Junior

The day I was due, I had an appointment with the doctor. She had me do a NST that day to get a baseline. She said that everything looked good and that I should schedule an u/s appointment for the following week to check fluid levels. She said that we would talk about an induction at that appointment. Needless to say, I was a little depressed when I left the office :( 

The next morning, I woke up feeling the best I had in weeks. The BH contractions were gone and I felt like I could have conquered the world. Work that day was all right, except for all the comments I got about still being there and haven't you had that kid yet. I took a nice long nap when I got home, then had enough energy to make supper. My MIL called shortly after supper to see if anything was happening. She sounded a little disappointed that I was feeling so good. 


About 7:30 that night, I noticed that the BH contractions were back. I really didn't pay much attention to them until about 8:30 when I realized that they weren't going away and that they were actually getting a little stronger. So, I pulled out my watch and started timing them. Around 10PM, I realized they were still about 20 minutes apart with no apparent change in length or intensity, so I decdied to try to get some sleep. As soon as I layed down, I knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. I called my doula and she suggested that I take a nice hot shower to see if that changed anything. 


She finally got to our house around 11 and by then, I knew that I was in labor. I was all prepared for a long labor, so I was kind of surprised when by 12:30 my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. I called L&D and talked through a couple contractions with the nurse. She told me I could come in and they would check to make sure I was really in labor.


 I was already 6cm when I got to the hospital, so I didn't have to worry about them sending me back home. I walked the halls for awhile, tried the tub, sat on the ball... Everything we could think of to keep things moving. After almost 2 hrs, the doctor came in and checked me again. I had only dilated another cm! At that point, she decided to break my water to speed things up. What had been bearable contractions to that point became unbareable! I almost broke down and had them give me something for the pain... Actually, I finally said I wanted something, but by then it was to late. I was already in transition. 


Being in a hospital, I had to deliver the way they wanted me to, so I wound up on my back in bed "purple pushing" with every contraction. After about 2 hours of pushing and having to be on oxygen, Caleb was born. The sweetest moment was when, after they placed him on my chest, Josh leaned over and said "Say hi to Caleb."

 We had waited to find out what we were having, so that was the best way to find out :)


I had a small tear that required 3 stitches to fix and I needed a shot of pitosin to help stop the bleeding. The more I think about it, the stronger I feel that I wouldn't have needed that shot if the doctor had let me deliver the afterbirth on my own instead of trying to actively manage it.