Well, the 29th and 1st both went by and I still I felt great. (Honestly, I felt great for all of my pregnancy. Even in the end I felt good. I just wanted it to be over because I was so excited to meet him/her). I had had some regular contractions on and off for a couple weeks, but they never lasted very long and didn't get very strong. I wasn't dilated at my last two appointments either.
Now, let me preface this by saying that I wanted a natural delivery, however, I was going into the situation with a very open mind knowing that I didn't know what was going to happen or how it was going to feel. I knew I was going to try it without drugs, but if it got to be too much, I would have them. The only thing I knew for sure was I didn't want to drug through IV that made you feel/act loopy. Haha!
On March 3rd Opie and I went shopping. I had been having small contractions about 12-10 minutes apart, but they didn't get any stronger. We had dinner with my family for my sister's birthday that evening and my contractions still were 7-10 minutes apart, but they weren't any stronger.
Opie and I went home to try a few at-home remedies to induce labor. It started snowing pretty bad (that luck I was talking about)! I was worried because it was a 35-40 minute drive to the hospital when it was nice out. My contractions picked up to 7-5 minutes apart. I called the doctor and she said that she would normally have me wait, but since it was snowing that I should come in so that they could check me just in case I progressed fast.
We headed in around 10:30pm. I got to the maternity triage around 11:30pm. The nurse checked me and I was only at a 1 but my contractions were pretty regular and had picked up in intensity. I could still talk through them all though. So, we walked the halls to see if that helped. And it didn't.
They didn't want to send me home because we lived so far away and it was still snowing so they sent me to a room that had a whirlpool tub that I could labor in. It felt so nice, but didn't help me dilate.
They moved us to a delivery room around 3am. I sat in the tub a little while longer. Still nothing. The doctor came in around 9am and said that we could go home and wait a few hours or they could break my water. We decided that they could break my water. We were so anxious to meet our little one.
They broke my water and we waited. I progressed a little, but not enough. Around 11am the doctor came in and asked if we wanted to start Pitocin. We decided that we would. I really didn't want to, but I wanted to get this party started. I hadn't ate anything in over 12 hours and I hadn't slept for over 24 hours.
They started me off "slow" (or at least that is what they said). Wow, did the contractions pick up! They checked me an hour later and I was dilated to a 3 almost 4. They gave me some more Pitocin and were going to check me in another hour. Contractions were SUPER intense at this point. I was at a "good" 4 an hour later. I asked for an epidural at this point because I couldn't handle the pain anymore and it was making me tense and frustrated. I was hoping that easing the pain would calm my body down enough to dilate.
I got the epidural around 1:30-2pm and finally got to relax for the first time in hours. I was so hungry, so tired, and I just wanted to hold my baby. They kept checking me and I was progressing a little faster. I started to feel some pressure that evening and felt the need to push around 9pm. Our families went out to the waiting room and our wonderful nurse Kathy started to prep my room for delivery. I started pushing around 10pm. 1 hour and 23 minutes later I had a beautiful baby boy!
Opie was an amazing help during delivery telling me how much my pushing was helping and pushing the oxygen mask on me. Even though I had the epidural, I could move my legs and even got a chance to use the squat bar a couple of times.
Labor and Delivery didn't go at all how I wanted it to, but none of that mattered because he is healthy and that is all that mattered to me! I wouldn't trade it for the world!
