Sunday morning, July 7th, I woke up around 10:45am. I felt totally fine. No contractions, no nothing. However, I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. After a quick google search seeing bright red blood is not usually a good sign and it's recommended you contact your practitioner. So, I called Mary Birch Triage center. They told me that as long as it was a little bit of blood, and not more than a period things are fine. They said I was probably having mild contractions through the night and it's just my cervix dilating. This could continue for a couple days or they could see me later that day if things progressed. We were still in the unknown. I decided to take a shower and get myself ready in case things picked up. At this point I had been going to the bathroom nonstop. Not pee either, if you catch my drift (actually you didn't want to catch that drift). I thought it was just a repeat from a few days prior when I couldn't stop going to the bathroom for about 5 days. After I got ready my stomach started cramping up really bad. I didn't really have any breaks in between so I didn't think they were contractions. I also wasn't having the "wave" like feeling that the Bradley book described as contractions. My stomach never felt like it tightened at the top, it was just constant cramping in the lower half. I thought maybe they were just really bad gas pains, although they felt like extremely bad period cramps. I went to the bathroom again and noticed A LOT of blood. This was about 1:40pm. I called Justin in to investigate (yes, there is nothing this man doesn't know about me or hasn't seen, so, in he comes). I think the amount of blood even startled him. He called back up to Mary Birch and told them what was happening. They said it was a good idea for me to come in, they wanted to make sure my placenta hadn't ruptured (this would be very bad). We gathered up our stuff and headed to the hospital a little after 2pm.
Things started to get real...
None of this happened how I expected. I thought I would start having mild contractions at home, would watch a movie, time then, relax and after 10 hours of this we'd happily head on up to the hospital. WRONG!
We got up to the hospital at about 2:30. By this point the cramping was so bad and lasting so long I could barely talk and I was crying. I would get about a minute break in between the cramping at which point I would try to tell Justin as quickly as I could how I was feeling before I'd start screaming and crying again. We pulled into the little round about at the hospital, Justin parked the car, jumped out and got me a wheel chair. He left the car in the round about, wheeled me in and they immediately took us upstairs. I think they could clearly see this wasn't a joke and I was in a lot of pain. They got me into a room and had me undress so they could see what was going on. Once I stopped screaming I said I had a labor gown down in the car I planned to wear. The nurse looked at me and said, uh, okay, how about you put this one on for now and you can change into the other one when we move you to the delivery room. I'm sure she was thinking, "really, you're worried about your gown at a time like this". Uh yeah, I bought it specifically for this moment. Anyway, the nurse took a look and even she seemed surprised by all of the blood. She checked my cervix and said I was 4cm dilated and they'd be moving me to the delivery room. They were also monitoring my contractions and said they were coming in really fast and not really giving me a break. They'd come about every 1 to 3 minutes and last a minute. Neither one of us had cell service to call our parents and she told Justin not to leave or move the car until they moved us.
By 3/3:15 we were moved into the delivery room. The nurse came in and said they'd be giving me an IV so we could get the epidural started. The dreaded epidural...as you know from previous blog posts I had been reading the Bradley Method and had absolutely no intentions of getting an epidural. In fact, my birth plan (that never got handed out) said in all capital letters...NO EPIDURAL. Don't even offer one. So, once I was done screaming and crying through the last contraction I told the nurse I didn't want one. Again, she looked at me like I was crazy and why would I want to continue to sit in so much pain. I told her I didn't want it to slow down my labor because I read that's guaranteed to happen. My baby will also have to be removed with forceps or a vacuum because I won't feel the urge to push, and I'll end up with nerve damage. Again, she looked at me like I was nuts and was probably thinking, quit reading crap online. She said, okay, well if you change your mind let us know, and let us know soon. Another contraction came and this one was really awful. I asked her how much longer she thought I'd be in pain like this. She said, there's no telling, it could be an hour, it could be several hours, it all just depends. I asked if I had the epidural if I'd feel any pain at all. She smiled and said no. Well, that decision took about 10 seconds to make. I said, go ahead and send in the anesthesiologist.
He couldn't have come in any sooner. I think I had to wait about 10 minutes for him and it seemed like an eternity. He came in, reassured me everything would be fine and started prepping me for the epidural. I told him I was concerned about the "big ass needle" (yes, my exact words) and the catheter. Long story short he said it would all be fine. As I was waiting for him to get me hooked up I had this to look at...
As the doctor was administering the drugs I felt my feet go completely numb. I asked if that was normal and he said yes, that eventually my legs would feel numb. I immediately started regretting the epidural, but soon enough I couldn't feel the contractions and I wanted to take the whole machine home with me. Once the doctor finished he said "there, the big ass needle has been removed". I loved he threw in a little humor there.
Once I was situated the nurse checked me again and said I was now 6cm dilated and they would break my water if I wanted them to. I asked what the benefits were and they said it just moves things along. I decided I wanted things to move forward so go ahead and burst those bags. Justin ran down and moved the car and brought our stuff in. Within a matter of 10 minutes the doctor came in, broke my water, checked me again and I was already 9 1/2 cm dilated. We started calling the parents. My mom and Steve were already on there way down. I had told her ahead of time that I was going to get checked out at the hospital because I was bleeding so much but to not do anything until she heard back. Well, they took that as, we should go just in case. So when I called them they were only an hour and a half away from San Diego. I called my dad to tell him I was in labor and 9 1/2 cm dilated and his response was "oh shit, really". I laughed and said yes, are you in the middle of something. He said they were at Pets Mart and would head home and be on there way. Now, had I not had the epidural there is no way I would've been able to talk to anybody on the phone. But after the epidural this is how I felt...
Justin called his dad, who immediately started asking 20 questions. They hung up and Justin called his grandma. Literally, 90 seconds after hanging up with his dad and she had already heard the news. I got to talk to her for a quick minute and then had to go because they came in to say I'd be pushing in 15 minutes so I needed to get situated.
This meant I would start pushing at 5pm. I was extremely nervous, scared and excited. I had no idea what to expect and I was numb from the waste down so I was worried I wouldn't feel the urge to push or I wouldn't push hard enough. The nurse came back at 5 and I told her I hadn't felt any type of urge to push. She said she would check back in 15 minutes. Within that 15 minutes I knew what she was talking about, I had felt the urge. But it was more like the urge to go poop (very lady like right?) Anyway, at 5:15 we started pushing. It was one of the most exhausting things I'd ever done. The nurse had me push for 10 second increments three times. I'd take a break and then do it all again when another contraction came, which seemed like it was every minute or so. Thankfully for our viewers, Justin got a picture of me pushing...
Lucky for me I had the epidural so I didn't feel anything anyway. She made the cut and two pushes later he was wiggling out. I pushed for 56 minutes. They cleaned him off and immediately handed to me so we could have our skin on skin time. If was a very emotional and overwhelming experience and moment. I can't believe how quickly it all flew by. I'm thankful for the epidural because I was able to "enjoy" the experience. Had I not had it I think I would have passed out from pain. This experience just goes to show you that nothing goes "as planned". I never thought I'd be a "speedy" deliverer. I thought I'd have the agonizing 20 hour labor experience.
Emmett William Gill was born on July 7, 2013 (7/7/13 - Justin says these are lucky numbers for him) at 6:11pm. He weighted 6.58 ounces and measured 20 inches long.
We stayed at the hospital for two nights. Those will be a separate blog post, if I ever get the time to write them. Emmett is currently sleeping so I was able to steal a few minutes to write this post.
This photo was taken right before we went home.
This photo was taken on July 8th.
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