I started having contraction around 1:00 in the morning on March 11th. I seriously thought this might be it... but it had happened at least every other day since 38 weeks. So I decided to try and sleep in between contractions to see what happened. Around 5:00 my contractions were still 8-6 minutes apart. I text my Doula Rebecca and told her what was going on so I didn't wake her up. She then replied 40 minutes later and said start getting arrangements for Henry and get things together because it most likely was time. I sent a text to my friend Katee (she was also about to have a baby herself) she replied and would show up around 9:00 to get him. I woke up Edward around 7:00 and we started getting Henry ready to go.
9:00 My Doula Rebecca and friend showed up around the same time. Rebecca then suggested that we go for a walk. The weather was beautiful. We walked around the I was having contractions 5-4 minutes apart. It was time to go.
9:30 We went to McDonald's to get breakfast. While in the drive through I had a couple more contractions walking outside the car waiting for food. We had our food and were on our way to the hospital. Edward said Rebecca had told her that if I was comfortable in the car it was not time to go to the hospital. I then go another contractions and said "Pull over now. I need to get out of the car." Guess we better get to the hospital.
9:45 Arrived at the hospital but I really wanted to just walk around the hospital and enjoy the outdoors. So we walked to the cafeteria and through the halls of the hospital. Along the way still having contractions 7-4 minutes apart. In between contractions we all would talk, joke and just have a nice time. I would get contractions mid sentence and walk over to a wall spread my arms while I stroked the wall and made and low cooing noise. The texture of the wall helped me focus on relaxing and letting my body go limp. Nurses and heath care professionals would come up to me and ask if I was okay. My husband would then say "She's fine. Just having a contraction." Pretty sure they thought we were crazy.
11:00 Walking around outside and I felt like I might want to go up to labor and delivery. We went to the 5th floor and I then decided I wanted to go outside again. We then went down the elevator again and walked around and bought some chocolate.
11:45 Okay I was finally ready to go into labor and Delivery. On our way up the elevator we got in with about 4 other women having a conversation. I was definitely going into transition because I could not stand the sound of there voice. I covered my ears and curled up next to Edward during the contractions I was having.
12:00 We were in our room. They gave me a ugly hospital gown the wear and hooked me up to the contraction and heart beat monitor. Then the nurses started asking me a lot of questions and checked cervix 6cm! Yay! Better then I thought.
12:30 Someone came in wanting to put a IV in my arm. I was not happy about that. My wonderful husband then told the nurses. "She doesn't need an IV she will be okay. She doesn't want that. Thanks for understanding." Then a guy with needles came in and said "I need your arm so I can check your blood." Edward then told him we would not be doing that and he was very confused and acted like he had never had anyone refuse blood work. He said "Well we need to check her blood." Edward told him you can come back later and we might do it later. (We didn't get blood drawn when they kept coming back.) While all this was going on lots of people were coming in and out of the room 2 different nurses asking me questions, taking vitals ect. I was very stressed out and could not focus on my contractions. Autumns heart beat was dropping and I looked at both Edward and my doula and started crying. I had a feeling that the hospital would be stressful but at this point I was in a panic. I knew if I didn't get time to relax and be left alone it would be a while before I had the baby. Not to mention the fact that her heart rate was off they would want me to sit in that hospital forever!
12:45 My wonderful husband then told everyone to leave the room till I wanted people back. They left and I was able to eat food without them knowing and relax a bit.
1:00 The nurses came back in finished all the questions and at that point let me off the monitor. Hallelujah! They let me walk around but said I couldn't eat or drink water..... (because that will help if your thirsty and starving) I was pretty upset about that but I drank and ate anyways when they left. So now things were better they only came in one other miserable time and made me do 20 minutes of heart monitoring in the bed. That was torture!
2:00 Water was still not broken! Yay! Made contractions easier to deal with. When I had Henry my water broke early on and I labored for over 24 hours after my water had broken. At this pint I was at 8cm and they let me stat in the tub with the nice jets push on my back helped me relax. So at this point I am not sure what came over me but I was super lovey with everyone even in my contractions. I would just look at anyone stroke them and tell them I loved them or something strange like that. Basically I was high off of my own drugs that my body was producing while I was in labor. I never got to that happy place with Henry's labor just the "I want to kill everyone and I hate this so much part." Never though you could be so happy, relaxed and in love with everyone durring labor but it definitely is possible.
3:40 Still laboring and starting to get to the point where I want to be done. My doula said I was looking like I might want to see if I was ready. I felt like pushing but was not going to get my hopes up. (When I had Henry I was almost at a 10 but was not allowed to push because he could have gotten stuck and had to resist the natural urge to push for 4 hours. Not pleasant.) The nurse checked me and said yup you are ready to push! What? Really? I was so ready to push.
3:45 All the nurses came in and everything was set up and ready in a few minutes. My doctor was busy with a emergency but I had Doctor Estrada. She came in and had read in my birth plant that I basically didn't want to be told what to do or have my water broken. She sat down and said " You know what to do when you feel a contraction push." 4 pushes in and I felt a big rip yeah I had a 3rd degree tear you can look it up I will spare you the gory details. The most painful feeling in the world! I never ever had pain like that when I had Henry. I was so scared to push again and she asked if I wanted anything to numb me. I said you and she pulled up a syringe about the length of my fore arm and "numbed" me up. Definitely didn't help. Second to last push my water broke all over the doctor and the nurse below me.
4:00 Last push! They told me she was out I reached down and pulled her up to me. I was crying and so happy she was her! I was so in love already. I was so relived to be mostly out of pain and have her in my arms. Edward with smitten with her from the start he followed her everywhere after that while I was being fixed up. So happy to have had another successful and wonderful natural birth. I definitely loved the after birth hospital experience with food and all the help. Thankful for Heavenly Father for helping me and sending me comfort when I needed it. Natural birth is the best! I may not have anything else to compare it to but I feel so lucky to have been able to experience it twice! It's amazing what kind of pain the body can over come. That is all for now just happy to have my little family and thankful for the many blessings that I have.
(In the pictures you will see that she was pretty badly bruised and purple. She improved in about a week but she definitely had a rough time coming out. Poor girl.)
