So I didn't sleep well at all the night of the 6th... every position made something on my body sore. So I woke up the next day feeling like total crap. Then my stomach started cramping, and it felt like I needed to go to the bathroom, but couldn't. It wasn't exactly a new feeling to me lol, pregnancy kind of has that effect on you. But after I finally did go to the bathroom.... and still was having pain... and realized they could be timed... I started suspecting. Then when I wiped and there was blood (from the front, not the back) I knew it was time. So my whole family loads up in our two cars, and we're off to labor & delivery. By this point, my contractions are so intense I can't walk or talk through them, and they're every 2-3 minutes! So horrible. We got there and mom loaded me into a wheelchair and we headed for the 5th floor, which is L&D. We managed to get on every wrong elevator possible, but FINALLY we get to L&D. They check me at triage (cervical check during a contraction = hell. I swear. Ugh...) and I'm at 7cm with a bulging bag of waters. They raced me into a delivery room, (I think they were trainees and were just scared I was going to progress super fast and they didn't want to have to deal with that lol) and the anesthesiologist took what felt like forever before finally coming in to do my epidural. And after he went through all the trouble of getting one in between my frequent contractions, he had to completely redo it. I forget why, exactly. But yeah. I was crying by then. I'd lost it while being checked in triage and just....never regained my composure fully. It was more emotion than pain... although the pain was pretty intense.
After the epidural, my contractions were completely manageable, and I was feeling pretty good about myself for an hour or so. Laughing and taking pictures and updating facebook.... and then they broke my water. BAM, all my contractions were suddenly super horrible with all kinds of pressure. Then, to top it off, they informed me that he was "sunny side up", and they made me lay on my belly for any hour with my leg propped up in a weird position to try and get him to turn. Totally did not work. I didn't think it would anyway since I still slept on my belly frequently, even at 9 months pregnant... but that was a painful hour of contractions. Finally they checked me again and I was fully dilated and they made me start pushing. It was very unproductive, and I had no idea what I was doing. I gave myself more stretch marks from pulling on my own legs (they had me do that while pushing...which was a little weird to me) and every muscle in my body was so sore after the whole thing was over. But yeah, back to the story.
so I'm pushing, and they're whispering about it not working right, and I realized Hudson's heartrate on the monitor is super slow. They inform me that he's not turning, and is not handling my contractions well anymore, and they need him out ASAP. My choices were forceps, vacuum or c-section. They recommended forceps, and I just wanted anything but a c-section.... so all of the sudden the room is FULL of doctors, nurses, pediatric nurses, and medical students, and like 3 of them are shoving forceps in me. I was really scared at this point so I was sobbing, and yet trying to stay in control. My mom was really great the whole time, she was coaching me through every contraction and push, and telling me I was gonna be okay.
I was panicking at one point because I realized my epidural was wearing off and I knew I had 4 (yes, FOUR) forcep tongs in me at the moment, so someone had anesthesia come in and up my drugs quite a bit. But I still had this absolutely HORRIBLE, shriek-inducing pain shoot from the left side of my pelvis down my leg. I was hysterically crying by then, and I just wanted it to be over. They made me push about 6 more times, and then FINALLY there he was! He had a FULL head of blonde hair, and big blue eyes, and he cried right away. And then after maybe 30 seconds, he stopped, and was just awake and alert, and staring everyone down! They made me wait 20 minutes to hold him while they stitched me back up, because I had 3rd degree tearing... :( That was the hardest part. I wanted to hold him so bad. I know for the next one I will be more vocal about demanding to hold the baby right away.
Chillin out post-epidural
My handsome sweet boy about 5 minutes after being born. Look how alert and calm he was :)
Meeting my little love
