen very quickly. We discussed the appointment for Wednesday, when I was to come in to be induced since nothing had occurred and no progress had been made. Mark and I left, a little disappointed that we were still pregnant with no progress - me so very much more than Mark. I remember crying on the way home, thinking that this baby would never come, and how I did not realy want to be induced at all.
Monday night, Mark and I went for a walk. He wasn't feeling a hundred percent - something was not agreeing with him from dinner. But as I kept wanting to walk farther and harder, he pushed on with me. It was hot. Humid. Muggy. Miserable. I was so uncomfortable, as I started having contractions on the walk every 10 minutes. But I was ecstatic! YAY CONTRACTIONS! This gave me the motivation to keep going. Farther, another hill, faster, keep up that pace! Mark kept telling me that I was crazy, and he would go get the car to pick me up and take me home. At the end of the walk, the contractions came closer. Every 7 minutes. Then 5. Then we got home. The moment I walked in the door, it all stopped. You could see the excitement go out of me like a balloon letting out it's air. Well, no baby, not tonight.
On the walk, we talked about various things, but I specifically remember saying that I didn't want my child's birthday to be 5/24. For whatever reason, 5/23 sounded good to me (2+3 = 5!) and 5/25 sounded good (it's a palindrome!), but 5/24 was just not jiving with me. Even with my birthday being the 24th, I couldn't see my baby being born on 5/24...
We went to bed that evening. We had gotten back from our walk around 9:30, and we finally went to bed around 11:30 as we were convinced everything had died down and there would be no miraculous events that evening. I woke up just about every hour, which I hadn't done at all during the pregnancy. Most nights I was waking up maybe once, if that. I got up and went to the bathroom each time, thinking that must have been the reason I awoke. I was pretty uncomfortable, though, but I chalked that up to being over 40 weeks pregnant. Isn't that to be expected? Finally around 4:15 I woke up and just laid in bed, thinking I had fallen asleep, when I looked over at the clock and it said ...4:30. I lay there for another 15 minutes when I decided to get out of bed. I was uncomfortably crampy, I was hungry, I was miserable. Mark was sound asleep, so I left him to go downstairs to eat something. I often fought the urge to eat during the night, but knowing full well that this might be the last thing I ate, I opted for something light, easy to digest and delicious. Alpha Bits. My favorite cereal, which I know is not good for me, packed full of sugar, and well, delicious! At least it wasn't steak and eggs! I watched TV on the couch for a few hours, maybe dozing a little until I was awake again with each "cramp." Around 6:15 I got in the shower. I was miserable. I knew showers and hot water could help, at least that was what we were told in our childbirth class. I stayed in the tub for a good 20 minutes soaking after my shower. It didn't help that much. At 6:45, I decided to wake up Mark. He had to go to work! He was sleeping in! I told him how uncomfortable I was, and so he was telling me that if I needed anything, to just call him and he'd come home. Then I decided to call my mom and tell her what was going on. As we were talking about the events of the morning, she tried to convince me I was having contractions.
"No, no, Mom. These are cramps. It's all in my back. I haven't had a single contraction... hang on, need to breathe... okay. Yeah, no, just cramps."
She responded with, "When you have to stop talking to breathe through it, it's not a cramp. It's a contraction. And it's only been 4 minutes since your last one."
As we realized she was right, I was having contractions every 4 minutes, I had to hang up and call my OB. "Come in right away! What are you doing still at home?!" - She had the right to panic. I was about 40 minutes away from the hospital where I was delivering. And she had warned me just yesterday that things would go quickly (potentially)! Mark tells me that I do not look like I am in enough pain to be in labor and has a hard time believing this is really it. I tell him to forget work that day, that we do need to go in and get checked out. He decides he HAS to have a shower, is there time? Well, of course not, but go ahead and shower. I am running around, gathering last minute items to put in the hospital bag. Who knows what the heck you really need in the hospital? Not me, I'd never done this before! After Mark got out of the shower, he took for-ev-er running around grabbing things that he "needed" to have with us.
On the way to the hospital, we stopped and picked up my mom. As the three (almost four!) of us drove over, the contractions were getting worse. I was definitely feeling more and more uncomfortable, and I knew there was no turning back now. When we arrived in L&D triage around 9:30am, they asked us why I was there. "I'm in labor!" Well, now, they didn't believe me until they hooked me up to the monitors and got someone in there to check me. Sure enough, contractions every 3-4 minutes, getting stronger and stronger. The midwife who checked me at 10am confirmed that I was indeed in active labor, 100% effaced and 3cms. At this point, baby had not moved down yet, and so we were still -3 or so. That was a little disheartening, but after talking to my OB, they decided to admit me! Mark couldn't believe it - he really thought I was going to go home since I still didn't "look like I was in that much pain." While we were waiting for a room, the baby's heartrate dropped unexplicably. The nurse called in three more people, and they worked on flipping me around, all while watching the monitors for the response. I thought it was just because I had moved to get more comfortable and the monitor moved as well... but that wasn't the case. Not too long after the baby's heart rate "decel-ed" (decelerated), they were able to get it back up to normal. At this point, I wasn't concerned, as they told me that happened every once in a while, and I would be fine.
