Well it all began last Monday 10/13/08. My day started as usual. Elliptical trainer in the morning, take a shower, then head to my doctor's appointment. At my appointment I was dilated 3 and 80% effaced. My doctor "swept my membranes," which she said is equivalent to having sex, but a little more invasive. If it's meant to work, then it would work within 24 hours. So we set up a few more doctor's appointments and an induction for 10/21/08. After that I went to work.
At around 1pm that day I started having cramping (or contractions) and bleeding. I continued to work because it was more annoying than painful. At around 6:30pm the "cramping/contractions" were more noticeable and coming about every 7 minutes. I decided to go home. When I got home around 7pm, my "pains were about every 6 to 6 1/2 min, so Brent and I ate dinner. I had a soft pretzel and buffalo chicken bites (mistake with the spicy food), then we walked around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes. We came back in from our walk and I took a shower. We tried to settle in on the couch and watch Benchwarmers, but my contractions really started picking up. Brent was being great by rubbing my back and feet, but that really doesn't help the situation. We then decided to go on another walk for about 15 minutes, but contractions were coming a lot quicker, lasting longer and more intense, so we headed back toward home. At that point contractions went from 6 minutes to every 3, then 5, then 2 minutes, so we called the doctor and they said to head into the hospital. I decided that I wanted to take 1 last shower, so I did. We then got in the car and drove to Riverside.
Being in the car during contractions is torture. It was killing my back and Brent was getting nervous, so he was speeding up...not good. We got to the hospital around midnight and she checked me at 12:30am. I was dilated 5, totally effaced and my contractions were off the charts. The nurse told me since this was my first baby I could expect to dilate about 1cm an hour, so I would probably have the baby at 8am. They admitted me to labor and delivery.
As my contractions picked up speed, I thought I don't know if I can do this for 8 more hours! Laying in the bed was horrible, so I tried to sit on the birthing ball and then I felt the contractions more in my pelvic region and at that point I realized I did not want to feel this baby coming out of me. I was in labor and delivery about 10 minutes and decided to get an epidural (wonderful decision), so anesthesia was up in my room in about 5 minutes. The epidural did not hurt at all, so that was a relief, but I guess if you compare it to the pain of contractions it puts it into perspective. About 15 minutes after the epidural was in place my nurse checked me again (around 1:45am) and I was fully dilated and ready to go! Good thing they didn't check me before giving me an epidural or else I wouldn't have gotten one!
At that point I wasn't ready to start pushing because Evan was still up pretty high and my water hadn't broken yet, so it began the waiting game. Had I not gotten an epidural things would have gone quicker, but it was well worth having relief. I was just relaxing and the only problems I had at that point were shaking and indigestion (from those buffalo chicken bites). Brent, my mom, my sister, Brent's mom and dad were all there with us. We all just hung out and waited for things to progress. Around 4am my water broke on it's own and was slowly leaking out as Evan was making his way down. At about 5:15am I was ready to start pushing. My pushing was quite effective because after 2 pushes through contractions they had to go find the doctor stat! I had to wait it out through a couple contractions and then the doctor came in and 2 contractions later at 5:48am our beautiful baby boy was born!
What a wonderful experience. I wouldn't change a thing! Nurse Kim was amazing. I barely tore and recovery has been a piece of cake! I was warned that next time I have a child I have to go to the hospital immediately :)
So Evan was born on 10/14/2008 at 05:48am. He weighed 8lb 2 oz, was 19 inches long, and had apgars of 8, then 9. When he came out he was really white. The doctor said it was because the labor wasn't stressful enough for him? I don't know about that, but he is perfect! And of course Dad was right on the prediction...he was born on 10/14 like he said all along and that when I got home from work that night he predicted he'd be born at 5:45am. We should've played the lotto that day!
