I turned 40 weeks on June 13th. It was my first time going full term and I was freaking out! I was so big and so miserable. To top it off the doctor I saw the day before said I couldn't be induced until the 24th! I'd been wanting to have some maternity pics done but hadn't gotten around to doing it so we went to Arnette park to have a picnic and take some pics. We had a lot of fun exploring the "woodess". I think it was just what I needed to get my mind off things and help me relax. I also forbid everyone from asking me how I was feeling or if I felt anything. Everyone was staring at my belly like the baby was going to crawl out at any minute. It was driving me crazy! Once everyone stopped talking about it the contractions started to get stronger.
Woke up on Saturday (the 14th) in a lot more pain than I had been the night before. The only thing that helped was standing and swaying. I wanted to stay home for as long as possible. Throughout the day the contractions got stronger but never any more regular so I wasn't really sure if I was actually in labor or not. We went for a walk to see if we could get them to pick up but I only had 2 the whole time. They were bad enough that I had to stop and hold onto Ben but still about 30 min apart. Finally I decided to take a bath to see if anything would change. It helped with the pain but I still wanted to go into the hospital to see what was going on. Ben called the hospital and they said to come in. I got out of the bath and took my time getting ready while Ben ran to Little Caesar's to get dinner for the kids. I'm glad he did because the 1 slice of pizza I ate on the way out the door made a huge difference on how I felt at the hospital. I was really hard to leave because Sadie didn't want us to go at all. The car ride to the hospital seemed to take forever! That was the worst. It was SO painful. I listened to my Hypno birthing CD which helped a lot. I remember feeling irritated that Ben wasn't driving faster (he was driving 10 over). When we got there Ben and Jeni helped me walk in. Ben asked if I wanted a wheel chair and I said no thinking the walking would help me progress. It didn't stop me from looking at them (the wheelchairs) longingly as I shuffled past. We checked in around 5:40pm. The doctor came into triage and told me that if I wasn't a 6-7cm they would send me home. That's when I started praying because if they told me to go home I would have probably started bawling my eyes out. He checked me and said that the sack of waters was bulging and that I was complete. COMPLETE! Music to my ears! Everyone was surprised by this. My original plan was to go natural with this delivery. Everything happened so fast though I didn't feel like I could get on top of the pain. So when she asked "were you planning on a natural birth?" I said "I DON'T WANT TO!". I had to make a decision, they could have broken my water right then and let me start pushing OR wait for my blood tests to come in and then get an epidural. I was ready to just go ahead and do the first one until the midwife checked me and said she still felt some cervix. That scared me because there was no way of knowing how long that would take to go away. In hind sight I wish so bad that I would have been brave enough to go through with it but I was just too scared. I wish someone would have said "you're so close, you can do it, or you made it this far" but no one did. I know Ben was just as eager for me to get an epidural as I was. He was scared too. So we waited for the blood work to come in which felt like an eternity and then finally the anesthesiologist walked in and I just about hugged him. It was so hard not to move while he did the epidural. I was whimpering like a little baby. It hurts just thinking about it. Once it kicked in I was SO happy. Like high on life happy. I kept saying things like "thank you, you saved my life" and "you did a really good job on my IV". They checked me again and I felt something push out. The sack was bulging out. I asked if I could touch it. It was so weird. Like a hot water balloon. When they broke it they saw meconium so they NICU nurses started coming in and getting ready. They wanted to be able to suction her before she cried to make sure nothing got inhaled. Because of that I wasn't able to hold her right away which was sad for me. Finally they told me to push. I pushed once and she was crowning but she was "sunny side up" and all by herself she turned to face the right way. It felt so weird! I don't even want to think about how bad that would have hurt without the epidural. Then one more push and she was out! (9:59pm) It happened so fast. I only caught a glimpse of her as they rushed her to the NICU team. Ben and Jeni kept saying "she's so cute!" I was super jealous that I couldn't be with her. It took them OVER an hour to stitch me up. I was getting pretty annoyed. I finally got to hold her and feed her. She latched on right away and ate for about 25 minutes. It was awesome! She's perfect. Such a good baby. I thought she would weigh more but she was only 8.9lbs. and 20.5 inches long. So happy to have her here!! We love our little punKINS.
