Little Bean's Debut

Little Bean..a.k.a. Liam Andrew has finally come to round out our little family. My what an experience the ordeal was.

Not quite the 1 hour shower event that had been stressing us, we did make it to the hospital, but not the way we thought things were going to go down.

Monday morning I had an OB appointment for my 38 week visit. I was about 3 cm and 70% which had been an improvement. Looking back, it's possible I had been farther along than that, doctor may have been a little conservative. (He told me if I was still pregnant next week he'd do an induction the the 14th, which I was not to happy about as I had planned on the 12th.) Had planned to blog Monday night but fell asleep first.

I ran to Babies R Us with Tim, back into town for some errands on my own while MJD played at grammy's house, picked up my little guy, home for a nap, a little cuddle time and t.v. and then dinner with Daddy at Jason's. Nothing particularly interesting, no signs of impending labor, and I had honestly thought bean would hold out till the weekend. Did do some of laundry, wasn't particularly exhausted, sore or experiencing a lot of contractions.

Tim studied for his test till 11 or so, we went to bed and I had mapped out my Tuesday activities with a girlfriend I had been planning.

1:36 am....MJD escaped his room and snuck into bed, too tired to move him and he wanted to hug me so he fell asleep with us.

2:50 am....woke up like normal to go to the bathroom. Crazy how I noticed that my hips hurt insanely!!! Almost couldn't walk, but did manage to hobble to the bathroom and back to bed. Crawled into bed and in an effort to get comfortable I moved my leg on a pillow, felt baby move and heard a "pop" sound.

2:55 am....Tim woke up, asked how I was, explained what happened and he asked if I was wet and my water had broken, I hadn't felt any "gush" so I hesitated and then began to feel a "trickle" of something. He helped me out of bed, I went to the bathroom and realized I was gushing blood. Called Amanda but got no answer, called the in laws to get MJD and began to load up the car. No contractions at this point, just kept feeling like I had to pee.

3:15-3:20....In laws came and collected MJD and we left the house for the hospital. Contractions started in the car, began about every 7 minutes, then every 5, by the time we arrived at hospital they were every 2-3 minutes.

4:00....arrived at hospital, lady at ER tried to delay us, big mistake with a contracting mama...found L&D, membranes decided to rupture, LOTS of water....got to room to change and get admitted....EEEKKK!!! pools of blood around me. Now at this point I was afraid placenta had ruptured/detached because the nurses looked scared, asked about last ultrasound, paged a doctor immediately, got me to a bed quickly, checked me immediately. Was 6 cm and 90%.

4:20 ish....nurse checked me again as blood was pooling on the bed, starting to make me nervous!!! 7 cm. Eek, this is happening quickly. Contractions were strong but tolerable, not pleasant. Asked about an epidural because I knew I was running out of time. Then discovered they couldn't give me one because they didn't have my labs and records from the OB office in the system! Seriously?!?! Nurse explained I needed to prepare to do this without pain meds. I only remembered the pain of the first one and was about to panic.

(side note.....with MJD I was induced and contractions came with Pitocin. Those were ridiculous, could not be tolerated, felt like life was ending with just a few of those before pain meds were administered. Natural contractions were by no means pleasant, and not to diminish the pain, but not at all as bad as they were the first time. I could still talk through them, felt yucky, but not on death's door.)

4:45ish... My OB arrived, apparently the nurses were scared and woke him up rather than using the on call OB, checked me, didn't seem worried. Promised he'd get me the epidural if I could hang on a bit.

5 am.... Anesthesiologist arrived, (apparently OB had some pull!) inserted the cath for meds, test dose given, full dose given, body began to relax after about a half hour, one leg heavy, one leg mobile (but reverse from last time, funny huh?) lower pain abated some, upper pain in belly still really strong. (If you have done labor naturally and think the epidural numbs all pain, not so, just takes some edge off, I could still feel each onset, full length and release of every contraction, feel baby moving, pull legs, feel pressure to push, etc.)

6 am.... Nurses ready for shift change, checked again, 9.5 cm and ready any time. Told to relax and rest a bit for the epidural to work a little longer. Baby was a bit high yet and hadn't dropped down enough.

7 am... Body ready to have baby, bed adjusted to make baby come down birth canal better before pushing. resting at a moderate level of pain, waiting for OB to enter.

8 am... OB arrives, checks me and asks me to do a practice push. (At this point, I'm thinking it would be like last time with a while of practice pushing before actual delivery, not so much this time.) He tells me to then wait for the next contraction, then gets up, gears up, adjusts things. I feel the next one begin, push twice, relax, wait, next contraction, push, push, and BEAN ARRIVED at 8:20!!!