The story begins on Thursday the 26th of May. I knew at this point that I was dilated 4cm and that I was likely not going to make it to 40 weeks. In fact I had an appointment scheduled to have my membranes stripped on the 31st and an induction scheduled for June 1st. I figured I would at least go that far since I wasn't having any contractions that I could feel and I felt good. So that night we went to bed around 11pm and I felt fine and told Mike that I was excited for my birthday the next day.
Then I woke up around 2am and I was super uncomfortable. I dismissed it though because I had been uncomfortable at night for weeks. I finally fell back to sleep around 3am. Then at 5am I woke up and I was wide awake. I knew I had been having contractions for about a week but this was the first time that I could feel them. Since it was my birthday I just kept telling myself I was fine and that I was not in labor. I was able to walk and talk too so I figured I couldn't be that far along in the process because with Daniel I wasn't able to walk or talk through the pain once I was too far into labor. At 5:30 Mike woke up and got dressed and started timing me. The contractions were every 5 minutes so Mike said we were going to the hospital and I being my stubborn self protested the whole time haha. He loaded the car and moved Daniel's car seat to his parents car. The whole time I insisted I was fine and that I probably just needed to go for a walk, I mean my water hadn't even broken yet. Mike didn't want to risk it so we told his parents what was happening and we left for the hospital around 6:30am.
When we got to the hospital, the contractions had gotten more intense but still 5 to 7 minutes apart. So I just kept trying to distract myself and talk about other things through the pain. When we got to labor and delivery I just walked in and they asked why we were there. Gee I wonder why a pregnant woman holding her stomach and a man holding a suitcase would be at labor and delivery at 6:40am on a Friday...nothing better to do I guess? I calmly told them I was having contractions 5 minutes apart and they gave me forms to fill out. My favorite question was having to explain why I was there. Once I was done with that we were admitted to triage at 6:48am.
By this point I wasn't denying that I was in labor anymore. The contractions were intense and I had the chills. They were able to check me and found out I was dilated 8cm. I was shocked! When I was in labor with Daniel I was screaming and crying by the time I was dilated 8cm and this time I was still able to breathe through the contractions and talk when I was in between. I guess I didn't realize how much more intense the pitocin made my contractions with Daniel. This time I had gone this far without any assistance.
While we were in triage they came to get my IV put in. The nurse had some issues with that and had to try 4 times to get it in. When we finally had the silly paperwork signed and the IV was done they took me to my room. The nurses were rushing around getting everything set up because I was so far along. One of the nurses told me that their had been a bet going that I wouldn't even be admitted to the hospital because I didn't look like I was in labor when I got there...well I proved them wrong. Even though I was so far along my nurse told me I could get an epidural if I wanted one and if I felt like I could sit through it. I told her I wanted one if I could and around 7:20 the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural. By 7:30 the epidural was done and I was feeling much more relaxed. My contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart so we really didn't think it would be long. The epidural was great! It didn't numb me too much but it did take a while to start working and my body didn't seem to respond as quickly this time.
After I got the epidural, Mike asked me if I wanted anything to do because we still had to wait for my water to break. I had brought Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with me so I asked him to get it so I could read. I opened the book and I just started laughing which probably looked pretty weird to Mike and the nurses in the room. I had chosen this book completely at random to bring to the hospital but it was another sign that this little boy was going to come in May and not in June. The title of the first chapter is The Worst Birthday Ever...if that's not a sign then what is? I just had to laugh because it was perfect! Although this wasn't really my worst birthday ever thanks to my body working so efficiently. Thank you chiropractic care and regular exercise!
While I was reading one of the nurses came in to tell me that unfortunately my doctor was not going to be able to make it, that bummed me out a little. Dr. Swainston had originally planned to have my membranes stripped that morning but we had moved it because he was going to be out of town for Memorial Day. So the on call doctor would be delivering our little boy. I was a little disappointed but when you go into labor early and its this quick, you can't always expect everyone to be available. The nurses were surprised that I was taking this news so well, I guess a lot of women get upset about it. I probably would have if this had been scheduled but it wasn't. I was so relieved that I loved the on call doctor, Dr. Wurm! She was great and I did get to at least talk to her and explain what I wanted during delivery before Liam started coming.
Thankfully my water broke on its own around 7:50am! That's twice now that I've avoided having it broken by the doctor. At 8am they checked me again and I was at a 10 and ready to go! I was so surprised at how fast everything was progressing. Our little boy was ready to come! Dr. Wurm told me she had a scheduled C-section that morning so either we could slow my labor down and wait until after or we could just go ahead and have a baby! I could feel a ton of pressure and I wanted to push so we got excited to meet our little boy!
I could feel the pressure from the contractions but this time it was harder for me to push! First of all, I had forgotten how hard it is to push a baby out- its really hard work! It was made a bit harder though because I couldn't feel anything except a little tingling. Dr. Wurm and my nurse Kathy were both awesome during the pushing process though! They were encouraging and were great at reminding me to breathe after I was done- amazing how you can forget to do that. Dr. Wurm was great with counting me down and telling me how many more sets of ten seconds I would need to do. Mike let me squeeze his hand to my hearts content and kept encouraging me! After 2 pushes I could feel his head- which was a new experience because I didn't feel when Daniel's head was out. Once I could feel his head it only took one more push for him to slide the rest of the way out and at 8:14am he was in my arms!
I was shocked when the doctor told me I had only pushed for about 10 minutes! That was the longest 10 minutes ever and it had only been 14 minutes since they had checked me and told me we were ready!
They handed Liam to me as soon as he came out. He came out crying but he calmed right down when we were doing skin to skin. They wiped him down in my arms and I got to soak up a good half hour of skin to skin while they stitched me back up and I got the placenta out and all that fun stuff. The doctor told me I had torn a little but I was so distracted with my sweet baby that I wasn't too worried about it and it was about the same as it had been with Daniel. I had to send him away just for a few minutes to get cleaned up and so they could weigh and measure him. Mike went with him so he could take pictures and while I watched from the bed the nurse brought me breakfast! I was so grateful and happy that their was fruit and a blueberry muffin...two of the things I craved while I was pregnant!
Our little Liam weighed 6 lbs 11oz and was 19 1/2inches long. I was so surprised when Mike told me how long he was! Daniel had been 5 lbs 10oz and only 17 inches long. Liam is the perfect size though! He doesn't have much hair but he has long fingers and toes and we just think he is the most adorable baby ever!
Unfortunately we had to stay in our delivery room until around 5 that evening because of a back up in the maternity wing. I guess too many women had babies all at once. It was frustrating being stuck in that room and it was really annoying because my nurse had told me that I had to have help out of bed the first two times. So after one time she hadn't come back for a while and so I was just sitting and waiting but I really needed to go to the bathroom. When she finally came back she started yelling at me to go to the bathroom if I needed to go and I'm like what the heck? You told me I couldn't get up, I would have if I'd known I could! It was also a little depressing being in that room for so long because it didn't have any windows so I felt like I was in a cave.
When we got to the postpartum room things got better. Liam started eating better because I could pump a bottle for him so his blood sugar started to go up to where the doctors wanted it to be and we had a window which was just nice to have. Our nurse that night, Stephanie, was the best! I wish she could have been our nurse the whole time. She was super attentive and helpful! The next day we just had to wait a while to get discharged from the hospital. Liam passed all his tests and I was good but the doctors were just taking forever! We finally got to leave late Saturday afternoon and we were so excited to be able to take our little boy home!!
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