My water broke at 1:30am on tuesday April 13th while I was sleeping. I didn't know that was my water breaking since it wasn't a full 'break' but just a tear so it was leaking. I got up and cleaned up and went back to sleep... when jimmy woke up (at 6am) he got up and woke me up asking me how I was doing. I told him I was sleeping and I didn't see why he needed to wake me up :). I was still 'leaking' though. I wasn't sure it was my water breaking cause I wasn't having any pain or contractions.
So we got up and I had breakfast and raspberry tea. My mom kept wanting me to call someone but it was so early I was happy to just wait around. At around quarter till 9 I called my doctors office and explained the situation to the nurse on call and she was confused as to why I had not already gone to the hospital. I told her I wasn't sure if my water had actually broken and I didn't want to go the the hospital if I didn't have to... lots of waiting around for nothing. She said I could come to their office then and they would test to see if it was my water or not. She said I'm not trying to sound urgent but you need to get here as soon as you can.
So I showered and got dressed for work thinking I would just go to work after the apt cause I didn't feel ready yet for the baby (oh well). My mom MADE us take this picture just in case this was it and we were on our way to the hospital. We got to the doctors office at around 10AM where I saw Dr. Chase (the doc on call) and he told me that it was indeed my water that was leaking. He told me to head over to the hospital where he would meet me there and gave me my 'check in' packet so I didn't have to go through that whole process over at the hospital. Apparently I found out that my doctors office had been talking about me that morning and the emergency nurse I'd talked to that morning was mortified and said some woman called and her water had broken but she didn't want to come into the doctor... hahaha oops, guess that was me :)
Since I knew they were going to restrict my eating, I stopped by Port City Java and got a bagel with cream cheese before we went to the hospital. We walked in and they took us right to a delivery room that they had ready for me (I guess my doc's office had called ahead). They had to start me on pitocin since my water had broken but I wasn't starting labor. I asked her to start me at just 1cms of pitocin per hour so we could take it slow at first and she completely blew me off and started me at 2cms... I didn't like that nurse. She also told me that pitocin had no effect whatsoever on the labor and it's the same amount of pain with or without it... also, a lie (80% of women surveyed by a British researcher who had given birth to children one with and one without pitocin say the pain was much harder to deal with on pitocin and would try alternative methodes to avoid doing it again). Anyway at that point it was pitocin or a c-section so I didn't have much of a choice.
At 11:30 they started me on 'the pit' as they called it... I started having contractions, but no pain; pain didn't start till 3 o'clock. The picture below is of me as the pain was starting... I handled it with ease at first... :) 'The pit' made me retain so much water!!! (my legs and ankles are still soooo swollen) That was my hospital gown that I brought with me... I didn't want to wear one of theirs.
My contractions were much more coinsistent when I was standing so I was up a lot but when I started getting no breaks what-so-ever between contractions I had to lay down. I did a lot of side laboring. I was dialating at 1cm per hour. Because they kept me on constant pitocin, I was unable to get in the shower or tub which really stunk cause I wanted to very badly. The only time I got really cranky or irritated it was because that nurse was just being so difficult... I took it out on jimmy :(... he took it like a champ though and was sweet as can be.
There was a shift change in the nurses at 6 (Praise the Lord!) and we got a wonderful nurse named Brandi. She was new and had just arrived here from Ashville, she was very simpathetic to natural births and come to find out she had 4 children, one of which was born at home! Anyway, it was funny cause the other nurse, almost mockingly said I hand picked a new nurse for you that I think you'll like. Well I did like her... it was one of the only nice things she did for me that day, sigh... anyway. Below is a picture of Dr. Chase and Brandi, they were great!
I continued laboring and got to about 4 hours of hard labor and started getting VERY fatigued, I was trying to rest between contraction but well... there wasn't really any 'between' contractions. They were pretty much constant. They would spike and sometimes they would become a little bit duller but there was always constant pain. I looked forward to throwing up because that would jar my uterus so much that it would allow for there to be a break in contractions. I asked the nurse about stadol, which I had researched before labor in case I needed something to help relax me. It worked really well, allowing me to sleep for 2 or 3 minutes at a time when the contractions were a little bit more dull. Brandi was wonderful about saying right next to me and making sure that the monitor was picking up the baby, I had Brandi on one side and a very loving and supportive Jimmy on the other. :)
That only lasted for a hour so I was right back into regular labor after that. I went to the bathroom and in the time it took me to pee and get up I had 5 hard contractions... I'm telling you, they were RIGHT on top of eachother with no down time. Poor jimmy I almost broke his fingers squeezing them so hard. By this point jimmy had been telling me that I was 'almost there' for about 2 hours and I was getting very frustrated because I was tired and seeing no end in sight (even though I was about 9cm dilated). I started telling jimmy I wanted an epidural, it was kind of a fog but I started whining I think :). He told me that 'no I didn't and I was doing GREAT'. I told him 'I know I CAN do it... I just don't WANT to.' :) Brandi was also very encouraging, knowing that deep down I didn't actually want the epidural (my blood pressure was so low throughout the whole thing, it would have been a VERY bad plan I think). She kept saying 'I know you can do this'. Shortly after my break down and whining I was fully transitioned. Brandi said to me, 'your almost there!' and I looked at her and said 'stop lying to me, if I was almost there, there would be a doctor in this room!' hahaha oops :) good thing she found the humor in that instead of the insult.
It was about 5 minutes after that statement I told her I felt like I needed to push. She said good, listen to my body so I pushed during my contraction. She looked down and saw that I was crowning and called the doctor right away. My next urge to push came right as Dr. Chase walked in and was putting on gloves. I was told not to push at all (easier said than done!) so I didn't... I was good I didn't push at all. The next contraction hit and I pushed and yelled out at the same time and he told me not to do that, just push without the screaming. So next contraction I pushed no noises and hey hey connor came out! :) Three total pushes and it was done! :)
I had asked them NOT to take the baby away right away and to do what they could while he was on my chest. So Dr. Chase put the baby up on my skin and Jimmy cut the cord (gross!) :)
They did a lot of the medical stuff while he was on my chest, making him cry to get the fluid out of his lungs, clearing his airways, checking his color, etc... He was a very allert little baby and got an apgar score of 9.9
He weighed 6lbs and 3oz officially and was born at 8:48PM. He's 18 inches long and has a TON of beautiful dark hair.
Jimmy took his job very seriously of staying with the baby when they took him to do all of his tests and stuff... Connor liked having jimmy close to him and touching him. He definately knows his daddy's voice! He would cry when jimmy would walk away.
Mama and baby are both doing wonderfully! We had a ton of family and friends around to help us out and are really looking forward to all the family and friends who are planning visits to meet little Connor James!
