We were seriously hoping and praying that Conner would come this week, actually...we had hoped that he would come the week before, but no such luck...babies come when they want to come after all. As much as we had focused on him coming before band camp officially started on July 28th (his official due date...), every one of my weekly visits to the doctor told us the same thing..."You haven't dilated or effaced yet." Translation: "You are not ready to pop this baby out just this second!" Although the doctor reassured us each time that every pregnancy is different and that I could go into labor at any moment, we were not so hopeful.
When our appointment on Monday, July 21st proved to be the same as all the previous appointments (no development whatsoever!), we began to really prepare for a "band camp baby". Colt talked with various people and they agreed to be backups for him in the event that Conner came during band camp and Colt, obviously, could not be there. Beautiful people...we are very grateful for them! Colt and I also went in to school every day to organize everything for camp and make sure there were no loose ends.
So Wednesday was shaping up to be just like any other day of preparation. I was 39 weeks, 2 days pregnant, and I felt every bit of that. They say that last month is the hardest and longest...and boy, is that true! I don't remember what time we got to the school, but it was sometime in the morning. Colt was working on stuff outside, so I decided to work on my lesson to teach to the Mia Maids (young women at church, ages 14-15) for that upcoming Sunday...hoping against hope that Murphy's Law would set in and I wouldn't have to teach it.
Around noon or so, I started to feel some very slight cramping. I didn't pay too much attention to it, though because it really wasn't much. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, however, the cramping started to increase and become more frequent...I started to get my hopes up that I was possibly having contractions, but I had never had them before so I didn't know for sure if these were contractions or not. They kept on coming though, even that evening when I went to TCBY with the Mia Maid crowd. As I sat, enjoying my frozen yogurt, I kept feeling them. They weren't painful or even uncomfortable really, but they were noticeable! I called my mom on the drive home and she reassured me that these were contractions...I was so happy, but I didn't want to get my hopes up too much because I knew that some women could have contractions for weeks before actually having their babies. Poo on toast...I did not want to be one of those women, no thank you.
In order to help the process move along, Colt and I went for a walk around our neighborhood which mainly consists of extremely steep hills...we figured those would help quite a bit. I don't know if they really did or not, but that night I started keeping count of the minutes in between contractions. When we went to bed around 10pm, they were coming every 6-12 minutes sporadically. I woke up with 1 or 2 every hour until 2am, then they started coming every 12-13 minutes exactly, and by 5am I was having them every 9-10 minutes. Around 6:30 I couldn't stand being in bed anymore, so I got up and started to get ready for the day. That decision prompted the contractions to come every 5-6 minutes, however...and that's also when they started to get painful.
After talking to my mom and sister about what to do, Colt and I decided to go to the hospital around 9:30am to see what was going on. When we got there, my contractions were every 4-6 minutes, but wouldn't you know, as soon as they hooked me up, they began to slow down. Of course. Plus, after dealing with contractions for over 12 hours, I was only dilated to a 1. We stayed at the hospital for over 3 hours...when we left I was barely at a 1.5, BUT I was almost 100% effaced and my contractions were consistently 7 minutes apart sitting and standing.
We decided to get lunch because we were starving, so we ended up at Cici's Pizza. While there, my contractions were exactly 7 minutes apart and extremely uncomfortable! I still wonder if the people around us in the restaurant noticed that something was definitely not right with me because I couldn't just eat a slice of pizza while I was having a contraction. No, I had to close my eyes and hold my hands together very tight in order to make it through one...Now that I think about it, we do live in the South...maybe everyone just thought I was praying over every slice of pizza I ate? Well, whatever they thought, we made it out of there just fine and decided to head over to the school to get some more work done.
Over the next few hours, my contractions went from every 7 minutes to every 6 minutes, and oh my goodness...they HURT! I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, but maybe not...
After we got done at the school we went over to visit some friends, and then we went back home. I was seriously uncomfortable, but didn't want to go back to the hospital until my contractions were closer together sitting down. Colt asked me if I wanted anything to eat, but I wasn't too hungry since we had had a late lunch, but chocolate ice cream sounded good to me at that point. Little did I know that I wouldn't eat anything else for another 12/13 hours.
Around 8:30pm my contractions were every 5-6 minutes sitting down, and then every 2-3 minutes standing up, we decided to go because I couldn't handle it anymore. Thankfully, the drive to AnMed did not take too long!
I felt very self-conscious going in to the Labor & Delivery unit again, since I had been dismissed from there just that afternoon. However, as I stood on the scale so they could check my weight, I had a huge contraction and felt very confident that we would be staying. And I was right! When they checked me, I had dilated to a 3, almost a 4, and they decided to admit me. Colt still laughs at me about this, but when they said they were admitting me, the first words out of my mouth were, "When can I get my epidural?!" Can't blame a girl for wanting some of the good stuff...
I was officially admitted and hooked up to everything around 10pm. At 11, the anesthesiologist came in for my epidural. I swear this man came in with a halo and wings because he was my angel at that point. It was so hard to sit completely still while he got everything in place, but I knew that I needed to be in order for everything to work just right, and I wanted everything to work just right!
Well, that little, blessed man did do everything just right and before long my pain was gone. I still felt the contractions, but they didn't hurt one bit. I had also gone completely limp in the legs, but did I care? Nope! At midnight the doctor came in to check and I had dilated to a 5. It was at this point, amidst creeping exhaustion and the euphoria of an epidural, that I was too distracted by what the doctor was saying to me that I didn't even notice he broke my water! I was so numb too that I didn't even feel a thing (even though I know that it doesn't hurt when they break your water)! Seriously. I want that anesthesiologist for every one of my future epidurals.
