I woke up about 7:00 AM the morning of December 4th feeling a little wet. I laid there for just a moment before realizing I better get up and see what's going on. Sure enough, my pants were soaked down past my knees. Baby's coming! Keith was at work and the kids were all asleep, I better get everyone moving!
I called Keith and told him, who came home. I called my doctor's office, who said come in right away. So I called our sitter to see if they could put our boys on the bus and watch Elinore for the day. Since I was almost a week over due, I'd been working at home and Elinore had been staying with me all week. They were more than happy to help us out, and we had a plan in place!
I jumped in the shower, because I didn't want to be yucky and who knew when I'd get another shower! I grabbed the last minute things for my bag and put it together while Keith got home and put his together.
We dropped the kids off at the sitters and headed to the hospital. On the way we called our mom's to let the know, and to get my mother in law to come a day early for the weekend to watch the kids. She was already planning on coming for Friday, but now she could come get Elinore from the sitters and get the boys off the bus too.
We arrived at the hospital about 8:15AM and they took us back to a room. They were quite busy that day though and it took a few hours before we accomplished much. I wasn't experiencing contractions with any frequency, but by the time we arrived at the hospital, my pants were soaked again and I'd leaked on the floor as they were getting us in the room too.
The nurse was asking us the questions to get us admitted, but kept getting interrupted they were so busy. Finally around 10:00 they started pitocin to get the contractions moving. I also got a new nurse that wouldn't be interrupted as many times too. She was pretty awesome. Just before 11:00 the nurse got a birthing ball for me to try out, but when I was there, or anywhere by the bed, they couldn'tk eep the monitor on the baby, which we had to have because of the pitocin, so lucky me had to stay in bed the whole time. I don't think that helped with my comfort level.
About 11:00 Keith headed down to the new Subway in the hospital to get some lunch, since he could eat, and I couldn't! Turns out the subway was brand new and their credit card machine wasn't working. So he had to come back and get the keys to go down the street to the bank to our ATM. While he was gone, the contractions got much more noticeable! They were lasting about 30 seconds and were happening about 2-3 in a 5 minutes period. I sat there alone through those starting to wonder where Keith was and watching Gilmore Girls on the tv as I tightly gripped the rails on the bed for every contraction.
Finally about about 45 minutes to an hour Keith returned. I told him I thought I needed to use the restroom at the point and he called the nurse for me. At this point I was wondering why I even wanted a natural birth, the epidural wasn't so bad with Elinore. After I got back into the bed reluctantly, she checked me, and I was only dilated to 4 cm. The nurse offered the epidural and Keith was all for it too. I started thinking 4 is a LONG way from 10, and the last hour hasn't exactly been fun, so without much convincing, I agreed. It was roughly 12:20, and she said it would be about a half hour until they would have it going for me. I though a half hour, I can do that, but in that half hour, it got really rough! About 20 minutes later, just before the anesthesiologist arrived, I had progressed to 7 cm. She also thought my water hadn't broke and called the doc to come break my water. (I have no clue how my water wasn't broken from the amount of fluid I'd already leaked away that day, that piece is still a mystery to me.) So I curled up as close to fetal position as you can get when you're almost 41 weeks pregnant and held onto the side of the bed just moaning through the contractions at this point.
When the anesthesiologist arrived and found out I was that far along, he didn't want to do the epidural, the nurse asked if I was sure and by this point, I had mentally prepared myself for that relief, so I wasn't quitting on it now! So the nurse pushed for me, and he did agree to do it, but the were warning me along the way about it may not be completely effective and asking if I could sit still etc. I answered their questions, in what I remember being a much less than nice tone (sorry!). They sent Keith to the hallway and the nurse held me hands as they cleaned my back. She knew I was progressing quickly, so she told me to let her know if I felt any wetness. And not 30 seconds later my water broke and I was ready to push. The epidural was no longer and option and the nurses were very quickly trying to tear the bed down for delivery. There was no doctor yet, and by the time I was situated for delivery, the nurses were all saying the baby was there, they could see the head, don't push the doctor isn't here yet!
I wasn't taking so kindly to the wait for the doctor instructions. There were several "what are we waiting for I'm ready to have a baby" comments, and "what's taking so long!?" once the doctor arrived just moments later (thankfully!). One push later and they head was out; one to two more and baby was here! I had my eyes closed through nearly the last hour as the pain was so awful, and once they told me the baby was here, I was wondering what was taking them so long to tell me if it was a boy or a girl! Finally I did hear one of the nurses say it's a surprised they don't know what it is! Followed by, it's a girl!
The doc then reminded me to open my eyes and look at my baby as Keith cut the cord and the moved the baby to my chest. I of course opened my eyes then and loved her moving right to me. Almost immediately she grabbed my finger and held on.
With my other hand I was holding onto Keith's hand quite tightly as the discomfort wasn't quite over yet. I delivered the placenta and had to have a few stitches to finish up. I remember the water being hot they used to clean up. I remember I nurse saying they warm it, not cook it! Then after a few minutes I heard the doctor saying it'd be just two more minutes and she'd be done. After what felt like 5 minutes, I reminded them of that two minute comment. Apparently a stitch took longer than expected because she cut it shorter than needed. I just wanted that part over so I could enjoy my baby. The doc kept saying to focus on baby not what she was doing, but the needles and pain, made that hard!
In the end, we had a happy, healthy baby girl, and that is what mattered! We love you Ruth Ann Haynes. :)
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