As soon as a room opened up, we were moved over to the room where we would deliver our baby... the same room where my sister had delivered two of hers! They told me that as soon as I wanted the epidural, I could have it. I told them I was okay for now, but would let them know. About twenty minutes later, the contractions started to intensify.
They brought me a ball to bounce and roll around on through the contractions, and at that time I told them I was so ready for the epidural. While the pain wasn't intolerable, I knew it was going to get worse... and I hadn't slept at all. I was hoping to be able to sleep some during the day while labor progressed. This was the time that I told Mark that we had to have a name for a boy. We had tossed around the idea of Sawyer, but we hadn't decided officially. I was getting very frustrated by the fact that we didn't have a boy's name, and I needed things to be set "just in case!" We had a bunch of girl's names that we liked, but we never decided on just one.
Around 12:30 or so, I had the epidural in and I was completely pain free! I told my anesthesiologist if my child was a boy, I would name my son after him (his name was Grayson, and I loved that name before anyway)! We all had a good laugh. My OB came in around 1 to check me and see how I was doing. I was 4cms at this time. I thought for sure I would have to be further along, since my contractions were no more than 2 minutes apart. All while this is going on, the baby's HR deceled several more times throughout the day. I was put on oxygen, and told I could only lay on my left side.
The house staff OB decided to break my water around 4pm, when I still hadn't progressed past 5cms. It was full of meconium (baby's first poop), so that made my labor a higher risk. I had no idea how dark it was, but apparently it was quite the show to see! Glad I didn't look! After they broke my water, they checked me around 5pm. My OB was there, and I was still only 5 cms... no progression at all after breaking my water. I was told at that time that I would be given another hour, and if I didn't progress or if there was one more decel, I would be taken in for a C-section. I knew in my heart that it was what was best for both me and the baby, but my heart was broken at the same time. I had my heart set on a vaginal birth, and C-section was nowhere in my plans. My sister came back and told me it would all be alright, but I started to cry anyway. I didn't want a scar! After all this time, with no stretch marks, I was going to have a huge incision scar. I also was starving, and I knew a C-section meant I couldn't eat until the next day.
Sure enough, around 6pm, I hadn't progressed at all. I was also having more decel episodes, and so a C-section was called for. There was only one set of C-section staff (and one anesthesiologist) on the floor at the time, and they were performing another C-section. As soon as that one was over, I was going to go in. I actually remember hearing my OB talk about calling for another room to be opened up, because we couldn't wait for the other one to be over to go in for ours. I was not realizing the gravity of the situation, but looking at my mom's and Mark's faces told me that things were pretty serious. Mark wouldn't even talk to me; he was too choked up and frightened and didn't want me to know it. My OB called for things to start happening, so the anesthesiologist came in and amped up my epidural. Nurses were getting Mark prepared and changed for the OR. I was the center of attention in a room full of nurses and doctors. Not exactly my dream delivery, but again, I still didn't understand how serious it was, so I wasn't super worried. I knew I was in good hands and had faith in those who were working on us.
Around 7pm, I was wheeled in to the OR. Soon I was completely numb from the neck down - I couldn't feel or move my whole body, and it was very surreal. The anesthesiologist and I were talking about the drugs he was using after he found out I was a pharmacist. I was in there alone, though, and all I could think about was when Mark was going to come in. I felt the pressure of them starting the incision, and I frantically begged for Mark to come in. (He wasn't allowed in the OR until they started, per hospital protocol). Soon he was by my side, holding my hand, which I couldn't move anyway. Not that much after that, after some tugging and pulling and pressure, our baby was here. It took him a few moments to start crying, but we wanted that anyway so they could clear his airway of any meconium that might have gotten in. The nurse announced it was a boy before Mark could tell me, which was one of the only things I really wanted to have happen in our birth experience. It was okay, though, because Sawyer started crying and I knew he was okay. That was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard.
The first thing I could see while he was on the warming table was his feet. They had to keep him for a long time due to all the complications during birth to make sure his heart was alright. So his little, er, LONG, toes wiggling were the first thing I got to see. He definitely had his Daddy's feet. Mark got up to take pictures and brought the camera back to me to show me our beautiful baby boy! Then I got to see him up close and personal, but I still couldn't hold him due to all the drugs on board. We were all wheeled back to our room, and family started to pour in to meet our little boy!
At this point, hormones took over my body. I was shaking uncontrollably. I started to feel really nauseous, too. Having nothing in my body, I needed to get something in there so I could get the feeling over with. I had some ice chips, which promptly came right back up. I was starting to feel better, though, and wanted to hold my son! So they handed him to me, and I got our first family photos taken. And then, another wave of nausea hit, and I had to get him out of my hands right away.I didn't want to throw up on him the first time I held him in my arms! I was still shaking all the while, and my feet were frigid. We were eventually moved to our room for the night, and I enjoyed getting to know the newest member of our family!
**As it turned out, we found out on the day we left the hospital why we ended up having a C-section. Sawyer's cord was wrapped around his shoulder, and was getting pinched between his shoulder and my pelvic bone. His heart rate was dropping with most of my contractions, and would come back up as the blood was able to flow through the cord when the contraction was over. In addition, I never dilated or progressed because his neck was hyper-extended, so the crown of his head wasn't in the correct position to force my cervix to dilate.