At this point, Colt and I were both pretty tired, so we took the time to get in a nice nap. I woke up around 2am feeling a great deal of pressure. I was afraid that there was something wrong with the epidural, but luckily the nurse came in at that point and showed me where I could push the button and get the juices flowing again....wonderful woman :)
I still couldn't really sleep though because, even with my epidural working perfectly, I felt the contractions pretty well. It didn't hurt, but they kept coming one right after the other. I remember looking at the monitor and thinking how weird it felt to see the contraction measured on the screen as I felt it. I stayed like that until about 3:45 when the nurse came back. This time she checked to see how far I had dilated. That's when things really started to pick up.
When the nurse checked me, her eyes got huge, and she said something like, "Well, you're there, I feel a head!" Colt and I both looked at each other, like, "What???" But sure enough, she called in reinforcements and, in no time at all (seriously, it was like they all just poofed into our room, it happened so quickly), our little army was all set to deliver our baby.
The nurse told me to start pushing, but this is where my epidural and I didn't get along too well. They kept telling me to push with my bottom, but I couldn't feel it!! I guess it all worked out though because when the doctor came in, he didn't even have time to cover his clothes with anything. And after about 5 minutes of pushing and maybe 3-5 pushes, our little Conner came in to the world at 3:58am on July 25th, 2014, weighing 5lbs. 11oz., and measuring 19 1/4 in. long.
Our little man had finally come, and we were over the moon about it, although we were also in a completely surreal atmosphere at that point too. I was so proud of Colt. He professed throughout my entire pregnancy, and even before, that he would not watch the baby's grand entrance, and he would most certainly NOT cut the umbilical cord. As it happened, though, he did! I think he even thought it was a little bit cool...weird, but cool :)
Over the next few hours, my contractions went from every 7 minutes to every 6 minutes, and oh my goodness...they HURT! I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, but maybe not...
After we got done at the school we went over to visit some friends, and then we went back home. I was seriously uncomfortable, but didn't want to go back to the hospital until my contractions were closer together sitting down. Colt asked me if I wanted anything to eat, but I wasn't too hungry since we had had a late lunch, but chocolate ice cream sounded good to me at that point. Little did I know that I wouldn't eat anything else for another 12/13 hours.
Around 8:30pm my contractions were every 5-6 minutes sitting down, and then every 2-3 minutes standing up, we decided to go because I couldn't handle it anymore. Thankfully, the drive to AnMed did not take too long!
I felt very self-conscious going in to the Labor & Delivery unit again, since I had been dismissed from there just that afternoon. However, as I stood on the scale so they could check my weight, I had a huge contraction and felt very confident that we would be staying. And I was right! When they checked me, I had dilated to a 3, almost a 4, and they decided to admit me. Colt still laughs at me about this, but when they said they were admitting me, the first words out of my mouth were, "When can I get my epidural?!" Can't blame a girl for wanting some of the good stuff...
I was officially admitted and hooked up to everything around 10pm. At 11, the anesthesiologist came in for my epidural. I swear this man came in with a halo and wings because he was my angel at that point. It was so hard to sit completely still while he got everything in place, but I knew that I needed to be in order for everything to work just right, and I wanted everything to work just right!
Well, that little, blessed man did do everything just right and before long my pain was gone. I still felt the contractions, but they didn't hurt one bit. I had also gone completely limp in the legs, but did I care? Nope! At midnight the doctor came in to check and I had dilated to a 5. It was at this point, amidst creeping exhaustion and the euphoria of an epidural, that I was too distracted by what the doctor was saying to me that I didn't even notice he broke my water! I was so numb too that I didn't even feel a thing (even though I know that it doesn't hurt when they break your water)! Seriously. I want that anesthesiologist for every one of my future epidurals.
At this point, Colt and I were both pretty tired, so we took the time to get in a nice nap. I woke up around 2am feeling a great deal of pressure. I was afraid that there was something wrong with the epidural, but luckily the nurse came in at that point and showed me where I could push the button and get the juices flowing again....wonderful woman :)
I still couldn't really sleep though because, even with my epidural working perfectly, I felt the contractions pretty well. It didn't hurt, but they kept coming one right after the other. I remember looking at the monitor and thinking how weird it felt to see the contraction measured on the screen as I felt it. I stayed like that until about 3:45 when the nurse came back. This time she checked to see how far I had dilated. That's when things really started to pick up.
When the nurse checked me, her eyes got huge, and she said something like, "Well, you're there, I feel a head!" Colt and I both looked at each other, like, "What???" But sure enough, she called in reinforcements and, in no time at all (seriously, it was like they all just poofed into our room, it happened so quickly), our little army was all set to deliver our baby.
The nurse told me to start pushing, but this is where my epidural and I didn't get along too well. They kept telling me to push with my bottom, but I couldn't feel it!! I guess it all worked out though because when the doctor came in, he didn't even have time to cover his clothes with anything. And after about 5 minutes of pushing and maybe 3-5 pushes, our little Conner came in to the world at 3:58am on July 25th, 2014, weighing 5lbs. 11oz., and measuring 19 1/4 in. long.
Our little man had finally come, and we were over the moon about it, although we were also in a completely surreal atmosphere at that point too. I was so proud of Colt. He professed throughout my entire pregnancy, and even before, that he would not watch the baby's grand entrance, and he would most certainly NOT cut the umbilical cord. As it happened, though, he did! I think he even thought it was a little bit cool...weird, but cool :)
No comments:
Post a Comment