Thursday - 39 weeks 5 days - 4am
From around 1-4am my contractions had gotten more unpredictable and further apart (And might I add that I was getting very peeved with this baby for making me play the guessing game). At 4 in the morning is when my eyes were no longer closing between contractions and I had to get up. I got on the yoga ball and did some bouncing. I did Sudoku (who does this?? While in labor??). I tracked contractions for about 40 minutes until they were 3 minutes apart, and definitely getting more intense. The midwife gave me the all clear to come into the hospital! Now all we had to do was leave. I went back to the bedroom to wake Luke up.
"Hon? Wake up it's time to go to the hospital"
[Very out of it] "What? How far apart are your contractions?" He half sat up and squinted at me. Probably with his mouth open a little. He was really out of it!
"3 minutes"
"Why aren't we at the hospital yet??" Now he's awake!
We got to the hospital around 5am and got into triage. They proceeded to ask me 10,000 questions before even examining me. It is incredibly difficult to answer questions when you're having a contraction every 3 minutes. When I had finally been examined it was about 5:45.
I was 3cm. The terrible phone call was made to my doctor "should we admit her?"
YES. Yes you should. Please don't make me go back home. I haven't slept at all. I need have a baby today.
"Okay, your doctor said to walk around for 45 minutes and we'll check you again at 6:30"
And walk we did. Stopping every now and then to rest on a wall and have a contraction. At 6:30 on the dot the nurse came to get us and examine me again.
"4cm" I could stay!
By 7 we were in a room and ready to get things going. Contractions were very intense right away. It was like my body knew we were staying at the hospital and it didn't want to waste time. We walked. I leaned. We swayed. After 2 hours I was in a lot of pain and my doctor had to remind me how to breathe. It was hard to stay focused. I had planned to have a natural birth (if possible) but I remember thinking it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
"I might need something." I told Luke "I want to be examined again and see if I've made any progress and then decide"
My reasoning was: If I'm not making quick progress and I'm going to be doing this for the next 20 hours, I'm going to burn out. But if things are moving quickly, I can hang on a little longer.
At 9am I was 8 1/2 cm dilated.
Uh.... What. I can do 1 1/2 more centimeters. At this point I wanted to try some hot water to try to relieve some pain. Oh boy did it work great! I felt like a new woman. Hello, shower! I stayed in the shower for about 2 hours! I was racking up water bills single-handedly. And then... the shower stopped feeling so great. So I moved to the bed. The pressure was getting pretty real at this point. I was uncomfortable. And the only thing that felt better was laying down on my back. At this point I was remembering my ignorant self, months ago, thinking "I don't want to give birth while on my back. I want to be more "natural"." Um. No. There was no moving or re-positioning. There was no squatting. There was only my back. My doctor checked me again. 9 1/2! And my water had not broken? Who cares. Let's start pushing! Light pushes were really a game changer. It felt so much better to start pushing just to relieve some pressure. My doctor checked me again a little while later.
10cm! (At this point I think she was tired of my water not having broken so she "accidentally" popped it)
PUSH. Rest. PUSH. Rest. Listen to my doctor give instructions. PUSH. Look at Luke (I was SO tired, I'm pretty sure I was cross-eyed). Rest. For 2 hours.
I. Was. Exhausted. WHEN is this baby going to crown??
And then, in a sudden rush of commotion, I remember my bed being laid back as far as it would go, the doctor saying "Good! Here she comes!". Nurses hustling around the bed. Luke right there, ready!
And there she was! At 1:56pm, 7 hours after we got into our room, our precious little Hazel made her appearance! They immediately laid her on my belly as I sobbed/laughed uncontrollably.
"My baby! My baby!" I couldn't stop. She was perfect! She had hair! She was so calm! Tears were streaming. I was crying, Luke was crying, the doctor was teary. It was the biggest rush of every emotion I have ever had. And Luke, too.
"This is why I love natural births" My doctor whispered to a nurse
One of my nurses was about my age and engaged. She had no children. During my labor I remember thinking that she was probably going to be turned off to ever having children because she sees first hand what women go through.
I looked at her through my watery eyes and said "I don't know how you feel about having kids, but it is totally worth it"
And there we were. A tiny family of 3. Clueless, exhausted, but over the moon. The pain, instantly forgotten. The journey, eager to begin. This chunky little 9 pound baby had been permanently placed in our care.
I guess it was a good thing we took our last birth class the previous Saturday.
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