It's November 13th, Elliott's official due date, and I don't feel any different. We go to church, and everyone asks me when this baby is coming. Of course all I can say is, "I hope very soon!" Well, about 3pm that day, I started losing my mucus plug, but didn't think much about it because they say you can lose your mucus plug weeks before going into labor. I also had irregular/minor contractions throughout the day. Later that night, I decided to update my blog...I was very behind. Around 10:30 pm, I started having contractions while I was sitting at the computer. I didn't think anything about it at first, but then they started to come regularly and get more painful. I decided I would try to time them, so I downloaded a contraction timer app on my phone. To my surprise at 11:15 they were coming every 10 minutes and were lasting about 30-40 seconds. Well, I knew they would have to be closer together than that for me to call the doctor. So, we tried to go to sleep.
Easier said than done. Throughout the night, the contractions continued, coming every 10-20 minutes apart and lasting about 1 minute. I was also having horrible heartburn all night. I finally got out of bed at 3:00 am and went downstairs. I was hoping to distract myself and let David get some sleep without me tossing and turning and lighting up my phone every 10 minutes. Of course, when I got out of bed, David became very anxious and it wasn't long after that he came downstairs too. At 4:30 I decided to take a shower. Between 5:00 and 8:00 the contractions were every 7-8 minutes and lasting for about 45 seconds. They were pretty painful at this point, but I didn't think they were unbearable. I decided to just wait and call the doctor at 8am when they opened, instead of calling the on-call doctor. Besides, I was supposed to call to set up an induction this morning anyway. At 8:10, I called my OBGYN's office, and they told me they would fit me in at 9:30 to see if I was progressing any.
We quickly got everything ready, and took William to Kristy's house. The car ride was quite difficult - it is hard to deal with contractions while buckled in a seated position. Once we got to the doctor's office, we ended up waiting for about 30 minutes. I thought it would be good to get my 40 week picture in just in case we were going to have a baby today! I was still worried they might send me home, especially since my contractions were still 7-8 minutes apart.
Finally at 10:00 am, I was checked. The nurse practitioner said I was 6 cm, and my bag of water was bulging, and that I needed to go straight to the hospital! Woohoo! We're having a baby! I even gave David a high-five! haha! She said I was very calm for being 6 cm - I guess I have a high tolerance for pain. Of course, David asks if we have time to stop and get a biscuit. She said "you can, but she can't have anything to eat" - boo. So, we go to McDonald's, and I wait in the car for what seems like an eternity having horrible contractions. Finally we check into the hospital about 10:20 and we're in our room #231 at 10:30.
Doctor Beatty arrives, and asks if I'll be wanting an epidural - to which I say yes. So, apparently you have to have an entire bag of saline through the IV before getting an epidural. Getting the IV is almost worst than getting the epidural to me, and she tried it once in my arm but couldn't get it to set. So, she had to do it again in my hand :( Finally at 12:30, the anesthesiologist comes to give me my epidural. After 3 tries, he gets it to set, and I know before he leaves the room that it's only working on one side - the right side, just like with William. He says the nurses will work with me and hopefully it will work. So, now I'm laying on my left side and the contractions are so bad, it's making me shake. I'm also in tears because I'm so scared to do this without the epidural. I could tell David was having a hard time watching me in so much pain - I didn't really have to go through this with William. My contractions weren't that painful before my epidural finally worked. My mom came in about this time and I was glad to see her, and I'm sure David was glad to have a little break.
At 1:30, Dr. Beatty checked me and broke my water. I was 8 cm dilated. At 2:15, I'm at 9cm, and a different anesthesiologist came in and tried to redo my epidural. After removing all the tape (ouch!) and trying the epidural two more times, it still wasn't working. I then heard my nurse, Becky, say to another nurse, "I'm glad we don't have to do this every day," meaning she was glad that she didn't have to watch someone go through labor naturally not by choice! At this point, David heard my doctor say, "It's too late, we're just going to have to do it without the epidural."
Well, I started pushing at 2:43. It was the most pain I've ever been in, and now I truly know what they mean by "ring of fire." Thankfully, I didn't have to push for long, and Elliott was born at 2:51pm, assisted by the vaccuum. Dr. Beatty later told me that his heart rate dropped with one of my pushes and she was worried the cord was wrapped around his neck, and that's why she used the vaccuum. It turns out the cord was wrapped around his hand. The important thing is, he was healthy! Here are his stats!
Elliott Andrew Brown
November 14, 2011 at 2:51 pm
9 lbs 2 oz
21 1/2 inches long
Tired Mommy
Proud Daddy!
Happy family
